sometimes when i first turn on my heater no matter if its cold or hot i can smell coolant, after a couple minutes it goes away. i know the heater core is a bitch to replace and i always use my heater cuz i drive with the windows down and heat on my feet.

 

ok so yea it smells like collant and i checked my level and its in the middle of min and max and it was a couple of months ago that i got a new radiator and filled it up

 

any signs of leakage on the floorboard??... and doesnt it get hotter than a beoch drivin with the heater on in the middle of the summer??

 

no sign of leaks. i just leave it on 1 or 2 and only when i drive at night, not during the day

 

bump

 

Does your temp gauge fluctuate when you smell the coolant? Also, did you take off your rad cap and see if that was full?

The heater core is NOT a bitch to replace.

 

doesnt flucuate at all, it goes to normal temp and the radiator is full. dont u have to take out the dash to replace it?

 

No usually u just take ur glove box out and its ubder thier. Definely check to see if u see coolant on ur paasenger side floorboard

 

i just checked and there is nothing there, its completely dry and doesnt even smell like coolant

 

Yes you do have to take the dash out. Honestly, it's not THAT bad. The first time you take out your dash, it'll probably take you and a buddy an hour to get it completely removed.

It could be your fan blower. Coolant runs from the block to the fan blower via two hoses. That might be what you're smelling. Heater core connects to AC hoses as well. Fan blower is behind the center of the dash, heater core on the passenger side.

To remove heater core and fan blower
Once dash is removed...you need to pop the hood and remove the two coolant hoses that run from the block and connect to nipples on the fan blower right at the firewall. (this part sucks, and coolant will leak a bit)

Then you need to remove the two ac hoses taht run to the heater core. (I think you'll have to drain your ac system completely, mine was empty from the getgo) then you just unbolt the 4 bolts that connect the heater core to the firewall, then do the same for the fan blower.

EDIT: I totally take my previous comment back, this totally sucks, I forgot you had to drain the ac system.

 

i dont have ac

 

Good, then that makes it alot easier.

 

well the smell goes away after a few minutes so i can deal with that but will this lead to anything? like no heat or something

 

Here's my wild guess: Coolant in the fan blower is remaining there when it shouldn't, or is leaking into a differnet compartment where it shouldn't be, or some sort of flap in there is gone, so when the air stirs it or something, the smell wafts into the cabin. I dunno.

 

so do u think it will lead to no heat or a bad heater core or anything?

 

No clue.