Engine Smell

[apole]

Hi there,

My bongo is ready at last, very impressed with the car and the conversion. Will post some pics up soon when I find a suitable way.

Anywy there is one thing I was hoping you guys could advise on.

There is an engine smell when the car gets warm, kind of a hot engine smell, akin to the smell of the coolant rather than oil or exhaust. Can't work out where it is coming from, turning the heating off does improve it a bit, much worse on the passenger side.

It's not looking or using coolant from what I can work out, doesn't overheat and there is no sign of any leaking oil.

BTW it's a V6 petrol.

One thing I was curious about.

In the passenger footwell, on the bulkhead between where your feet are and the bonnet area there is a faily large open grill. Should this have a cover on it as from what I can see the heating comes from the pipes in the centre of the dash? There was a plastic bag shoved in this grill, wondering if there should be a cover on this and the plastic bag was an earlier attempt to get rid of this smell.



The supplying dealer is going to look at this for me next week but if anyone has any ideas or an oxygen mask I'd be grateful !!

I'm keeping my eye on the coolant level just to be sure.

Thanks.

Andy

[trevd01]

It may be bacteria in the heating/aircon system. Threads here before on this subject.
a search

Code: Select all

heater AND smell

found this

http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... ater+smell

If that is what it is, the solution is Dettox or Comma Air Conditioning cleaner squirted into the fresh air intake to the heater system.

[apole]

Thanks for that, will get some and use it, just used some on my car, wish I'd kept it now.

Also thinking of putting some radweld in as a precaution, if it has a coolant leak it could fix it and I'm told that won't hurt if it hasn't.

Andy

[mikeonb4c]

From all I've read, dont use radweld. It has the capacity to clog up your system and that's the last thing you want to do on a Bongo. better to fit a low coolant alarm and accept that if it goes off and tells you there is a coolant leak, then you should fix the problem at source.

If you've any concerns, you should be able to raise them with the vendor shouldnt you, as they presumably give some kind of 'cover'. Try and find exactly where the smell is coming from (maybe lift engine covers and see if it is stronger) as from what you've written it could simply be the funny smell that Bongos can get in their hot air delivery system.

Keep us posted & good luck. I'm sure its not serious whatever it is.

Mike

[apole]

Thanks for the advise, I'll be taking the radweld back to the shop then, glad I checked.

The place I bought it is very helpful and it will be heading back next week for them to take a look. I'll use the air con cleaner to eliminate that.

Has anyone seen the grill I'm talking about in the footwell, should it be covered?

Thanks

[apole]

Quick update, used the air con cleaner.

Had a good poke about and could find no signs of any pipes leaking.

Checked the seals and security of both seats, they seal well and the engine didn't have any oil leaks etc or smell actually.

When you smell the air coming in the vents on cold with AC on no smell, as soon as you put on the heat it smells so my guess is either leaking heater matrix (?) or just residual smell.

I've marked the level of the coolant just to monitor this.

On a long run tonight, see how it goes eh !!!

Thanks for all your input.

Andy

[David Edwards]

Nope its not leaking, you will find this is common to all bongo's and smells like hot radiaitor water, happens all the time, simple to cure, just buy a tin of smelly and put the air con on and squirt the stuff into the air con intake under the bonnet, will last for a while but it will prob recur again,. having had mine for four years now I am used to it and just regard it as a warm comforting bongo smell. Good luck and happy motoring.