I bought a '99 Maxima SE last March from a guy who demonstrated that he took great care of the car. But after 2 summer driving seasons in Atlanta, should I change the antifreeze? Are there any other tell tale signs to change your antifreeze besides overheating on the side of the road?

fisrt change: 4 years, every 2 years thereafter. Good preventive maintenance. Antifreeze is inexpensive. Water pumps are more expensive. A visual inspection of the color will tell an experienced eye how old or bad the coolant solution is.

What color am I looking for?

Is it important to drain the back too, or will the front due for now?

I'd change it now. Don't bother with the engine block. It's @*#(king difficult/impossible to do on these cars. Just do the radiator twice as often (it's got half the coolant). That will give you 50% change every time, so after two times you'll be 75% changed (given that new/old mixes each time).

Anybody have anything to add to this?

Do you change your anti-freeze all at once, or just the front?

Is this true effective or unsafe for the overall cooling of your engine?

30k is recommended and use the Prestone 50/50 Green. No its not impossible to do all the maxima at once. Open the drain and open the top, turn on the heater and run while adding fresh water till the fluid is clean with car running and heat on. Once its clear, cut off car.. Fill the radiator up and then take the car up on ramps to burp the system....

It does suck but can be done

Oh, and use warm water through the block, not cold. And don't spray using a garden hose. And don't run it on just water for too long.

I am new here but I know this,Anti freeze needs to be changed because the PH in it eventually goes into the corrosive state,If left unchanged it will burn through head gaskets it will also cause many other problems,It can not be detected by smell or color.Do yourself and your car a favor and change it.

isn't tap water bad? i thought only distilled water should be used. if you add every once in awhile, is that a good enough lazy man's change?

Tap water in some areas is worse than it is in others, but Distilled water is demineralized. Demineralized water won't contribute to mineral deposits in your cooling system. It's cheap insurance since it typically costs less than a dollar a gallon.

Agree with the above posts in that it is a bear to remove the engine block drains. I simply do a radiator drain and refill with a 50/50 mix of Nissan OEM coolant and distilled water every 2 years or 30K. 10 years running with original radiator and water pump.

Check out the stickie on this topic:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=203347

Don't believe everything you read there, but the experts there give some good advice -- particularly about brands (only Nissan, Honda or Toyota antifreeze) and how to effectively drain both the radiator and the block by flushing with distilled water.

I will be doing mine this spring when it warms up some more.

Use distilled water and Nissan Long Life OEM coolant and rest in peace.
With Nissan Long Life Coolant you can go 5y/60K miles without having to touch it.
Again, pl. don't monkey in the coolant dept, you will get your fingers burnt big time.

Is the long life coolant already in the car from factory? I just hit 30K on my 02 and never changed the fluid

I would check the owners manual to be sure what came with the vehicle. BTW, the Long Life coolant has a very distinctive deep green color unlike the dexcool stuff. Either way, I will source the coolant from the Nissan stealership even if your vehicle is not equiped with the Long Life Coolant.

I recently paid the stealer to flush my coolant after five years on the orignal.
I SPECIFIED 5yr. long-life....and what happened?
They put-in some 2yr. crappola.
i made them replace it with the 5yr. stuff. Why?
The long life is SPECIFICALLY made to contain low borates and silcates. Silicates are the abrasive element that literally will eat away your rubber pump seals, and borates are desgined to off-set the high mineral content of some local tap-water.
Using Distilled water with this Coolant is good insurance for long-life reliability, and not prematurely wearing-out your gaskets and seals in crtical areas.
My stealer had to special order the Coolant - but it's worth it!

gr

FYI, there was an Canadian orgmember posting that his nearest Nissan Stealership did not even have Nissan Long Life coolant. When this orgmember went to get coolant, he was give Peak Global coolant...

ghostrider17: Makes me wonder if they first stuck Peak in and had then put in OEM long life coolant.

These service folks in the stealerships can sometimes be real assshoooles.

I dont' know exactly what they put in the first time, but I KNOW it wasn't the 5 yr stuff.
Fortunately they ADMITTED the mistake.
My dealer didn't stock it either--- in fact didn't even KNOW Nissan offered it.

