[A4] Coolant Leak

[Pbadore at aol.com]

Hi,
Did you replace the coolant hoses when you changed the radiator? The seal 
inside the lower end of
the hose that is keyed to the radiator can leak after being disturbed during 
radiator removal. If the hose ends are dry then possibly the water pump could 
be leaking from its shaft seal and letting coolant pass out toward the right 
side of the engine. However, I am not sure if a leaking water pump will route 
coolant to the right side of the engine or not.   There isn't a visible weep 
hole on the pump I just looked at. You might want to pressure test the cooling 
system and look carefully before and after the engine warms up. Lastly, there 
are a lot of o ring type seals on the rear of the cylinder heads for the 
coolant pipes that route the coolant to the heater core, the thermostat and back to 
the radiator. Coolant leaks are sometimes hard to locate even for dealership 
personnel that work on these cars on a regular basis, I once bought a near new 
warranty pull out 2.8l 30V engine that was misdiagnosed as a head gasket leak 
when it had a leak from an o ring seal under the intake manifold.