We just picked up a 2000 Maxima for my mother on Friday.
It's a GXE, 142k km(88k mi) and it seemed to be well taken care of, couldn't find any problems with it aside from a few dings and scratches.
My mother has been driving it for 3 days now. Today she called me and told me the Service engine soon light came on. I got pissed off, till she got home and told me the temperature gauge was pegged at hot, then my blood started boiling.
I checked the fans and they both go on. I let the car cool down a bit, the temp gauge was around 1/2. I started it, and within 2 minutes or so, it climbed back almost all the way to hot, so I shut it down.
What could be causing this? I was thinking it might be the thermostat being stuck shut, but both of the rad hoses get hot and there seems to be coolant in them.
Only other things I can think of are water pump, blown headgasket(my oil/coolant aren't milky, no white residue in the oil cap or dip stick), or a faulty gauge or sensor, but I have a feeling the SES light is just gonna say the car is overheating.
I'm going to get a scanner from work tomorrow and check the codes, but I doubt it'll tell me why it's overheating.
Has anyone else had similar problems? I've tried using search but it doesn't work for me, it says I don't have permission.

 

Turns out it was just low on coolant. I checked the overflow tank and it was fine, but I took the cap off and added about 1L of water, it's not overheating anymore.
I'm gonna flush the coolant soon, it's running the green crap.

 

After doing this... make sure to watch the coolant level like a hawk, you might also wanna check for coolant leaks between the front and rear cylinder head. There is a coolant passage that connect the 2 cylinder heads togheter and the upper radiator hose runs from there to the radiator. The gaskets like to leak on 3.5Ls alot in those spots, it might be that they are leaking on your car also.... or it could be a water pump too. Just be safe and check the coolant in a week or less to make sure its not loosing it. Also keep an eye on the oil- if it looses it or gains, it means that you have some head gasket problems. Best way to check the oil is to let the car sit over nite to let all the oil drain back into the oil pan- this gets you 100% accurate readings. Hopefully its all good, I havent seen any head gasket failures or overheating issues with VQs, unless they have leaking water pumps or coolant passage gaskets.

 

Yeah I'll be watching the coolant, I have a feeling it'll go down again.
There were no leaks on the ground, I let the car idle for about 20 min. Also no leaks below the rad. going to check that passage tomorrow.
I also gotta scan the car tomorrow to see why the SES went on. Hopefully it'll just be an overheating code
I hope I don't have to replace anything. I don't trust mechanics, and I don't feel confortable working on newer cars, I know my car(vw golf) inside out, but I don't want to get into the maxima
Thanks for your help

 

When the water pump leaks- it leaks from the passenger side of the motor, down behind the AC compressor onto the ground. If the car had its coolant flushed every 30K miles, this would not happen. I'm a freak when it comes down to maintenance, and I always tell everyone to flush their coolant once a year. Its not like it costs a fortune or is hard to do.

Make sure to put the heat on FULL blast HOT and fan speed on 1 when bleeding the coolant of air- after topping it off. Maybe some idiot at the dealership didn't do that when doing a coolant flush, and it was low. There is a water valve that shuts off coolant circulation to the heater core under the dashboard. If you drain all the coolant out of the motor, and then fill it up with the heater on COLD, there is a chance that you won't have coolant in the heater core anymore. 1st time you turn on the heat the coolant circulates through the heater core, and takes some of the coolant out of the radiator leaving you with low coolant- in the radiator. I hope this makes sense, I've seen it happen too many times with different cars I've worked on.

 

flush the radiator.. and buy a good coolant.......

 

I will flush the coolant soon. Gotta change the oil, flush the coolant, and change the ATF and filter.

 

it seems that if I fill the cooling system properly, it overflows into the overflow tank after a while and the system is low again
Maybe it's just the cap, but i doubt it

 

does your coolant overflow bottle overflow? Do you have any visable coolant leaks? Does clouds of white smoke come out of the exhaust when you start it up or when its been sitting for a bit? One thing to check, in my 4th gen i had overheating problems, never hit the H but got about 3/4 of the way, both the fans turned on, but i found out one of them was really weak, and occasioanly didnt turn on. this was in the middle of summer in 30+ celcius. Another thing to look out for, if you pegged the temp gauge you have posed a risk of warping the heads/block due to the extreme heat youve put the engine through. hopefully its nothing major, just something little.

 

It overflowed into the overflow tank. I took it back to the dealer we got it from and they said they think it's the headgasket, which is what I initially thought was the problem. Good thing we got warranty that covers the headgasket, but it only covers it up to $750, so the dealer and my mother are gonna share the rest of the cost.

 

I hate when they 'think' and not know....

**** like that has cost me.... so I'm very specific now.

 

Sorry guys and I know this is not appropriate place to post but I have no other choice. I registered but it won't allow me to start new threads, keeps saying that I'm not allowed to. I tryed contacting a moderator via PM, but it won't allow me to do that either. Can a mod please PM me what i need to do and why my account isn't working. This is the second one I made and same thing is occuring. Thanks guys. And once again sorry to post in here about this.

 

It's not working because you don't have at least 15 useful posts.....

Now don't run off and post useless **** in order to obtain that 'status'....

 

I'm sorry I didn't know that. Thank you for your help.

 

don't forgoet with the thermostat, since they do fail after mayny miles of open and close and they would be stucked close if it over heats again, It's a wear part.