Reader Question
Austin,
My name is Andrew and I drive around a 1997 Chevy Camaro SS 30th anniversary edition. I absolutly love this car but last night I had a little bit of a problem. I havn’t taken it to the shop yet because I am in the military and make just enough to get by, and I was wondering if you could give me an idea to what this problem could be.
This entire past weekend I have been getting a semi-sweet smell, almost like coolant or windsheild washer, fluid out of my ventalation system on the inside of the car. I havn’t been able to find a steady pattern to when the smell appears but it is not a constant nusianse and it uisually is rather faint. last night 16 MAR 2008) I was cruising along at 80 mph on fairly flat to down grade road and my tempurature gauge started to climb.
It was not a really fast climb in tempurature but it was a marked increase. It stop increasing around 210 degrees which is well within operatiing standards for the car, but a little on the high side.
It stayed there for about another 10 minutes of the same kind of driving and the tempurature started to increase extreamly fast and within a matter of seconds my car was operating (according to the gauge) well over 280 degrees (which is way beyond the end of the red line on the gauge).
I tried turning my heat ventilation system on to get some of that hot air out and there was no warm air coming out of the system at all, It felt like air conditioning, however there was no smell. I pulled over to the side of the road and as soon as I turned my car off, fairly light smoke filled my car but there wan’t any scent like I had before.
I opened my hood to help cool the engine off, and some light smoke came out from under the hood. I also noticed a fluid coming out from under my car and it was dripping from the passenger side, near the front of the car.
I let the engine cool off for a little and tried starting my car, and even though the engine was cool, as soon as I turned it on it started it to heat up just as fast as right before I pulled over. Is there anyway you can try and tell me what is going on in my car?
I just want as much info and opinions as possible before I take it to a shop and get it fixed! Thank you so much for this website!
Regards,
Andrew
Hey there Andrew,
I would bet you have a heater core leaking coolant/antifreeze inside your car. Lucky for you, there is a very cheap and easy fix you can do yourself.
Although, you wont have a heater until you replace the heater core….but you wont have any of the other problems you describe either. Here is an article I wrote about it and how you can fix the problem.
Blessings,
Austin Davis