is this a heater core going bad, or gone bad?, what else could cause it?


thanks

DVK

If your heater core goes bad, and by bad you mean start leaking, you should start smelling antifreeze and your windows will start fogging when heat is turned on. If you want to know what anti freeze smells like, just open your over flow reservoir (when your car is cooled of) and smell in there. I wouldn't say it's a foul smell as much as a sweet smell. If you have a mildew smell and you don't use your heat much, I would say it's more of an AC issue. You can buy a canned product that eliminate this smell at Pep Boys or UAP/NAPA.

actually its that smell that those big industrial heaters get when they havent been on in a while, its a burnt smell. i remember it from our school heaters in late fall every yr.

problem is ive been using my heater since nov, and it just happend last week for the first time, i thought it was where i was , but different city it did it to me again a few days ago....

dunno

DVK

Just so's ya know, the heater core in your car might get to 200 degrees, big gas fired heaters will do 500degrees and literally burn dust off heat exchangers.

Oh yea, the cooling coil (evaporator) can get a "dirty sock" smell. This actually happens in residential homes.
Its a microbial bacteria on the coil surface and would need to be acid cleaned. It would be rare in a car though. Not health threating, neither are dirty socks :-)