artur1808

Hey guys, I know this is kinda weird, but every time I turn on my heat in my xj, the smell of maple syrup comes out of the vents for about 15 seconds or so, and then its fine after that. And it consistently does it every time I turn it on. Any ideas as to why its doing this, or how to fix it? not too urgent, its a pretty good smell haha

winston427

That is the smell of anti-freeze. That's why there are so many warnings about leaving it accessible to animals, the sweet smell draws them to it.

xjrev10

i smelt the same thing when i blew out a freeze plug at 80mph and the coolant dumped onto my exhaust

maverickdan

heater core has a small leak fix it before you end up with coolant all over your floor, happend to me not fun to clean up

miglia-spyder

Just curious... how hard is it to access the Heater Core?

I did an S-10 once and it took my about 6 hours!

maverickdan

its not an easy job it took me 5 hours with power tools but my dash is all warped so that made it a little harder to get back in

snooksey

buy yourself a bottle of k-seal its in an orange bottle and will seal the hole it sealed a 3 inch crack in my subaru radiator

SpooledupRacing

dont use any sealer.. if u do u will prolly plug the core and get no heat..

Just bite the bullet and replace the heater core

milmat1

Or Uhhh ! Get some Pancakes Maybe ???

LOL....Coolant Leak at the heater core, or the hoses to the core ??

00sport4x4

I have this problem now too. Everything points to the heater core (and by everything I mean everybody I've asked and most of the folks on this forum which to me are the only people I trust so far lol)

I considered replacing it myself. Advance has the part for $65 but I'm terrified about messing with all that stuff (discharging the AC especially). The Haynes book didn't say anything about taking apart the dash though.

For the time being I've been driving with no heat which has its plusses and minuses (minus: it's cold in my jeep! plus: my girlfriend stays the hell out of it).

I'm going to take it in to get it fixed next week. Any idea what I should expect to pay? And more importantly, am I at risk for losing all my coolant in the meantime if I'm not running the heat/defrost?

Thanks guys

joe bob

Here in florida we just take the two hoses off the core and put them together clamped onto a small peice of pipe. Of course I dont supose that would work up north but its a good temporary fix so you dont end up with antifreeze on the carpet.

I wish my jeep smelled like surup

00sport4x4

lol no you don't

its about to cost me a small fortune. i wish my jeep smelled steak to be honest. it would encourage me to buy more steak.

is the jeep dealership a bad idea in terms of price to get the heater core replaced?

maverickdan

it depends, are you mechanically inclined if you are it should only take a couple of hours if not you'd be better off taking it to a shop
not sure where you live but at the shop i work at our labor rate is $83/hr and it is 5.3hrs so that $450 roughly could be more or less

REVIS 24

i wondered why mine smelled like hazelnut,then i realized that coffee was spilled in the dash

Cliff

Here is a funny short story... that happened to me in a sense. We used to own a old 78 Travco motor home. So we are driving up north one time "I was pretty young" and the heater core had sprung a leak. I am just sitting there in the passenger seat barefoot minding my own business when all of a sudden very hot antifreeze starts pouring out of the vent all over my feet That was an experience! Moral of the story... fit it like maverickdan says before it gets worse.