Coolant leak near tran?? Help identify

Saw a dried puddle of coolant on garage floor. Climbed under and saw signs of leak. Idea of what this can be?

pics try to show area

2018, 5.7L, 40k miles
Bought extended warranty. Will take it in. Would like to go in informed. thanks y’all

 

Ruh roh.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/coolant-leak-but-where-is-it-coming-from.104026/

 

ughhh. Thanks for the link. Only 40k miles too.

 

That sort of looks like what I was experiencing. It turned out to be the coolant valley leak off the engine, dripping down, and drying up with pink residue near the tranny bell housing and hoses. Check my post on coolant leak.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/coolant-leak-but-where-is-it-coming-from.104026/#post-2787611

 

Update. Leaking at heat exchanger. Dealer said warranty not covering because they consider this a wear item since a rubber tube. Does that sound right? Going to call myself but seeing if any advice before I do

 

Keep us posted on this. You may want to call Toyota corporate and see what they say as well. 40K miles for a 2018 is low.

 

I pulled my old dealer work order and receipt, hope this helps.

My 2015 had 45009 miles when it was repaired in 2022. I sort ran into the same BS when I brought the vehicle in. I even told them I checked the vehicle over completely for obvious hose leaks and found none. Sort of let "the cat out of the bag" and told them I read about coolant leaks being found due to poor FIPG/heat exchanger seal on the forums. Advisors response was "We rarely see those in his 10 years" of working there BS! Said it was probably to hoses against the firewall behind the supercharger housing dripping down. I called BS again. Turns out I was right and also thanks to the previous write-ups on these forums. Their write-up was as follows: HEAT EXCHANGER RESEALED. THERMOSTAT REPLACED. VEHICLE TEST DRIVEN 6 MILES NO PENDING OR CURRENT DICS. LEAK AREA CLEANED AND INSPECTED. LEAK NO LONGER PRESENT. Fixed under extended warranty ~ $2000.00 price tag. So needless to say the warranty paid off!

My suggestion to you is to ask them to show you proof in pictures of the damaged hoses before repairs start. That should be easy since I assume you don't have a supercharger where they are somewhat hidden behind. Sounds maybe suspicious to me that hoses are bad, especially since "drip pics" mimics what I saw. Plus I would think hose leaks would lose coolant much faster and at a greater volume. My gasket leak was very slow to where the coolant had time to sit and dry up along the bell housing and collect underneath the truck and it rarely reached the floor.

Just to be clear .... your write-up "Leaking at heat exchanger" should be covered under warranty. Hoses unfortunately are considered a wear item and not covered. Good luck!

 

Thanks. The video said heat exchanger needs to be replaced then he corrected and said resealed and probably o rings. The service guy said warranty told him it’s a rubber tube so won’t cover it. The heat exchanger is a metal plate, right? May be a service person not informing them correctly?

 

Update. I had to call warranty myself and sounded like confusion btwn them and dealer. Two issues to be repaired: Heat exchanger plate seal and the inlet pipe/ o rings.

heat exchanger covered and pipe is not. Went from $2200 to $750. Where it’s gets gray area is the labor charge for either and how that got divided up. I went ahead and will sort it out further w Toyota

 

Just getting your inputs and given what you've said, I would watch this dealership and how they bill this out, especially since you had to intervene. Here is my input for what it is worth. I am not familiar with this input pipe, but if it is a metal assembly (machined and/or cast metal part) with a face seal flange for these o-rings then in my opinion it should be covered. In my case when they were jacking me around in the beginning they were trying to lay the blame on rubber hoses held in place with hose clamps. Those are wear items and not covered. If this input pipe feeds the coolant valley or "heat exchanger" which I'm expecting it does then it should be covered under warranty IMHO. The heat exchanger plate uses a form in place gasket (FIPG} or special RTV like compound to form the gasket seal.

As I said in my prior post they had to pull the supercharger off to get to this coolant valley in my case and then re-install it. That was 2 grand last year. Much more labor involved IMHO pulling a supercharger than the intake manifold in your case. I didn't mention this before, but probably should given this dealership you are dealing with. When I picked up my vehicle I barely drove it home and it started giving me red lights and check engine warnings. I drove it back to the dealership. Had to leave the vehicle there and get a rental. Long story short they pinched an o-ring seal on one of the fuel injectors or fuel rail when re-assembling everything. That caused some codes and the engine check light to come on. Again hope this helps. My only advise is be watchful and how they bill everything out. Sounds like your making progress given the price change, but again I'd question that "input pipe".

 

I’m going to ask for part back. Sounds like it’s hard plastic and therefore why would this not be covered as you say. I got this same story from TFS warranty myself so I can’t say it’s all dealership, but yeah not impressed. I felt like I had to be the service advisor. How they split the labor I’m sure wasn’t as favorable as it could have been given they were already going to be in there. The entire bill is almost all labor I’d assume so I’m covering a third which isn’t horrible. But still feels like this all should be included. I’ll work on it more w Toyota

Appreciate all your input!!!

