In part of baselining my 2002 LC, I proactively replaced the heater hose T's and connecting hoses from a LC specialist shop in the SF Bay Area. (That was about 18 months ago)
Over the past year I've been having quite a big coolant leak, with my reservoir sometimes being completely empty. There doesn't seem to be a pattern...sometimes I drive for hours and lose no coolant, other times it's empty after short trips around town. I took it to my local independent shop and they replaced the radiator cap. The leak continued and I took it back, this time they pressure tested and found a leak at the rear water bypass pipe. (Where the hand cursor is in the below pic).
Estimate to repair is about $950, for 4 hours of labor, a new OEM rear bypass pipe, and two new gaskets. (Also found it here on CruiserPatch.) I'm taking the hundy on two big summer trips and I want to fix this coolant leak for good before it causes more damage. Some thoughts/questions if anyone has any experience with this:
1. Would this be likely related the heater hose T replacement? Looks like the hoses are connected. The LC speicality shop offers a 24k miles warranty on their work, but it's a PITA for me to get down there and $255 to diagnose the leak. Though if they deem it related to their work, it's covered.
2. I'm leaning towards having my independent shop just repair it for the $950, but also wonder if I'm replacing fine components and maybe it's a simple hose connection. I'm not comfortable getting in there myself to do the work, unfortunately.
3. I can see the pink residue and coolant pooling at the bottom of the Rear Water Bypass Joint, so it's a substantial leak.
4. Anything else I'm missing? I found a thread on mud here with a comment that the bypass joint can leak after heater hose T work, so maybe this is a thing?
Thanks in advance !
Over the past year I've been having quite a big coolant leak, with my reservoir sometimes being completely empty. There doesn't seem to be a pattern...sometimes I drive for hours and lose no coolant, other times it's empty after short trips around town. I took it to my local independent shop and they replaced the radiator cap. The leak continued and I took it back, this time they pressure tested and found a leak at the rear water bypass pipe. (Where the hand cursor is in the below pic).
Estimate to repair is about $950, for 4 hours of labor, a new OEM rear bypass pipe, and two new gaskets. (Also found it here on CruiserPatch.) I'm taking the hundy on two big summer trips and I want to fix this coolant leak for good before it causes more damage. Some thoughts/questions if anyone has any experience with this:
1. Would this be likely related the heater hose T replacement? Looks like the hoses are connected. The LC speicality shop offers a 24k miles warranty on their work, but it's a PITA for me to get down there and $255 to diagnose the leak. Though if they deem it related to their work, it's covered.
2. I'm leaning towards having my independent shop just repair it for the $950, but also wonder if I'm replacing fine components and maybe it's a simple hose connection. I'm not comfortable getting in there myself to do the work, unfortunately.
3. I can see the pink residue and coolant pooling at the bottom of the Rear Water Bypass Joint, so it's a substantial leak.
4. Anything else I'm missing? I found a thread on mud here with a comment that the bypass joint can leak after heater hose T work, so maybe this is a thing?
Thanks in advance !
