On the weekend I removed my coolant reservoir to get at the crank idler pully to adjust it. When I tilted the reservoir I noticed the fluid was dirty and there was sludge at the bottom of the reservoir. The coolant in the radiator looks green and healthy. Could this be a signal of something wrong with my engine? Should I just clean out the reservoir since the rest of the fluid looks good, or should I get the system flushed? I have been super paranoid about my engine, since my Jiffy Lube trip 2 weeks ago when they forgot to put oil back in and my car was running for a couple of minutes without oil(yes I am changing my own oil from now on). I went to a great Nissan mechanic here in Austin and he said it probably would have not done any damage to my car, but I am still paranoid as hell.
Cheers,
Matthew

 

yes have your coolant system flushed out.

 

Make sure you have it in writing that the jiffy lube is responsible for any damage to the engine due to the oil fiasco. if you have any engine problems in the next few months due to lack of oil, it's their responsibility.

 

u may not neccesarily need a coolant flush...although its never a bad idea to get a flush done if u havent had it done in a long time.

What happens is that the thin overflow pipe/hose coming from right below the radiator cap and going to the over flow reservoir develops a coating of rust like deposits inside because it mostly remains unused and when it does get used once in a while by the cooling system, the deposits are transferred to the reservoir.

Just take out the reservoir...wash it out with tap water and detergent, and also take out the small hose that goes to the reservoir and flush it thoroughly. it should take care of the problem.


WORD OF ADVICE: if u do decide to get a coolant flush done, DO NOT GO TO JIFFY LUBE FOR IT...infact dont have it done from any shop where they use a cooland flush 'n fill MACHINE. the cooling system of the maxima is designed for manual flush and refill. and the refill has to be done SLOWLY with the bleeder screw open. the machine refills very fast causing air to be trapped in your HEATER CORE resulting in loss of heating capability in the winter!! this is a chronic 3rd maxima problem (dunno about other cars).

I experienced this first hand (courtesy of a Jiffy Lube and their machine). i had it done last summer (therefore didnt discover the heating problem) and i found out that my heating hardly worked in the winter. i had to do a manual coolant flush and fill in the middle of Febrauary with snow all around me. but i finally got my heating back for the rest of the winter

 

yea i just recenly degreased my engine and i went to remove my coolant resovoir to get at the dirt below it and I saw that mine was dirty also, I just removed it and cleaned it with tap water and refilled it with coolant it is good as new now!!! But thanks Dr Still i didnt really now about the flush thing!!! Guess it is better to use a flush cleaner and a garden hose uh???