After I pull in front of my house, I pop the hood and it smells like burning...antifreeze I guess. It isn't burning oil (whew) or burning plastic, but I'm suspicious it's burning antifreeze? I pop the radiator cap off (a few hours later, rather not burn myself) and I think the rubber seal material is degrading since black stuff comes off on the fingers. I don't think I see any oil in my radiator fluid so I *think* I'm safe from headgasket failure.

Probably gonna buy a new radiator cap, anything else it could be? (Some sort of cooling system leak or something offtangent?)

 

while your at it u could do a coolant flush...

 

could be a hose or the water pump seal...most of the time small coolant leaks are hard to locate since the coolant evaporates when it meets the external heat of the engine....

one of my steel heater core lines has a small leak in it....hardly even noticable unless you look very closely from under the car while its running

 

Would I be able to "expose" any leaks during the flush process? Probably not if it's a microleak, correct?

 

you can get a dye to go in the coolant and that will help you find a leak.....if there is one

 

A UV dye?

 

i had die in my coolant

and it allllll ended up at an intersection

i think the die stained the road
hahahahahahah

atleast i left my mark...

but i think it might be UV dye
not sure...

 

yeah UV dye....kinda like what goes in the a/c