# Engine block coolant drain plug location?



## wmorrison65 (Sep 7, 2014)

I can't narrow down which bolt is the correct one. Some google results I've found say look where the engine bolts to the transmission. But no exact match pictures I can find.

Here's the diagram from the Bentley.









https://ibb.co/6yT5fLK

You can see the flywheel ring gear through the holes, so yeah, engine/transmission point is the right place to look.

Here are a couple pictures I took underneath the car. 2005 Passat GLX 4motion, tiptronic.









https://ibb.co/rfc5hkv








https://ibb.co/km7Xm8K

The two semi-circular holes on the right seem to match up with the Bentley. The rectangular hole on the left where you can see the ring gear also seems to line up with the other semi-circular hole in the Bentley. So I think the drain plug is one of the two seen most clearly in the last image above. But the Bentley only shows one, so I don't know which one to loosen, or what would happen if I loosen the wrong one.

Anybody know which one it is?


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## wmorrison65 (Sep 7, 2014)

Not even the lead mechanic at the local VW dealership knows this. He says they never drain the block like this. Understandable, you wouldn't normally need to, but frustrating.


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## wmorrison65 (Sep 7, 2014)

Well, what do you know...

I googled every combination I could think of for 2.8L V6 coolant drain plug, and found nothing, at least that I could find in all the "false positives" for other engines.

Today I wanted to find some torque specs I can't find in the Bentley, so I googled "2.8L v6 timing belt torque" and the _first result_ starts off with instructions on finding the coolant drain plug.

https://www.blauparts.com/vw_timing...vw_passat_timing_belt_installation_guide.html

The pictures are upside down compared to the ones I posted. That is, the pictures on this page are taken with the front of the car toward the top of the image, so the drain plug is toward the driver's side.


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## gettajetta13 (Jun 22, 2008)

Just use the drain plug on the bottom driver side of the radiator. It is a big philips head plug that only needs to be unscrewed half way.


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