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Is my heater core on the way out?


SloMo94

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I have a very sweet smell bowing through my vents when I turn the heater on. After a block or two it will go-a-way.

 

That’s all I can really tell you guys for now! Other than I have 4,000 mile drive coming up, so I can’t afford an expensive repair like this.

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Could be..

My Dad's old Taurus had leaking head gaskets and when warming up you could really smell the anti-freeze smell coming in, then after a while of driving it went away..however... if you have recently put into anti-freeze into your car and you spilt some that might be the cause, but it should go away after a while. Might try taking your car the the wand wash and washing the engine bay down if you spilt some.

 

I've never heard of a bad heater core making that anti-freeze smell, though I've see some break and blow anti-freeze all over the windshield..but I am still learning about cars and I could be wrong about heater cores not making that smell..

 

- Jeff L.

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you will know when it goes out...Windows will fog up and you will smell a strong smell of antifreeze.. You will start to over heat and look under the car to see all your anti freeze on the ground( If your lucky, My car has a over flow tube so it dumps it on the ground...If yours dont have this then look forward to it going all over the passangers floorboard)..Good luck replacing it, mine was a bitch to do..

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theres a pan under the heater core that routes any leaking coolant to a drain hose, so you will see coolant dripping from up near the firewall

 

another issue i've heard of is that the hoses could be loose where the connect to the firewall...causing antifreeze to drip down the metal lines behind the firewall (inside the car)....because the entire thing is closed in any spray or leak would go right into the same drain pan

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I have a very sweet smell bowing through my vents when I turn the heater on. After a block or two it will go-a-way.

 

That’s all I can really tell you guys for now! Other than I have 4,000 mile drive coming up, so I can’t afford an expensive repair like this.

 

I'd say you can't afford for the heater core to all out fail on you on a 4,000 mile trip. Once the heater core gets a big enough hole....you are stranded. And at the mercy of whatever towing/repair shop you can find.

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It's over heating above 70 mph or when I'm sitting longer than five minutes. The coolant looks old as hell all of sudden. I guess I’ll take care of the damn thing anyways.

 

Hopefully a coolant change & flush with a new thermostat will take care of this.

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Hey man I checked all over and there is no damn leak. I will look again and have it checked out, still there is no leak of any sort and the ground is clean as hell. I hope there isn’t one if there is I'm taken care of it before it gets any worse!

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I think I know what's wrong now!

 

My sister came home & asked if I could run her to Arby's, so I did. Well I'm sitting there and waiting for her food when I noticed my temperature was way the hell up there around 250*. I turned the radio down to see if I can hear my fans, I heard nothing. Then I turned on my heater to try and subtract some of the heat long be hold that sweet smell was blasted right into the cabin. I think the thermostats sticking and its over flowing. I had this trouble in my Caravan years ago.

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Or your fans aren't kicking on and its overheating causing a boilover.
I agree. If your thermostat was sticking closed, then none of the "hot" coolant would even reach the radiator and it wouldn't be able to boil over into the recovery tank...
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