[DML] Re: coolant smell when heater is on

["content22207" <brobertson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hot antifreeze has a very strong pervasive odor. You could have a leak
anywhere and still smell it from the driver's seat. Doesn't need to be
a very big leak either. Follow all your lines to ensure the cooling
system is tight.

If your heater core is indeed leaking you may smell the ethel glycol
at any time except "Max A/C" (only time DeLo coolant doesn't pass
through the heater core is that position on the mode switch, which
routes vacuum to the heater core shutoff valve), not just "Heat". You
could even smell it in the "Off" position. Note that your heater core
can leak outside the passenger compartment, where the hose barbs are
actually located.

If the inside of your windows "fog up" unbearably (people call it "the
fog", but ethel glycol is closer to a "slime" -- the more you try to
clean it off, the worse it gets), your heater core is definitely
leaking. Is worse in colder weather. You can always spot a car with a
leaking heater core roaring down the road in the dead of winter with
all the glass hopelessly white, the driver's window rolled down, and
his head stuck out trying to see.

There are so many DeLoreans still running around with factory original
coolant hoses (and O rings/pipes) somewhere in the system that I
wonder if we may be on the verge of a marque wide problem akin the the
recent TAB crisis. An owner can loose coolant through a broken heater
core hose as well as a broken radiator hose, with catastrophic results
to the all aluminum engine. I'm running a replacement Renault block
precisely because my car's original owner melted the factory one.

Bill Robertson
#5939

>--- In dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, billsfanmd@xxxx wrote:
> Just wanted to ask why I am smelling coolant after my heat starts
running. I understand the basics of how a heating system works and
that coolant runs under the passenger dash but what would cause it to
smell? My coolant level has not changed and there are no leaks from
under the passenger dash. Anyone else smell coolant when their heat is
running? Any ideas what I need to do to fix it? I am also wondering if
a light smell of coolant is normal with our system.
> 
> thanks 
> Mike C
> 2109




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