Help Help Help. Coolant Leak. Underneath the intake manifold... pictures inside.

[igo4uga0586]

Left of the 45 degree facing bolt ^^^^^^^

Right of the 45 degree facing bolt ^^^^^^^

Right of the 45 degree facing bolt ^^^^^^^

Right of the 45 degree facing bolt ^^^^^^^

Left of the 45 degree facing bolt ^^^^^^^

Left of the 45 degree facing bolt ^^^^^^^


The coolant flows freely from this hole, sometimes bubbling, sometimes just flowing. When running it can clearly be seen, as bubbles are coming out of the hole. Car is out of commission until this can be fixed.

Thanks for the help, I will be constantly checking this to see if I can help anyone come to an answer.

[bwoy1981]

Its the j-plug. Look it up on here! Its a cheap part and you can fix yourself but there are a few parts in the way.

Link : its in here.. http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...gh-at-this-one

[Charles.waite]

Might as well replace the thermostat too while you're in there...

[igo4uga0586]

so 100% sure its the j plug? Car has 106k miles on it now, and replaced thermo at 82k, overkill to replace the thermo now? Is the jplug something the dealership keeps in stock?

[CrazyCal]

I have an extra J-plug. I accidentally ordered 2 from genuineaudiparts.com when I did this a couple weeks back. I will send it to you. It'll be my good deed for the year. lol :)

PM Sent.

[igo4uga0586]

Just got a look in the daylight and it is just an open hole. If it was the j plug shouldn't there be pieces of it still there? It looks like the hole is in black plastic. It can easiest be seen by looking down between the 1st and 2nd intake runners. I will try to get a pic in the daylight

update 2....

got some more time to look, located the j plug, doesnt look like it is it. This is a much smaller hole on what looks to be the thermo. It is right next to the top nipple that the coolant hose attaches to

[CrazyCal]

J-plug is he common failure point. If you have coolant under the intake mani, more times than not, the j-plug is the culprit. Hard to tell with the intake mani in the way, but once you get the j-plug out you will see why it failed. The OEM version has a flat rubber o-ring. All the new ones come with a round rubber o-ring. The fit is tighter, but that's why the new version is better...

[igo4uga0586]

But can the hole that the j plug goes into be seen from the top of the engine? The hole is about 1/4" wide and is not located in the engine block. Its located on the black plastic of what i think is the themo

[CrazyCal]

No. It's tucked in there pretty good.

As for the free-flowing, bubbling hole. I don't know what to tell you other than take the IM off and get a better look. Hard to tell from pics.

[fitMINT]

i just had a few pictures on a thread recently about me changing my thermo and j plug, you should see the damage that was done. I'm not surprised if you have a steady stream leaking! search my threads


what a nice guy
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...gh-at-this-one

[igo4uga0586]

This is the hole that is leaking. Its the smaller hole on the right.



It is located on the top side of the thermo.

What is the deal??

[fitMINT]

that little hole there? are you sure? its supposed to be there, and nothing plugs into it. so maybe its leaking from elsewhere, i don't know why it would be coming from that hole. that may just be a tooling hole or mold hole from the factory for whatever manufacturing reason.

[igo4uga0586]

Yeah you can see the bubbles coming out of the hole. Could it be something that lets coolant out if the thermostat doesn't work?

I squeeze on the upper coolant hose and watch it bubble up from that hole

[igo4uga0586]

Changed the thermo today and it seems it fixed the problem. The guy at advance auto parts said that small hole is called a weep hole. Coolant goes out of it when the thermo fails. We will see

[CrazyCal]

Glad to hear you got it fixed!

I didn't get a chance to mail the j-plug today. Do you still need/want it?

[igo4uga0586]

Sure man!! I know it will go bad on me sometime soon. May as well go ahead and get it changed out

[a4darkness]

God dammit.

Saw this thread when it started, ironically right after I discovered the exact same leak on my car. Just got finished with finals and now checking back to see if there were any updates. Jace and I were trying to figure this one out but weren't certain exactly WTF was going on.







Guess we have an answer. New thermo. And J-Plug too.

No temp oddities, warning lights or other issues to speak of. But still, probably need to get on this ASAP. At least there's a write up.

[Charles.waite]

Thomas, my b7 has a toasted thermostat, but its not leaking or anything. It's just stuck open, and not reporting it's position or temp to the ecu. It being open causes very long warm up times, the temp drops under load, sometimes as far as to 1/4 temp under prolonged load at highway speed (driving over a pass). The side effect of the temp sensor in it being dead is that the ecu goes into a safeguard mode of sorts and dumps more fuel into the engine to prevent overheating. Kills my mpgs and makes my tailpipes all black with carbon soot.

I was going to replace it today but picked the wrong shippig type and I have to wait until after christmas to replace it. Anyway, long story short some thermostat failures are of the mechanical nature where there are symptoms like no heat, weak heat, slow warmup and low engine temps. Some are the plain old $.50 o-ring failed and coolant is everywhere type.

There's a method of testing the thermostat to see if its mechanically shot though outlined in the bentley manual.

[a4darkness]

[Charles.waite]

Holy shit that's awesome.

I always forget I have the bentley and that it often has the answers to my questions. Like the option code for my rear brakes and why size it corresponds to, among other things.

[a4darkness]

I see what you're sayin. Makes sense.

I am not experiencing any

very long warm up times
temp drops under load, sometimes as far as to 1/4 temp under prolonged load at highway speed (driving over a pass)
o-ring failed and coolant is everywhere

However, this seems to be happening quite a bit of late

dumps more fuel into the engine to prevent overheating. Kills my mpgs and makes my tailpipes all black with carbon soot

but I attributed that to my emo injectors. So very weepy.

There's a method of testing the thermostat to see if its mechanically shot though outlined in the bentley manual.

Indeed there is...





However, I'm still preparing for the worst.

* Thermostat: 06B121111K


* Coolant Bleeder Screw: N90534203


* J-Plug: 06B103033A


* J-Plug Bolt: N10063205


* Coolant Expansion Tank: 8E0121403


* Coolant Expansion Tank Cap: 8E0121321

[igo4uga0586]

No temp oddities, warning lights or other issues to speak of. But still, probably need to get on this ASAP.

These were the EXACT same thing (lack of) issues I had. I have not changed out the J plug yet but I will soon. The new thermo fixed it all.

Surprisingly the guy at Advance Auto Parts knew exactly what the hole was for.

As of right now no more leaks to speak of.