1998 2.5L mystique, making a whining noise and odd smelling smoke from the upper passenger side of engine compartment. It has made the whining noise intermittantly but always stopped in a short time and never saw the smoke before. Today it made the noise after 5 min of driving, stalled at a red light and did not stop the noise all the way home where I saw the smoke afer shutting off the engine. I think there is also a starter problem because the car makes a high pitched whine sometimes when I turn the key and then will turn over when I turn the key again and it always starts.

Check the rear upper strut towers. These are notorious for rusting out, and causing the tire to hit the inner fender well. To my knowledge, no recall on this, but I've fixed a few with a rear quarter panel replacement from rock auto. You wouldn't notice it much on the rear of the vehicle. Smell the rear fender wells for burnt rubber odor.

Hi try some new spark plugs leads plus check for a possible vacume leak. thnx

for the powerstearing check the oil and refull when nessesary,turn engine on turn 5 times hole the way left and 5 times hole the way right.
check level oil again refull when needed.the white smoke on that spot
you say can leak from diesel.

There are two locations that contain fuses and relays on this car. This is from the owners manual.

1. The passenger compartment fuse

panel.

It is located on the driver's side

under the instrument panel.

2. The power distribution box

It is located on the driver's side of the engine

compartment.

They contain the main fuses and

the main relays. The circuits

protected are identified by

numbers on the passenger

compartment fuse panel and inside

the cover on the power distribution
box

Your heater core has developed a leak (of coolant). The smell is the "sweet" smell of ethylene glycol,
a component of engine coolant. The white smoke is steam coming from the heated coolant evaporating.
The coolant is dripping into your duct work under the dashboard, and apparently being evaporated
out of the ductwork and sent into the passenger compartment, meaning its a small leak.
When the leak gets worse, you may get wet carpet on the front passenger side.

There is nothing that can make a whining noise in the back of the engine. Likely the noise you hear is coming from either the transmission converter or pump. Before anything else is done, check the fluid level. If the fluid on the dipstick smells burned, you definitely have an internal trans problem.

The main thing you will need to do is to minimise the amount of 'excessive' engine fumes being generated in your engine compartment which in turn will 'leak' into your car compartment: 1) Degrease your engine and check for leaking oil gaskets especially around the oil refill area: oil leaks at the back of the engine falling on your hot exhaust pipes and on your engine block will generate lots and lots of 'nasty' smelling fumes! 2) Check that your exhaust pipes joints are well sealed especially the one contained within the engine compartment: taking great precautions, check for the obvious leaks from smoke emitted but you could use soapy water to assist. 3) Check that the lining in your engine compartment are in good condition taking particular attention to the 'Firewall' ones (e.g. the one between the engine compartment and the passenger side compartment). 4) Check for broken heating/cooling air hoses leading into the passenger compartment.
Hope it helps!

I suspect it is the blower fan and the ductwork for the air intake to the blower picks up the air in front of the engine compartment.

It would also be a good idea to have your alternator checked and use the A/C heat controls to see how much the blower motor is demanding from the alternator. Autozone and Oreillys will check the alternator on the car for free.

Hi,
I'm not familiar with your model to know if you have an engine temp guage or a light that would come on if the engine is overheated. You said the motor wasn't overheating under the hood... but you have an overheating problem? Maybe just a tad bit more info...
Are you losing coolant?
The water pump if bad, would probably leak or make terrible racket.
Just to take a shot at it, since you said it blows smoke through the dash... I'm assuming a kindof white smoke with a rather sweet smell? Have you noticed any wetness on the passenger floor at all? If yes to any of this, I would suspect as you mentioned, a leaking heater core. Hope this helps... Good luck!

I expect that you have an oil leak that is dripping/running on to the exhaust. The burnt oil will smells a bit like rubber. Check for oil leaks that are higher up on the engine. (Valve Cover gasket for example).