Smell of Coolant

[AZ_Ryan]

So, guess what I discovered last night?





I was checking the oil and looked at the coolant level to discover it was below the minimum line. I could also smell coolant while looking.

Was this after shut off? Have you ever filled the coolant previously? Was the tank leaking?

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[Junkyard Dog]

Was this after shut off?

At the gas station, getting gasoline, while checking my oil.

Have you ever filled the coolant previously?

No, but the dealer might have when changing the oil.

Was the tank leaking?

Not that I noticed.

 

[Skye]

I noticed a coolant smell for a few months after I bought mine, I also had no loss of coolant.

I did notice a particularly heavy coolant smell after arriving home from work while I was trying to figure that out since I think any observance of coolant smell is an abnormal indication ...

I swapped the overflow cap from my wife's 2021 onto mine and I haven't noticed any coolant smell since.

Curious...

We've had several people chime in the smell of coolant in otherwise healthy engines. I'm aware of two Members now with normal engines and drivetrains, but lower or trending lower coolant levels in their tanks.

In the 6G forums, we seemed to have captured every noise, leak and oddity in that generation, but I can't remember a thread expressing similar concerns of coolant smells.

You swapped the overflow cap with one from your wife's vehicle. How is that going? Is her vehicle smelling of coolant or are you seeing a loss of coolant in that tank?

I'm getting a sense that something changed in the design. Not necessarily a flaw or a fault. But something seems to be different now, in the S650.

I'm just spit-balling. Shaking trees for an answer.

Edit,

The general connections amongst engines and overflow tanks appears to be the same: there is one link from the tank to the radiator, another from the thank to the engine/intake.

The tank caps in the S550 were not the greatest quality. Sticking caps and caps falling apart could occur. What's being captured here, it appears to be related to the cap. Maybe some have a worse-fitting tolerance. Maybe some release at a lower-than-expected pressure.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

At the gas station, getting gasoline, while checking my oil.



No, but the dealer might have when changing the oil.


Not that I noticed.

Ok, so whats changed from your original post? We've already established many mustang are underfilled from the factory and that the tanks have vents. Its also normal for the tank fill to go up and down with engine temp and use.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

Curious...

We've had several people chime in the smell of coolant in otherwise healthy engines. I'm aware of two Members now with normal engines and drivetrains, but lower or trending lower coolant levels in their tanks.

In the 6G forums, we seemed to have captured every noise, leak and oddity in that generation, but I can't remember a thread expressing similar concerns of coolant smells.

You swapped the overflow cap with one from your wife's vehicle. How is that going? Is her vehicle smelling of coolant or are you seeing a loss of coolant in that tank?

I'm getting a sense that something changed in the design. Not necessarily a flaw or a fault. But something seems to be different now, in the S650.

I'm just spit-balling. Shaking trees for an answer.

Or the OP is paranoid and chasing zebras.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

Ok, so whats changed from your original post? We've already established many mustang are underfilled from the factory and that the tanks have vents. Its also normal for the tank fill to go up and down with engine temp and use.

I don't drive that much.

I have less than 11K miles on a 2024.

Now that some time has passed, however, I have had to fill the coolant 3-4 times. It is obviously leaking from somewhere.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

Dealer says this:

• Definitely a leak
• Front of engine, toward driver side
• Cannot see it from top, must be underneath and use a light but can see the dried residue from the leak.
• Leak is coming from somewhere high, and there is a lot up there high, like the intake manifold, hoses . . . (I interjected "cylinder head") and he said, "Yeah, cylinder head, and it is off to one side, but we need to take things apart to see where it is originating."
• Cannot diagnose further without disassembling stuff.

Cannot do that without opening a warranty claim with Ford. There is a three week backlog. I must leave my Dark Horse there the entire three week wait. There is not loaner car available.

Apparently leaving the car there has something to do with mileage and driving the car out of warranty after opening the claim, but I have less than 11,000 miles on my car, so that is complete BS as applied to me, unless they think I am going to drive out the entire mileage warranty in three weeks.

To those of you who have had warranty work done, is this normal and expected? I have never had new car warranty repairs.

 

[AZ_Ryan]

Oh man that sucks. They need to get you a rental or give your car back. That is BS. I guess the silver lining is at least the coolant is leaking externally and hopefully just a leaking hose. Please let us know when the source is discovered.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

I am going to put it off a little bit, mainly because the leak is minor and I have a lot left on the warranty, so it is not going to harm anything for right now.

I also want to look into whether I need to give up my transportation for a month to get warranty work even looked into . . . this does not seem right or normal to me.

 

[Sofa King]

They should provide a rental. I had some warranty work done on my S550. They had things apart and wanted to keep it for the 3 days it would take to get parts. They did offer to either put it back together or provide a rental, my choice. I said rental was fine. Though the one part turned into another part (another 3 days) at which point the rental car company called wanting the car back... I told them the car was rented by the dealer, contact them. Then another 3 days for another part to finally fix it. I kept the rental car throughout, but I was a bit miffed that they never bothered to contact me to say they were keeping my car longer, and didn't return my calls. I had to go there to find out anything. That dealer under new ownership just before I ordered my 24... and seem to be better now.

Maybe talk to another dealer...

 

[AZ_Ryan]

Unfortunately its common for these dealers to not have available rental cars. But that doesnt mean its acceptable. I would talk to the manager and try to work something out. They should be able to give you a voucher at a rental car company, they just dont want to pay for it. But realistically they cant expect you to leave the car for days or weeks for a warranty repair and not have anything to drive.

 

[LouG]

When my wife's car popped a turbo coolant hose, they gave us a loaner for the full 2 weeks it was off the road waiting for parts.
Your dealer is a bit of a w Mr Dog.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

Yeah, three weeks minimum is not for the fix. That is just the wait to get it in to look at it and see what is wrong so that they can figure out what to fix.

 

[Junkyard Dog]

To those of you who have had warranty work done, is this normal and expected? I have never had new car warranty repairs.

Sorry to repeat this question, but I know some of you have had warranty work performed. I see a couple responses above. I was hoping for some more responses before I go on the war path (which I am usually too quick to do).

Three weeks before we can even look at it. You have to let us keep the car here in order to keep its place in line. We can't just give you a 24 hour notice in about three weeks so you can drop off the car. This is how all of our warranty work is done, and we are full and running about three weeks behind. If you take your car, then the cars that get dropped off go ahead of you. ​

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This just sounds like such an incredibly low IQ retarded level of inefficiency and incompetence that I cannot believe it is real.

Or am I being too harsh on folks who are just doing their best in a difficult world?

 

[robvas]

This just sounds like such an incredibly low IQ retarded level of inefficiency and incompetence that I cannot believe it is real.

Or am I being too harsh on folks who are just doing their best in a difficult world?

I can imagine if they had to get people to come back to the dealer the day (or day before) they had an opening it would be a clusterfuck.

Sucks that they are 3 weeks backed up but it's a combination of having 7 million recalls, shit parts reliability, and being low on staff.

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