Car problem :-(

[mcdougrs]

Hey all,

This is quickly becoming the car care board :P

Anyway I was wondering if y'all might be able to help me figure out what is wrong with my truck.... This morning on my way to work, after a couple of minutes, the windows were just starting to fog up so I turned on the heat. Well from the defrost vents came this plume of "stuff." I say stuff because at the time I just thought it was the hot air mixing with the cold air and didn't think too much of it except for the fact that I could smell it, and it smelled like maple syrup (to me anyway). The other thing that put up some flags was that the windows fogged up REAL quick and had a hard time drying out!

So now while at work a faculty member brought her computer for me to work on, so I went out to go get a replacement power supply. When I was leaving the computer place I noticed a puddle of anti-freeze, so I looked under the hood and noticed nothing unusual but that there was no noticeable coolant in the radiator. So when I went to park AGAIN at work I noticed smoke/steam coming up the defrost vents again. Yet again though I noticed nothing under the hood. This whole last part was with the heat and fan turned off.

Thanx

[deepfreeze]

Heya...I had the same thing happen to me. The heater core in your car has blown. There's no "easy fix" for this...it will have to be replaced. Depending on your truck, this is either a $300 fix or a $800 fix. If there is an access panel in your truck, then the fix is only about $300 (that's what it was for me) but if there's no access panel, then the shop will have to remove your dashboard, etc, to get to the core and the extra labor will push the cost of the job to probably about $800 (depending on what they charge you for labor). Call around to a few garages (or your mechanic if you have one already) and tell them the make and year of your truck. They should be able to tell you if it will be the "cheap" fix or the "expensive" one.

HTH

[mcdougrs]

Well thanx... That pretty much confirms it... I just talked to a friend of mine from back in NY and he's kinda a real car buff and that is what he said it was too!! DARN!!! (thats for the young ones out there) Well I guess its off to the shop to fix it!

Thanx man,
Ryan