antifreeze odor from heater

[reng]

When driving my 2010 Charleston there is a distinct antifreeze odor coming out of the cab heater. The radiator is low on coolant about every 3000 miles in the amount of 1.5 gallons.
Put it in shop two years ago, but no leak was discovered. Odor most noted when up to speed on the road on a cool day.
Anyone else had this problem and solved it?

 

[5picker]

An Antifreeze odor in cab from the vents/defroster and a proven loss of coolant almost always points to a leaking heater core. (in the dash)

When doing a pressurized leak test, the coolant could be dripping from the plenum condensate hose that could be located be much further under the vehicle than the engine area and might go unnoticed to an untrained technician.

 

[HangDiver]

Sounds like a classic leak in the heater core. If you run the defrosters on high you might see a faint fog on start-up or stronger antifreeze smell.

 

[formerFR]

I believe I had the same condition early on with our 2014 Palazzo... saw dripping onto the generator, pink fluid, and found that there was a leak from the upper heater hose. Sealed it up and even added 'foam insulation' around it... and filled the radiator tank back to a normal level. Never had any issue since.

 

[SeaDog-FRF]

An Antifreeze odor in cab from the vents/defroster and a proven loss of coolant almost always points to a leaking heater core. (in the dash)

When doing a pressurized leak test, the coolant could be dripping from the plenum condensate hose that could be located be much further under the vehicle than the engine area and might go unnoticed to an untrained technician.

X2

 

[rsdata]

Have you ever had the anti-freeze drained and refilled with new? 20 years is too long to NOT have done that and not have radiator and/or heater core rust problems...

Look up solutions to heater and radiator leakage on youtube for some things that you can do to fix the problem, including draining, flushing sealing and refilling.

 

[babock]

We had an odor from antifreeze and it wasn't from the heater core. Was just from a leaking hose clamp and the smell would still get into the vehicle. Sure sign of a heater core leaking is to put your heating system on defrost and see if your windows fog up. You will also get a film from the antifreeze on it that you will have to clean with soap to remove.

 

[eddy67]

Heater core. Nine out ten times unfortunately. Gotta change anti freeze more often.