Bjorn,

I had this leak.  Turns out that the plastic pipe from the front has a metal
sleeve in it that forms the ridge and I guess keeps the plastic from deforming
under clamp loads.  Anyway  the leak kept coming back, and  I thought it was
the clamp.  I even bought one of the diesel engine style torque clamps, $10
bucks, or so and it helped, because I didn't remove the old clamp, just double
clamped the hose.  I was traveling at the time and well, I was being
expedient.

Anyway the fix was to drain the system, remove the hose, I found this by
accident when I was replacing the coolant manifold, which was also leaking. So
when I say remove the hose, mine just came off whilst I was wrestling with the
manifold.

I ruffed up the pipe ID and OD of the stainless insert, and put in a silicone
type goo. Let set the prerequisite time. And thus ending another chapter in
leak management.

Hope this helps,

Sincerely,

Mark Keller
91 Carat WLE

Bj�rn Ratjen wrote:

> Hello Listvolks,
>
> The last couple of days another coolant leak has kept me busy carrying an
> extra water bottle for my vanagon. I noticed that after driving at high rpm
> coolant was missing. The usual signs were noticed like the blinking coolant
> light and temperature indicator going up suddenly. Of course it happened
> when the car was fully loaded. Oh what fun it is to unpack everything on
> the side of the highway in the fog...
>
> I could not find the leak at first. I sniffed in vain for the sweet scent
> of steaming coolant. The engine seemed dry. I had a friend keep the rpm at
> 4000 while I was checking - to no avail. Occasionally it was even sucking
> the overflow reservoir dry overnight.
>
> When I finally baught a bottle of coolant at a VW dealership in Nanaimo to
> keep the car safe for winter I asked for some ideas about the location of
> the leak. The service manager looked at me and said: "in the rear".
>
> Today I finally found the culprit: a loose clamp on the hose connector
> between the long return pipe from the front and the plastic manifold. The
> location is just in front of the right rear driveshaft. No wonder the
> engine was dry. Some drips were coming down on the right crossmember of the
> frame where they mixed unobtrusively with the moisture from the road. Maybe
> they should use a stronger color. Oh well,  just another one of those
> puzzles that keep you wondering for a couple of days...
>
> Bj�rn
>
> Bj�rn Ratjen
> Mill Bay, B.C.
>
> 1987 Vanagon est alia (self camperized, TDI wannabe)
> 1978 VW Bulli (self camperized)
> 1995 Passat TD Wagon (hers)
> 1970 VW Beetle (son's)