I have a 2012 Maxima. Yesterday while driving home on the freeway after work, the engine started hesitating when I tried to accelerate. I was very low on gas so I thought that might be the problem. I got off at the next exit and filled up, then got back on the freeway, but it was still doing it so I exited again. Then I noticed the engine temp was all the way on the "H," so I pulled over and parked and had it towed home.

From the small amount of googling I did afterwards, I understand overheating and cylinder misfiring are both symptoms of a bad head gasket. It doesn't seem to have any other symptoms, like milky-ness in the oil or oil in the coolant. It starts up smoothly and runs fine at low speeds, and doesn't emit white or blue smoke. It does seem to be leaking coolant on the driver's side towards the rear of the engine.

I'm resigned to it being a blown head gasket, but just thought I'd ask, any hope that it's something else? If there are other things I can check then I'd like to do that first, before taking it to a shop, in case it's something I can fix myself. If it's a head gasket I don't think I'd dare try it. I have a fair amount of experience working on my own cars, including a couple of timing belts, but from the videos I've seen I think a head gasket is out of my league.

Thanks and I'd appreciate any advice.

 

I just had somewhat the same experience. The coolant was leaking from the hoses connected to the throttle body. Pretty easy to get to and repair alrhough my temp repair (no pun imtended) with some high pressure fuel hose worked well, i replaced them with the oem hoses as soon as i could. So inspect those hoses and connection, it may be an inexpensive fix.

 

Wow, that's good to hear. I haven't been able to pinpoint the leak so far, but I did see some little puddles of coolant on the topside of the engine, in the area of the throttle body. How similar was your experience exactly, did you overheat and have trouble accelerating?

 

Yes, my symptoms mirrored yours although i was on a thru street and not a highway. Idle ok, apply throttle and bad things happened (no acceleration, jerking, etc). I just pulled into the nearest parking lot, found no coolant, walked (or rather played a crazy version of dodge car) across the road to a NAPA store, bought a couple of gallons of coolant, filled the radiator (with the leak, no pressure so no issue opening the radiator cap,) drove the 3 miles home, and found the leak. Once fixed, the old girl drove just fine. A couple of thousand miles later and still no issues (although my mpg is down a bit, that could be the change from cooler temps to using ac constantly.) Please keep us posted on your situation.

 

LtLeary,

That sounds exactly like what happened to me. I will definitely report back. Thanks again!!

 

After further inspection it wasn't either of the hoses that you replaced (I looked at your post to see if there were pictures, and of course there were). But lo and behold, right next to those was this big sucker with a big fat gash in it. If this isn't the one that's leaking, I give up. It's apparently one of the ones that goes into the heater core. I'm going to order one tonight and I'll post back with the result.

 

Well, i am with you on that hose! I can say I have ever seen a hose split like that. Hopefully, the extra over-engineered VQ and management systems Nissan deployed on our Maximas limited the damage to inconvience only.

 

Is that why the car was hesitating when I tried to accelerate, the engine management system? I'm guessing it limits revs when the engine overheats, in order to prevent damage?

Anyway I finally managed to get to the dealership and pick up the replacement hose. I got it in pretty easily, replaced the remaining coolant with new coolant, etc. I'm also planning to change the oil before driving it for any length of time.

I don't see any leaks so I guess I replaced the right thing. But now I've got a couple of error codes: P1217 (which I understand is engine overheating); P0102 (Mass or Volume Airflow, A Circuit Low); and P0113 (Intake Air Temperature, Sensor 1 Circuit High). Before I try to reinvent the wheel, did you get any of these after your overheating incident?

 

No maf code but the others, yep. I reset them and have had no issue after my leak repair.And yes, the engine management system was trying to limit the damage....hopefully successfully.

 

My error codes are not doing me the courtesy of disappearing after I reset them. They just come right back. I guess I have a research project ahead of me ...

Thanks.

 

These cars have a failsafe for Overtemp. It possibly is what you are feeling when trying to get on the highway. A coolant leak is the root cause here.. Overtemp and headgasket failure are the Result. These engine can and do hold up to a few over temp cycles. Looking at your photos that appears to be a heater hose which is a large leak.

There are several ways I use to determine a failed head gasket. But more importantly how it failed. You can have milky oil from a leaking water pump on a VQ by design.
In your case Ide go right to it and pull all the spark plugs and have a look.. If you have an entire bank or one plug even, that is extremely clean compared to the others, look down into the tube with a flash light at the top of the piston and if its mirror polished... that may be your answer.

