# Car smell **URL:** \ **Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\ **Tags:** exhaustsystems, rav4, smells, coolant, toyota\ **Created:** [February 7, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/car-smell/44021 "2010-02-07T06:14:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![decafesmark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d78d45/32.png) [@decafesmark](https://community.cartalk.com/u/decafesmark)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/car-smell/44021/1 "2010-02-07T06:14:59Z")
I drove my car (2006 rav4) while the water pump overheated trying to make it home and did not make it. I got the water pump fixed and a couple months later I had a coolant leak from my head gasket into my pistons.the head was resurfaced and new gaskets. I now have a smell coming out of the air vent, smells like exhaust or coolant. The machanic says he can not find the source. I don’t know what to look for or do, I brought it back more than five times. can somebody help. ---
**Author:** ![Joseph\_E\_Meehan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/joseph_e_meehan/32/21_2.png) [@Joseph\_E\_Meehan](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Joseph_E_Meehan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 11:03am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/car-smell/44021/2 "2010-02-07T11:03:12Z")
Sounds like a small leak in the heater core to me.