sweet syrup smell... no leaking radiator

[aberdeenSHO]

ok i've been wondering why else that i would be smelling that sweet smell coming from my vents if i wasnt loosing coolant. my rad seems to be working fine. I just can't understand why my car is overheating. the gauge in the car seems to be working fine too. it slowly climbs in the normal range and when i turn the a/c on it will overheat slowly. otherwise it just fluctuates. i have the part to replace the temp sender. but why would i do that if the fan comes on when i turn on the a/c, and it comes on when the gauge hits the top of the n on normal? are there any other sensors that i'm leaving out? if i was to have the wrong temp thermostat, could that be causing my problems, because i bought it from autozone and i think it may have been a 192 instead of a 180... so but could that cause this much a problem?? anywayz i figured maybe i'd try once more at this problem on here.. maybe someone figured it out i don't know. but ok so thanks for anyone that helps out...!

 

[SHOZ123]

The sweet smell is antifreeze. More than likey bad hoses or not tight enough hoses at the firewall. Worst luck would be the heater core.

AFAIK 192F is the OEM spec for the t-stat. Make sure the jiggle valve is installed at 12:00 or if it didn't have a jiggle valve drill a 1/16" hole in the t-stat and install it with the hole at 12:00. And I don't mean midnight.

The fan coming on when the a/c is turned on is the PCM doing that without any input from the sender.

The slowly overheat problem may be a clogged radiator or the area between the A/C condensor and the radiator is full of crap. If the car has a lot of miles on it and the coolant wasn't flushed every two years it's probably the radiator that's fubared.

 

[sdpatt]

The 82C (179.6F) 'stat is the factory setting for the 3.0L and the 88C (190.4F) is the OEM temp for the 3.2L. The fan coming on at the "N" sounds quite high in the temperature range. If you are smelling coolant, there is a leak somewhere and you need to find it. If you smell it through the vents, it may be the heater core. Also check the lower timing belt cover below the crank damper for drops of coolant. That would indicate a water pump leak.