I dropped my Maxima off at the dealer last night for an appointment today. I wanted to get a couple of issues looked at. The first issue was the smell of what I thought was coolant, so I wanted to make sure the head gaskets were ok. The next issue was that on a couple of occasions when in Ds mode, I would accelerate from a stop and the RPM's would go pretty high, as if the car would not change "gears". The valve body was just replaced under warranty in May. At that time the car felt like it was hesitating a tad under acceleration from a stop. After the valve body was changed, this ussue was gone.

I got a call from the advisor today. They are putting in a new CVT, and the head gaskets were leaking. Two cylinder heads showed signs of coolant, if I remember correctly. Car should be done by Friday. The head gasket work will start immediately. The CVT will get here on Thursday morning. All work will be covered under warranty. Other than the two times that the RPM's went up high (no redline), I had not noticed any performance issues. I'm sure glad I took it in.

 

Well damn. Thank goodness for warranties huh? I have 64k miles on my 2010 and I've had no issues at all. Good thinking taking it in.

 

WOW! That's pretty major! Glad all will be taken care of!

 

thats some serious work to get done.... hopefully an experienced mechanic/s works it...how many miles you got?

 

Ah man, what a bummer! Glad to read they're taking care of it! What year was yours by chance?!

 

Sorry to hear of your issues. At least it appears your on your way to having it back fairly soon and mostly at the cost of just some inconvenience.

Almost everything you mentioned with your car has occurred with mine (25K).
The coolant issue smell hasn't happened since it was around new.
I'm now kinda freaking out thinking I should maybe take it in.

 

Yeah it worked out bringing it in. They're taking care of it & being pretty cool about it.

My car is a 2010 with 58,6xx miles now. I put 1,500 miles on it last week too.



Thanks man. Yeah, should have it back in a short while.

Might be worth taking it in to get checked out. At first I wasn't really going to mention the acceleration thing with the transmission, but then asked them to check it out. I thought since the car was already there, might as well do it.

 

I've also complained about the Coolant Smell......they cheked it and said it's normal. There is apparently a vent on the coolant resivoir, and fumes are leaking from there. I don't know about that, but i've documented it atleast.

 

I have had the same response from the dealership about the coolant smell coming from the vent of the reservoir. Glad to hear you are getting it all taken care of.

 

The dealership gave me the same excuse so I asked them to top off my coolant. I took it back 3 weeks later to show them that the coolant was at the Low mark so either their tech didn't put coolant in it or its burning off. That's when they did a pressure test and found the head gasket was bad.

 

Yup, they found it by doing a pressure test. They went right to it after I told them of the smell & me having to add some coolant. I was prepared to pay for the diagnostic fee just to be safe. I wanted to know for sure one way or the other.

 

Sounds exactly like my 2012 25k miles


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So I have my car back. It feels good to be driving it again. It feels pretty peppy with the new transmission, but I'm actually trying to take it easy on it. So the good things are that my engine oil, cvt fluid, & coolant fluid have all been done, so I don't need them done for my 60k service.

 

Great to hear brother!!

 

Great! Hopefully your good to go with no more drivetrain issues.

With an upcoming oil change I will take the opportunity to do an oil analysis.
I have had the coolant smell albeit quite some time ago. Have also had to top off the coolant tank a couple of times in the 25K mile life span of ownership.
Not in a panic but just want to be sure. Obviously better to deal with it now than later.

 

I also have nonstop coolant smell. Taken in 3 times. They say it passed the pressure test but I don't know if they have visually inspected the gasket for seepage. So frustrating. Hope your car is all better! Can't wait to get mine finally fixed somehow.

 

By 'topping off' the coolant tank, I assume you are talking about the OVERFLOW coolant tank, and that you mean bringing the level up to somewhere between the 'hot' and 'cold' marks on the side of the tank, depending on how warm the engine is.

Unless the engine is really hot, the coolant level should be low in the tank. When the engine is cold, the tank should be almost empty. This tank is strictly for OVERFLOW purposes. If there is more than a tad of coolant in this tank when the engine is cold, it will be pushed out the overflow tube when the engine gets hot, giving off a coolant smell.

If I misunderstood your post, then what I said may not apply to your post.

In any event, let us know what the oil analysis shows.

 

sounds like you found a good dealer. mind telling us which dealer you went to.... we should have like a ranking system for dealers.... they would all be bad but than we could see the dealers to avoid at all costs.

 

I probably didn't choose the right term when I described what topping off was. I pretty much follow the manual as discribed below.

CHECKING ENGINE COOLANT
LEVEL

Check the coolant level

If the cooling system frequently requires
coolant, have it checked by a NISSAN

dealer.

 

If your having the coolant smell or have had to add coolant I would definately have it checked out.

As for the dealership, it would be nice to have information on the good & bad ones. I initially had a bad experience with this dealership, as the original person I saw was pretty rude & lacking in customer service skills. This was a few months back when I went in & they had to change out the valve body on the cvt. Having said that, my current experience has been very pleasant. I'm glad that I decided to give them another shot as my current service advisor is a very nice person to deal with. The dealership is Mossy Nissan in National City. If you go there ask for Michael, he's a good guy.

 

I know, seems like you can never tell. Sometimes it's a crap shoot on which service rep you get. There are the ones that want to listen and try to help and there are the ones that don't seem happy with their jobs and could care less about you or your vehicle.
They were really good when I had it in for the valve body replacement.

Hopefully the oil analysis (at the next oil change) will be fine and I won't need to even go in.

 

For those of you who have "that smell." I suggest getting under the car on your next oil change. The problem seems to be common on the rear cylinder bank making it a little difficult to find. Also, a compression test doesn't show anything if the leak is external to the engine, which is the most common case.

When under the car, look up around the area where the rear exhaust/Cat come down. You have a pretty good view of the rear exhaust manifold and head gasket. This is where I found my problem... a green, crusty leak. I took pictures and went to the dealer. They couldn't argue with pictures. This is a VERY common problem on Maximas and Muranos as they share the same engine.

 

Good info. I was under there more than once when installing the y-pipe and didn't notice anything like you mentioned, but then again I really wasn't looking for it either.
I think I'll take another look, thanks.

 

I had my cvt replaced last week as well under warranty. 2010 sv with approx. 31,000 miles. Similar symptoms, hesitation and finally not movng out of D going uphill from a deadstop. There was a whining as well which some folks attribute to a failing cvt. Do not hear it now. No coolant smell. Car with new cvt seems ok though I feel a slight hesitation/dip at around 2000 rpms. Its like butter once it hits 60mph.

 

It should continue to get better, it is still re-learning your driving style.
Glad everything worked out OK!