So, I just bought a 2000 Nissan Maxima SE 5spd manual today. On the test drive it felt a little slow. Like something was holding it back, but I got it for a good price and figured I could have anything that was wrong with it fixed pretty easily....

Well I drove the car home, almost 100 miles. It shifted into all gears fine, but just had no power getting up to speed and when you where driving 65 down the highway and would press down on the gas, it would not gain any speed or rev up the engine or really do much at all. Just slowly creep up in speed.

After getting the car home, I took it on a short trip to the store and when leaving the store parking lot it felt like the clutch was going in pretty far before getting any resistance, then all of a sudden I pressed in the clutch and it would no longer go into gear. I parked it on the side of the road, turned it off, looked everything over and then started the car pressed in the clutch a few times tried to get it into gear, then all of a sudden I heard a loud BANG and smoke came pouring out of the engine area. The radiator blew a huge hole in the top plastic. The car was not over heating or anything, so I am lost as to why it would do this?!

At this point I am thinking the car is a lemon, but still want it and still want to fix it.

Anyone have any ideas as to why the clutch is doing this or why the car did not have any energy? Related to clutch maybe? Do the radiators on these cars commonly blow up like this??

 

Yikes!

That clutch must have been completely shot when you bought it, or you don't know how to drive a stick.

Hopefully you did not do to much engine damage.....your engine must have been struggling to gain speed with a clutch that bad.

Probably gonna cost ya over a grand to get fixed.

How many miles are on it?

You had fluid in your clutch res.?

 

Clutches are a wear item. It is just time to do one. I would also like to say your lack of power could be from the clutch not fully dis/engaging. As for the radiators...OE radiators on the Maxima like to leak at the top seam. Some blow up, like yours...Some just seap coolant. Either way-they're not the greatest. You can find new radiators all around for 60-100 bucks. And since you saved some money on buying your Maxima-all the money you saved will help towards that new lightened flywheel, and Exedy clutch. Stoked. Maybe even Technafit's SS clutch line. Good luck.

 

I just got a Koyo Radiator and it wasn't bad at all to install (which was my first time doing with some help from a bud of mine).. I believe their a lot cheaper then stock ones. Theirs a group deal on here for them so you might want to check it out. Might as well change the T-Stat and hoses while your at it.

http://forums.maxima.org/group-deals...t-pricing.html

 

Well I think I found the problem with the clutch. I think the master cylinder?? went bad.

As for the radiator.... I found one locally for $275 and I am about to install it. I am hoping nothing explosive happens again and that it was just a crack in the plastic from age or whatever and it just happened to choose now to break completely... Still quite a scary thing, I was almost ready to run when I heard it blow, it was so loud it sounded like the engine itself blew up.

 

yeah the radiators in our cars are prone to doing that after a while i guess

I got a koyo from the link above and its been great.

 

It's odd that your radiator even did that.......I would have thought the radiator cap relief valve would have opened to relieve the pressure.......

Luckily mine worked as advertised a few month back.....

 

Once warmed up the radiator is always under pressure, it raises the boiling point of the coolant. If the plastic end tank failed, the cap would have done nothing to save it, the tank simply failed under normal pressure.

 

I know.....the valve in the radiator cap must have failed, preventing the excessive pressure/coolant from entering the overflow tank. Poster didn't mention the tank exploding, but the radiator itself.

 

Ok, so I replaced the radiator, Bled the hydraulic clutch, replaced the air filter and spark plugs, and it now runs a whole lot better. But it was missing one of the bolts to the back middle coil pack, so I am thinking this might be one of the reasons why it is not running up to power. I am going to go to a junk yard to try to find that bolt today and see if that does anything. It is more peppy now but it still has a bit of a miss.

 

Has it been three days since you bought the car? If not..take that crap back. Most states have a three day right of recision.

Not to be mean, but buying a car that you know has issues without getting it checked out out by an auto mechanic is a pretty dumb idea. Yeah, you might have gotten a good deal, but is it still a good deal if you have to spend $2000 to fix it?

Anyway, did the master cylinder take care of all your clutch issues?