I have a 2011 Elantra Limited. No nav. I really like it. But I often smell the sweet smell of hot anti freeze/coolant coming from the engine area. I see no visible signs of anything wrong. My past experiences with this smell usually indicated overheating or a leak.
View 14 RepliesMy 2010 Dodge Caliber has been leaking anti-freeze very slowly. I notice it when I start the car up and for the first minute I can actually smell the antifreeze coming through the vents when I have the air on. If I park the car and go in to the grocery store for a few minutes and start it up again the smell doesn't re-occur. I imagine I have a leak somewhere that is dripping onto the engine and when the car starts up from cold it burns it which is sending that smell through my vents.
I was told a while ago it could be the heater core, however I would assume that if it was the heater core I would have had a fog up on my window or a constant smell, not one that dissipates after a minute.
I had this problem last year except I was losing a lot of antifreeze (about a whole reservoir in 3 - 4 days. The problem was found to be a broken clamp on one of the hoses. This time however I cannot find any broken clamps or a source of the leak for that matter. I did notice that when I shut the car off the one time, and checked under the hood of the car I seen one air bubble spring up from the reservoir tank. I cannot see any signs of a leak from under the hood. However under the car I can see it is dripping from the frame, but not where it is coming from.
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?
Occasionally I get blue smoke in the engine compartment with a sweet smell after a long drive. No malfunction lights, oil, brake, coolant, power steering fluids all are normal level. VW service doesn't have a clue, says just drive it until it breaks down. He also informed I should never use Tiptronic for braking since it could damage the transmission(we live in the mountains). What is it for anyway? We use Mobil 1 synthetic oil, and it is not overfilled. Car has 120k miles.
View 5 RepliesThere is some kind of annoying noise coming from the area near the shifter, I took everything out of the storage compartment and cup holders and still I get this sound like the is a tiny screw rattling around at that area. if I push on the side of the console it stops then returns.
View 2 RepliesI went out of town for 10 days and left my car parked. When I returned the inside of the call smells like a dead animal. I keep my car clean and do not eat in it. My husband checked all over including underneath to see if there was something dead. He found nothing. Yesterday, I had to turn on the defrost setting for the windows due to condensation in the car. This is not normal for my climate right now. We are 70 degrees with little to no humidity. The cabin filter was changed 6 months ago.
We have tried airing it out for a 2 days, spraying Ozium and other sprays, but the smell persists.
Our Elantra never overheats or shows hot on the gauge but every couple months it is a little low on coolant. When I shut it down I sometimes get the sweet antifreeze smell. I see no leaks. Never a spot on the driveway. Just need to add a little. Car has about 80,000 miles. as a matter of annual maintenance I drain and fill the coolant and trans fluid once a year. Hoses are in good shape. The oil is clean and shows now sign of contamination. We Love this little car.
View 4 RepliesOn our 2016, it's got this weird scratching sound.. It is so faint, but definitely noticeable. It SOUNDS like it's coming from the driver wheel area; or perhaps under driver dash/footwell. I've looked at the brake rotor/suspension and everything looks good.
It isn't solid either; it'll do it SOMETIMES with the brakes, on starts/stops, and SOMETIMES it does it going over a speed bump... It literally sounds like someone scratching their finger across the rough part of the dash...
I got my 14 Elantra GT 3 months ago.
If I am driving with all the windows and roof opened, I can feel the engine heat coming in to the car from the pedal area. I took it to the dealer and they said it's normal.
Driving a few spirited miles across the moors today to pay dutiful respect to aged parents... as you do on Sundays.. probably fairly stung by inappropriate remarks on this forum about my driving, ESP and V6s.... when after having left a couple of midly sporty looking bicycles for dead on the Blackburn ring road I smelled a rather appalling smell... a sort of sweet hot oil smell. Seemed to be getting worse. However power delivery seemed OK still - no strange behaviour from the box.. or steering come to that.
Parked up carefully on my parents pristine drive... spent about 90 minutes with them sorting out their iPAD woes again.. and as I left scrutinized the drive for signs of any fluid that might be associated with the smell. But the drive was as clean as when I arrived. Came home - and gave it as much welly on the A56 road in the sky as fog and Sunday morons would allow... smell still strong, but performance pretty much what I'm used to.... ESP light not on at all of course.....
Get home (about 30 minute drive)... and start looking under the bonnet and under the car for the source of the depressing smell. Nothing. So.. maybe I'll scan it and see if anything's complaining. Went in the back to get the laptop (which I'd taken to my parents so that I'd have proper access to the interweb rather than via the silly iPAD thingy)... and found that a bottle of Miller's Diesel Ecomax -which some fool had persuaded me to try - was stuck under the driver's seat just where the heater for the rear passenger's feet discharges. The bottle was swolen and at about 30C... with a miasma of Ecomax emanating from the neck.
So, fairly relieved... and I've stopped looking. Moral - don't put bottles of anything on the back passenger floor unless you turn off the AC in the back!
2000 F150 4.6 i have an anti freeze smell and coming from my AC vents, stronger from Passenger side vents. I am losing some anti freeze from the reservoirs, where should i look for the leak?
View 7 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.
