smell coolant when flooring it, heat works fine
02-28-2011, 06:06 AM
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smell coolant when flooring it, heat works fine
'88 Q 10V.
When I drive the car around gingerly, not revving much above 3K, everything is great, heat is nice and hot.
I noticed that when I floor it and rev the engine to 6000 RPM (e.g. merging on the highway as quickly as possible from 40mph to 70mph), I smell antifreeze/coolant. The heat is still nice and hot.
Does that mean the heater core is going bad? Could it be leaking just enough to cause a smell, but not enough to fail?
If there was a coolant leak *elsewhere*, would I smell it in the car?
Could I rule out the heater core by turning off the fans and then flooring it and seeing if the smell comes in?
I did also notice some fogging up of the windows, though I thought it was because it was raining outside and it was too cold for A/C to kick in and dehumidify the air.
Other factors:
1) I am losing coolant, little by little. Though I thought that may have been a slight leak in the headgasket, as I do see a little water in the tail pipes/white smoke when hot.
2) I did an coolant flush before the winter and the old coolant came out with chunks of rust or who knows what. Could the flush have caused chunks to dislodge and wreck havoc in the heater core?
When I drive the car around gingerly, not revving much above 3K, everything is great, heat is nice and hot.
I noticed that when I floor it and rev the engine to 6000 RPM (e.g. merging on the highway as quickly as possible from 40mph to 70mph), I smell antifreeze/coolant. The heat is still nice and hot.
Does that mean the heater core is going bad? Could it be leaking just enough to cause a smell, but not enough to fail?
If there was a coolant leak *elsewhere*, would I smell it in the car?
Could I rule out the heater core by turning off the fans and then flooring it and seeing if the smell comes in?
I did also notice some fogging up of the windows, though I thought it was because it was raining outside and it was too cold for A/C to kick in and dehumidify the air.
Other factors:
1) I am losing coolant, little by little. Though I thought that may have been a slight leak in the headgasket, as I do see a little water in the tail pipes/white smoke when hot.
2) I did an coolant flush before the winter and the old coolant came out with chunks of rust or who knows what. Could the flush have caused chunks to dislodge and wreck havoc in the heater core?
Last edited by Astral; 02-28-2011 at 06:09 AM.
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