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Steam and antifreeze smell but no overheating

J

JulieC

New member
I have a 2005 Grand Prix with about 140,000 miles on it. I have once in awhile smelled a slight antifreeze smell when I turn the car off but it is only about once a month for the past year. I have had to add a small amount ofantifreeze to the overflow tank about every 3 months.

I live in Alabama so it doesn't normally get too cold here but we had some very cold days this past Monday and Tuesday. On Sunday I added a small amount of antifreeze mix to my overflow to be ready and had no problems with the car starting, the temperature or the heat running hot either day. On Wednesday morning it was a little warmer and I drove to work about 15 minutes and the heat and car temperature were normal. I got to work and turned the car off and I had a small amount of white steam coming out of the front on the drivers side. I opened the door and smelled it and it smelled like hot antifreeze (not burnt). It lasted for about a minute and then stopped. At lunch I drove the car home, went through a drivethru and drove home with it. The temperature stayed normal and the heat was hot. I didn't have any smoke coming out when I stopped the car. I thought it might have been just a fluke thing so I drove it back to work and out last night without a problem.

On Thursday morning I drove to work again and again it was normal engine temperature and the heat was hot. But when I stopped the car it again had a small amount of white steam coming from the drivers side but it seemed to be coming from the firewall area. It only lasted about 15 seconds and I did not smell the hot antifreeze smell this time. I drove it home at lunch and no problems. I checked my overflow and it was full. I drove back to work and home from work tonite without any issues.

I'm stumped on what could be causing it since I'm not low on antifreeze, the heat is hot, and the engine temperature is normal. I have seen no leaking on the driveway that I can tell. Someone suggested the radiator cap to me but I'm not sure if that makes sense or not because I am not very good on diagnosing coolant issues. I did check all the hoses and looked under the hood for signs of leakage but couldn't find anything. I don't want to cause damage by driving it but I'm not sure where to even begin on finding the problem. I do not see any smoke coming out the exhaust and I see no signs of antifreeze in my oil. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 


the heater core hoses run to the middle of the fire wall, the ends of the hoses get swollen and leak. some times you can take the hose off, cut a inch or two off the hose and its fine, or replace the hose if need be.

happened to my car. only leaked after the car was hot. when cold the system has no pressure, once its up to operating temps its under pressure and forces the leak.
 
There's a few things it could be, could be a bad radiator cap, sometimes when they go bad they don't seal well and allow coolant to leak. Another common place for leaking is the coolant elbows right near the idler pulley, I just replaced mine. The leak starter slow with white steam coming off just like yours with no overheating/out of the ordinary temp but eventually it began overheating. Just allow the engine to warm up and the thermostat to kick on and you should see it dripping/leaking out of there if they're bad. You could also check the coolant hoses, there are two large ones coming out of the radiator and two going back into the firewall (leading to the heater core) that could also be leaking. If all that checks out take off your serpentine belt and test your water pump pulley, move it around and see if it makes any noise/has any play to it. Otherwise you could have a bad LIM/UIM gasket or head gasket in which case you should check your oil to see if it has an foamy look to it which is a sign of coolant leaking into it from a bad gasket. Good luck!

EDIT: The rear coolant hoses leading to the heater core aren't too hard to change if I recall. The ends opposite of the ends leading to the heater core have melt braces on it, you just have to pinch them with pliers and pull them back and then pull them right off. I don't remember how they come off at the other end though. AutoZone should have new hoses for you though and I can't imagine they'd cost too much.
 
JulieC said:
Thanks. So I should check them where they connect at the firewall? Are they a hard thing to change?
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the factory camps you need a pair of pliers then squeeze the ends together, then work the clamp off the end onto the soft rubber of the hose. then if the hose end is bad it will slide off real easy. if its tight after the clamp is removed it probably not the one leaking. theres 2 hoses.

if the hose is leaking the black matt on the fire wall will be damp to the touch under the hoses. sometimes you can see a color difference from it being wet.

when these hoses leak it leaks down the fire wall and drips down on the down pipe aka exhaust, then steams.
 
