Count me in as a possible client.
My 98 has a real bad antifreeze odor after driving it for 30 minutes or longer. I always open the hood to see what's up and I can never find anything.
I know that the pump is on the back of the head, near the #6 cyl. I never see any leaks and I haven't lost any fluid. I have been complaining about it to the dealer almost every time I bring the car in. They have put a dye in the Antifreeze and pressure tested the cooling system every time and constantly come up with nothing.
When the ATX tranny went on me, it caused my engine to overheat severely. About 3 months after the tranny was replaced, they replaced both cats, the y pipe, and both exh manifolds. They told me that because the tranny overheated the engine, the hotter exhaust gases damaged the pipes and cats, so they had to be replaced. I had a constant check eng light, that wouldn't go away, no matter what they did. After replacing the cats, manifolds and pipes, everything went back to normal.
My temperature gauge never goes past the R in "NORMAL". When the tranny went bad, the gauge would go all the way past L while driving on the highway. The problem with the tranny turned out to be the overdrive clutch not holding pressure. This heated up the tranny fuild and it passed the heat on to the antifreeze, which basically poached my engine.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that this engine holds up on me for another year. I need to trade this baby in next year for a 2003 Mercury Marauder.