However, since you have access to a scan tool I take it. Hook up the the car and under it's live data function monitor it's temp at idle for 30 mins or untill the fans kick on. Also note fan operation here by Turning on the ac to be sure they are coming on when commanded. Then turn the ac to off and resume at idle. What you need to be sure of is that the coolant temp sensor is reading correctly and also that the fans are in fact coming on when the car reaches temp. (180-205) range is what I see on cars with older or lazy thermostats and finally be sure that when the car is up to temp that both upper and lower radiator hoses are in fact hot.


I need more information on this and Codes..

 

Make sure the system has no air bubbles by running heat on high, preferably with the radiator "nose up" or at least on an incline and checking that it is actually full and that the fans come on. Keep an eye on both the guage an the scan tool reported temps. Dont use the recovery bottle as a guage...until the system pressureizes, it wont access the coolant there.

 

RS:

Thanks for helping, I appreciate it. I ran the car for 30 min. as you suggested. The temp got up to 197 max. The interior gauge was right in the middle between H and C. Both the top and bottom heater hoses were hot (the top one somewhat hotter). The fans came on when I turned on the AC, and went off when I turned it off. I didn't see them come on by themselves. But they're pretty quiet so if they came on when I wasn't looking, I probably wouldn't have noticed.

Does this tell us anything?

The codes I'm getting are P1217 (engine overheating); P0102 (Mass or Volume Airflow, A Circuit Low); and P0113 (Intake Air Temperature, Sensor 1 Circuit High). I've tried clearing them 3 or 4 times but they don't go anywhere. Why would it keep saying the engine is overheating when the live data says it's not?

BTW one thing I noticed, there's a slight vibration in the engine that I can feel through the steering wheel. I know that could have various causes, but I'm sure it wasn't doing it before it overheated. In fact I don't think it was vibrating after it overheated either. (I remember noticing how smoothly it ran when I pulled it into my driveway after being towed home.) When I first noticed the vibration was after I had replaced that split hose. So I'm wondering if, in the process of doing that, I messed something up in the area of the air intake or throttle body (which I removed to change the hose). I've checked to make sure I didn't leave anything loose or detached, but maybe I need to take it apart and check again.

Thanks again!

 

LtLeary,

I didn't see your message until I was in the middle of the 30-minute test I just posted about. At that point I was afraid to loosen the radiator cap since the engine was hot. But I'll give that a try tomorrow if the mystery hasn't been solved by then.

Thanks!

 

I wasn't proposing removing the cap while hot. Rather, when cool, after a heat cycle, open the cap and make sure the system is full. As Eric O. of South Main Auto says..."safety third!"

 

Ha! No, what I thought you meant was to start it with the cap off and wait for it to get hot, like when using one of those big funnels to burp the system.

 

This evening I went through the radiator burping procedure. First I took off the cap and checked the coolant level. It wasn't all the way at the top but you could see it a couple inches down. I put the funnel in the fill hole and poured in coolant until I had about an inch worth in the funnel. It took maybe 12-16 ounces. Then started the engine and let it get warm. There were very few bubbles and I didn't have to add any more coolant. I'm almost certain the thermostat opened because at one point you could see a slightly different color coolant in the funnel, which to me indicates that coolant from inside the engine has reached the radiator.

I then removed the air intake compartment and associated pieces, just to check whether I'd left anything loose or unattached. In the process I noticed that the throttle valve, or whatever it's called -- the round disc that opens and closes when you hit the accelerator -- was pretty grimy around the edges. It seemed to be actually kind of stuck. So I cleaned it good with throttle body cleaner. After cleaning it, putting things back together, and starting the engine, the vibration that I mentioned before seemed to have resolved. I took it for a five minute drive and it seemed pretty much normal, no leaks, no overheating.

But dang it! The error codes are still there, and won't go away when you try to reset them. Any other suggestions?

 

All fixed! I was pretty much ready to give up, but some googling led me to a post that suggested changing the MAF sensor. I didn't see any relation between that and the overheating, but it could be relevant to the additional error codes. I ordered a cheap one from Amazon just to see what would happen. I installed it and didn't notice any difference, but it didn't make the codes go away.

Meanwhile I found something in the service manual about deleting sticky error codes. I didn't mention it before, but the Check Engine light wasn't on, I only knew about the codes through my code reader. Anyway, you turn the ignition on, then off for 10 seconds, then on again, then off for 10 seconds. Then you drive it three times and if the thing causing the error code doesn't happen during those three trips, the code will be deleted. I did it, drove it a few times, and sure enough the codes went away.

I don't know if the new MAF sensor fixed anything, but the car seems to run better now than it has since I bought it used 3-4 years ago. Maybe the old sensor was malfunctioning in some way all this time? I don't know. But I love my car again!

Thanks again for the help!

 

Glad you got it sorted! Odd about the MAF coming up concurrent to your overheat experience but it makes sense if your MAF is bad, driveability will suffer. Thank for the tip on clearing "stuck codes."