Coolant Leak, burning smell vents

[lincoln_zero]

With the heat on, when I come to a stop at a red light, I can smell a sweet burning coming through my vents. Checked my coolant level, and it's gone down a bit. So I have a slow leak somewhere that's causing the smell.

I don't have the money right now to overhaul the entire thing. Took it to a mechanic who replaced my degause bottle cap (said he pressure tested it and that was the leak). Couple days later and coolants gone down again and smell is still there.

Any ideas where the leak can be?

 

[joegr]

Yes, any or all of the plastic cooling system parts - this is by far the most likely. Next best bet would be the DCCV, aux pump, or radiator (front right tank). Much less likely, but not impossible would be the heater core.
Not having the money to fix the problem, does not change the problem. I do sympathize with you there though.
(You could maybe find the one part that is leaking the most now and replace only that. Tomorrow, when it pressurizes fully, the next weakest part will let loose, and it will keep going from there until all of them are replaced at a much higher cost than doing them all the same time would have been.)

 

[lincoln_zero]

Thanks for the reply.

Tomorrow, when it pressurizes fully, the next weakest part will let loose

This part I find to be interesting. I have so far drained my system twice over the course of 18 months of owning it. Once to do the thermostat (my father in law) and once to do the DCCV (my mechanic). The leak is now happening 6 months since the DCCV. My mechanic inspected the remaining plastics while he had it apart and said everything looks mint. According to the car fax, the previous owner did struggle somewhat with the coolant system and he replaced parts. So it looks like some of it is new.

At the end of the day, my choice is to take a chance and fix that one thing or redo the whole system and spend (Remember, this is CANADA, where Ford sticks it up our asses) over $1000 on parts, and then labour.