Well, I had to move the Rx around the driveway to work on my DD and I let it sit at idle for a bit. Well, to my dismay, smoke started to arise from the turbo. Great. So, I turn it off and begin to check out the potential mayhem. (Mind you, I don't have my Hayne's manual on me, it's at work, and I took a peek through the FSM for a little hint.)

Well, I can see that on the turbo itself, coolant is leaking onto it, but I can't see anywhere on the block that it may be coming from. The flange of the turbo is coated with coolant, and of course when it heats up it starts to burn off. When I went to look underneath the car, I saw a puddle of coolant coming out of the floorpan. Yikes. I looked inside of the car, and there isn't any coolant on the inside. My best guess is that the coolant is leaking down the engine mounts and flowing down the frame rails. I can see the hole it is leaking from, and it's coming exclusively from that hole.

Anyone had this happen to them? This week I am going to pull off the airbox and misc crap in the way and see what's going on. I would imagine that the coolant pipe has a fitting that has popped loose and is leaking coolant onto the turbo and then letting it flow down into the frame rail.

The exhaust doesn't smell like coolant, and I can see no bubbles on the filler neck, so I am pretty sure that my coolant seals are intact. The motor has maybe 2 miles on it too.

EDIT: The coolant puddle was on the passenger side.

 

I had a VERY similar problem recently. Mine slowly leaked (almost undetected) from the coolant inlet tube on to my turbo and burnt off, due to poor sealing of the tube. I did coolant seal tests too, because it seemed as if the coolant was coming out of my engine.

 

take the tube of and put a new gasket on

 

Cool, I just wanted to double check if there was a point at which it would leak from the coolant inlet. I couldn't remember. I'll take a peek this week when I get some time, thanks guys.

 

Since then, I have fixed the problem.

Good luck finding the leak MidnightOwl.

 

UPDATE!!!!!111: Well, I finally got a chance to take a look at the car the other day, and it's leaking from the center portion of the turbo right on the front of the hot side. It seems to be coolant, and it's seeping between the gap of the center portion of the turbo and the hotside. I already know I'll have to take the turbo out, but anyone have any earthly idea what the problem is? It only leaks when the car is running, and it's not smoking whatsoever (out of the exhaust). It leaks down onto the turbo itself and then burns off, but it's not leaking into the exhaust and causing smoke. Car runs fine otherwise, any ideas?!?!?!

 

Maybe the brass o-rings leaking around the banjo bolts.