On my 95 GXE I am getting a coolant smell when I start up the car. I know I am loosing coolant somewhere but its not leaving puddles, I am not getting steam from the radiator cap, and I do not see anything dripping while the car is on. Any ideas? I know I need to check all the lines and radiator better, but I was wondering if possibly this was a common problem and someone may know where the best place is to look.

 

Could be a cracked heater core ... (by coolant smell, do you mean from the vents, from the exhaust?) .. or I supposed it could be a blown head gasket.

 

I smell it inside of the car when I start the car up, but I leave my vents open to fresh air all the time. I am hoping its just a leak in a hose somewhere that I have not seen yet. I am not getting smoke from the tail pipe, so I doubt its a headgasket.

 

It could be a leak from one of the coolant lines or hard hoses on the rear side of the plenum.. perhaps the coolant is dripping onto the exhaust manifold and just burning up (evaporating) - which would explain why you don't see any pools/drips...

 

You should look around the carpet on the passenger side to see if it's moist just to rule out the heater core

 

I need to look in my manual to see where the heater core is, because it has just now gotten cool enough here in VA at night to use a little heat, and when I turn the heat on its warm at best....it really does not do what it should be....is this another reason to suspect the heater core? I'm sorry if these are dumb questions but I have never had a heater core problem on any of my cars.

 

ok, I pulled my intake plenum this past weekend and replaced several things. I ended up running a coolant bypass, to bypass the lines going thru the bottom of the manifold and the throttle body, but I am still having coolant smell on start up and when I come to a stop I can smell it as well. I went out and looked for the leak again on my lunch break, and I noticed a little bit of steam coming from the coolant resivor, also while the car is running the coolant in the resivor is bubbling (not sure if it boiling or air is just being injected), what is this a sign of? I am pretty sure the coolant does not bubble in the resivor of my 98 but then again it is painted black so I am not sure. Does this indicate a air leak from somewhere? Also my cap on my coolant resivor is just the stock yellow screw on cap, and there is no sort of seal in the top of it....is this regular? I could really use some help on this...this leak is starting to ruin a brand new carbon fiber hood. Thanks for any help.