Dreaded Intercooler Leak c32
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Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 21
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2003 C32 AMG
Dreaded Intercooler Leak c32
Hello fellow AMG:ers
Bought a untuned 2003 c32 March this year, private sale, without warranty...
Had some trouble with it loosing coolant approx 1 quarts per 600 miles, lately it has been increasing. I don’t know how long this has been ongoing. I have not driven it extremely much so the warning has come on 3-4 times for me.
The Gearbox, Radiator was replaced due to radiator coolant leak into gearbox a few months ago, but check coolant warning message still keeps coming. I took it to a workshop who inspected coolant lines, all good. I suggested looking into air boxes and they were very gunky they said. So I ordered a new intercooler since it seems its leaking.
Both I and workshop are unsure how hard or how long cleaning the parts will take. We don’t know if it’s all dried up or all gunky. I suggested they keep it overnight and put the AMG airboxes in hot water so it will resolve during the night. I’m worried that the supercharger may be filled up with gunk, damaged, and it will take hours to clean it all off. Am I making the cleaning a bigger problem than it is or is it a straight forward procedure? Car drives ok, shifts a bit hard, feels a bit weak, like its lost 60 hp or something. I would appreciate some feedback from someone who had this issue on how hard it is to clean it all off and where most of the coolant is gathered. It truly amasses me how much you can love and hate a car at the same time.
Bought a untuned 2003 c32 March this year, private sale, without warranty...
Had some trouble with it loosing coolant approx 1 quarts per 600 miles, lately it has been increasing. I don’t know how long this has been ongoing. I have not driven it extremely much so the warning has come on 3-4 times for me.
The Gearbox, Radiator was replaced due to radiator coolant leak into gearbox a few months ago, but check coolant warning message still keeps coming. I took it to a workshop who inspected coolant lines, all good. I suggested looking into air boxes and they were very gunky they said. So I ordered a new intercooler since it seems its leaking.
Both I and workshop are unsure how hard or how long cleaning the parts will take. We don’t know if it’s all dried up or all gunky. I suggested they keep it overnight and put the AMG airboxes in hot water so it will resolve during the night. I’m worried that the supercharger may be filled up with gunk, damaged, and it will take hours to clean it all off. Am I making the cleaning a bigger problem than it is or is it a straight forward procedure? Car drives ok, shifts a bit hard, feels a bit weak, like its lost 60 hp or something. I would appreciate some feedback from someone who had this issue on how hard it is to clean it all off and where most of the coolant is gathered. It truly amasses me how much you can love and hate a car at the same time.
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Joined: Oct 2007
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From: Bay Area, CA
Volvo
The supercharged won't be touched... The intercooler is after the supercharger (Where the coolant leak starts) The gunk should be in your intake runners, Y pipe, and intake manifolds...... After you have everything off, Brake cleaner or Air/Throttle body cleaner works best, If you have seafoam that also works! I have a thread about it when i was installing my spacers for the manifold.
Last edited by OverDrive; Oct 4, 2010 at 01:46 PM.
Thread Starter
Junior Member
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 21
Likes: 0
2003 C32 AMG
Thanks
The supercharged won't be touched... The intercooler is after the supercharger (Where the coolant leak starts) The gunk should be in your intake runners, Y pipe, and intake manifolds...... After you have everything off, Brake cleaner or Air/Throttle body clean works best, If you have seafoam that also works! I have a thread about it when i was installing my spacers for the manifold.
