Ryan

Thanks so much for the reply. So, inlet tube appears to be a <$30 part, not that easy to get to, and, it seems to me that it very reasonably should have been included in the laundry list of parts they said I needed and they replaced for me, *especially* in light of the corrosion issue service bulletin in the earlier post above. They replaced: water pump, cooling fans, timing chain & phasers (sprockets), belts, gaskets, etc; as well as two things I just asked them to add on and replace/repair while they were in there (thermostat and motor mount). Again, the current situation is that I paid for the work on top Aug 24, then paid for the Feb 8-9 diagnosis on the bottom Monday Feb 11, and, even though I have not seen any coolant leaking since the Feb 7th photo above (the day I took it in for the recent diagnosis, where they pressurized it and found no leak), I have a situation now where coolant leaked from somewhere Feb 7th, the dealer says they can't find the source of the leak and gave the car back to me saying: drive normally, watch the coolant level, and bring it back if coolant leaks again, at which time they would diagnose again at no additional diagnosis charge. Trouble is, I might need to use the car to do a long-distance move in the coming months, and I really don't like the idea of needing automotive repairs in the midst of that. Anyway, I'm quite irritated that they were not able to find the source of the leak, whether it be the inlet tube or something else. If anyone has any other suggestions as to what it could be, or more info related to the inlet tube, I'm all ears! P.S. I'm happy to finally post some confirmed information that may be interesting or helpful to others to the forum. If anyone has any questions for me, feel free to message me anytime... this forum has been a great resource for me as I've owned this vehicle. Thanks again!

Can anyone give a sense of what it takes to replace the water pump inlet tube? 5 months/21k miles ago, I had a dealer replace the water pump and a bunch of other things, for about $5k, and I now suspect they forgot (or neglected) to replace the inlet tube. So, this past Thursday, I saw coolant dripping from what the service advisor said is the "rear torque mount", the lowest point immediately in front of the area where the transfer case would be if it were AWD (photo attached). At this time, I checked the weep hole on the top of the engine and the area did not have fresh coolant, suggesting the coolant came from somewhere else. Well, I drove it to the dealer that did the water pump work (25mi/1 hr drive) and, upon arrival there, the area I previously saw coolant was dry/no coolant dripping. Coolant reservoir is in the normal range, but right at the bottom of the range. I left it with them and accepted the charge for diagnosis. On Monday morning, they said over Fri-Sat they checked, including pressurizing the system, and looking, and they could not find the source of the leak, and told me to come get it. So, I picked it up after they found nothing and replaced nothing, and the area is and has been dry over the last few days since, but, if it leaked before, it will leak again. They told me that if it leaks again, to bring it back and they would check for the source of the leak again at no charge. [how nice! ] So, again, I know the water pump replacement is an enormous job, but, what about this inlet tube? p.s. my edge: build date Oct 16, 2007 release date Oct 17, 2007, with warranty start date April 26, 2008 (pdf repair bulletin above states "Replace the water pump inlet tube if the engine build date is on or before Apr 1, 2008")