I haven't ever tried to flush the coolant and being a novice is there a sticky thread detailing the procedure to flush the coolant and replace it with fresh coolant.

What is the capacity of the coolant for a 2000 Maxima?

 

Try these two:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....hreadid=241365

http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/502



The capacity of my '01 is 8 7/8 quarts, including the coolant recovery tank. Bet the '00 is the same.

 

Thank you for the URLs.

I drained 4 liters of the old coolant and replaced it with a 50:50 ratio of Prestone and distilled water. When I drained the old coolant from the reservior there was a thin layer of smuge at the bottom.

EVERYTHING IS CLEAN NOW (the water hose flush cleaned the radiator of unwanted particles).

One this I noticed the drained coolant was DARK green compared to light green of the Prestone coolant. Man the old coolant smelt like rubber.

 

how many miles on your 2000 Max?

 

I have 42,000 miles and year 2000 Maxima.

 

I just noticed that I filled up the reservior to 1/2 and the fluid is almost gone. This inspite of the fact that I filled the radiator till it could take no more. There is no leaks from the bottom of the car.

my imagination says that the air pockets in the radiator are replaced with coolant which is why additonal coolant is required after a long drive.

 

Exactly right. I first did a drain/fill on my 93 sentra last year. I dumped the entire load out (I think I skipped engine block, but I can't remember). It took me an hour of idling and topping up the radiator until it wouild take no more. I don't think I was doing it right though because I had the cap off...

So, last night on maxima (2000 with 59k miles), I did only the radiator. I found where the engine drain plugs were...front one looked like I could probably get it with enough effort, but the back one fug that sh*t. So I just dumped the 4 quarts out of the radiator and filled back up. Following the instructions in the haynes (same as manual) I filled the radiator and put reservoir to max and ran the engine with the rad cap on, then when car was cool I topped the rad up again, then started it, and at most one more of those cycles got it to the point where it's not taking any more fluid, so I'm good to go.

 

Yep after a while you won't have to keep topping it up!

 

Prestone has silicates that r not healthy for your water pump. If I were you, I'd do it again with the expensive non silicate nissan brand antifreeze. Use distilled water to flush and mix too.

 

I tried to get out the coolant reservoir for my 2k Max, there is a bracket holding the reservoir inside the fender. The only thing i got is the 1 screw and 1 bottem pin that hold the reservoir. Any help would be appreciated.

 

The notion that we have to use only Nissan Coolant is absolute nonsense.

First, Prestone is good enough and all that people say about silicates etc are pure fiction. Secondly the coolant that is put should be something that is a bit greasy for the water pump to not fry up.

Secondly. after a Prestone flush and driving around for 2000 miles, the coolant does retain that greasy touch which is all that the water pump needs.

I have seen my friends Totoya Camry (92 model) and he was running it on water ... pure water no coolant and he told me the water pump never failed.

I did see the Nissan Coolant and they too have that frightening comment on its product to not use any other coolant other than Nissan's.

FYI, if you think the coolant is not greasy the auto parts store sell a grease that mixes with the coolant to make it more greasy.