"DANGER": Sweet smell in the car = one possible answer:
Heater core or cooling system is leaking into passenger cabin = breathing it can damage or KILL you.
Allergies in your family may make the affects worse.

Ethylene glycol intoxication
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000774.htm#Symptoms

Ethylene Glycol Intoxication
Symptoms & Signs
http://health.allrefer.com/health/ethylene-glycol-intoxication-symptoms.html

Material Safety Data Sheet
Ethylene Glycol
http://www.sciencestuff.com/msds/C1722.html

Toxicity, Ethylene Glycol
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic177.htm

GLOSSARY Acute Exposure -- Exposure to a chemical for a
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:rkP0LzHF8nMJ:www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp96-c9.pdf+Ethylene+glycol+neurotoxicity&hl=en

Applied Toxicology
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:M3dkYbb4apsJ:aquaticpath.umd.edu/appliedtox/organics.pdf+Ethylene+glycol+neurotoxicity&hl=en

Metabolic Acidosis
http://health.allrefer.com/health/metabolic-acidosis-info.html

Treatment of Ethylene Glycol Poisoning
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020901/807.html

Ethylene Glycol
http://www.mnpoison.org/index.asp?pageID=155

Material Safety Data Sheet
Ethylene Glycol
http://avogadro.chem.iastate.edu/MSDS/ethylene_glycol.htm

Edit new data:
Hazard Summary-Created in April 1992; Revised in January 2000
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/ethy-gly.html

__________________
ASE Master Mechanic
https://whunter.carrd.co/

Prototype R&D/testing:
Thermal & Aerodynamic System Engineering (TASE) Senior vehicle instrumentation technician.
Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH).
Dynamometer.
Heat exchanger durability.
HV-A/C Climate Control.
Vehicle build.
Fleet Durability
Technical Quality Auditor.
Automotive Technical Writer

1985 300SD
1983 300D
2003 Volvo V70

https://www.boldegoist.com/

Interesting...I wasn't aware breathing it was so dangerous....thats very good to know.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

The Navy trained me to be a mechanic, but they never bothered to tell us it was an inhalation hazard.

I guess I got lucky when the heater core went out in my Lincoln Town Car. Most of the juice leaked out through a hole in the firewall and ended up outside the car.

__________________
Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

Cats and dogs WILL drink antifreeze and can die from it; my neighbor's two cats died from it a couple of years ago.

I wish I could get something that isn't poisonous. The "non-toxic" AF isn't approved as far as I know for MB's, and you have to have a special tester for it.

At the very least, they could add something to it to make it taste absolutely horrible to animals.

__________________
86 560SL
With homebrew first gear start!
85 380SL
Daily Driver Project

http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl/mercedes.htm

Speaking of cats and dogs, there was an interesting thing on one of the science channels about a year ago which spoke about anti-freeze poisoning and pets. I spill anti-freeze from time to time, and have pets so payed attention but...and I hope someone who took advanced chemistry will chime in here...they noted that in animals, the same receptors which take up the ethylene glycol also take up ethanol (ethyl alcohol aka liquor) and that if your pet ingests anti-freeze, giving it liquor might help to bind the receptors thus giving you extra time to get your pet to the Vet. In reading the details of the nasty stuff that anti-freeze does it mentions that ethanol ingestion, either before or after...unsure, delays the onset of metabolism. I don't want to suggest that getting you dog blasted will cure it if it chugs Prestone...but it makes sense that it might buy you some time to save it's life. Of course, if it's a dog you hate...no comment. And I can see the jokes coming already...ok...but it's still a good question. Damn....

__________________
1983 300SD... 269,000 miles, nearly 2,500 on my B-100, Faded Grey, Ugly in an elegant sort of way...Duh-Benz


If any of this has been a blasphemy to you, then good, because it's been a blast for me to...A.Whitney Brown

Someone here who's wife is a vet posted the same thing not too long ago.

And here it is:
Coolant disposal

Danny

__________________
1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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"Receptors" is a little bit of a mis-statement...there's an enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase, that breaks down alcohol. Ethanol (liquor alcohol) and Antifreeze differ only by the fact that there's an extra -OH group on the Antifreeze, so it's a "double alcohol" so to speak. When it's metabolized, it makes a lot of nasty byproducts that can tear through your cells and cell proteins.

