Radiator Fluid smell from air vents

zulone90 · Post by **zulone90** » 15 Mar 2009, 18:05

What could be wrong if you have a radiator fluid small coming out of your air vents when the heater is in use or not. I have a 1999 S70.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 15 Mar 2009, 18:59

Welcome to MVS.
What you have is a heater core leak. If you lift your driver's side carpet, it is probably damp from where the coolant leaked out.
You can replace this on your own if you take a notion and it's not very difficult. There is a how-to in our repair database with pictures and if you get stuck, we'll walk you through it.
The actual parts will run you between $130 and 180 from an online vendor (heater core and 0-rings)- This is pretty common on our Volvo's once you hit mid 100K miles, unfortunately.

Tronman · Post by **Tronman** » 17 Mar 2009, 15:58

Is it also easy on a '98 V70? The manual I have says you must physically remove the whole dashboard (!) and I'm not hyped on that. This car has always had a mild coolant smell, but hasn't ever dampened the floor mats or lost any coolant to speak of.

I'm hoping you can just remove all that white plastic shrouding under the dash and get to it that way!

zulone90 · Post by **zulone90** » 17 Mar 2009, 17:40

I checked the matts and there is not leakage but I thought it might be the heater core also. I will have to work on this issue.....
Thank you for the advise!!

instarx · Post by **instarx** » 21 Mar 2009, 07:25

Maybe someone with direct experience can back me up, but I think it is the A/C evaporator core that requires the dash to come out. The heater core is much easier to get to and does not.

Post by **MadeInJapan** » 21 Mar 2009, 07:37

instarx wrote:Maybe someone with direct experience can back me up, but I think it is the A/C evaporator core that requires the dash to come out. The heater core is much easier to get to and does not.

Bingo! the heater core only requires getting under the radio/climate unit stack in the center console...much easier to deal with.

zulone90 · Post by **zulone90** » 21 Mar 2009, 10:51

Thank you I will check that out. I do appricate the advise!

nunucpf · Post by **nunucpf** » 08 Apr 2009, 19:14

Hi there, I just had my heater coil replaced. It cost me $500. I don't know if they took the dash board out. I was told by other mechanics that they would have to remove dash so they can replace it.
I have 2000 XC70 wagon.
ciao for now
nunu

Post by **FlyingVolvo** » 08 Apr 2009, 19:33

I have the exact same car as you, nuncpf. I replaced my heater core last weekend, cost me $120 for the core and I did it myself. It was a bit of a pain working in the tight spots and I had to undo and re-attach the new one once, but it was worth it to save almost $400!

You have to clamp off the heater hoses in the engine compartment, pull the carpets back, remove the plastic shields (slides out, super easy), take out the screws around seam of the heater core box, undo the main screw attaching the core to the pipes, wiggle out the old one (some coolant drains here, have a plastic bag), replace the core and put it in the way you took it out. Took me about 5 hours, but this was my first decent car surgery and I was taking it slow. If I had to do it again, I would guess I could do it in under an hour!