It might be a bad heater core, but my heater works fine and there is no moisture on my carpet.
Occasionally I'll see traces of steam and smoke enter the car through the vents. I also smell a coolant smell. I was losing coolant very slowly, but the level has been holding.
Now my AC doesn't blow nearly as cold as it once did.
I have a 2001 Lincoln Towncar (178,000 miles) with a heater core leak. I was on the highway and got some smoke out of the ac vents and ever since then I've smelled the sweet smell of coolant in the air coming from the AC. I haven't had any more smoke or vapor since the one time. I did my research and asked around and understand this to be the tell tale signs of a heater core leak and that it's one of those fun jobs that's going to be a high price tag at the shop because of the amount of labor (8-9 hours).
Since the dash has to come out, I thought it would be worth it to pay a little more and have a dealer do it since they'd be more accustomed to taking out and reinstalling that particular dash. So I describe the problem to the dealer over the phone and they want to diagnose it before giving me a quote on replacing the heater core. Why? No clue, I even asked the guy if there was any other possible way for coolant to get into the vents and he said not that he could think of.
Anyway, I took it into the dealer and low and behold they found a different coolant leak. It turns out for a while Ford used intake manifolds with a plastic part that is known to crack and leak coolant. The dealer wanted to replace the intake manifold and clear the condenser drain before we even got into for the heater core.
So here's where I get to my question. I ordered an intake manifold and replaced that myself, I still haven't addressed the heater core. The first puff of smoke and the coolant smell happened almost 5 months ago. I've been driving around with antifreeze in my trunk and my eye glued to the temp gauge and it has not budged at all. I started thinking if I could get through the winter months I'd just bypass the heater core and buy myself another 7-8 months where I don't need the heater and I could save up some cash to have a pro replace the heater core.
Now that the warmer weather is here, I'm left wondering--could the heater core really leak for 5 months without me ever having to add coolant and with the temp gauge never going above it's normal level?
So i have a 01 LS and i love it so much. Ive only had it for 5months and since the 3rd month ive been having some overheating problems. Ive replaced the coolant reservoir it drove fine for about 3weeks then started to run hot again and leak coolant out the reservoir cap so i replaced that. Still ran hot.. so my brother got some air pockets out of the system but, it still ran hot. So i replaced the t-stat. After replacing that it did fine for a few days then started to run hot again. This time it seem to run hot one day and not the next until one day it ran hot constantly and steam would come from the reservoir and coolant would leak from under the car (behind front drivers side wheel.).
So when it leak i would check the overflow tank sometimes it will be full and sometimes not. When it wasn't full I would refill it until i ran ran out of antifreeze. Well i parked it after it leaked out the last of antifreeze that was in tank. So a few days later i got some antifreeze that was given to me by my brother which was red/orange all purpose antifreeze. I filled the tank up as it was dry and had leaked out all the green antifreeze. I started the car and let it run. It ran for about 20min without getting hot quickly like it usually do, air worked great but hea not so great.
Then I started seeing steam come from reservoir tank which was full of red coolant then its started leaking GREEN coolant instead of the red i filled the tank up with. Also the temp gauge never went to H while it did all of this. And the antifreeze drip from like 4 or 5 different places behind my left front wheel. Its a v8 3.9 engine.
I know one day i checked my coolant after it ran hot one day and it was low so i filled it up with water and forgot to put cap back on and i hopped on freeway. Soon as i got off it started smoking really bad i pull over and the coolant was boiling which i also forgot to mention. Thats another thing it has been doing. But the smoke came from the coolant boiling in tank and since i forgot to put cap on the smoke came out freely from tank. Could this have caused a problem. Although my car was running hot with coolant boiling in reservoir way before i did that and even after.
I have a volkswagen TDi 1.9 automatic which is using coolant more on short runs than on motorway and produces white smoke/steam on start up even when not cold which disappears after a few seconds. Other symptom is doesn't accelerate though goes OK when once up to speed. Have has cylinder head checked and new gasket so that is not the culprit and also new heat exchanger. There is also a gurgling noise which seems to be coming from the dash board though I am not sure if these things are related. I have read that the automatic has a water cooled EGR, could this be it??
View 1 RepliesMy 2006 6.0 is blowing white smoke/steam and Im losing coolant (not out the top). Pulled the EGR valve and its wet down there. All signs lead to EGR cooler? I've been reading a lot on this forum and Ill do the oil cooler at the same time. I seems VERY important to flush the coolant system before I tear into this. I am afraid of hydro locking the motor or ruining the head gasket or stretching the head studs if I run the truck. How can I do this without further damaging the engine? I am doing this myself. I'll have 3 solid days to finish this job because I have to tow my trailer in 5 days.
View 5 RepliesSo the wife's 08 Mountaineer 4.6 likes coolant. None in the crank case. I suspect head gasket, since I can smell it a bit in the exhaust, but I have also noticed steam coming from the drivers side firewall area, but can't see anything. If it is head gaskets, am I pulling the engine? If I have to pull the engine.
View 5 RepliesTemp is at 190, runs great, coolant levels are fine, everything seems fine but there's a constant stream of smoke coming from my dipstick tube. Oil isn't milky. 2.0 AZG. Tried searching but only found threads for 1.8t's. Headgasket was done recently.
View 2 RepliesMy 2001.5 Passat traditionally does not start easily when it is less than 6degrees outside. Today it was that cold..it started easily..but about 30 minutes into my drive to work..I realized it was a little smoky and exhaustish smelling in the car..once I realized it wasn't the car next to me..i realized if I turned off the heat..the smell went away..but at the stoplight..i could see smoke coming from under the hood..out the corner by the passenger/dashboard... Car has 80,000, recent oil change, what it is?
