trAP2

After having owned this car for only about 3 weeks now im trying to get all the maintenence together. I did an oil and transmission fluid change recently. Now lately i have been noticing the smell of coolant after driving the car. The smell is very faint and im not too sure if its coolant aswell. My coolant reservoir is below min by like an inch would this for any reason cause the smell. The car never even gets to the halfway mark in temp. Is there a possibility what im smelling is what the car should smell like after running? The car has no leaks from what i see and the oil that came out when i did a change wasnt milky nor is the oil currently in it. I also park in a garage so that kinda amplifies the smell being inclosed.

franky

i had that smiliar coolant smell too and the CEL light up. I can smell it from the tailpipes when I first startup the car in the morning. I can still smell it even when the cars been driving all day. It was starting to concern me so one day I decide to pull off my head and see what the problem was. Sure enough, the 3mm headgasket i bought from inlinepro has leak enough coolants into the cylinder to make the ecu throw a CEL. It was installed by Honda Dealershiper almost a year ago w/ arp head studs. So I bought an oem and installed myself and there's on more coolant smell. So I'm guessing it could be your headgasket leaking. Do you have oem or aftermarket headgasket?

trAP2

Its oem. The cel isnt on and i only smell iit after driving the car. I dont smell anything from the exhaust but i will double check. How hard is it to change the headgaskets on these cars?

trAP2

oh and i recently sprayed wd 40 on the motor to clean it up. Would that smell be the wd 40 burning off also? maybe i just need to drive a little longer and see if the smell persisits

s2000maniac

since when people use wd40 as an engine degreaser?

trAP2

ive had ppl tell me to use it before to get the bay cleaner and add shine

S2_4SHOOR

Check if you ran over plastic bag

zeroptzero

I get a faint smell of coolant too, had it for a few months now. My car doesn't leak coolant anywhere, I've checked all the hoses, radiator is new, and my coolant levels stay level forever. I had my oil analyzed and there wasn't any coolant detected in the oil. I did quite a few coolant changes in the past year though for routine maintenance and for some parts upgrades. I think the coolant splashed on a number of parts and the smell hasn't gone away, I never washed the engine bay and I don't drive the car in the rain so I think it is just residual coolant that smells when the engine is hot.

trAP2

Thanks for the input jfusion. I hope my problem is something similar im gonna fill the reservoir to the max line and see if it goes down. Where can i send my oil in to be analyzed? Also how long after a bad headgasket does it take for coolant to get to the oil right away?

franky

I dont think its your headgasket then. Cause if it is, then it should throw a CEL. Double check all your coolant hoses and lines. I think it could be a leak where when its cold the leak closes and when the engine gets hot, the leak will open up and burn.