Welp, thanks to everyone's advice since I just got my 2015 V (105k mi) I decided to tear everything down...and boy howdy I'm glad I did! The PCV valve was stuck, throttle body had a small puddle of oil at the bottom of it, the intake manifold was nasty, intake valves had oil on top of them, and the walls were caked. EGR valve was the same and you could barely see the shop light through the cooler. 1000004916 by ChaseE posted Jan 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM 1000004915 by ChaseE posted Jan 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM 1000004918 by ChaseE posted Jan 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM 1000004909 by ChaseE posted Jan 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM 1000004917 by ChaseE posted Jan 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM The demon bolt only took 5min to deal with thanks to @ASRDogman @Mendel Leisk @rjparker advice, and despite not having a T8 socket my 6mm hex worked fine. Used Purple Power and hot water with a fabric gun (5000psi), some heavy duty bristle brushes and pipe cleaners, then sprayed it all off and dried. Replaced PCV, transmission fluid (was BLACK), are replaced inverter coolant (accidentally, opened the wrong drain plug not paying attention!) Took about 6hrs to do everything, now I just have to finish putting everything back together tomorrow. 1000004920 by ChaseE posted Jan 7, 2025 at 7:25 PM 1000004921 by ChaseE posted Jan 7, 2025 at 7:25 PM 1000004922 by ChaseE posted Jan 7, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Good job. Cooler looks very clean. Best assessment is shining a light in from the near side. Torx socket sets are inexpensive; I’d get one. Studs on the intake manifold are E6. Torque values for everything in the repair manual excerpt attachments, in top link in my signature (on a phone turn it landscape to see signatures). quality oil catch can(s) will help with the intake manifold sludge pool.
Everything but the wiper motor and top cowl is buttoned up, ran in maintenance mode and everything sounds good...unfortunately as I was topping off the radiator fluid so I could burp it from what leaked out the coolant lines, right at the plastic seam point where the full line is on the radiator reservoir, coolant started leaking from the back. Auto parts store down the road actually has a reservoir in stock so I'm going to pick that up and I guess drain and fill that side of the system as well!
That's odd, for it to start leaking out of the blue. I'd double check where the coolant's coming from. In my second down signature link, more EGR tips, there's a suggestion for avoiding coolant leaks: basically drain a couple of quarts into a clean container before disconnecting the cooler's coolant hoses. Then the system's more or less dry, nothing spills. Also, no need to disconnect throttle body coolant hoses, they have plenty of reach. (To see signatures on a phone turn it landscape)
