Well last night was an absolute disaster of a learning experience. Did I learn something new? Yes. Could it gone a lot easier? Yes.
I get a text around 2pm from my wife that once again all her coolant is gone from the bulb. I start praying because this is the 3rd time in less then 1k miles, and I just did the TB 3k ago. The last thing I want to do right now is change a headgasket. I don't have time for that. I finish work at the clinic then make the drive through stop/go traffic to her work. I look over every inch of the engine bay, all the typical leak spots and find nothing (I have done this every time). I decide I may as well check the trans fluid at this point because maybe its possible the cooler is leaking into the trans as unlikely as that is. I pull the G38 sensor on the 01m and this is where I make a critical rookie mistake. I haven't done something like this in years. Looking at the hole I notice I can only see a little bit of fluid. Hmmm, how might I get a better sample? Oh, I know I'll start the car!
Start the car, look for coolant/oil mix and nothing so I shut it down. I put the sensor back and keep searching. I look everywhere coolant goes, the subframe, and even the belly of the car looking for something. Thats when I notice the dirt accumulation in the passenger side frame rail (where the fuel lines enter the engine bay) is wet. I start trying to get a better look of the frame rail under the engine mount, ff, and coolant bulb area. Sure enough the rail is wet. I pulled the coolant bulb and the bottom tube is wet. Its been leaking from the hose clamp not doing its job. At least far as I can tell this has to be the issue. I try to get it attached better, dry it off, and put some napkins under for easy leak detection. Done! I figured it out, saved the day, my wife is happy and thankful. I make a run for the woods before dark, and soon as I get there she calls me said "I think its stuck in limp mode, or maybe 3rd gear". She's never experienced limp mode, but knows how I've explained it works. She drives to where I'm at and says ya it doesn't have any power. I get in and sure enough stuck in 3rd. Will shift from first if I manually switch it. Now I'm upset and really want to just pull this 01m out. I try shutting it off and restarting, disconnecting the battery, cleaning sensor terminals, and researching attempting to figure out what is going on. I knew it had to be something I touched but it was getting to me. I knew only thing left was to pray on the way home that my KII cable had come in the mail before the weekend. I had plenty of time for that because 65mpg was pushing 3500rpm. Sure enough it came in a nick of time. Downloaded vcds, did the update on the cable and sure enough there was a G38 sensor code in the TCM. Why the car can't tell its plugged back in is beyond me but that was dumb. What a stupid amd almost costly mistake I made. Cleared the code and amazingly it didn't come back so that was great. Also checked my timing for the TB I did which was spot on, and put the trans in sport mode. Holy crap is that more of a book than I meant to write, but yea... that's how my night went. Thankfully ended on a good note.
Also a big thanks to
@LibertyHead for the super fast shipping on that KII cable. He got that thing sent out to me soon as he got payment and it was perfect timing.
