Coolant leak from bell housing?

[MadAsAGlovver]

Hi everyone, first thread here. I have a 2000 100 series land cruiser with 250k miles on the clock. To cut to the point I have been having a coolant leak and a shop has diagnosed that it is leaking from the bell housing of the transmission. That seems wrong to me, is there a freeze plug that could have come out in there? They want 2k to pull the transmission to see if it is leaking there and I’m not sure I believe them.
I thought the leak was coming from the water pump or thermostat, you can see some coolant there and its due for a timing belt change. So this is another reason I don’t believe that its coming from the rear.
Also I recently had the heater T’s blow out so I replaced both of those, I was hoping that was the issue but no luck.

-Cal

 

[Mike6158]

It could be the well known heater hose tees discussed here in the FAQ.
The FAQ is extremely handy

Oops. I guess I should finish reading the post before I reply. You've already done the tees. I would be surprised if it's coming from behind the bell housing. Are you 100% sure the tee replacement isn't leaking? It's hard to see that area

 

[I Lean]

I had a similar leak, a few days after I changed the heater T's out. Turned out I just needed to retorque the hose clamps, as one had started weeping.

 

[gatormark91]

Get a new shop. Check the clamps for the heater T's and check the coolant pipe at the back of the manifold. Definitely NOT coming from anywhere you need to pull the transmission to see/fix. Also, a leak from the upper radiator hose or the O-ring for the thermostat housing will often leak back down the valley under the intake and drip out the back of the motor.

 

[flintknapper]

Get a new shop. Check the clamps for the heater T's and check the coolant pipe at the back of the manifold. Definitely NOT coming from anywhere you need to pull the transmission to see/fix. Also, a leak from the upper radiator hose or the O-ring for the thermostat housing will often leak back down the valley under the intake and drip out the back of the motor.

^^^^^

There's your answer. Especially the part about getting a 'new shop'. They don't have a clue what they are doing or if they do...are scamming you.

Look at your Tee connections and also the rear water bypass.

 

[2001LC]

What @flintknapper said^^^^^^^

Rear water bypass, has a pipe sticking up on DS. The DS heater hose connects to this pipe. Sometimes when heater tee changed, the pressure exerted on the pipe dislodges it from water bypass joint. Then it leaks.

Both front and rear water bypass have gaskets that sometimes leak.

The engine valley has holes in rear, to allow drainage of any fluid that get in the area. This drain into area of bell-housing. Then drain out bottom of bell housing at weep hole.

The pipe going from front to back connect into water pump at front and return heater tee hose at rear of engine. It too can leak, but generally will not just start leaking.


Blowing a heater tee is no big deal, provided you realized it blew and stopped within minutes. How's your engine running?

If coolant gets to low and engine keeps running, it will overheat. Get it to hot and head can warp. Head gasket have been report to just blow but that is rare.

 

[MadAsAGlovver]

Awesome info everyone. The car runs fine right now, hasn't been over heated, just gets low then I need to fill up coolant.
I'll have it towed back to my house and do some more investigation my self. See if i can track down the leak my self. not going to pay them to take the transmission down for no reason lol.

 

[2001LC]

"Towed" Why if it runs fine?

 

[katit]

Both front and rear water bypass have gaskets that sometimes leak.

This is ones I'm not touching right now. Is that a common item? I wonder if I should replace those "while in there". Would be painful to do separately..

 

[saucebox]

This is ones I'm not touching right now. Is that a common item? I wonder if I should replace those "while in there". Would be painful to do separately..

If you have to take the intake manifold off already, it only makes sense to replace those gaskets, especially at the rear. It's otherwise tons of work to get to leaky gaskets that only add a few bucks to the "while you're in there".

 

[MadAsAGlovver]

"Towed" Why if it runs fine?

Because its loosing coolant... dont want to have to stop on the highway to fill up... around town is fine by I had to take it 40 min away.
I'm getting UV dye in the mail tomorrow so hopefully the mystery will be solved soon.

