My dau's 1998 Jeep Wrangler with 120k, 4 cyl. 2.5L engine and manual trans is having a whitish smoke or vapor come out of the vents at the bottom of the windshield. She says it smells 'hot' but leaves a film on the inside of the windshield=w/s. No coolant on the passenger side of the floor. She has had to add some coolant to the reservoir, but she has had to do that for some time. She says this happens most notably on cold mornings. I have noticed that the coolant in the reservoir gets black and has an exhaust smell to me. Any ideas on what would cause the white smoke on cold start up? TIA.
98 Jeep Wrangler- white vapor coming out of vents
- Thread starter Jim Spahr
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My dau. now reports there is 'smoke' coming out more when she is not using the fan blower. In fact, she says the white smoke is decreased when she uses the blower fan. She is smelling the coolant smell only occasionally. She says it generally smells like hot exhaust fumes!?
Leaking heater core and she should not be breathing the fumes. Figgure a whole day to R&R the dash and heater box. If it has AC that needs to be discharged and recharged as well.
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whitish smoke or vapor come out of the vents at the bottom of the windshield. She says it smells 'hot' but leaves a film on the inside of the windshield
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I have noticed that the coolant in the reservoir gets black and has an exhaust smell to me.
At minimum the heater core is shot and needs replacing.
Bigger picture with off colored coolant and smell it may also have a head gasket leak.
Either way, the heater core is done for.
I am the original poster. One problem is my dau. lives in a distant city, so I can't check things and come back with a quick answer. I will see her Jeep at T'giving. Trav, qusetion= you are saying with the engine cold and NOT RUNNING remove the radiator cap to see if it shoots out, it is pressurized by exhaust gases. Does that mean a blown head gasket? General question: If the heater core is leaking, where is the coolant going? I want to check everything thoroughly because I looked at the Heater core replacement job and it requires dropping the steering column and removing the dash. A good eight hour job.
That vapor you are seeing - that's the antifreeze leaking from the heater core. It may be that it only leaks when hot and/or under pressure, meaning there isn't a physical drip type of leak. The vapor and having to clean the windshield are classic signs of heater core failure. Note the warnings on antifreeze bottles that breathing anti-freeze fumes is bad for your health!
Haven't done a wrangler, but heater cores are usually not fun jobs - the car seems to be built around them!
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qusetion= you are saying with the engine cold and NOT RUNNING remove the radiator cap to see if it shoots out, it is pressurized by exhaust gases. Does that mean a blown head gasket?
Originally Posted By: MNgopher
Haven't done a wrangler, but heater cores are usually not fun jobs - the car seems to be built around them!
Not a Wrangler, but my 02 Ram 2 weekends ago, still Chrysler. I hope the Jeeps are easier but the a/c had to be discharged snd the entire hvac box removed to access the clips and screws on the back side.
The issue does sound like a bad heater core, that will need to be fixed first, then a pressure test to check for leak in head gaskets or warped heads.
Wow, those Rams have big dashboards too. I bet that was not an easy job.
Ford used to have an access panel for the heater core in 1994 and older Rangers that made it a 10 minute job to change out. 1995 and newer models didn't get the access panel, so the dash has to be dropped making it a roughly 8 hour job.
Trav, I was at my dau.s for T'giving and opened the radiator cap but didn't know to crank it. I hadn't read your second post above. No geyser or anything since it wasn't running. I went on the net and saw the Jeep Wrangler heater core R&R is an eight hour job and starts with drop the steering column, so it is a major operation to remove the entire dash to get to the htr core. Since she needs her Jeep for her job, we will have to take it to a shop and rent or borrow a car for the duration. The Wrangler looks like a simple , straight forward design but it can deceive you. While there, I decided to try a bottle of Bar's Leak in the radiator. I am hoping the Bar's Leak will stop the vapor and smell in the defrost system. We'll see when my dau. drives the Jeep on Sunday. Stay tuned for further reports.
Hopefully the burnt smell is from a pinhole in a heater hose squirting on the manifold and getting pulled in by the blower.
It may only leak when the system is pressurized while driving.
The green antifreeze has s pretty distinctive smell but I don't know what the orange stuff is like.
The red stuff isn't nearly as strong smelling as the old green stuff, but does make its presence known.
The Bar's Leak may do the trick on the heater core for a while.
The gold powder from them is what i use, it never plugs the system because its ginger root. It expands only when wet and then exposed to air so in the system its just floating around in a compressed state so to speak.
Over thanksgiving i had my own head gasket troubles, the wife came home almost a gallon low on coolant and pouring white smoke. All fixed now but what a PITA.
The can of Bar's Leak for the rad. I used was in a silver bottle. I was looking for the GM approved tab's, but the AAP had a very limited choice ...I was reluctant to use it but knew the leak was there and I had to do something. The contents of the Bar's Leak looked like brown sludge and I really didn't like that. But I did and found that the brown sludge was very soluble in hot water, so I felt better. I am still waiting to hear a report from my dau. on whether it helped the white vapor and smell go away. Usually, no news is good news.
Trav, sorry to hear about the head gasket troubles. What vehicle was this in? Did you pull the head and replace the gasket over T'giving? That was quick and probably not the way you had planned to spend the weekend. I would almost rather tackle replacing a head gasket than the dash removal for a heater core. I know the flat rate est. of 8 hours means more like 16 to 24 for me.
Result of Bar's Leak aluminum can treatment....Dau. says it smells worse than ever. No mention of vapor out of vents. She can't stand the strong smell and does not turn on the heater. I tell her she needs to run the heater to get the Bar's Leak to circulate to the heater core. I ask her to get the Jeep engine up to temp. and then let it idle a few minutes so the htr. core will get the Bar's Leak into it. No act of kindness shall go unpunished. I was trying to save the time and expense of tearing off the dash to R & R the htr. core.
I know it gets a bit cold even in SC, but why not just bypass the core until you get the parts and info you need to replace it?
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