Coolant smell in car

[thewaitinggame]

I have noticed a few times that when my heat is on the smell of coolant is coming through the vents. Most of the time the smell isn't there but looking for advise on why it's happening. I have never had that happen before and don't really know where to start looking. Does anyone know what it could be?

[J GTP]

Could be a cracked heater core. Unfortunately that's a b*tch to replace in most cars. IDK about GP's specifically but I doubt they're any easier. It would be costly to have a shop do it. I would expect upwards of $500.

[kjohnson]

I had a slow leak in my upper plantum and it was running down on my exaust and burning off sending the smell right into my car when I would run the heat. that might not be your problem but take a good look with a good flash light. just a thought

[scootcoupe91]

Well I had the same issue with the coolant smell coming into the car. One of the elbows next to the LIM was cracked and was running down and evaporating off of the block but right now I am trying to figure out why there is so little air coming out when the car is on heat mode.

To get to the heater core in all honesty is not that bad. If you set aside one day I think you should be able to do it as it took me about 4 hours to get to the core. The worst part is getting out the 1st plastic piece that directs the air to the floor when that mode is selected.
Now I have a question for you. When your car is on heat does it not blow much air out of the vents while when it is in cool mode does it blow a lot, basically a significant difference between heat and cool.

[thewaitinggame]

I'm going to check to see if I see any leaks on my car tomorrow. I did see a guide on how to take the heater core out of a GP. Seem time consuming but not to hard. I found some good prices on heater cores, a delphi for $46, not sure if that's a good brand to get, 2 PROLIANCE at $53 and $64.

As far as if my heat blows as much as the ac. I would say it does but my AC went out this year. Basically one of two ac hoses are on top of each other and the crimped end of one was rubbing the other hose wearing a hole in it. Was that was the whole time i had this car i guess, never even noticed it. But my air did blow the same as the heat.

So you think if I don't notice any leaks to just go ahead and replace my heater core?

[Thunderturd]

Turn on the heat and see if steam comes out of the defroster or vents.

[thewaitinggame]

No steam comes out of the vents and never noticed it happen before, looked it over a little and haven't noticed any leaks yet. Have to run somewhere for a while today so i'll finish looking it over tomorrow.