jayc67

I'll start by saying I rarely drive the car when it's cold outside so this may be nothing, but the last couple of day's I've been driving it and running the heater on full

I'm getting a faint smell of antifreeze inside the car. I can't find any sign of a leak at all, coolant level isn't dropping.

Just did the fuel lines and replaced the HCV while I was in that part of the world, but it's dry as well.

So, anything to be concerned about here? Where should I look for signs of a problem? The odor is very faint, but I haven't driven it very often with the heater on full so I don't know if that's just the way it is anyway.

Thanks as always!

Mrmerlin

did you also replace the short hose that connects the HCV to the head?? if not then you should
How old are the other hoses in the car??
Since you worked on this system there is a good chance that one of the hoses is still leaking.
IE what was the last thing you fixed.
Next look under the cowl cover when the car is hot with it running look at the connections of the heater hoses to the heater core. See if you find any coolant dripping into the well.
Next examine the top of the passenger side radiator tank where the crimps are, this is where the tanks starts to leak.
The heater hoses could be leaking into the well and then running out the drain or evaporating before the drain so no leak is noted.
Also if the coolant bottle cap is not new then this could also be venting coolant out the bottle

the flyin' scotsman

What Stan said as well when you changed the HCV some antifreeze probably spilled over the bell housing and thats where the smaell may be coming from.

+1 in replacing the short hose.

jayc67

Hoses are all original in the heater system. When I did the HCV I also did the short coupler hose.
Top and bottom radiator hoses are new, did those with the last TB. Can't find any wet spots at all, I've looked all up under the car.

I did replace the radiator cap on the overflow tank last week too.

I'm changing the oil this afternoon, I will look again. Yeah, some of the drops from the HCV change may have gotten somewhere as well, it's only been a few days.

Just wondered if a faint smell of coolant was abnormal, sounds like it is. Like I say, I haven't used the heater in a long time so I can't remember if the smell was always there or not. Most winters it sits under a cover.

Tom in Austin

James M. and I both get a slight whiff of coolant 'aroma' on our cars when we first turn on the heater, then it goes away. Since we use heaters so rarely here in Texas, hopefully it won't get any worse and we can safely ignore ...

pcar928fan

^^^^^^
What Tom said...

I actually get it almost all the time and the windows will fog up initially when I turn on the heat. pin hole somewhere in the heater core. REAL PITA to get that out and change it, so I will wait till it gets to bad to ignore.

I have smelled the coolant smell for over 15k miles with this car now and only A FEW WEEKS AGO did I have to top off the level! So, if you smell it but never SEE IT and your coolant level never seem to go down, I would suggest you have the same problem Tom and I have.

Oh, dash has to come out to replace the core! SUCK! That is why we WAIT!

jayc67

Ugh. I think if I get to that point I'd seriously consider selling the car and buying another rather than do that LOL.

Thanks. I'm going to keep looking for leaks and see what happens.

pcar928fan

Jay,

Keep an eye on it and keep us posted!

auzivision

kind of like this one?

jayc67

Yep. I changed that one and the HCV after seeing MrMerlin warn about it about 30 times in various threads

Warning heeded MrMerlin. Thanks.