View 2 RepliesMy car has a misfire shown by autozone codes. I changed the spark plugs so that's not it. A couple of days ago i went to crank it, it wanted to crank. The rpm's were VERY low (didn't really completely crank up...more like a stutter), and there was this really strong SWEET smell that started from the car outside. Should I be looking at the fuel filter as the culprit?...exhaust system?
View 3 RepliesI noticed a few months ago I wasn't getting much heat from my 99 Passat. I had the cooling system flushed and checked. Still no heat even after having all this done. Not long afterwords I started noticing that sweet smell through the vents, but couldn't find any leaks. I checked the expansion tank and it seemed to be slightly low so I added some coolant just to top it off and there it was. Steam started rolling up from the drivers side where the coolant had dripped on the exhaust and that's when I found the leak. I took the screws out that hold the tank to the bracket and discovered the leak coming from a short tube that appears to connect to nothing leaking coolant. Now here's my question, is the tank suppose to have a hole in it ? I thought it was suppose to be pressurized. What I don't figure is why didn't the shop notice it when they were refilling the system.
View 9 RepliesHyundai Elantra 01 GLS. The main problem is that the airbag light is on and stays on no matter what. This is my girlfriends old car and she tells me that a couple people told her it had something to do with a faulty/corroded connection or something like that... I have been working on this car for about a year and I am finally to the point where I am just ironing out the little kinks. The old engine was bad along with a lot of other stuff, and I swapped it out for a good motor with less miles on it.
I also have recently replaced the alternator and instrument cluster just to name a couple repairs. Now the two things that I want to get settled are the airbag light and the check engine light. The check engine light comes on sometimes and I am almost positive it either needs a new 02 sensor or cat since when it was ran through a code reader those were the two options my mechanic told me it could be. I also hear a gurgling/crackling faint sound coming from the drivers side dashboard/engine area. I am not sure what this is. How can I get the airbag light off ?
Soon after buying my new 2011 Elantra, I smelled that pungent anti-freeze smell when the engine gets hot. When I brought the car in for its first oil change, the Dealership did a pressure test but did not find any problems. During the next oil change (4 months since purchase) I noticed the fluid level below the Low level. The dealership did a second pressure test but nothing unusual. I thought it was odd that the anti-freeze level would be low after just 4 months, but the dealer was not concerned because it was a hot summer. However, he did inform me that I was the second Elantra owner that had the same complaint that same day. The smell continues when I run the engine through rush hour traffic (stop and go). I purchased florescent leak detector fluid with the UV light. It looks great when I shine the light on the coolant reservoir but I have yet to see any florescent leaks even though I still smell the anti-freeze.
View 39 RepliesToday was the first time I was in my RX without the radio since I bought it. I have a 2011 RX CPO with 65000kms on the odometer.
When the vehicle is idling there is a tick-tick noise coming from the engine area that does not go away. I initially thought this noise was due to it being 0 Degree C but the noise continued for the duration of my 45 minute drive. Later in the day the noise was consistent was did not silence.
I have a 2003 F150 with a 4.6. Exhaust is pouring out white smoke with a sweet smell. I have replaced upper and lower intake gaskets. Compression test on all cylinders are at 145. Confused and don't know where to go from here.
View 1 RepliesI recently purchased a 09 Silverado with 73,000K and have periodically noticed a faint Antifreeze smell outside the vehicle near the engine when I park it in the garage. I cannot find any leaks and have not added any coolant. It does not smell inside the truck. Could a pinhole leak do this and not easily show up? Any way to test for this.
View 2 RepliesI have a Hyundai Elantra 2001 that I just bought off someone. I've had the car maybe 2 weeks, I changed the radiator because it overheated last week. Then, I found out the valve cover was cracked in four places, I replaced those too... I bought and installed a new thermostat, and I thought that would be the end of overheating... I was wrong, last night I felt like I smelled antifreeze strongly, so I parked it and this morning before heading home from work, I checked the radiator, it was empty. I filled it with antifreeze, and headed home, 20 minutes later, I parked on my drive and see that I have a huge leak... and it's antifreeze.
So, seems like I had left the cap open somehow, I didn't close it all the way. That was understandable, so I put some more coolant in it, and took off in the afternoon - 20 minutes into my drive, it starts slowly overheating, I see the gauge going up so I pull over, as soon as I do the car shuts off. I took the keys off the ignition and opened the hood. Now, there's smoke coming off the engine (smoke came from under the valve covers). I gave it 20 minutes rest at least, then added water in the radiator. Turned it on and it worked ok for about 5 minutes, I drove 2 hours to get it home at this rate, stopping every so often. Then, got it home and parked it.
I can smell burning oil and when stopped see oil smoke coming from the right front area. Theres absolutely no fluid on the ground ever even after sitting for days. I cant visually see any oil leak on the engine but I cant see the back. Im guessing its a valve cover leaking just enough on top of the exhaust on that side. Ive seen the gasket/plug seal set from $25 to $80. Some include the timing chain area gaskets/seals. Is that necessary to change at same time? Also, is there a gasket where the intake manifold and valve cover meet needing changed along with?
2004 Passat 2.8l V6 GLX