Coolant Leak After Clutch Replacement

[Wes4President]

Hey,

So I just had my clutch, slave cylinder, crank sensor replaced last week. I was on my way to the shop to pick it up and when I arrived the car was sitting out front leaking coolant while they were diagnosing the leak.

The mechanic said it was fine until he test drove it and then it started leaking.

A couple of days later, he told me that he found the leak and the hose that leaves from the water valve and runs under the intake manifold to the engine water outlet on the rear of the motor needs to be replaced.

Is this problem coincidental or was this issue caused by something that happened during the clutch replacement?

I paid $2.7k for clutch work and now he’s saying this leak is $800 fix. I am getting the feeling this is a result of the clutch replacement error with the timing of it happening but wanted to get some opinions.

Thank you

[amrazM]

there is not. there is a pipe joining both cylinder heads with a rubber hose that runs down and around the driver side. hose could be bad or they damaged it or the metal pipe somehow. either way if it was caused by their neglect its on them.

[P1zzaboy]

You most likely had the same problem I encountered. I had to reinstall the transmission twice, and each time there was a small resistance and it didn’t reach the motor without a small gap. Found out the next day I had pinched a hose on top of the transmission. It’s in the way of reinstalling the transmission but is hard to see on top. They most likely did the same mistake as I did.

Make sure no rubber is still sandwiched between the engine and transmission like mine did once I found out the problem. I had to back out the transmission to make sure no bits were left behind.

The hose is way easier to replace from the top than from under the car. It’s the hose from the metal pipe on the back of the head going to the coolant auxiliary pump. I had to wait for the hose 2 weeks from bmw Germany, nobody keeps them in stock. That may be a hint it’s not something that fails by itself often…

[Wes4President]

Originally Posted by P1zzaboy

You most likely had the same problem I encountered. I had to reinstall the transmission twice, and each time there was a small resistance and it didn’t reach the motor without a small gap. Found out the next day I had pinched a hose on top of the transmission. It’s in the way of reinstalling the transmission but is hard to see on top. They most likely did the same mistake as I did.

Make sure no rubber is still sandwiched between the engine and transmission like mine did once I found out the problem. I had to back out the transmission to make sure no bits were left behind.

The hose is way easier to replace from the top than from under the car. It’s the hose from the metal pipe on the back of the head going to the coolant auxiliary pump. I had to wait for the hose 2 weeks from bmw Germany, nobody keeps them in stock. That may be a hint it’s not something that fails by itself often…

This is exactly what I needed to know thank you so much. The timing of it didn’t make sense and I figured it was caused by the install. He said the part will take three weeks from Germany and he rushed it. You made a great point that that’s the hint it’s not something that fails by itself often. Especially coincidentally right after the clutch was installed on a test drive.

Thank you so much