Hi all,

There's antifreeze smell when I turn on the heat in my 98 S70 NA. It will go away when I set the fan to the highest speed until the next time I start the car. I pulled the carpet below the gas and brake pedals but found no leak. The area around the heater core casing is dry. I put two different kinds of stop leaks in the overflow tank but not much luck.

I haven't taken the heater core apart to inspect where the leak is. Is it likely the o-rings are culprit with this "minor" antifreeze smell? Thanks for your help in advance.

Your heater core is probably weeping, or slightly leaking, but not enough to form the tell tale pool of coolant under the floormats. www.fcpgroton.com sells the core and o-rings for a good price. DIY and save some coin.

BB

When mine failed it just weeped. I didn't have any obvious leaking but I had major smell and an extremely hard time keeping the windows defogged. It failed and was weeping towards the top of the core and during a long drive the heated air would actually dry it out somewhat. I picked my stuff up at fcpgroton and also picked up the o-ring kit. I didn't need the o-ring kit and it looks like a major pain in the rump to change the rings out.
You should be able to tell really easy if you need the o-rings, just pull the carpet back and look up at the lines above the gas peddle where the lines come through the fire wall. If they are leaking or weeping then pick up the o-ring kit. If not I wouldn't worry about it.
I agree with BB and doing it yourself. It's really not hard at all and the cost savings is HUGE.
Good Luck
DougA