Heating and Air System

hi Kemal.

1. Park your vehicle overnight on a clean patch of pavement or a large, clean piece of white paper.Either tape some sheets of paper together or buy a roll of plain white commercial wrapping paper. Newspaper is too absorbent and can change the color of the stains.
2. Place marks on the paper.
   Show where each of the four wheels is resting, and indicate the front and rear ends of the vehicle.
3. In the morning, move the vehicle and look for small puddles or traces of liquid on the ground or paper.
   Touch and smell each puddle or trace of liquid.

Here's how to decipher the evidence:

• If it's clear, watery, and under the air conditioner: It's probably normal condensation if you've used the air conditioner recently.
• If it's black or dark brown, greasy, and located under the engine area:It's probably oil. Figure out which part of the vehicle was over the spot. Look under the hood around the oil filter and the engine and under the vehicle for leaks around the oil drain plug, the crankcase, and the oil pan below it.
• If it's thick, black or tan oily liquid: Gear oil may be leaking from a manual transmission, the differential, an axle, or the steering gears. Any of these leaks needs immediate attention.
• If it's red, pink, or reddish-brown and greasy and you have an automatic transmission: It's probably transmission fluid. Check the transmission dipstick, and if the level is low, top it off with the proper transmission fluid. Then check the dipstick again in a day or two. If it's low again, have a professional check the transmission to make sure that the seals are intact.
• If it's watery or slippery; green, red, blue, or yellow; and is coming from under the radiator or engine: It's probably coolant. Check the radiator, pressure cap, engine, and hoses for leaks.
• If it's oily; pink, red, or clear; and you find it toward the front bumper (usually on the driver's side): It's probably power-steering fluid. The power-steering system is sealed and shouldn't lose fluid. If it's a light-colored or clear fluid: It may be brake fluid. Even if the leaks have dried, the stains should be visible. Leaky brakes are too dangerous to leave unattended. Have a professional repair any brake fluid leaks immediately.
  
• If it smells like rotten eggs: It's battery acid. Avoid getting it on your hands or clothes and have the battery replaced.
• If it smells like gasoline: It probably is! If the smell is coming from under the hood, check around the fuel pump and the fuel injectors - or the carburetor if your vehicle has one. If the leak seems to be under the center of the vehicle, check the fuel lines. If it's under the rear end, check the fuel tank.

Yes. One line gets hot and the other gets cold. The freon gas carries hot air out of the passenger compartment and expells it from the condenser. The freon gas changes from gas to liquid and back again.

You will need to check where the liquid is coming from, It may be anything from Air Con, Fuel, Transmission Fluid etc..

The fact you smell burning plastic could be 3 things..

1, Brake pads could smell and burn down if they are on too tight (Had this problem with a trailer). Hence when you apply the brakes it could be squirting brake fluid out due to too much pressure.
- Check brake fluid

2, If the smell and liquid is inside the car (front pass side) it could be the air ducts. Under the dashboard you have air ducts etc for the fans and in car cooling (brother had issue with this)

3, Whatever the fluid is, it could possibly drip onto something hot, unusual for liquid to smell like plastic though, Auto transmission oil smells like fish.

Best bet would be the brakes. Next time you smell it just smell in the wheel mag and see if you can smell it, check the engine fluids often and dont use A/C (Air Con) as that does drip fluid (normal). If it is the brakes smelling you will need to have the lines bled out, tyre places may be able to do this, and possibly new brake pads

Good luck

a/c or defrost not on wont cause water. coolant is green red blue,unless you only have water in system , windshield washer is also near this area . hoses can leak the pump can leak try to find leak with a light when running if you cant find one keep eye on untill found

Hi Jeff. I had the same problem, along with others on my 03 Denali. Along with not blowing hot air from the rear heating system, I had hot air blowing out of the passenger side and cold air out of the drivers' side vents. My battery would go low and had the same smell. I took my Denali in to the dealer and they found it was a bad Fan Control Module. They replace it and everything worked well after. It cost me $293 for parts and labor. Hope this helps.

If you smell it in the cabin you probably have a leak in the heater core which is up under the dash. Look under the center portion of the dash on both sides and try pulling the carpet back in that area. Chances are you will find evidence of a small leak. Check all hoses for tightness that run along the firewall in the engine compartment as well.

hi, i have seen this problem before, you might scoff at the answer, but i will do my best to convince you. your vehicle has a low freon level, meaning the charge is low. here's the reason why: your vehicle comes with dual climate control so you can switch tempuratures on both sides, the heater/evaporater box(the part inside the dash that contains the heater core and evaporator core for a/c and heating) has a blend door that splits the air flow in half right down the middle vertically. now, a quick small lesson on refrigerant: refrigerant changes from a gas to a liquid when it enters the evaporator core in your dash, this is how you get cold air, the hot outside air blow across the cold evap core(with the cold liquid refrigerant inside) and it cools the air temp down. liquid, as we all should know, moves the path of least resistance. now, the evaporator core is like a small radiator, with tubes running through it to tranfer refrigerant, but when it gets low, the path the liquid takes is shorter than when full. in essence, only moving through the passenger side of the evap core before returning to the compressor. i found all this out by tearing down the dash thinking there was an issue with one of the blend doors inside. ten hours later, couldn't find a problem. so, i put all back together, and refilled with freon, and all of a sudden, it worked great! both sides! so, the moral is, it pays to take the small easy steps before diagnosing the big stuff. try it, check and top off the system with refrigerant, see if it doesn't fix the problem.

Most cars have the air conditioner drain on the passenger side just in front of the fire wall , if this becomes clogged it will back up and run out in the area you indicated. Look for the drain hose and make sure it is not kinked or plugged!

The problem you describe could be from condensation. On very humid days, I have seen some condensation from auto air conditioners blow through the ducts. If you run your A/C in the heat/defrost mode (it probably comes on by itself when you run the defroster), that could happen, and the water could be leaking down through the heater vent. It could be a sign that you're A/C unit is low on refrigerant, in which case, you'd need to get the system serviced.

A leaking door seal on the passenger's side could also cause that, but only if it was raining. If I assume that this is happening when it is not raining, the A/C is the only place water could be coming from. The only other, remote, possibility is windshield washer fluid, but you would probably notice that by its odor.

Hope helped (remember rated this help).

It sound like there may be a small leak in the cooling system. You can check this by pressurizing the cooling system. You can buy a pressure checker for about 100 dollars. It will usually show up leaks that are small because you can pressurize the system cold and it won't evaporate.

It seems that Midas is going to stand behind the work that they did on your car. If there is something happening that they haven't already diagnosed, they should be able to tell you that, too.

My guess is that the green liquid you saw was coolant coming from the overflow of the coolant recovery tank because the system is overheating and the excess pressure is forcing coolant out. There may still be air in the cooling system, or possibly air is getting into the system from a bad head gasket or crack in the head or block. Check to see if there is any evidence of oil in the coolant, or if there is water in the crankcase -- the oil on the dipstick will look 'milky'.