air leaking thru vents

does anyone know why i have a slight hissing sound of air, coming thru my vents. The ac is closed, is it possible i have a vacuum leak. I dont seem to be losing any power. I smell a slight potent odor in the winter time, as i have the windows up. I am baffled, as this occurred ever since my radio was stolen from me, and the person did a neat job in taking it out, but is it possible he damaged something from the interior side of the car, where the radio was housed??
when i take the car in for a car wash with the ac on, water gets into the car under the glove box, on the passenger side. Is their any relation to this hissing sound of air thru the vents??

Confused in New York
1993 thunderbird sc 3.8L
steve

The odor and the leaking inside (even though it's caused by a carwash) leads me to believe 1 of 2 things:

1) The heater core may have blown (coincidentally almost the same time that person stole your stereo), or;

2) While the person was getting your stereo out, they may have damaged the airbox behind the dash somehow, putting a hole in it or something.

Rick

does anyone know why i have a slight hissing sound of air, coming thru my vents. The ac is closed, is it possible i have a vacuum leak. I dont seem to be losing any power. I smell a slight potent odor in the winter time, as i have the windows up. I am baffled, as this occurred ever since my radio was stolen from me, and the person did a neat job in taking it out, but is it possible he damaged something from the interior side of the car, where the radio was housed??
when i take the car in for a car wash with the ac on, water gets into the car under the glove box, on the passenger side. Is their any relation to this hissing sound of air thru the vents??

Confused in New York
1993 thunderbird sc 3.8L
steve


Is this hissing sound right after you turn off the A/C? Or is it just driving around normal with the A/C Off?

Good point, I never thought of that.

Rick

could be a nick in one of the half a dozen multicolor vacuum hoses coming out of the back of the climate control box, maybe from when your stereo was stolen. also if any of these have a hole in them they would hiss, and it couldn't draw a good vacuum, keeping whichever vacuum actuator from closing/opening it's related air duct.
as for the smell and water it sounds like the heater core is going, and it will get worse. that's 6 hours of hard work to put a new one in, but i found a brand new one on ebay for 25 for mine

hope i helped

Is this hissing sound right after you turn off the A/C? Or is it just driving around normal with the A/C Off?


driving around with the ac off