Antifreeze smell on my 2010 Access Cab, 2.7l. ???

Has anyone experienced any antifreeze smells outside their engine bay. I am not showing any overheating on the guage, but after driving home from work (45 miles) I smell antifreeze outside my truck. I don't see any leaks anywhere. Does anyone have any suggestions or has anyone else experienced this.
Dan

 

have you checked your antifreeze level?...on occasion I smell antifreeze too but it always turns out to be the vehicle in front of me, or one in the parking deck.

if you are loosing coolant the level in your resevoir will drop....

 

Don't rely on the temp gauge - visually check your reservoir. The engine can be overheating but will still read normal on the gauge if the coolant is super low or empty (this is the case with the 4.0 V6 anyways). No coolant = no accurate temp reading

 

i had the smell in my 2010 reg cab 2.7L

if you look at the overflow by the cap mine was leaking a little bit. the leaking coolant would then get sprayed onto the exhaust by the fan. it smelled like coolant "burning" when at red lights. i just pushed the hose on tighter and it stopped

 

my truck smells slightly of antifreeze every now and then. 4.0 V6

 

Mine too.

 

haven't noticed anything on mine yet?? as mentioned above, keep an eye on the overflow and ck under it after you park it for leaks...

 

Yup, mine too. I noticed the over-flow tank, hanging on the radiator fan shroud, has a vent molded in the cap and on a hose just below the vent are drop-sized stains the right color for the dye in the antifreeze. I figure fumes from the hot antifreeze escape from that vent which is what I smell. But what's more, small amounts of fluid easily splash out going over bumps and such.

Nothing to get concerned about.

 

Sweet, I'm just going to assume this is what's going on with mine and stop worrying about it

 

What I mean to say is the odor of hot anti-freeze could be considered normal if nothing else is found!

I'd still check out all around if you haven't...something else could be bad. The good thing about that dye is it will show up pretty good if leaks are big enough to matter. Especially under the truck to show it's not just A/C condensation.

 

Yeah I've checked everything multiple times and found no leaks....never could figure out where the smell was coming from. And it's only rarely that I smell it.

 

I had a antifreeze smell and was loosing fluid (overflow tank was low). There were signes of dried fluid underneath my radiator cap. Took it to the dealer and they replaced the radiator cap & topped off my resevoir tank and its been fine ever since.

 

My overflow tank does show some signs of the red dried up fluid around the expansion tube, but I can't find any other leaks. I am only down maybe an inch from full in the tank, and i don't see any actual fluid loss. Maybe the cap is bad, I'll check with the dealer. Thanks for the input.

 

Is the overflow that full hot? Cause if it is cold it will spill fluid out the vent when it's hot as the fluid in radiator expands into the overflow tank.

When cold the level should be somewhere about 1/4 to 1/3 full...no more than 1/2 if you just 'topped' it. Fluid readily evaporates from that tank, incidentally, since it's vented to the atmosphere.

 

Sorry to revive this one, but was this covered under the 3/36k warranty or the 5/60K powertrain? I've got an 06 and it doesn't use much but I seem to be losing a little fluid over time. When I bought it the radiator cap was loose and it lost some coolant there, put it back on, went to the dealership I bought it from and they topped it off. Just wondering if the cap might be my problem. But with what Toyota charges for everything I wanna be a cheap bastard on this one! 3 years long gone but I still have powertrain warranty for another year.

 

For me...it was covered under the 3/36k.

 

Damnit, haha. Oh well, I'm a poor college student, was hoping it would be covered.

 

I would have the cooling system pressure tested. A minute leak doesn't always show up when the truck is not moving. This happened to my wifes Amigo and the pressure gauge never showed over normal until one day she fried the head gasket and warped the head. After having the shop repair it they pressure tested it and found a tiny, tiny leak in the radiator that would not show up when the engine was sitting there idling.

 

After extensive pressure testing by the dealership not finding anything; I was informed there must not be a problem. I then reassured the dealership that there was a problem and that I wanted it fixed. I showed them where it was leaking on the non pressurized side of the cap where the tube connected to the expansion tank. Dealership told me that area was not pressurized so the leak did not affect anything. I convinced them that it mattered to me, so the dealership finally replaced the radiator cap, the tube, and the expansion tank fan shroud assembly. No more antifreeze leak or smell.

 

Glad that fixed it, too bad it was so many parts! Kinda broadens what it could be. My truck's the exact same though, smell antifreeze sometimes when I shut it off, dried coolant under the edges of the cap. Damn, spent all the money on this truck 'cause I was sick of fixing things all the time on my old trucks. Oh well, looks like I got a trip to the stealership in my future. Thanks folks.