Hi guys....I'm having a little problem here. When I turn on my heater, deafroster, or vent, I smell coolant coming from the vents. I can't seem to find a coolant leak anywhere though. I'm sure that there is a leak somewhere though, because the smell is pretty strong and unmistakable. Do any of you know what might be causing this? Truck is a 1990 F250 with a 351 auto.

Thanks for the help,
Hunter

 

most likely is your heater core leaking. You don't see a leak because the heater box has a drain in it. Should be an easy fix for you.

 

You probably have a cracked heater core. I had the same problem in my 89 bronco a few years back. I'm not sure how you could trouble shoot this yourself unless you know a lot about your truck's HVAC system, but most mechanics will charge you 400-500 bucks to replace it if it is indeed cracked.

That smell drove me nuts, it's like this sickly sweet ick smell, and it fogged my windows up too anytime I turned the blower on.

Good luck to you.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I kinda thought that it might be heater core related, but I don't know anything about heater cores. I'll dig through my Haynes manual and see if this looks like a job I can handle myself. Will I have to just replace the whole heater core?

Thanks again,
Hunter

 

If I remember correctly, the core is one sealed unit. If the core is cracked, then yeah you will probably have to replace the whole thing, but it might just be a loose hose or cracked fitting. I'd climb under the dash and just follow all the connections and hoses with a flashlight and see what you see.

If you can't find anything obvious, then like mine was, it's probably something you can't correct without replacing the entire core. If you do go the diy route, just don't forget to drain and purge the coolant, or you'll have one big mess on your hands :-p

 

Thanks Johnny, I'll try to keep you guys posted on how it goes...hopefully I don't have to take off the whole danged dashboard.

Hunter