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a little background info
today im driving to mcdonalds. i get there and my car is smoking. i pop the hood to find out why and the upper radiator hose has been blown off the radiator and been spewing coolant all over the engine. this isnt the first time this has happened. back in 07 or 08 i had the same problem but there was no overheating. eventually it did start overheating and i had the thermostat replaced. the problem seemed to be fixed.
now for my real question.
for the last few months my car will sometimes overheat, sometimes it will stay cold for 30 mins of driving then shoot up to temp. sometimes it will be hot as hell right from the start then cool down. the damn guage jumps around like a mentally handicapped infant that has to pee.
anyway, as far as i can tell, and from what ive been told by the illustrious group of technicians from autozone said it might be a sticky thermostat. which would make sense as to why pressure would build up enough to pop the hose off of the radiator.
any other thoughts or does that sound like the cause? i replaced the thermostat only a year ago, i didnt think it would go bad so quickly so im kinda skeptical
for the relative low price of it, go ahead and replace the tstat again, with one from courtesy/dealer since there is so little price difference between OEM and autozone-brand. if it keeps doing it, go from there.
I bought my thermostat from autozone and had no problems with it so far, its almost been 2 years since I replaced it, But I am going to replace it soon, as I dont want to get any surprises while Im driving down the road or when you least expect it! I had my top radiator hose to blow off twice on me, and it was only after I replaced my radiator cap with one from autozone. Each time I would put the new cap on, the top hose would blow off. So I put the old radiator cap on, the OEM one, and the system returned to normal. I tried to put the new cap on a few months later, and bamm! within 5 minutes of me closing the hood and going across the street to mcdonalds. The top hose blew off again, and the hose is new! So I filled the car up with antifreeze and tightend the hose down real good and didnt have anymore problems since.
make sure your top radiator hose is tightened down good. My brother had this same problem with his third gen and it just came down to getting a new clamp for the top hose.
cant really go cheap with car parts, stuff from autozone isnt all that great. the little stuff doesnt matter much, but the major stuff you should go with OEM. i often hear the expression " you get what you pay for." haha cuz i started to learn my lesson, and in the end when ur trying to save money, your actually spending more money cuz the item you bought doesnt work for a very long period of time. but yeah man, overheating sucks ***
a little background info
today im driving to mcdonalds. i get there and my car is smoking. i pop the hood to find out why and the upper radiator hose has been blown off the radiator and been spewing coolant all over the engine. this isnt the first time this has happened. back in 07 or 08 i had the same problem but there was no overheating. eventually it did start overheating and i had the thermostat replaced. the problem seemed to be fixed.
now for my real question.
for the last few months my car will sometimes overheat, sometimes it will stay cold for 30 mins of driving then shoot up to temp. sometimes it will be hot as hell right from the start then cool down. the damn guage jumps around like a mentally handicapped infant that has to pee.
anyway, as far as i can tell, and from what ive been told by the illustrious group of technicians from autozone said it might be a sticky thermostat. which would make sense as to why pressure would build up enough to pop the hose off of the radiator.
any other thoughts or does that sound like the cause? i replaced the thermostat only a year ago, i didnt think it would go bad so quickly so im kinda skeptical
My gauge does the same thing but it doesn't over heat it's just a faulty gauge, did you think about swapping the clusters
or from what i read the radiator hose just popped or blew off.
it could be a sticky thermostat or air trapped inside the coolant system.
Sorry man, but that's nonsense.
Neither of those items should cause a radiator hose to "blow off" if the rest of the cooling system is in good condition. The radiator cap is there to prevent exactly this condition, and if you still run into it, then its a simple case of poor maintenance practices imo.
i went ahead and replaced the tstat that i got from oreillys since i had a day off. gave it the full 24 hours for the silicone to dry. i ran the car in the shop for about half an hour or so revving it and whatnot to see if it would overheat and check for leaks. and sure enough, as soon as it got to temp it started spraying fluid out of one of the bottom hoses on the the housing. i let it cool down, took the hose off, threw away the squeeze tight crap clamps and put on the screw in ones, gave it the same test and it worked fine.
i completely forgot to bleed the cooling system, much less know what that means
now, when driving for work tonight (delivery driver) it didnt overheat BUT, there was one delivery i went on where the guage read cold all the way to the cust's house then i get back in the car and its up to temp.
i also have a completely retarded speedometer. im pretty sure i need a new cluster. as well as a new dashboard, new radiator, new tranny, new engine, new undercarriage... new car...
