Antifreeze Smell Thread

[gt_cristian]

Wow, that's huge! Wonder where the heater cores are made. Oh wait, I already asked that question once before. Did they replace the carpeting as mentioned in a previous post on this subject?

Update: How many miles are on your Cruze?

As of now, they did not replace the heater core or anything else inside the cabin. It was mostly troubleshooting work which pointed out to the heater core.

I have 13k miles on it and the smell became obvious at 8k miles.

[Eco]

I'm bringing in my car Monday for slight random coolant smell here and there, and nearly no coolant in the reservior.
From what I've read in here, the coolant reservior is supposed to vent pressure? It seems like a totally sealed unit.

IF that is the case though I opened the cap today before I read this and a TON or air rushed out of the system, and nearly a QUARTER of the reservior fluid magically flowed back into the tank!!! Not sure if that is normal or not and I know quite a bit about cars.

[steve333]

2 years and no fix. That's kind of scary

[cruzeman]

I dumped my Cruze in may mainly for this issue. I loved my Cruze except for random loss of power when passing, the coolant smell, creaky rear suspension, steering binds at highway speeds, horrible stock radio, clunk sound when shifting to second gear, vibrating shifter in fourth gear and super hard seats. A great car in need of tweaking!

[Sparks]

I've had the same issue with the coolant smell. dealer noticed that the resevoir was down a bit and finally traced it to a leaking water pump. hopefully that fixes it

[steve333]

I dumped my Cruze in may mainly for this issue. I loved my Cruze except for random loss of power when passing, the coolant smell, creaky rear suspension, steering binds at highway speeds, horrible stock radio, clunk sound when shifting to second gear, vibrating shifter in fourth gear and super hard seats. A great car in need of tweaking!

Sounds like a **** of a lot of tweaking!

[Chevy Customer Service]

I'm bringing in my car Monday for slight random coolant smell here and there, and nearly no coolant in the reservior.
From what I've read in here, the coolant reservior is supposed to vent pressure? It seems like a totally sealed unit.

IF that is the case though I opened the cap today before I read this and a TON or air rushed out of the system, and nearly a QUARTER of the reservior fluid magically flowed back into the tank!!! Not sure if that is normal or not and I know quite a bit about cars.

Eco,
I would like to apologize for the issues that you are experiencing with your Cruze. I would like you to keep me posted on the progress with your dealer. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me anytime.
Thank you,
Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service

[cerbomark]

I have a 2011 Cruze 1.4 with 24000 miles. I had not been on the site often and knew nothing about these posts. Today I thought I smelled anti freeze. Came online to find this is not uncommon for our Cruzes. I had a slight smell inside as it is very cold and heat was on. Also upon opening hood I got a wiff of anti freeze. I was a bit low on coolant but just left it alone at this time to get a baseline. No coolant inside on floors. No leaks detected on underhood inspection. I let it run from cold to hot while looking around for leaks, nothing.

My feelings being a car guy owning dozens of cars, including Corvettes, new Malibu, new Cobalt and many many new GM trucks are as follows. I have been a loyal buyer of new GMs for years. But after reading here I realize that the dealers just don t have the answers for this issue. Like someone said pages back, "I don t think I should have to go to a dealer and explain what I know about the issue only to get a confused look from them". I am 1 hour away from my dealer and leased my Cruze. Don t have time for them to take car in and out only to find no fix and throw parts at the problem. I have not seen any post that show a certain fix. Many have had repairs done only to still have the issue. (Waste of time). If GM wants to practice, they can take my lease back now and spend the time (on their dime) fixing their product. In fact, that would be the only thing at this point that would ever make me look at a GM again.
I feel sorry for the poor person who knows nothing about cars and is breathing in the anti freeze thinking all is sweet!

[Bohdan]

The sad part is once a customer has there Water Pump replaced is that new Water Pump New Old Stock that has been on there shelf all this time. And if so that customer will be back in time for another one.

[Jim Frye]

There is nothing in the December TechLink on this problem. The November TechLink only had instructions for the water pump leak.

Replace the water pump and gasket. Replace the engine mount bolts

We'll just have to keep waiting.