I own an 04' roadster with 4000 miles and have noticed a problem over the past month. After driving (various distances), and shut off the motor, I can smell the odor of antifreeze coming from the front of the motor. When I open the hood, I can smell it sometimes coming from the area of the overflow bottle and sometimes from the area of the pulleys. The only common thing is during the times I have smelled it, I have had the heater on. But again, the smell is coming from the front of the motor and not anywhere near the firewall area near the heater core, etc...

I have checked over the entire engine looking for a leak. Every hose and connection and the radiator and overflow bottle do not indicate any antifreeze or residue of any kind. The overflow bottle is at the same level as it always has been and the overflow hose is connected.

The temp outside while driving is around 45/50 and the temp guage stays a little below the center line. Just like it does when I drive it at 100 degrees. The radiator is also full.

I just don't want to take it to Nissan and let those folks paw around on it until they scratch or dent it.

Please put your brains into overdrive and let me know what you think.

Thank You

 

You can get Coolant Dye to try and trace if there is a leak.. I'd suggest checking with Nissan to see if THEY have a dye before putting something that could be used as an excuse to void your warranty by the dealer.

 

The radiator has probably let off some coolant into the overflow tank.

 

Hey topdown-z: i agree with Paul_BB_guy on getting the leak dye... i used to work on cars and we would always use the dye if we couldn't find a visual or can't pinpoint exactly where we think is leaking... I would rather spend the money on the dye, personally than spend more money replacing something, if you can troubleshoot the problem early... early detection=early fix... plus, if you're like most car owners in general, not knowing what's wrong will make you worry more, so why not do something about it early? That's just my opinion The dye doesnt cost a lot and it helped through the years trying to find that oil, coolant or tranny leak when i worked on cars, saved a lot of time... so basically the dye would be poured into your cooling system, since that's where you think it is, you drive around for a few days as normal, go back and they raise your car up and look under it with a UV light to see if there is any... so that's my 2 cents

P.S. you're in the bay, you should come out to the meets!!!

 

My first guess would be bad water pump seal leaking under load only and drying up but then again I am new to imports and don't know if it's simliar setup to FBOD'S

 

I just came back from the Nissan dealer. They looked at it and they could not find a leak or any antifreeze residue. They told me that from time to time depending on the temp that the car is running, antifreeze goes back and forth from the radiator to the overflow bottle. With the open vent on the top of the overflow bottle, they think that when shutting off the car, the hot antifreeze in the overflow bottle might be giving off fumes through the top vent and that is what I'm smelling. They told me to monitor the level in the bottle to see if I'm losing any coolant and to get back to them with the results. So far, the level has remained the same.

My question is......Have any of you ever sniffed around the area of you overflow bottle after shutting off your car.....Maybe they all smell like antifreeze from time to time???????????

Thanks