Coolant Leak

[Absentfaith 10]

Good morning/evening everyone.

 

So after years of hoping and wishing, I managed to get my hands on a 92 Corrado VR6. When I purchased it the guy told me the heater core needed to be replaced. Not a deal killer, a pain, but something I can do...eventually...but for now just opted to bypass it until I can get the time to do it. So, today I did just that. Flushed the coolant, and did the bypass. That's when the fun began. Filled the reservoir and started started the car, worked on the hoses to get the bubbles out, etc. After about maybe 3-5 minutes there was a nice rush of coolant coming out beneath the drivers side. Crawled up underneath and found what I think is the leak. There's a line/hose that runs underneath the radiator and goes up (near the CV boot on the driver's side). I followed it and it's spewing/leaking coolant from it. It's a hard/rubber covered hose. My question is, what hose is this so I can find a replacement. I've already ordered my Bentley manual, but it won't be here for a bit. In addition, neither of the two radiator fans are coming on. At all.

 

Sorry if anything seems vague. I have basic mechanical skills but this is a new undertaking for me. Thanks in advance for you help, patience, and information. Can't wait to get it fixed so I can drive it properly. :)

[VAG-hag 0]

It sounds like the power steering pipework to me. This site is useful for identifying parts mate: http://www.vagcat.com/epc/cat/vw/COR/1995/76/49/842822/

[Absentfaith 10]

Thanks for the info. You are exactly right. It looks like it's dripping onto the powersteering piperwork and has gummed up the hose a bit. The high pressure line inside is fine. Today, filled it up and let it run. Ran fine with with no leaks and then after about 10 minutes, there was a nice waterfall of coolant from the drivers side back up in the area of the reservoir. Any ideas what this might be? Again I don't have the Bentley manual (should get it tomorrow according to UPS). I'm not too familiar with how the reservoir and such is set up on these. Could it just be a cracked reservoir? My thinking is the thermostat is opening and when it "rushes" back through that area of the system, it's obviously coming out.

[VAG-hag 0]

You threw me there by saying drivers side reservoir, but I see your in the USA :)

 

As you can see there is a fair bit of plumbing just there so id run the engine and have a look for the source, just keep it topped up.....

[Absentfaith 10]

Yeah, upon further reading, I prob should have mentioned I'm in the US and it's a left drive vehicle. My bad. Got my Bentley manual in the mail and my buddy and I started getting into it. The head gasket is def leaking or blown, so def have to do that. Here's hoping the heads aren't cracked or warped. If so...just more $ to fix. After tearing into some more things (he being a legitimate mechanic) we obviously found some other stuff that needs to be fixed, so, we're going all out. Also going to fix some of the jerry-rigged trash that was done. We've stripped just about everything down to the block and are going to pull it this weekend. Ordered all the parts (to the tune of $$$) and are going to do a complete rebuild. Ordered a new clutch kit, flywheel, new hoses, etc while we were at it. We're discussing whether or not to have the transmission rebuilt. I'm going to call around to a couple places here and see if they can get the hard and soft kit for it. Shouldn't be too expensive since we're pulling the transmission and installing it. Again, I'll check around and see. Ideally when we're done, everything should be fresh and new. It's not too bad yet since the price of the car and the first monster order of parts was covered by the insurance settlement from an unlicensed driver totaling my daily driver. My weekend car being a tuned Mustang GT, it's not the best on gas, but it will do until we're done. It's fun and exciting and something I've never done before. We're taking pictures as we go. I'll post it all on here when it's done (or starting to get there). I'm sure throughout the rebuild we'll have questions so we'll be floating around on here.

[seanl82 23]

Well done for cracking on and getting to the bottom of all your problems! Look forward to seeing some pics, start a thread in the members gallery so we can all follow progress on it. :thumbleft:

[VAG-hag 0]

Go for it buddy, look foward to pics ;)

[Absentfaith 10]

It's all good. I knew getting into it it was going to need some work and funds. Was hoping we'd have some time to get acquainted first. :). Oh well. By the end of it we'll be intimately familiar.