Slight Antifreeze Smell

Post by **tom39** » 06 Sep 2009, 19:59

98 S70 t5 164k/mi.

I have a slight smell of antifreeze mostly noticible at startup. I seems to be coming thru the AC/Heat ducts.
I'm guessing hole in heater core.
The smell goes away soon after driving. My thought is that it seeps while sitting and is blown dry within the first few min. of driving. And thats why the smell goes away.
So my question is: How hard/involved is it to change the heater core? How can I check this for sure? Are there other connections that regularly go bad that I can check?

Post by **Brick Head** » 06 Sep 2009, 23:11

Your heater core is actually quite easy to get to compared to other cars.
The heater core is at the bottom of your center dash console. Remove the kick panels on each side of your console and it will be in full view. You will probably see some staining and deposits (or antifreeze!) that will confirm your suspicions...

iselloil · Post by **iselloil** » 07 Sep 2009, 08:28

Make sure you get the o rings if you do it yourself.Remove the gas pedal will give you more room.

Post by **Volvo_240_Atari_2600** » 08 Sep 2009, 06:12

I have a question for you guys who may have replaced the heater core ONLY on an 850/70 series car.

Mine is a 1998 v70

I cracked the "heater hose coupling" months ago when I was replacing the exhaust manifold on the car. The wrench slipped when I was trying to get the SIS valve loose and the wrench subsequently damaged the hose coupling from the outside.

I once tried to remove it but before I spent 30 minutes to get the two smal torx screws undone from inside the engine bay, I went to the kick panel on the driver's side.

In order to replace the coupling... the heater pipe must come out and for the heater pipes to come out, the core must either be removed, or lossened to give clearance for the pipe to be removed.

Since we are in Floirda, I ran a bypass hose all last winter. Although it does not get as cold as the rest of the continental US, I would like to repair this once and for all since there are a few days a year where we do have frost issues.

MIJ once said that it was easy to do the heater core on this car.

What I could not figure out while I was making the atempt was how to get the case where the hater core is stored open.

It is secured with small torx screws that I was able to undo most except for one I think.

I was able to undo the pipe to heater core and case but there was one tork screw in particular that there was no way I could get to it because it was ubstructed by the "hump" over the exhaust on the floor.

Does any one know where I can get a good write up on this topic? Anything with photos would be even better.

Thank you.
Eric

Post by **confused_al** » 08 Sep 2009, 07:00

tom39 wrote:So my question is: How hard/involved is it to change the heater core? How can I check this for sure?

This one should help:
http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/index.ph ... e-install/

Volvo_240_Atari_2600 wrote:I once tried to remove it but before I spent 30 minutes to get the two smal torx screws undone from inside the engine bay, I went to the kick panel on the driver's side.

I'm not sure you disconnected the hoses first.
http://volvospeed.com/vs_forum/index.ph ... ring-kits/

Post by **tom39** » 08 Sep 2009, 17:31

Thanks everyone. I will be checking for leaks this weekend. Keeping fingers crossed that it is just a bad o-ring. I guess time will tell. I wll keep you posted.

Post by **kaireland** » 09 Sep 2009, 14:55

I am having the same problem. I took a look today and there is nothing coming out of the heater core. It looks like there may be a little bit that appears to have come from where the lines go through the firewall, but everything was dry.

If I want to go ahead and replace the o-rings is this all I will need?
http://tinyurl.com/mw565h

Should I replace them on the other side of the firewall?
http://tinyurl.com/mamn82

While I am at it should I replace the hoses and coupling? I have about 120K on the car. I don't think the hoses have been replaced before.

deltajets · Post by **deltajets** » 10 Sep 2009, 10:31

The core doesn't have to have a running leak to get the anti freeze odor.I had the same smell and found after removing the heater core that it did not appear to have been leaking,however on closer inspection I was able to see that where the cooling tubes meet the side tanks there was clearly corrosion and that there was a small seep.I believe that over time the core would have failed if I had not changed it.good luck.and by the way if you do decide to change your heater core be sure to clean out the ducts well or you may still get an odor for awhile afterwards.All and all its not a hard job,it doesn't take long even if youv'e never done one .