 

[2001LC]

This is ones I'm not touching right now. Is that a common item? I wonder if I should replace those "while in there". Would be painful to do separately..

Personally I replace if I see a reason to. The water bypass joints that I have pulled, for reasons other than leak. Gaskets were in great shape. I've one 2000 2UZ engine with over 350K (Emerald), no history of them ever leaking. I did not replace "while in there".

I've seen one leak.
I always play detective and try and find they why, I could not! I did find signs of electrolysis in it. Yet history showed, not only was coolant flush multiple times but early and more than called for at Toyota Dealerships. I suspect tap water was added early in it history. It may have been a fluke leak from factory, prompting topping.

 

[2001LC]

Because its loosing coolant... dont want to have to stop on the highway to fill up... around town is fine by I had to take it 40 min away.
I'm getting UV dye in the mail tomorrow so hopefully the mystery will be solved soon.

Sounds like bad leak.

Was it actually dripping from the rear weep hole? Or did the shop perhaps just see crusty pink/red leftover from your heater tee blowing?

As far as freeze plugs, 2UZ has many. But I've never seen one leak on a 2UZ.

I treat all leaks the same. First I closely inspect with all shielding off and a good light. Any wet areas (coolant or oil) I take pictures of. Then I power wash until I've completely clean. Then I drive and watch for point(s) leak begins from.

Here one more though since you mention a front leak. Perhaps you'll get lucky and the front leak is just traveling to rear.
Traveling over the front into the valley then to the rear valley drains.

Very happy it's runs fine. As my biggest concern with the 2UZ engine, when I hear heater tees blew, leaks around water pump or any coolant leaking. Is overheating from low coolant. If coolant below level of water temp sending unit, we get false low temp reading on dash. This is what blows head gaskets, warps heads and or blows engines.

 

[boca1]

2001lc, you are a wealth of knowledge on this board, thank you for taking the time to educate us and for all the pictures you have taken and some how manage to find when needed. I wish you were my neighbor

 

[Mike6158]

I wish you were my neighbor

Ditto!

 

[MadAsAGlovver]

Well I tested the UV dye and there looks like there is a leak under the intake manifold. So that is getting pulled this week to investigate further. No leak from the water pump though. There is some dripping out of the weep hole on the transmission but very little

 

[katit]

Well I tested the UV dye and there looks like there is a leak under the intake manifold. So that is getting pulled this week to investigate further. No leak from the water pump though. There is some dripping out of the weep hole on the transmission but very little

I had puddle of coolant there too. It would be either
1. o-ring on water pipe that goes to water pump
2. Potentially hose that goes down to cross-pipe from heater T down, should be visible when engine plastic cover out
3. X-over pipe gaskets (unlikely)

If you can take without pulling intake and see it's a pipe at waterpump I would take one of the routes:
1. Do TB job (if it's due)
or
2. Do starter contacts/rebuild (if it's due)

Both of those options can get it fixed

 

[2001LC]

Flashlight, mirror and/or camera are so helpful for inspection.

 

[MadAsAGlovver]

Well over the last week I took off the intake manifold and found the source of the leak, was filled with coolant in the engine V. The long metal pipe that connects the rear heater core, the o ring connection on that was completely shot. The front cross over didn't look to good either. The rear coolant cross over looked fine. I replaced front and rear coolant cross overs, the pipe o-ring, thermostat housing o-ring and resealed it.
Also replaced some split vacuum lines while I was in there and what I thought was an exhaust leak turned out to be a giant vacuum leak.
Unfortunately I left a connector off a line on the throttle body lol, so its still leaking. Putting that back on tonight then testing it tomorrow.

Took the opportunity to teach the wife about the car work also, she enjoyed it!

 

[I Lean]

That's MUCH better than paying some shady shop $2K to pull your transmission.