What kind of leak is this?

[shinckley08]

I just recently did the rear crossover pipe on my 2013. It was more of exercise in patience than difficulty. Access is limited and its not a natural position to work in. There are a lot of great writeups and videos on the procedure. The only part that was difficult was getting the torx bolts out of the crossover pipe as there is little room between the pipe and the firewall and there is a lot preventing you from turning a ratchet. I think a short handle 1/4 inch ratchet is a necessity. On several videos and threads I found it was advised to tear down the wire loom cover that runs above the crossover pipe. I chose not to and was able to work around it. One piece of advice is to mark the electrical connections when removing the intake manifold. There are two plugs back there, one goes to the crossover pipe and one to the intake manifold. They are the exact same plug and can easily be mixed up. I can say from experience the car will not start with them swapped. Also be mindful of the plastic vacuum and coolant hoses, as I broke a small plastic coolant hose as I was trying to hover over the engine compartment to reach the crossover pipe bolts.

Something I found that was not covered in writeups and videos is the need to top off the cooling system via the bleeder. Its also an important step not to skip because you can easily overheat if you only top off the reservoir. Also at 90k miles the plug just disintegrated when I removed it so I had to make an unplanned trip to the dealer. I think it was $7, worth having one on hand in case. Pop that plug and use a funnel to fill with coolant until its full, replace the plug. Someone may be able to correct me but I have used that process on 4 occasions with success.

For location, ignore the hand drawn circle and arrow. For reference that is the throttle body on the left.

Part# for the plug: LR011038G

 

[powershift]

Thanks for the write-up. The rear crossover pipe is on backorder at Atlantic British. I ordered a bunch of tools to do the job before realizing that lol.

I'm tempted to not spend a dime on this engine since it has a timing chain issue too. I've heard from two mechanics that after the chain stretches like what I probably have the engine won't last much longer after fixing the chains. It might be better to save and get the tap engine.

 

[ktm525]

correct. You either need to pull the engine and go through it entirely or get a replacement. No sense doing crossover work.

 

[djkaosone]

@shinckley08 If you "fill here too", it'll get coolant to the rear of the block and it will have enough coolant to push air pockets out of the block. It makes it easier to burp the system without a coolant vacuum tool.

 

[djkaosone]

Thanks for the write-up. The rear crossover pipe is on backorder at Atlantic British. I ordered a bunch of tools to do the job before realizing that lol.

I'm tempted to not spend a dime on this engine since it has a timing chain issue too. I've heard from two mechanics that after the chain stretches like what I probably have the engine won't last much longer after fixing the chains. It might be better to save and get the tap engine.

Once the chain snaps, it's a catastrophic failure. Seen it first hand. It's worth saving if the chains are still in tact. Just clear the adaptation values after the repairs and it'll relearn the new values. This is where a good code reader comes in handy, like the Gap IID Tool.

 

[powershift]

What is interesting is the leak seemed to have stopped. I found the leak after I took delivery and drove around town in 120F temperature. The coolant level dropped but it was also overfull. So I parked it and then came back to it and corrected the coolant level while cold. Then drove it up and down the Vegas Strip, to the gym while monitoring the level and parked it overnight. It didn't use any coolant that day and the rear crossover pipe was dry. It was wet with coolant puddling on top of it before. But its also cooler out now at 105F and AC was on. I've been checking my parking spots and no drops at all.

 

[shinckley08]

My experience with my front pipe was that it seemed to leak intermittently and was nearly impossible to trace. I am also pretty sure that my rear was weeping when hot and drying up. That crusty pink evidence was all over but it was not wet. I would be very curious about others experiences because a local independent shop here in Boise described that it goes from a small to a catastrophic leak really quick, especially the rear. They are essentially telling me if it goes and you overheat on the highway you are going engine shopping.

 

[txfromwi]

Get a UV flashlight. If it has Rover coolant, it will be UV active and fluorescent. Take a good look around after dark.
Scorpions are UV active as well. You might have some of those about...

 

[f1racer328]

If you're just looking under the vehicle for coolant, you might not find anything. Skid plate will catch a lot of it.

 

[powershift]

I've been checking the coolant reservoir level in the morning. Two days in a row the level hasn't budged, but it has only been 108F.

I've got a tow truck number readily available for when it blows. My last car died and that same tow company had my car secured on the flatbed and we were on the road 20 minutes after the call.