Pontiac Repair: 2005 Grand Prix 3.8L V6 Sedan, coolant leaks, coolant leak

Question
Hi Todd,

Two weeks ago, I took my car to the dealership to have my cooling system flushed. It got really cold that week, so I turned on my heat (I haven't used it since last winter). The car warmed up as normal, but it took over 30 minutes of driving before the cabin heated up. Actually, the air that initially blows out of the heater is lukewarm, but will later become hot. The temperature gauge will go a little over the half way mark and I don't recall it ever going that high before, so it has me a little nervous.  I was told to check the interior passenger side for coolant leaks, but there's nothing there. Every now and then I smell coolant when I get out of the car. I'm scared to take the car back to the dealer because I think something they did is the cause of my problem, whatever that may be. I'm going to have them check my heating system, but I would like to have an idea of what may be wrong with the car. Can you give me any ideas. Thanks for reading!

Answer
Hi Trina:

Well it can be a few things. My first though is the cooling system is low on coolant. it could be when they flushed the system there was an air pocket trapped in the system and it wasn't fulley filled back up. that would explain the luke warm temp and the temp gauge a bit higer than normal. But you stated that you smell coolant at times the car could have a coolant leak and the same result little heat and higer than normal temp reading. either way have it checked out. without seeing it I can't tell you eacatly what the problem is. Good luck :)