White smoke/smell
 

Before I start, yes I have searched and read up on this, but have not found a specific answer that I was looking for.

Last month, I was driving my 2002 GS300 with about 100K miles when I noticed a white "smoke" or vapor coming out of my air vents. Nothing from under the hood. I could also smell a very bad odor (antifreeze?) coming from the inside of my car. The temperature gauge said my car was at a normal temperature. I stopped at the nearest Chevron, turned the car off, and a random guy who claimed to work on his own car said I ran out of engine coolant and my car was overheating. Since I had no money on me at the time (life of a college student) he said a quick fix would be to just add water into the engine coolant chamber and take it into a shop to get it refilled. Turned the car back on and noticed my gauge was reading that my engine was overheating a little bit. Turned the car back off, waited for the engine to cool off, and then I filled it up with water and drove back to school (30 minute drive). On the drive back, no more "smoke" came out of the vents and the smell kind of went away but was still lingering. The gauge was reading that my engine was at "normal" temperature. My front wind shield also started fogging up like crazy (maybe due to lack of antifreeze). Have not driven the car since. What do you think it could be?

Would you go get it checked at a shop? If not, a friend of mine knows how to drain/flush the engine coolant chamber and can refill it for me.

Never had any issues with the car before this and I am not very car savvy. From what I have read, it could either just be that I was low on coolant/antifreeze or my heater core is busted, or something with my gaskets.

Are your carpets wet? Sounds like a leaking heater core.

I second that ^^

Your inner windshield is probably covered in a nice greasy film of antifreeze and that's why it fogs up so easily.

No, my carpets are not wet. Is a leaking heater core an expensive fix?

And would it be a bad idea to drive the car about 15 minutes to a shop?

I agree it sounds like the heater core is on its way out. You can bypass it by connecting the two heater lines under the hood together to get you to the shop without worry of losing more coolant. However, you should be able to make it to the shop if it's only a short drive without having to bypass the heater core.

Just went out and checked my carpets and they actually are wet...I will probably have to drive it for about 15 minutes to a shop down the street :/

You can drive forever with a leaking heater core. Just make sure you don't run out of coolant again. A serious overheating event could damage the motor itself.

The heater core replacement, on the other hand, can be a very big job. On most cars it requires the removal of the entire dashboard. While not exactly difficult, it's very time consuming. And a shop bills you on how much time a job takes. You might want to call a few shops to get quotes over the phone before you decide on where to take it.

Sigh...cheapest quote I could get with a new heater core + ~8 hour labor cost was $1,100 :( they said they would run a free diagnostic beforehand to see if it actually needs to be replaced or not.

Try stop leak? Of course if your car is nice I don't recommend it but if it's a junker why not?

This car is my daily driver and I do think it is quite nice. Wouldn't call it a junker in any way haha

Well look at it this way 1100 is two car payments or man up and. DIY

If I knew how to do it myself, I totally would... But I'm far away from home (Washington) at college in California with no garage or nothin to work in :( Getting a free diagnostic done JUST to make sure its the heater core haha hoping for some good news...

sounds like a heater core to me...