xantia heater

[gjb02]

I know this has been mentioned several times before but I feel this may be a little different!
The Xantia had been giving off a sweet pungent aroma when the heater control was first flicked across to hot. This would last for up to 30 secs before disappearing!
Having enquired about the cause,(most likely to be a heater matrix leak), I decided that because there were no physical signs of a leak I would use a coolant sealing additive. I opted for some K-Seal and applied it, having first emptied the system to change the water pump!!!![:(!] The K-Seal was applied half way through the re-fill to avoid it just sitting in the expansion tank.
As a result, the smell has almost disappeared but is still present for the first 10 seconds or so, when you first select the heat.
Could it be possible that coolant crystals have formed on the matrix, where it was leaking, and they now act like an air freshner everytime air is blown across them?? Hence the smell!
Or is it still leaking?
There is no moisture evident in the lower vents, the windows don't steam up, and the carpets aren't wet. And yet the smell still exists albeit for short bursts.
Help!!!

[RichardW]

I put Forte sealer in mine when water was dripping out of the bottom of the dash. It took a couple of hundred miles for the water to fully dry up, and ISTR another couple of hundred before the 'curry' smell on turning the heater on disappeared.

[mattpc]

yep, keep driving it. It took a good week for mine to settle in and work properly. I did two laps of the m60 in it and even that didn't help. Infact when I first applied the treatment I was still losing quite a bit of coolant at first but gradually the Forte worked its magic and 10k later I'm still driving the car. Oh and to this day I still get odd smells sometimes from the heater but I do not use very much coolant at all. I might put a tiny bit in once a month to keep the level at maximum.