Giving the animal some liquor means that ethanol, which fits "better" in the enzyme than ethylene glycol, will take up that enzyme for a longer period of time and keep the antifreeze from metabolizing into the deadly poisons.

[QUOTE=whunter]"DANGER": Sweet smell in the car = one possible answer:
Heater core or cooling system is leaking into passenger cabin = breathing it can damage or KILL you.

OK, I am a beleiver. Now how do I get to my leaky heater core and how easy is it to fix the problem?

Since everything else is killing me, I can now add not breathing Anti-freeze fumes to my list. And fix my car at the same time.
Lets see now
47. Stop eating Ice Cream
48. Stop eating after 8:00 pm
49. Stop dipping Copenhagen
and now
50. Stop breathing the sweet smell of my 240d.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate yall letting me know something maybe hurting me and my passengers.

__________________
Collector of Fine Hose Clamps
'77 240D 'AVA' is in heaven now
'80 240D Kanarienvogel
'82 300TD 343k was my daily driver 'ADOLPH' In Surgery for a severe Deer Bite to the Nose
'88 560SL 102k 'White One'

Good claification of the use of ethanol as a treatment.

I'm still of the opinion that the danger from a pinhole leak in the heater core is way overstated. If I recall correctly, ethylene glycol has a boiling point around 170F. The spray from a heater core isn't going to stay that hot in a car you can sit in. It would rapidly condense and become a liquid, probably before it left the plastic that houses the heater core.

The only way that I can see that you would have gaseous ethylene glycol in the interior of your car is if it were a black car, with the windows rolled up, parked all day in the sun in South Texas. Oops. Excuse me while I go roll down the windows.

__________________
1983 300SD "Guderian"
1987 MR2
2015 Camry
2015 Chevy Spark
2006 Hyundai Tucson

so what do you all do with your old antifreeze after doing a coolant flush?????

I got your link whunter but am still unsure whether going to an EPA approved recycling station is the norm, just curious.

__________________
JBG
1985 TD wagon, 228k
running on grease since 3.07
AUSTIN, TEXAS

As far as I know we've never deliberately flushed it out of anything. Usually it finds a way to leak out, blow out, boil out, etc, before the day is over.

When we do have to drain something and don't feel like putting it back in, we save the dirty stuff and run it in the other dirty stuff - for example, the old 1960s riding lawn mower that really is hanging on by threads and doesn't care. Plenty of stuff like that around that we're just running until it finally dies that takes care of the old stuff.

We only really have it when we've had to work on something though or have had a leak that required draining it out.


On another subject, great advice on the alcohol. We called the vet last time one of the mini schnauzers got into the stuff, probably didn't drink more than a tablespoon or two. Vet said give the dog some wine and call if she gets sick. Never got sick or even saw the vet that time.

__________________


~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL

Great. Now, how about for those of us who don't have other dirty stuff like old 1960s riding lawn mowers? I'm sure people who live on farms never have to dispose of much of anything; I, however--like many of you I'm guessing--don't live on a farm. Just a dude, driving a MB, want to do a coolant flush, need to know what to do with the drained old coolant. Common enough, eh?

__________________
JBG
1985 TD wagon, 228k
running on grease since 3.07
AUSTIN, TEXAS

Take it to a local auto shop.
They have tanks for waste coolant disposal.

Very good question.
http://www.google.com/search?q=waste+antifreeze+disposal&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1

I wasn't saying I thought everybody in the world ought to have an old lawn mower to run the stuff in... you said "what do ya'll do with it" and I answered. Obviously the same solution doesn't work for everybody.

Some local garbage drop-off sites (or landfills) have hazardous materials disposal facilities. I know ours has a tank or two for petroleum stuff... oil, gas, and stuff... but I don't know about antifreeze. Might be worth checking at wherever you take your garbage to.

__________________


~Michael S.~
Past cars:

1986 300SDL
1987 300SDL
1982 240D
1982 300SD


Current:

1987 300SDL