I have a 2006 Pathfinder, that has about 85,000 miles on it. Recently I have been detecting an slight Radiator coolant smell in the engine compartment area, and occasionally in the driver side passenger area.
When I park the vehicle, there is no obvious leaking or puddles on the ground that I can see. I took it in to my Nissan dealer, and they did a pressure test on the Radiator system. They said that it passed the test, and doesn't appear to be losing any pressure. Anybody else here have a similar problem?, and a solution.

Yes I have noticed this for a while. Same thing, no leaks or anything

yes. smell it when pulled into the garage. Can't figure out where it's coming from. I have an '06 w/ 43K

Nice to see I'm not alone in my dilemma. Shortly before the smell there was a weird Pheunamic hissing sound that would occasionally happen from underneath the dash when the heating/AC unit was on. I added more coolant to the reservoir and the sound has now stopped. Don't know if this is associated with the coolant smell. any ideas?

I had a hissing sound under the dash, it was my A/C, $400 to repair.

If you have rear heat and air then you need to check your rear heater core. It will leak and you will smell coolant. My 2005 had this problem. It was all rusted out. Problem is the body has to be lifted off the subframe to fix so it is not cheap.

kelleyo wrote:If you have rear heat and air then you need to check your rear heater core. It will leak and you will smell coolant. My 2005 had this problem. It was all rusted out. Problem is the body has to be lifted off the subframe to fix so it is not cheap.

do you know where that heater core is located? If mine was bad I'd just by-pass it

Not sure exactly.

Search on Google:

http://autoforum.classifieds1000.com/Ni ... _rear_heat

Reply #3 Paul (81.129.211.27) - Wed Apr 7 05:42:32 2010


If you have an 05 Pathfinder check the rigid pipes that run from the front of the car to the rear heater matrix.

The design of these is ridiculous and they corrode through resulting in coolant dripping out over the rear of the car.

The place to look is just behind the rear offside wheel (easier if you take the wheel off) I noticed this when changing rear brake pads on my low mileage 05 T-Spec. You will see where the two pipes are retained together that road salt is trapped and the thin walled aluminium tubes rot through.

Mine have just failed and Nissan want over £1, 000 to replace them!!! The job requires that the body be lifted from the chassis to gain access to the pipes. What a poor design feature on a not inexpensive vehicle!!

CHECK YOURS ASAP!!!!

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