I have searched, and I am stumped. The car has 132,xxx miles. (not the one in the sig)

Every once in a while I smell coolant while driving my car. As of late it has been getting worse (probably b/c I have been using the heater and blowing the smell in). There are no visible leaks, and the coolant level seems to not be moving.

I put in a new water pump, thermostat, and heater core about 15k miles ago. A week ago I put on a new rad cap, but it did not make a difference.

The car does not over heat, or even come close for that matter. I got on it the other day with my girlfriend driving behind me, and she said there wasn't any smoke at all.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Bump.

It did it again on the way home. Any input is appreciated.

 

Maybe it has a slightly leaking hose only under pressure?

Can be hard to pinpoint sometimes...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mcvtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Maybe it has a slightly leaking hose only under pressure?

Can be hard to pinpoint sometimes...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yea, I'm stumped.

There is no coolant in the oil or oil in the coolant. It wouldn't even mind if it was a head gasket, I just want to know so I don't start changing parts.

Any other ideas?

 

How can you be sure it's coolant smell in the car?

I remember reading something about there is a meldow smell from the AC water collector(?) and it became apprent when using the vent.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by foxfai &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How can you be sure it's coolant smell in the car?

I remember reading something about there is a meldow smell from the AC water collector(?) and it became apprent when using the vent. </TD></TR></TABLE>

I've been around cars for a long time. I know what coolant smells like.

If anyone else has had an issue finding a leak, any input would be appreciated. When you look under the hood and rev it up, you can sometime catch a whif.

No smoke out the tailpipe for sure.
No visible leaks or puddles.

 

I just put new hoses and a new radiator and new thermostat and fresh coolant in and i get that problem to and no leaks and it seems like i only smell it when i have the heat on i took it to a shop and they said everythings fine,so i am wondering what it would be to

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtec2190 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I just put new hoses and a new radiator and new thermostat and fresh coolant in and i get that problem to and no leaks and it seems like i only smell it when i have the heat on i took it to a shop and they said everythings fine,so i am wondering what it would be to</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yea man, this is driving me crazy.

I'm not losing any coolant, and my car doesn't even come close to overheating. Someone has had to had this issue and fixed it.

 

I had that problem, took forever to find it, only happens when driving and got progressively more frequent and worse, turned out to be a very small leak at the top of the rad.
If the only time you smell it is when you have the heat on then it's a good bet it's the heater core. 94

 

I had the same problem on both my tegs. with my GSR it was a small leak at the top of my radiator. replaced the radiator and smell was gone.

on the LS turned out the upper radiator hose was not as snug as it should have been and a tiny bit of coolant was dripping out. i never saw puddles as the car gets driven maybe once a week. i stumbled across it by accident i was about to bleed air out of the system when a saw a few drops. loosened the clamp, adjusted the hose n clamped it back down.

hopefully yours is an easy fix.

 

Well now I'm even more stumped. Put on about 150+ miles this weekend and didn't smell a thing.

Wouldn't a leaky rad show up with a pressure test?

Saw a wet spot begin to develope around the left front of the block, but it just turned out to be the cam cap seal leaking oil.

 

BUMP

 

I had this prob on my civic it ended up being the litle hose of the rear water tube, had a small crack and it would get on the exhaust. It was barley dripping but i could smell it. I enede up just replaceing all the little ones back there

 

Well I went from friday until today without any smells, but of course it came back.

For some reason, the car is running a little cooler that in the past which is bull since I replaced the thermo about 15k miles ago with a Honda thermo. By cold, I mean at the bottom end of the little thermometer and waves in the center of the gauge. I guess I'll pull it out this weekend and check it out.

My next thing to check would be all the smaller coolant lines as stated above. I'm guessing the easiest thing to do would be to buy a big length of hose and cut it to fit. Obviously this would only work if they are all the same size. Anyone know?