When I turn on my heat (and God knows I need it - 1.8F this a.m. up here in Maine) I get a sort of burnt oily smell. I know I have a leaky valve cover, and I'm thinking that the intake for the cabin air might be somewhere nearby. Or could something be effed up with the heater core?

 

Any ideas?

When I turn on my heat (and God knows I need it - 1.8F this a.m. up here in Maine) I get a sort of burnt oily smell. I know I have a leaky valve cover, and I'm thinking that the intake for the cabin air might be somewhere nearby. Or could something be effed up with the heater core?

 

Any ideas?

 

Sounds like you have an engine oil leak or a CV joint boot leak. The "fresh air" intake for the A/C system (which includes the heater) is in the area below the right windshield wiper--more or less. So that odor is probably being pulled in from the engine compartment.

The odor of leaking coolant is much different than the odor of oil burning off of a hot surface. When coolant leaks from anywhere, it has an unusual "sweet" smell (sort-of like cotton candy mixed with fish oil, for lack of a better description). If the heater core were leaking, you would smell coolant all the time, not just when you turn the heat on. That's because Subaru does not use a heater control valve---coolant is always running thru the heater core, even when the heater is "off". Most manufacturers do it that way. The most obvious sign of a heater core leak is constant windshield fogging along with that "cotton candy-like" odor. When a heater core leak gets bad, you'll see steam coming out of the windshield defrost outlet on top of the dash.

as well as sometimes people get a floor full of coolant too............ my core went out in my corsica, but luckily i only had the insta-fog effect, scared me cuz it happened in like, june.

Open heater box, remove squirrel, close heater box. Turn on non-smelly heat.

i agree with the axle boot