Last edited by austin from texas; 09-24-2009 at 06:32 PM.
how's that non-sense.
if you don't bleed it trust me it will cause this to happen.
i learned this on my gtz when i first started working on cars.
i did the t-stat and my dad was no help.
the gauge read normal till i seen smoke then the gauge spiked up.
the lower hose blew. this in turn conviced me to buy the service manual and low and behold.
i had to bled the damn thing.
my maxima same thing. i was at work on break and had the a/c on went to sleep for a few waking up to see my temp gauge near H.
opened the hood damn hose was swollen and VERY HOT. fans were on high blowing out cold air.
there's another incident where the gauge read normal but coolant was boiling over.
and the fans were'nt on.
aND this happened over and over becuase i was too lazy to bleed it the right way.
in the end i ended up destrying my waterpump gasket...which i'm glad that all that happened.
well i'm assuming you have a gxe or either 89-91 se.
with engine cold.
remove the bleeder screwn vg motor it's on the driver side in the the rear of the intake manifold. you will also see a sticker that says do not open when hot.
jack up the front end up i belive at least 2 feet off the ground.
(it's something to do with getting higher than the heater's position so you can bleed out all the air.)
open the bleeder bolt with a 10mm socket or wrench.
then open the radiator cap.
now before you start pouring coolant, imo, you should take a wire hanger or something simular to that and stick it in the bleeder hole. it could be filled with corrosion as mine was for the first time.
then proceed to pour 50/50 mix coolant till there's a smooth stream of coolant coming out of the hole.
how's that non-sense.
if you don't bleed it trust me it will cause this to happen.
i learned this on my gtz when i first started working on cars.
i did the t-stat and my dad was no help.
the gauge read normal till i seen smoke then the gauge spiked up.
the lower hose blew. this in turn conviced me to buy the service manual and low and behold.
i had to bled the damn thing.
my maxima same thing. i was at work on break and had the a/c on went to sleep for a few waking up to see my temp gauge near H.
opened the hood damn hose was swollen and VERY HOT. fans were on high blowing out cold air.
there's another incident where the gauge read normal but coolant was boiling over.
and the fans were'nt on.
aND this happened over and over becuase i was too lazy to bleed it the right way.
in the end i ended up destrying my waterpump gasket...which i'm glad that all that happened.
because the rad cap is designed to only hold 13psi, regardless if it's gas pressure or liquid pressure. and the system runs 13psi all day long without blowing up. unless you are trying to say that the pressure built up SO fast that the rad cap could not release the pressure fast enough so it ended up above 13psi and blew? odds are something was loose or weak.
all i know is that when this kept happeneing over and over i finally bled it the right way.
and it was fine. but now the w/p was leaking.
then the other time i bleed it again after all of that because the coolant tank was'nt strapped down good enough so once the bottle had coolant it would fall over and rub on the compressor.
cause a hole which in turn caused my car to act up.
i replaced the coolant tank refilled the radiator. alot did'nt leak out or so i thought and i started her up.
on the way to work it took a long time for the gauge to move up and once it did it shot up to normal temp.
then thats when the overheating episode while i was sleep happened...damn i don't deserve this car.
The radiator cap on this car is something you should only get from the dealer!
snap! tho we've mentioned that part a bunch in this tread already, you mentioning "dealer" reminds me i need to buy one next time i get some stuff from Courtesy...
well i'm assuming you have a gxe or either 89-91 se.
with engine cold.
remove the bleeder screwn vg motor it's on the driver side in the the rear of the intake manifold. you will also see a sticker that says do not open when hot.
jack up the front end up i belive at least 2 feet off the ground.
(it's something to do with getting higher than the heater's position so you can bleed out all the air.)
open the bleeder bolt with a 10mm socket or wrench.
then open the radiator cap.
now before you start pouring coolant, imo, you should take a wire hanger or something simular to that and stick it in the bleeder hole. it could be filled with corrosion as mine was for the first time.
then proceed to pour 50/50 mix coolant till there's a smooth stream of coolant coming out of the hole.
screw bleeder bolt back on and radiator cap.
and you should be good to go.
