Weird Coolant leak from inside the trans bellhousing 1999 Caravan 3.3L

Oct 16, 2006 2 Replies
R

Hi. My wife's 1999 caravan (120K miles, 3.3L, Automatic) started leaking coolant from inside transmission bellhousing. I heck both heads and didn't see any leak. I pressure tested it, and the coolant came streaming out of the inspection cover...it drips pretty severve even without pressure applied.



My question is there a freeze plug in the back of the 3.3L engine...or a bypass tube under the intake manifold? I have to decide to either pull the trans to look, or pull the intake to see if there is a tube. I'm thinking it's probably a freeze plug, but I'd like to be a bit more confident before I get started.



Any help is appreciated.



Thanks



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W

Pulling the Transmission would be alot of extra work that would not fix anything. As you may know, water tends to travel the path with the least resistance. So that means it could be coming from the vicinity and finding its way to where you see it. I don't believe there is a bypass tube on the 3.8 but there are freeze plugs in the back of the heads, anyway my bet would be on the coolant tube that runs up the front side of the engine and then over the transmission. You can start to trace this line near the oil filter. -J

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R

Thanks for the reply. I pulled the trans today...and sure enough, one of the freeze plugs had a hole in it. I'll fix it tomorrow and be up and running. Regards,

rwillits66

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