Its the passenger side directly above the catalytic converter. I know this because i saw a good amount of smoke when it dripped down on to it.
Right after i post i end up finding it:
You guys ever have a leaking one of these? wondering if i just clean it up and put new o rings on it.
It's not a common leak source. Since it appears reasonable to get to (engine doesn't need to be dropped or anything), I would take a chance and replace the O rings and see what happens.. at worst if the actual solenoid is leaking you're out the cost of one O ring.
Thanks for the input. going to order the two o rings and part 41 the Lid actuator
I did take it out to examine and see if was anything obvious. Here is a photo. I ended up removing the tire, wheel well shield. plus the coil to the left of it to get better angle to pry with a screwdriver. You can see my channel lock marks on the end. Dont use the channel locks to pull it. slowly pry with a screwdriver from different angles until the flange starts to move, then you can rotate it and slowly pop it off while keeping the flange straight to the tube of the solenoid.Cleaned it up and put it back in, waiting on the new o rings and lid to come.
Just to follow up with this... I did end up purchasing the o-rings and the "lid" from the dealership, holding off on the 181$ solenoid for now. Its been a week and so far no leaks or smoke.
Note there are two actuators located on the cylinder head. The one that was leaking in this case was the one between two cylinders. The other one is located towards the rear of the car and looks like its connected to an o2 sensor on the exhaust. So if you are looking at it from below, starting from the rear you have a solenoid 1, cylinder 1, solenoid 2, cylinder 2, cylinder 3. This is solenoid 2.
I have the underbody trim pieces removed so i can just put my camera up and point it towards the cylinder head and take this shot (passenger side)
The procedure is the same as doing a sparkplug / coil change. Put the car on a stand, remove the wheel, remove the wheel liners to expose the head. You dont have to remove any coils to get at it but i did the first time to give me some room. Once you remove the two torx bolts holding the retaining clip (48 in the diagram) you can unclip the electrical connector and push that up and out of the way. Then its just a matter of pulling the Lid (41 in the diagram) and actuator out as a single unit. I rotated the lid around a couple time and then gently wiggled the actuator out. I cleaned it with some cleaner spray and put the new O-Rings on and the new Lid (since it has a built in gasket to seal against the actuator body and head.)
This is what the face of the head looks like without the actuator in place:
one thing i didnt get a good photo of is the retaining clip has a flat side and the actuator and lid have to be oriented to match the bolt holes and so the flat side of the clip meets up with the actuator electrical clip in order for it to seat fully in place. Best to orient your pieces together and get them as close as possible before you put it back and try to put the clip on. Its at a funny angle if you are working on the ground.
Cleaned up and put back:
One less leak 🤞
