Well take a look here. Picture will be attached. I just took the car in for the first oil change. Dealers are suppose to top off fluids usually right? I mean how could they miss this? I decided to pop the hood before starting the car this morning and this is what I found. That cant be good. Is this why my heater has been working **** warm and not getting hot?

 

Not good at all. Top it off with coolant and place cardboard/ or roll it to the relatively dry place and wait a bit and if you see drops take it to the dealership immediately. Yes if heater does not blow hot air and it means there’s not enough coolant.

 

Thats just the reservoir, if you top if off DONT fill it past the MIN level when cold, after you drive the coolant expands and the level rises significantly. I would check the coolant level in your actual radiator when cold also.

 

How come his heater **** warm then?

 

I was not going to fill it past the MIN. That is where it should be at now when checking cold which raised the red flag to me. This is a new car with barely 5k on it so I was surprised to see this. Hope its not some other issue. Being so new I might just take it in to be on the safe side to have it checked out. I know Nissan also carries their own cooling solution in stock at any dealer.

 

At 5k mine was between min and where yours is now, but my heater always puts out hot. The dealer didn't seem to think this was any big deal. He filled it, dang, almost to the hot level. I drained it to 1/2 way between min and full and have not lost a drop. I have 12k on mine now.

 

Maybe I wont worry about it then. I should have been more clear on the **** warm statement. It just seems it takes an excessive amount of time for it to get warm. Its never heated me out even at 90f in auto mode. I pretty much use auto mode exclusively 99% of the time. I just honestly cant see a tech overlooking this when doing a oil change. The reservoir is right there and cant be missed.

 

Just curious. Do you usually use dual zone (diff. temps) or have same temp set for both driver and passenger?

 

Same temps for both sides. I very rarely if at all use the dual zone feature. Not sure if this makes a difference or not as well. But when we purchased the car brand new. It had been sitting on the lot for like 6-7 months.

 

As MaxJoe75 correctly said, that is only the coolant overflow reservoir. The radiator may be brim full while the overflow reservoir is sitting on or near virtually empty. When checking fluids, the level of coolant in the overflow reservoir should not be brought above the MIN line. Coolant above the MIN line could be forced out of the system and dumped on the ground when the engine is very hot.

While the engine is cool, open the radiator cap and check to see if coolant is near brim full. If it is, then coolant is not the reason your heater is not functioning as you might like. In that case, have the dealer check things out.

 

What is the latest on this? Car still running?

 

Its fine. You guys was right about the holding reservoir. When the car heats up and starts getting warm inside. I popped the hood and the fluid level is fine. It fills up at the MIN line or so.

 

I just noticed this low coolant situation. Was filling my windshield washer fluid and noticed overflow reservoir was practically empty after car had been running for about an hour. No visible leaks anywhere. Refilled it to MIN and will have it checked out at dealership on my next maintenance. Has anyone experienced this?

 

When was the last time you checked that reservoir? I check mine often because often I get a whiff of antifreeze. This last time I checked after not having checked it in a while I noticed a light blue residue around the reservoir filler neck and it smelled like antifreeze. Also the level was below min. I wiped everything down, started it up and let it idle while I watched what happened as the thermostat first released its built-up pressure. Voila! Instead of releasing the pressure lightly it kind of exploded into the reservoir. It was at this point that I noticed a very slight leak around the tightened reservoir cap. Now that I think about it I realize I've had a bit of antifreeze "powder" residue around the reservoir cap since the first hot day the car was run. Thinking back this also happened to my last Altima. I have replaced thermostats in both cars thinking they were not working right. No change. Dealer said "normal". A few months ago I added a round rubber gasket to the reservoir cap and that has solved this problem. This is not a sealed, presurized overflow system so I am not concerned about blowing out the reservoir. PS- I have never had any type of engine overheating problems and I usually get interior heat in very cold weather in short time. No more worries.

 

I know at least 6 months ago it was at MIN level and left it at that because it’s advised to do so. Coolant tends to expand when heated and didn’t want an overflow to occur. But now it is empty. I could barely see a hint of blue at very bottom of tank

 

In the 3.5 Altima, it states to fill it to the FULL LINE when cold. So the Manual for the Max says Minimum? Interesting...