So I drove the car for almost half the day back and forth highway long miles. Couple of quick stops. I was using the air condition all day plus it was like 90 degrees. At the end of the day in the night after using drive thru i noticed the temp. needle was on hot. I quickly turned on the heat and then for a couple of mins i turned the car and waited almost 30 mins to cool.
I was reading that it's somewhat normal on the summer. This was my first experience. Was i abusing my car too much?

Any thoughts on this?

 

Ya, that is not normal at all.

 

I had a similar situation with my 2003 i35. It used to overheat after driving short and long distances. This lasted about a week and just like you I assumed it was the weird but could be normal. I was driving home from work on a Saturday so there was no traffic, I had the A/C on and blew a head gasket. It ended up being a clogged Pre-Cat that was pushing all of the exhaust back into my engine creating too much hot back pressure. Look into it as it could cost you 1700 like it did me.

 

Not normal at all. I live in Florida and run a/c full blast and needle never moves. You have a problem.

I'd suggest starting with 2 things.

1. Check your coolant level. To do that properly, put the car on flat surface. When the engine is cold, open up the radiator. Your coolant level should be to the top of the radiator neck. If it is not, you have a leak somewhere.

The normal culprit is the water pump. There is an oring around the water pump that dies. Pump usually remains fine even with high mileage. In the pump, there is a "weep hole" which lets the water out of the pump when that oring goes.

This water drains to the ground on the passenger side just near the front wheel.

The other normal culprit is that you have a leaking hose.

The water pump repair is pretty expensive just because of the labor.

If it is neither one of those, check your oil to see if it has a milky residue. The head gaskets are pretty solid on these cars so I doubt it is that.

If you are losing coolant, it won't work to just fill it back up to the neck. You have to bleed the system correctly and fix the problem. Search this forum for instructions.

2. Check your fans, you may have one not working. To do that, get car to operating temp, turn on a/c full blast, open hood and inspect fans to see that both are running.

I've had two maximas where one fan died. Car would run good most of the time, but when hot and standing still would get real hot.

If one fan is out, replace the fans. If neither works, it is likely the relay or fuse. Both fans should always be on when the a/c is on. At other times, it is normal for only one fan to be running.

My bet - one dead fan.

 

This is good advice. However, I take exception to 2 tidbits.

This is a maybe. Depending on the climate, some people can drive around with one dead fan. When the 2nd fan dies, then the the problem becomes apparent. So it could be two bad fans.

And for what it is worth, RAD FAN 1 fuse is for the fan on the left (driver's) side and RAD FAN 2 is for the fan on the right side. So for both fans to not run because of blown fuses, both fuses would have to be blown.

This is not correct. There is only one signal from the ECU to run the fans and it goes to both fan motors. This is true for both the low speed and the high speed.

 

Thanks Dennis - now that you say it, I think I was thinking of the low and high speed settings.

And I agree that you can operate on one fan if it isn't too hot. That's exactly what happened to me I believe. But when it got hot... As in Florida hot, I started to overheat when not moving.

 

Guys I think you are right!

I just inspected my car for fans and I only see one!

So this has to solve the problem.