I'm getting a sweet smell from my vents with the ac on. Normally I would think it's antifreeze but a friend told me freon has a similar smell? It goes away after driving for 10-15 mins. It's been doing this for a few days now but today at a light I saw a white steam/smoke coming from the vents? The truck is a 2001 Mazda B3000 Dual Sport w/96000 or so miles. I really don't want to jump in and change the heater core if that's not the problem, but I will if necesary. I've found a few writeups on how to change the core on a 98 ranger and assume it's the same as mine?

 

I had this problem in my grand am. It was the heater core on mine.

Do you have heat? Is your truck overheating, losing fluid?

 

What he said..

 

^^^ Best sig quotes yet!! lol

 

No overheating and it doesn't seem to be losing any coolant. It still has some in the overflow tank. The heat works too. I can bypass it for now if need be till I get time to change it since I live in Texas and won't really need it till the end of october at the soonest. I'm assuming I can just disconnect the lines and get an L or U tube to plug them back together.

 

R134a does not have a sweet smell. You are almost certainly smelling coolant.

 

My bet is that the drain for The ac, is clogged, and rotting or molding, so when you turn it on you are smelling it.

 

i agree, does it still drip water?

 

Now that you mention it, the ac does leave quite a large puddle of water when sitting for any lenth of time. It's pure water. Where is the ac drain plug? I'll check it out.

 

If there is clean water under the truck when the a/c is on the drain is NOT plugged. I would look into the heater core. Do you have coolant on the passenger side floor board?

 

Passenger floor board is dry as a bone. I'm not sure what it is really. Wouldn't I be losing coolant if it was leaking? And wouldn't I see coolant somewhere?

 

So I'm 98.2 percent sure it is the heater core now. I'm assuming I can bypass it by using an L or U tube and reconnect the 2 ends coming off the heater core? I'm out of town so I really don't have the means to dig in to it right now. Any and all help is much appreciated.

 

The truck already has a bypass valve on the heater core. You just need to fix it so it stays closed.

It shouldn't be opening up unless the heat is on.

Something to check into when you get a chance.