I have a 07 altima (not a maxima) 4 door with about 105k its the 2.5l. It has just started loosing coolant. The radiator would run dry and the overflow would empty itself. I have check everywhere under car for leaks. Nothing. Top hose hot bottom one colder. I have flow through both so its deff not the thermostat. I recently started to smell coolant inside the car and now have coolant on driver side floor by pedals. So I'm convinced its the heater core. I also don't get good heat at idle but a lot when revving or driving. What are my options? Can i bypass the heater core? Could the heater core be clogged? Will a flush unclog it? Whats the cost to tear the dash down and replace the heater core?

 

the more I read this forum, the worse it's getting.

now have coolant on driver side floor by pedals. So I'm convinced its the heater core. I also don't get good heat at idle but a lot when revving or driving. What are my options? Can i bypass the heater core? Could the heater core be clogged? Will a flush unclog it? Whats the cost to tear the dash down and replace the heater core?


dude, obviously you have no clue, please, call nissan and have it fixed....I mean, what else can you do.

 

Good idea! What's the point of the forum then? I guess when we all have problems we should all just call nissan. What part of this do I not have a clue about? Please specify.

 

Sorry. You just obviously cannot fix it yourself.
There is nothing we can do to help you with that, you should really have it fixed in a shop.

 

Its going to cost approx $600-900 to replace your heater core. Can you bypass it? Sure, if you never want to have heat in your car and never want to sell it later. I cant tell you how much it will cost to bypass it because I have never asked or tried.

 

bypassing it is easy, you just have to connect the hoses going to the heater core going at the firewall with a piece of PVC pipe or something and some clamps. heater core started leaking on my Hilux and i bypassed it because aint nobody got time fo dat

labour to replace the HC in a shop is a few hundred-ish. its all labour costs for tearing down the entire dash

 

Just bypassed it. Bought $3 line at autozone. Took 5 mins problem temporarily fixed. Bringing to nissan tomorrow to see if my warranties will cover it or get a price quote.

 

I've never done a Nissan, took out the evaporator on a Neon (essentially the same job as heater core, since both are in the same dash box) I'll tell you, at the time I needed the money so I did it myself, took 3 days and the car was out of commission until it was done. THE longest job I've ever done on a car...i'll never do one myself again!

 

it's such a pain to get access to the evap on the max, it's crazy.
I tried to gain access to clean it, because it's full of mold, and I just gave up.
You would really have to tear down a LOT of stuff to get there.

Imo will cost above 1000. I would say 1400?

 

FYI the evaporator core and the heater core are not in the same box on the Maxima. The evaporator core is A LOT easier than the heater core.

Don't know if the Altima is the same as the Maxima.