Passat (B5) :: No Heat / Sweet Smell Through Vents
Nov 12, 2008
I 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.
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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?
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My 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?
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My 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?
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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.
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I have a 2011 BMW 328i and I get this sort of burnt chemical smell through the vents when the heat is on. It doesn't happen until I have been driving for 10-15 minutes. After that you get the smell on some low level all the time, but it seems to be briefly exacerbated by making a hard turn (i.e. a U-turn). You get a stronger whiff coming out of the turn and then it returns to baseline. I also smell it stronger when setting off in low gear (1st or 2nd) like from a stop sign. It happens whether the car has the air re-circulation on or not. It has been in for service twice and they can't find the problem. The car is a RWD manual transmission and only has 20k miles on it. I checked the fluid levels and as far as I can tell they don't seem low. I looked in the service history and a coolant leak was fixed at one point, near the thermostat - yet the car still exhibits the smell. In addition to the smell, it kind of irritates the back of my throat after a while.
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I have had my Prius for a few weeks now and have noticed a very strong smell of petrol when I have the vents open to heat the car (without AC). It seems to only happen when the fan is on and vents open. What could cause this and should I be concerned?
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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!
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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.
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I have a '06 2.0T Auto, and the first cold day since I purchased the car was a week ago (I live in North FL) and turned on the heat, to find out that little to no heat was getting let out, so I brought it to my local guy, and said that the thermostat was probably stuck open, so he replaced the thermostat and housing for a couple hoses , and tested out the heat just now (55 degrees out), have it on 80 degrees and full blast, and still nothing. Also, usually I hear the cooling fan kick on after I shut off the car for about 5-10 secs, but haven't heard it since its not 90+ out. Its in the 70s.
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Having problem of not getting any heat from the vents of the car? The fan works and more than likely it isn't the Thermostat. The engine also heats up normally, it's just that the air the blows out of the vents does not get hot anymore and it's getting to be fall.
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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.
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The other morning I started my car up and no heat or air would come out of my vents. The night before I had to drive through a blizzard and my car was completely packed with snow. The climate controls function normally, everything is lighting up when i select a button, but no air is coming out of the vents (rear defrost and seat warmers work fine). There is no sound of the blower starting when I turn the air on, hot or cold. I live in Northeast Ohio so we currently have several inches of snow and it's well below freezing outside. I live in an apartment so my car is outside 24/7 between being here and at work. I looked up a bunch of posts on here and other websites to try to figure it out. I ended up taking my cabin filter out and it is completely packed with snow. So i vacuumed out the snow that was left in the cabin filter housing as far as i could reach. I also unpacked as much snow as possible from wheel wells seeing as the HVAC vent goes to there, and the blower still doesn't work.
What I am guessing, which I could be completely wrong, is that the HVAC vent is completely packed with snow and it's not letting the blower turn. I guess my question is does that seem remotely possible or is it something else completely? My climate control doesn't work on the highest setting so I don't think its the relay I read about and my heater has been working fine with no noises or anything and I don't believe it would just go bad out of the blue.
2012 Passat SE 2.5
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I've got a 2001 4 motion passat and I am not getting any heat out of any vents.
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It seems my car likes leak gas smell, its not leaking gas but the smell is strong and comes through my vents when the air is on, and also is in the car after high speeds (like getting off highway and stop at stop sign) also will work its way into my car when not running..
I noticed when i bought the car that the previous owner had replaced things under the hood and took off ALL the covers under the hood (the plastic covers under the hood, for example the v6 30 valve piece and the one running horizontal for the air cleaner across over top the battery), so my air cleaner is exposed at the top, so could this have any effect on the smell?
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I am getting a plastic or oil smell from the vents. I read about this on hear a while ago but I didnt record the problem. What that is. Oil leak from engine seal? I don't know...
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So, at 14k it looks like I have that musty smell coming out of the AC vents. I've seen a TSB on here that addresses it. Hopefully my first trip to the dealership for anything other than an oil change doesn't present me with any other surprises.
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When the car is warm with the A/C off(vent air only) you can smell an oily smell coming from the inside air vents. The smell is also evident from the engine compartment when exiting the car. I do not have any oil leaks that I can find and have been good about cleaning up spilled oil when changing the filter. I've had the car when new and it currently has about 63k miles on it now. The smell seems to be getting worse. No mods to the engine and everything else seems to be running well otherwise.
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I recently purchased a 01 Passat 1.8T and noticed a strong 'used oil' smell coming in through the vents, especially at stoplights; the vehicle continued to smell badly when parked and turned off.
After looking around the PCV system, I found a small check valve near the airbox that was dry-rotted and non-functioning. As I continued to search, I found a large PCV hose directly under the intake manifold closer to the firewall. This appears to be ~3/4" hose that appears to be missing a connector. It appears as though there was supposed to be some sort of male/male insert and some clamps that are supposed to connect these tubes.
Any diagram or a DIY replacement walk-through for the PCV sytem on the 1.8T? Now that I've found the pcv break, I'd really like to get it changed out.
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newly purchased 99 everytime i turn on the heat i get a burning smell out of the vents.
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When stopped at lights I start to smell burning oil coming from the vents when I have the heat on. It only happens every now and then and only when you are stopped at a light. I tried letting the engine idle after driving once and I can't smell it when i open the hood. I do synthetic oil changes every 5,000 since the car was new. I don't know what it could be? My last oil change was about 2,000 miles ago so I can't see it being burn off from the last change still.
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