Thank you both for the advice. I will check all of the hoses again. I definitely know about the coolant elbows. I have changed those little sucker out a few times. The last time it happened, it got worse and worse until they just disappeared and the car was puking out antifreeze. I replaced them last time (about 6 months ago) with the aluminum ones which were still pretty cheap. I didn't even think about those starting to fail again. I'll check those again and make sure they are okay. I also replaced the water pump at that time. I'm thinking it has to be a leak of some kind because I have checked for a bad head gasket by checking the oil and I have no foaming in it and my exhaust pipes have no smoke coming out.

Again, thank you for the advice and hopefully I can find where it is leaking when I get it warmed up.
 


when its hot, you can try to reach in there to the hoses with a paper towel, dab it under the hoses, (wiggle the hoses some ) theres a lot of hot parts right there, so be careful.
 


Scottydoggs said:
but is that with the cost of shipping? little stuff is still 5 bucks to ship.
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The part number is Dorman 47065HP. They were $11.99 at AutoZone. Rock Auto has them for $6.72 plus $2.60 for first class mail shipping so still cheaper there. Just type in the part number in the part number search and you can find them. They seem to last ALOT longer.
 
MYMPSICK said:
I couldn't find the part, that helped a lot thanks.

Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk
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I couldn't find it at my local auto parts but if you go on RockAuto and type in just the part number under the part number search, it comes right up. Here it is: [TABLE="class: main, width: 532"]
[TR="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[TH="align: center"][/TH]
[TH="align: center"]Price[/TH]
[/TR]
[TR="bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]
[/TR]
[TR="class: part0, bgcolor: #F0F0F0"]
[TD="class: alternate0"][TABLE="class: parts, width: 491"]
[TR]
[TD="class: left, align: left"][TABLE="class: layout, width: 404"]
[TR]
[TD="class: partlayout"]DORMAN Part # 47065HP
{#12565082, 24503423} Elbow; Aluminum; w/O-ring Seal; Includes Upper & Lower Elbow
Category: Heater Hose Connector[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[TD="class: right, align: right"]
getimage.php

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[TD="class: center leftrightborder boldfont priceonly alternate0, align: center"]$6.72[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: part0, bgcolor: #F0F0F0"]

[/TR]
[/TABLE]
 
Biggest problem with the elbows I have had is with the O-rings, they start to leak after a year or so. It seems that the O-rings get hard and do not maintain a good seal in the bore. I just changed mine again less than 2 years after installing brand new ones to fix the leaking O-rings installed 2 years before that. What I did was find replacement rings the same overall diameter (7/8 and 1") but thicker rubber. Granted it was harder to get into the bore, but will some lube (oil), they slid in and are nice and tight, time will tell.
 


JulieC,

If you still haven't found the leak I have another potential culprit. I have an 08 GP and was having to add a bit of coolant every few months. Although I never had steam like you have, I found that the thermostat housing was leaking ever so slightly. From my understanding, the seal is made by a metal to metal mating surface and since I did not clean it when I changed out the original thermostat it developed a small leak. Once I noticed some orange gunk around the thermostat housing I unbolted and cleaned both metal surface with steel wool (maybe not a good idea?), wiped with alcohol, applied some thermostat specific RTV, and reassembled using the RTV instructions. No more leaks!

Hope you track down the leak :)
 
Thanks stocker, I'll look there too. I still have not found where it is leaking. My overflow tank is full still and I haven't had the steam problem in about a week (but the weather is warmer). I know what you mean about the o'rings Quicksilver. We noticed that too. Mine only lasted about 6 months before I went with the aluminum ones. That was about 8 months ago so we'll see how long it takes for them to leak! I hate intermittent problems!
 
The inlets just broke, I couldn't get the inlets over the counter at my local auto zone so I bought bought the tensioner and it came with the plastic fittings so I'm going to order the metal ones. Now that I have a little time.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
 
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