I have a 1998 Dodge Ram Van 1500 that fogs up the windshield with antifreeze fumes and it burns my eyes and smells bad.

I had this same problem with my Oldsmobile back in 1990. The mechanic showed me that the intake was blocked with decayed leaves.

Where is the air intake so that I may clean it? Not the air intake for the engine, it is for the defroster vents under the windshield.

 

you most likely have a heater core leaking if you are smelling antifreeze.

 

Same thing happened to me in my 01 ram. Smelled antifreeze(sorta smelled like cat pi$$) and I couldn't ever get the windows to defog. The seal on your heatercore has went out my friend. The part is not very expensive its the labor required to get to the heater core. Basically they will have to take you whole dash out until the firewall is exposed.

 

Yes, I agree, there must be a leak in the core.

But this phenomenon may also be caused by decaying leaves in the core intake duct.

Trouble is I dont know where it is located.

Is it underneath the core?

 

Funny, but it is definitly a heater core becuase it's going in my 1990 Olds Cutlass Cierra.

 

What I need to know is where is the intake duct for the heater/ac core?

There usually is a hole somewhere near it, where the air is sucked in and blown out the heater ot defogger or air conditioner.

 

Without looking, I'd assume it's drawn in thru the wiper cowl area, most vehicles are like that. It usually has a screen to keep garbage out of there.

 

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I just opened up the black grille under the wiper arms last week and I saw no intake with screen or anything else.

I did an extremely close up and personally inspected it there.

No, I was told the intake is under the heater core which is difficult to access, unless you remover the engine cowl inside the van.

I dunno if it is true.

I've been running the a/c cause it became hot and fumes are still present.

This happened with my Oldmobile and Buick.

Decayed grape vine leaves and twigs inside the intake duct.....

 

Was there any so called "secret recall" done on my 1998 Dodge Ram Van 1500?

How do I find out?

 

If you don't require the heat there's a simple way of removing the antifreeze flow from the cab area.

1-Go to Home Depot and buy a 5/8" hose joiner like this
.
2- Locate under the hood, at the rear of the engine, passenger side 2 hoses going into the firewall (antifreeze-in/antifreeze-out).
3- Disconnect the 2 hoses (engine cold) from the firewall and connect them together with clamps, thus bypassing the whole cab area.