 

Not a problem, glad to help.

I think this should help you out:

Look at pg 15 under Covered Components and NOT COVERED items under your Vehicle Service Agreement (VSA) (pamphlet you got with your warranty) Mine was Platinum, don't know if that matters other than deductible. Within the listing of "NOT COVERED" items there is no mention of any coolant related parts, other than possibly "Hoses". All I see that is remotely "close" and they maybe are misinterpreting or taking the liberty to interpret it in their favor is the following:

..... Heating hoses, Lines, and Tubes; Hoses ........

..... Tires; Vacuum Hoses, Lines, and Tubes; Weather Stripping; .....

Grammatically speaking notice how the items listed are grouped together by commas then when it switches to a new category a semi-colon. I think these guys need to read there own agreement! If it is not a hose (generally rubber, flexible, and held together with hose clamps) it should be covered according to their own agreement language. Again this is how I read it and my opinion, but I think I am right. Tell them to show you the Toyota part number and official listed name of this "inlet pipe" and then ask them to show you where it is listed under the paragraph of "NOT COVERED" components!

You might need to ratchet this up to Toyota Corporate. I would hope not given how all this as written in the VSA.

Good luck!

 

Thanks! That is exactly what they are saying. I get why hoses aren’t covered but this shouldn’t be a “hose”.
I have platinum as well so that’s where I’ll push further.
Again, appreciate your input!

 

Update. Lots of BS w dealer. Warranty team has been fabulous. I wish I knew at the start what I know now thanks a lot to this forum.

Warranty covered the Fipg on heat exchanger plate but not the water inlet pipe. Here’s the bs:
Dealer didn’t need to replace metal pipe, just orings. Ok only added $20 part. But they charged me $730 labor. After many calls w warranty I realized only the part was denied and they indicated no labor should be charged as it’s part of same repair. Videos everyone shared confirms this. After many calls w dealer were unsuccessful and service manager w no reply, I finally filed a complaint with Toyota brand engagement. I got 540 of the 730 labor refunded. I’ll accept this and call it done and lesson learned.

I don’t know how dealer service is really handled but I wonder if they purposefully replace pipe instead of just orings as they know it will be warranty denied and an opportunity to add lots of bs labor.
Sharing for others in future

 

There’s normally zero reason to replace that pipe. It’s made of stainless steel, and simply doesn’t have corrosion issues. Nor is it damaged during during R&R of the valley plate (Toyota’s heat exchanger description is weird, probably a translation issue) or timing cover jobs.

If possible, avoid that dealer in the future. People that don’t live up to their contracts are simple thieves… nothing more, nothing less.

 

Just read this post...I am filled with rage based on your dealership experience. Those shady and incompetent f_cks! That was clearly just a coolant valley plate reseal that should have been completely covered under warranty. That coolant valley plate has been such a common repair on the 5.7 V8 for the last decade. The parts list should have been 3 gallons of coolant, 2 O-rings, a tube of coolant fipg, and intake plenum gaskets. Parts & labor should have been all under warranty.

I am sorry you had to f'n deal with these a-holes. To be clear, I was a dealer tech for Toyota & Lexus for 10 years. Not all dealerships are like this.

 

thanks. I bought 3 cars from them over the years and had my daughter there looking at one. No more.

I can’t tell how much was incompetence on part of advisor vs deliberate deceit on total dealership but I imagine both.

the paperwork even said “had to dig deeper to do the inlet pipe, $730”. Outright lies

I was going to write a letter to Toyota even if just to make me feel better but hadn’t. Maybe I still should. I appreciate the post!

 

Yeah that’s some BS. If the warranty covers the labor they’re just trying to milk more money. The book hours for the job may not have covered the actual time it took the tech and they wanted to get more money. I will never go to the dealer unless it is where my very good friend is the GSM. He makes sure we are taken care of every single time. He restored my faith in that dealership solely. They know me when I go in there and don’t try to pull any shit like this. I am sorry you had to pay anything….

 

Yeah, if this is truly a fraudulent situation like I suspect it is, and I am understanding everything the facts correctly. I would torch that service department in reviews. The inlet pipe has to be removed regardless to get to the coolant valley plate that needed to be resealed. It is not plastic. It is metal. Also, such BS about the rubber seal for the coolant plate being a "wear item". WTF man. That rubber seal and the coolant plate are not moving parts.

Wait a second...was this covered under the factory warranty or Toyota Financial Services Extended Warranty?

 

Why can’t dealers just be honest?

 

Toyota financial. I was 4 mos past 5 years. I never buy extended warranty but did in this case. The warranty group I have to say was great. They indicated I shouldn’t be out all this also. Issue is I paid already thinking it was because they denied it and I was going to fight why not. Only afterwards I realized they were just denying the $20 part and there really shouldn’t have been the labor cost for the pipe. They also directed me how to file a complaint which is what finally got some money back