For the 89 and 90 models, it requires more than that. I don't know if it has been fixed after that year, but it should be considered a recommendation for all 3rd gens:
...now, when driving for work tonight (delivery driver) it didnt overheat BUT, there was one delivery i went on where the guage read cold all the way to the cust's house then i get back in the car and its up to temp. ...
You need to clean 1 wire contact going to temp gauge sensor on top of the engine. It often oxidises causing what you describe. Unfortunately, wire going to that contact sometimes falls off completely right at the connector due to corrosion Let's hope for the better, shall we ?
all that ended up doing was me to buy more coolant. plus the heater was luke warm.
once we opened the bleeder screw then thats when the heater started getting hot...maybe vg engines before 1990 never had a bleeder screw??
The bleeder screw is there on my 89. What I did is remove the bleeder screw, fill the radiator coolant until it comes out of the bleeder hole. Then screw the plug back in and follow the procedure on the TSB. The heater is working well on mine, but I have to wait till late fall or winter to really test it out. Most of the time it's hot here at So Cal.
I have my heater core by-passed, So How do I bleed my system. Ive got a 93 Gxe. I will have to go to the dealer to get me a replacement radiator cap, the one I got from autozone was giveing me too many problems. I am assuming that it made my heater core spring a leak, and caused my coolant temp sensor to go crazy!
I have my heater core by-passed, So How do I bleed my system. Ive got a 93 Gxe. I will have to go to the dealer to get me a replacement radiator cap, the one I got from autozone was giveing me too many problems. I am assuming that it made my heater core spring a leak, and caused my coolant temp sensor to go crazy!
The presence and design of the heater core is the reason for the crazy cooling system bleed procedure - if you bypassed it there is no reason to go through this - park the car slightly uphill, fill it while cold and the motor is running and be done with it.
Your CTS knows nothing and doesn't care about the heater core at all.
The presence and design of the heater core is the reason for the crazy cooling system bleed procedure - if you bypassed it there is no reason to go through this - park the car slightly uphill, fill it while cold and the motor is running and be done with it.
Your CTS knows nothing and doesn't care about the heater core at all.
tbh my coolant temp gauge went sky high in the middle of winte when i had a hose blow... i'm guessing its lack of pressure allowed the coolant to vaporize (and of course steam can be way hotter than boiling water) which must have gone past the sensor and caused the high reading. because the temperature was fine until the moment the hose blew.
tbh my coolant temp gauge went sky high in the middle of winte when i had a hose blow... i'm guessing its lack of pressure allowed the coolant to vaporize (and of course steam can be way hotter than boiling water) which must have gone past the sensor and caused the high reading. because the temperature was fine until the moment the hose blew.
Steam at atmospheric pressure can be no "hotter" than boiling water at the same pressure - both the steam and the water the steam gets generated from are at exactly the same temperature. Yes the steam contains a lot of extra energy because of the phase change of water to vapor, but that energy is not/cannot be "measured" directly by the temp gage sender unit - if you lost coolant/pressure because of a burst pipe etc, you will produce a lot of steam yes, but the actual engine metal components the sensor is in contact with will dictate the measured temperature ................ and because there is no cooling happening on the heat producing engine components, the temperature of those metal components will continue to shoot up till the source of heat is removed (engine either seize or gets switched off).
I don't know what the actual range of the temp gage or sender unit on the 3rd gen is, but if the gage showed full-scale deflection (120C?) then that is the temp the actual metal bits of the engine were at when you dropped the hose.
FWIW - most engine heat is disposed of through the exhaust, but a good 20-30% must be disposed of through the water/radiator/radiation ............... so if you are pottering along at 3000rpm and actually using about 50Kw, your cooling system is required to dispose of about 40Kw (assuming ridiculously high 33% engine efficiency).......... and if it isn't, well lots of metal is going to be a lovely red color pretty quick
Eddie - you are actually in the wrong forum/grouping. This is for the 3rd generation Maxima's and you want to be in the 5th Generation Maxima forum.
While you're here though...it sounds like you still have an overheating issue. The radiator may not have been the problem, or at least not the only problem. Unless your gauge is behaving very erratically. That would suggest a coolant temperature sensor issue.
09-22-2009, 12:38 PM
n vg motor it's on the driver side in the the rear of the intake manifold. you will also see a sticker that says do not open when hot.
Let's hope for the better, shall we 
?
