Well, I know a person at work whose father has a 1990 420SEL. They know I have a 1988 300SEL, so they normally ask me alot of questions.

I think they may have a heater core seeping because they said sometimes there is a faint smell of coolant in the car if its been driven, parked and got back into and started within a few minutes, then the smell goes away and never smelled again. He said this morning they started the car, (it was in the 40s early this AM) and placed the mode on E/C and set the fan on automatic. When the fan first came on, there was a very little bit of steam come up on the windshield, but it went away within about 5 seconds and it never came back, nor was any coolant smelled. I am wondering IF this is a possible core leak. Seems its done this for a long time now and never got any worse. If it is a core leak, it seems very minor and wondering if since it was so minor if there was some sort of product that could be put in the cooling system TEMPORARILY that would fix the leak for awhile. He said his dad does not have alot of money to spend, nor is able to do such a task, since it seems like changing the core on these are so time consuming.

Ironic, because I have heard this is uncommon on these cars, but seems like its not really.

I would not mind knowing either since I had a car like this too... never know, for future reference. If mine ever goes, I will sell the car. I would not "trust" the car again after the dash was completely removed.

Thanks for any advice I can relay.