Can't Find Drain Plug
 

Hi, I have a 1996 Maxima and I cannot for the life of me find the radiator drain plug. I searched through my service manual and found where it should be located, but it is not there. Any help would be appreciated. I included 2 pictures of the bottom of the radiator: 1 of the left side and 1 of the right. Thanks in advance for any help.

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/3932/radleft.jpg

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/4140/radright.jpg

The lower radiator hose is the drain plug.

Oh, ok, that's strange, I've never seen that before but thank you.

you have the beginnings of rust on your lower radiator mount too. You may want to thoroughly clean that area and check how far it has progressed. But rest assured check out the poll thread for radiator mounts, people in there had some SERIOUS rust issues. You not nearly that level yet.

yeah........NO!

dont listen to that tool. I will try to find you a picture of the drain plug (best way to describe it..its right in the middle of the bottom of the radiator towards the driver side, there is a little plastic, phillips head "screw" that is actually the plug

you can see a diagram, if you follow this link and go down to page 14. Under the "section 214" diagram you will see #4 is "radiator drain c*ck [because if you right **** out it gets starred out]"..you remove this piece by unscrewing it and voila.
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/maxima/1996/LC.pdf

damn Tigersharkdude, you beat me to it! I went straight to nicoclub.com to search through their FSMs. Google image search was a fail. But it did find a NICE 6th gen pic of the drain plug. Same concept OP.

Ya, that's the service manual I have and I saw that diagram, but (i know its hard to tell in my picture) I do not have (or cannot find) that screw anywhere. I have looked just to the left (driver's side) of the bottom of my radiator and cannot find it. I just got this car so I'm not sure if the PO installed a new radiator, but it looks fairly old so I doubt it.

BTW I really appreciate the replies, thank's guys.

One way you could find it, with the splash shields in place..there is an access hole in one of them for the radiator drain plug.

OP, may I ask if your car is RHD or LHD?

i had to replace my Calsonic OEM radiator with a cheap OEM replacement when I had a front end collision to keep the costs down. But even that had a drain plug in roughly the same area. But I can't recall from memory for sure though.

same..One thing though, if the ops car is RHD, the plug would be on the passenger side and not the driver side. I say this because the picture looks to be taken of the right side of the car

Pics Brad if you can find one. I have to change the t-stat on mine soon so I'll have to drain as well...I think.

The first pic is the drivers side and the second pic. is of the pass. You can tell by the return hoses for the auto tranny. When my car was an auto and I replaced the radiator, I ended up getting one that didnt have a drain plug. You could see where is was supposed to be but it was'nt there. Looks like your just gonna have to use the lower hose removal technique.

No need to drain the cooling system to change the T Stat.

to heck with using that tiny *** plug. Jus use the lower rad hose, much quicker

hes right its faster and theres nothing wrong with doing this, i've drained a lot of cars like this

Oh, no? I thought the stickys said to drain. Mind shooting me a pm with your thoughts on not draining and how much of a mess I'll make? Just don't want to jack this guys thread too much.

:spit:

I jus saw this smh

I did see the hole in the shield, that was the first place I looked, but there was no drain plug where the hole was. So I took the shields off and still no luck. I ended up just using the lower hose to drain, which made a bit more of a mess but worked just fine. Thanks everyone.

http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/...8/IMG_0486.jpg

Theres a cutout right on the bottom of the bumper. See that hole top middle of the pic? Thats right where the screw is, making it nice and easy to drain. No need to remove anything but to save you some digging around after, dont over loosen it or it will get forced out and you will have to search through coolant to find the screw again or use the same method you use to remove the oil drain plug to keep oil from getting on you(unscrew as your pushing it in and then when its out you can quickly pull it out without getting any on you)

hey man i did a write up for the 5th gen t-stat if that would help

I'll dig thru thru 5th gen section tonight and have a look. Thanks bud.

:lol: WTF, you dont have to drain the rad to change your thermostat. all you do is unbolt the thermostat housing, you'll lose a bit of coolant (i would put a pain under but its not too much).

remove the old T-stat, clean housing with a razor blade, install new gasket and thermostat, bolt the housing on again, refill your radiator with a bit of coolant, bleed the system, and boom youre done. you probably wont get much if any air out when you bleed the system but better to do it vs risking trapped air

What are the things called on the top edges of the radiator? Radiator Mounting Brackets?

There is no reason for you to drain your whole radiator to change the t-stat. 2bros just take one of them flat 4ftx2ft storage bins that are like a foot high and put it under the car on the side of the t stat make sure your car is cold yada yada yada

LOL, I think I got it all under control now with the help of you and another guy. Its been a while since I have changed a T-stat and have NEVER changed it on the Max so its a little new to me right now.

http://craphound.com/images/21koB5fy...500_AA280_.jpg
this is the bin I was talking about did you check out that thread?

Yeah I checked it out. my only real concern was to drain or not and bleeding the system after but I think I'm all good. I'll probably find a way to block off the hose to lessen the amount of coolant I lose when taking it off the stat.