View 1 RepliesI have an 04 gti 1.8t and last night it started over heating. I pulled over and checked the coolant and the oil but everything looked good. I let it cool down and drove it home. When I popped the hood there was a little steam coming from the coolant overflow tank but I saw no leaking. I decided to vent the pressure off the system and then I got a little drip on the passenger side close to where the inter cooler is. I can't pinpoint the leak though.
View 4 RepliesMy DD just developed a head gasket leak. I've been noticing a coolant smell for a few days and today saw lots of white smoke from the tail pipe. I figured this is where my coolant was going and sure enough there is coolant coming from the driver's side head. I've ordered the gaskets and new bolts, but need the install.
I think mostly what I will need is the intake and head bolt torque and sequence. I will need to take a few days off work to get it done. Truck is a 2002 F150 with a 5.4L engine.
I recently went on a road trip and at one point white steam started coming out of my AC vents. i pulled over on the side of the road to take a look under the hood and everything was fine. no burnt smell or anything. i was driving through some high temps (around 100) and it was a bit humid. i figured it might have been because of humidity, but I've never seen that before. now a few days later I'm back in arizona and this morning i saw the steam coming out again, but very faintly. Its also very humid right now. The AC works fine, blows cold air like it should.
View 7 RepliesI have a weird A/C issue on my 2002 Dodge Grand Caravan. It has steam coming out of vents randomly and when this happens the A/C no longer cold. I turned off A/C and let the fan running for a while, then turn A/C back on and it's cold again. I also notice the A/C will be cold when the fan in 2x speed. It has water dripping out at the right rear and in the front, I understand this coming from A/C but at the right rear?The cabin air filter is clean (replace last week), this could have been something dirty or the vent stuck open/close that cause cold air re-direct its flow to somewhere else!
View 4 RepliesMk7 GTI, currently at 5k miles but strong mildew smell coming from the vents.. I know the cabin air filters will last at least 15-20k miles.
I read before that the condensation hoses were sometimes installed incorrectly leading to run off inside the cabin. Can that be it?
For the past month or so I've noticed that there are a few strange smells coming from the air vents on my GTI. Firstly, if the car sits for awhile and then is started it smells like that model airplane glue or some kind of strong adhesive inside the cabin. It goes away rather quickly. The second one worries me more. When I run the car hard for a few minutes (higher speeds, highway pull or two, etc.) and then come to a stop at a light, there is a very distinctive "burning" smell. It might sound gross, but the closest thing I can think of that smells like it is the smell in a dentists office when you're getting a cavity drilled out of a tooth.
View 7 RepliesI have a '97 volvo 850 R with 185,000 miles. ive owned it for 2 months and synthetic oil is used in it but I haven't changed the oil yet. When I opened the oil filler cap today just after I drove it, smoke or steam came out of it. i checked the dipstick and there was white sort of gunky stuff on it. What is that? would an oil change fix that?
View 2 RepliesI have a '97 volvo 850 R with 185,000 miles. I've owned it for 2 months and synthetic oil is used in it but I haven't changed the oil yet. When I opened the oil filler cap today just after i drove it, smoke or steam came out of it. i checked the dipstick and there was white sort of gunky stuff on AUTOCOM CDP PLUS. what is that? would an oil change fix that?
View 2 RepliesI was driving home today when I accelerated to go up a hill and started smelling something burning, pulled over and noticed my flex pipe was completely blown apart and the heat shield behind it smoking. I pulled over and got some water on it and it stopped but after I started driving again the smoke got even worse. This time it was something different than the first time. Could it be the heater core going or the foam inside the hvac system burning?
View 4 RepliesI have an 01 GTI GLX with climatronic, and I've noticed this hot plastic or hot wire smell in the vents. Yes the fan wire gets hot when the car is hot and AC is on. But I don't think that's it. I've torn the passenger side apart, took the blower motor out, not it. The vent / recirculate motor is external to the vents, the only other place is behind the radio for the other one. What else is internal, if anything, that could be causing this smell? I'm concerned that something will melt or burn up.
I've been wondering if the ecm in the cowl would be getting hot but I can't smell anything with the plastics on. I would say it does seem to occur after driving for about ten minutes in town. But it also seems like it's there when I first start it up also.
Got my joe z exhaust put in today. After getting it installed i was obviously getting on the car to see how it sounds.. I came to a stop and smelled that sulfur smell that people normally do when getting on their engines but also noticed some smoke/steam seeping out from under the back of my hood. No overheating though. Immediately got alarmed and shut off the car. Popped the hood and everything was fine. No smoke at all. Turned it back on and all was normal and drove the car again and there was nothing.
What could this be? something serious i hope not. i do not drive me car hard at all. its got almost 14k and changed the oil at 10k. this has never happened before. It was hot today though like 90+ ... Maybe it was just from driving it hard?
How steamy the exhaust is right after a cold start? I have always noticed it in my passenger mirror, but yesterday I decided to stand behind the car and watch it right after starting it up, and I actually saw a few puffs of black smoke coming out with the steam. I'm not losing any coolant, so I think all of this must be caused by the engine running extremely rich when cold, the fumes were pretty bad too. Once the idle settles down the black puffs go away, but the steam lasts a good while. I have never had a newer car run so rich that it caused black sooty smoke.
View 2 RepliesMy car had the smell of antifreeze coming from the vents, but it goes away when I use the "recirculating" button. Do u think it's the heater core? I hope not though. Also how much is the coolant suppose to be filled up too? Mine filled up a lot more then half the reservoir.
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