I have had a very small oil leak on my 2002 Maxima for over a year now. The dealer has made several attempts to fix it, twice removing the oil pan to re-seal it, then replacing the entire pan when re-sealing didn't work. Still I get small oil puddles under the car. The dealer looked again today and now they have decided that it's the Oil Cooler that is the culprit and they want $600 to replace the oil cooler. My question is this; has anyone on The Org replaced their Oil Cooler themselves, and if so, how difficult a job is it? If it's something a friend and I can do ourselves (both pretty handy) and save me the $600, I would like to explore that option. Thank you!!

 

I didnt know thw 5th gen had an oil cooler

 

According to the dealer it does! :-)

 

your car doesnt have an oil cooler...they must be talking about something else

 

This is something you can do yourself easily, it's probably the price of the part itself that counts for most of the price the dealer is asking for installing a new one.

 

Yes it does pal. The oil filter is installed on it. I changed mine couples of week ago cause of a leak.

This pic is taken form the shop manual

 

Oh and by the way, cost me $480 CAN for it and about +- 1hour to change it, including getting the car in and out of the garage.

 

well i stand corrected...most true "oil coolers" are remote coolers away from the hot engine. dont understand how that cools the oil (guess thats why people dont think the car has one)

 

Thank You Saucisse!

 

Replace the cooler? Unless it's badly corroded by the coolant which I doubt, or it has other physical damage then why would it be replaced. The oil leak can come from only one place and that's the "O" ring between the cooler and the block (upper oil pan).

 

Yes on the Maxima it's not like a radiator type that you would find in front of the radiator and power steering cooler...this one use ''cold'' coolant to cool the oil or should I say regulate the oil temp.

Mine had a dent cause by???? To remove it just remove the oil filter, in the midle of the cooler there's the adaptor you need to remove (which is screwed into the bloc) and don't forget to replace the gasket between the cooler and engine bloc with a new one.

 

wow thats cool news to me. where does the line go from the oil cooler?

 

so if there is an oil "cooler", why do i always burn the **** out of myself when i change the oil?

 

lol your car doesn't like you ^^^

 

The engine oil cooler is there to ''cool'' down the oil for the engine itself, not your hands

 

so it cools the oil before it goes back to the engine?
so it gets hot again before it comes out the drain plug?

 

Saucisse,

You said you there's an "adapter" you need to remove on the cooler....is there some sort of special tool you need to remove that part? Thanks again.

 

soonerfan: The oil pump picks up the hot oil from the oil pan and discharges this hot pressurized oil to the oil cooler, then the filter and then to the engine. Cool(er) is a relative term. The oil is still going to be hot. Under heavy engine loads the coolant from the block which is what is fed through the oil cooler is going to be damn hot but it still will remove heat from the oil which can be even hotter. I believe they are trying to keep the oil under about 250 deg. F.

 

Just a question. I have yet to look, but does this apply to the 5.5/3.5L or the 5th/3.0L engine. I'm feelin like soonerfan. I gotta go look.

 

North America Gen. 5s didn't get the oil cooler but the Euro spec. ones (along with the common sense oil specs) did I believe. Also the VQ35s have the piston squirters which I suspect increases the oil temp. so Nissan felt they needed the oil cooler on the Gen. 5.5s. The increased engine loading with the power increase probably had a lot do to with it as well.

 

If my memory's good you don't need anything special to remove the oil cooler connector.

 

very informative thread, to bad it does not apply to the 2000 se

 

I have some more info for those that are interested. The part number for this cooler is 21305-8J100. Called a "Nissan Cooler Assembly".....my local Dealership here in the Atlanta area wants $371.76 for it....but if you Google that part number you get just one hit....Courtesy Nissan in Texas....and their price is "only" $242....so it's a $130 less from them. I'm tempted to try P.Samson's idea first and take the existing cooler off and see if it's maybe just the O-ring/gasket that has failed and is causing the leak. Would be cheaper to replace the O-ring than it would be to replace the whole cooler. Guess I'll see when I pull off the existing cooler and take a look at it.

 

I'm just wondering if the cooler attach bolt (which has the threads for the oil filter) was not torqued properly and has backed off (with every removal of the oil filter?) enough to cause the leak at the "O" ring. Is the cooler loose? When you remove the filter for access, check the attach bolt first for being torqued. Still go ahead and buy the "O" ring. The torque spec. for the bolt is 33-39 ft/lbs.

 

Yup not bad idea to check if the connector is loose....oh and also if you remove the cooler...when reinstalling it put some thread locker (red loctite).