Coolant smell at front at truck

[sledr]

I have an '04 ECSB Z71 with a 5.3. After a good drive where the engine fully warms up I smell coolant when I walk past the front of truck. It doesn't appear to be losing coolant and the gauge reads just below 100C where it has always been. There is also no smell at all inside the cab.

Any ideas? I am taking it in to get it looked at.

[HyperBuzzin]

Mine does the same thing and has a small pinhole leak in the rad. Just enough to get a whiff of it now & then, but so far not much of a real problem.

 

Have ya had any coolant added to it lately? Might just be smelling it from the overflow bottle.

[95Sierra2500]

My old '95 has a small EXTERNAL intake gasket leak. Just enough that sometimes I can smell coolant. However, it's not enough to leave a puddle just sitting around, so I haven't fixed it yet. Planning a rebuild though, so I'll be fixing it when that happens.

[Z71Rider]

This seems to be a way all too common problem. On mine, and I bet on yours too, I have a very small leak at the water pump gasket. A Chevy dealership noticed this when I had mine in for some recall issue. They found this even though I didn't ask them to look for anything...hmmm. I bet they see alot of these. Of course, they wanted to install a new pump (and gasket) for a mere $400-some. This is when mine had about 53,000 on it. I declined. I knew about it before this point, and have added coolant about twice a year since it was about 2 years old. I have tried un-screwing and re-torquing the bolts a couple of times. May of helped some. It doesn't look like a gasket replacement would be a big job, but I think I'll wait for a pump to go bad before I dig into that...it's just not that big an issue. Antifreeze and water are still cheap.

[Norseman]

This seems to be a way all too common problem.  On mine, and I bet on yours too, I have a very small leak at the water pump gasket.  A Chevy dealership noticed this when I had mine in for some recall issue.  They found this even though I didn't ask them to look for anything...hmmm.  I bet they see alot of these.  Of course, they wanted to install a new pump (and gasket) for a mere $400-some.  This is when mine had about 53,000 on it.  I declined.  I knew about it before this point, and have added coolant about twice a year since it was about 2 years old.  I have tried un-screwing and re-torquing the bolts a couple of times.  May of helped some.  It doesn't look like a gasket replacement would be a big job, but I think I'll wait for a pump to go bad before I dig into that...it's just not that big an issue.  Antifreeze and water are still cheap.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

Might as well replace the gasket, it is just gonna get worse. It's an easy job and use the Fel-Pro gasket.

[TEDDY1976]

I HAVE A 2001 GMC SIERRA X-CAB SHORT BED 4X4 4.8L. I AM HAVING THE EXACT PROBLEM. THE SYSTEM WAS PRESSURIZED AND STILL COULD NOT FIND ANY LEAKS.

[Norseman]

I HAVE A 2001 GMC SIERRA X-CAB SHORT BED 4X4 4.8L. I AM HAVING THE EXACT PROBLEM. THE SYSTEM WAS PRESSURIZED AND STILL COULD NOT FIND ANY LEAKS.

 

 

I ran in to that with mine, but it was still the gasket. Change the gaskets -- use the metal Fel-Pro.