I MADE them save the used Gallon jug of the Ext. Life Nissan stuff, and show it to me after they were done. It's not diluted - so one gallon does the job.

gr

what's distilled water? not the one from home?
well in canada, we can drink the water from the tap, is that good enough?

should i use 100% 5 yr coolant from the stealer? or do i have to mix?
coz it can get extremely cold here...i wanna be prepared for -50C

Distilled water is the water that has been run through a still -- similar to a moonshine still. It will say Distilled Water on the outside of the bottle. Here in the states they are sold by the gallon bottle -- can't speak for the sizes in Canada.

If you want to go that low, you will need more antifreeze and less water in your mixture. (The normal mixture is 50% - 50%). You should check with your Nissan dealer to see what proportions you need (antifreeze and water) to get down to - 50 degrees C. Suspect it will be about 65% antifreeze and 35% water -- but I'm just guessing here.

Good luck.

Recommend you use Nissan-branded coolant, but do not use the coolant at 100% strength. Nissan coolant mixed at 50/50 will give you protection to -37 deg C. You could probably go a little stronger as Silver Max 04 stated; but straight, undiluted anti-freeze will actually freeze at a warmer point than a mixture of coolant and water will.

Be advised that in addition to keeping your engine from freezing in the winter, coolant also protects the engine from overheating in the summer. I suspect that straight, undiluted "anti-freeze" will also have a lower boiling point than a proper mixture of anti-freeze and water will...and that could cause your engine to overheat in the summer.

Bottom line is to mix the anti-freeze in accordance with the instructions contained on the bottle or have the vehicle serviced by a qualified technician.

If you intend to replace the coolant, I would flush the entire block including radiator with distilled water till water comes off the upper hose. Then drain radiator (the block will still have a gallon of distilled water) and fill gallon of full strength Nissan Long Life Coolant and it will mix nice and easy over a few cycles bringing the composition to close to 50:50.

i found this, i know it's not a maxima but just general steps.
the site is very interesting for a learning newbie like me

If you follow the steps on that site listed above, you end up with city tap water -- not distilled water -- in your cooling system. Rather than follow the steps on this site, I think you would be better off following the steps outlined on this site. Read Post # 21 on this thread here in Fluids and Lubes -- these are the best steps to follow:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=203347

There are other good posts on this thread (I only reviewed the first 200), including these:
#29, _ #44, _ #76, _ #86, _ #89, _ #123, _ #127, _ #132, _ #146, _ #193, _ #195.

While the information on these posts is good, the prices are very likely out of date -- you will likely pay more.

thanks for pointing those out.

since you guys are in the south and im in the north, im gonna drain and fill until the old one is out. what do you people think?

If you follow the directions I recommended, you will end up with a 50-50 blend of distilled water and antifreeze. There are people saying you should not have less than a 50-50 blend even if you live in Florida -- because antifreeze also helps prevent the coolant from boiling in hot weather. If you want more antifreeze than 50% in your blend (which you may, living in the north), than you will have to find some way to remove the distilled water from the engine block before you start filling the cooling system with new antifreeze. Engine block drains are one possibility. Others may have other suggestions.

ok so i bought this coolant from the dealer.
i think it's NOT premix 50-50, where do i find this distill water?
i think im gonna have to buy a measuring cup now..

ok i think i know what distilled water is now.
it's the one at the store where people go filled up in the blue bottles.
it's specially filtered for people to drink.

so 2 L of antifreeze and 2 L of distilled water, am i right?

No. There is a difference between distilled water and filtered or spring drinking water. The filtered water you are referring to is simply that...filtered. Distilled water, as SilverMax04 has explained, has been run through a distilling process which removes the minerals from the water. You want to use Distilled water. Try looking in the grocery store with the other beverages or perhaps where they sell household stuff...many people use distilled water in their irons to keep them from clogging...so sometimes they keep it with household things. If in doubt, ask someone at the store.

Yes, 50/50 = equal parts of coolant and (distilled) water. So, 2L of each.

ohhh...
ok thanks bro.

thats worse than any question I have ever asked

They sell distilled water at canadian tire just next to the antifreeze bottles.

Do you know if the drain plug has a specific torque spec in FT-LBS?

everything has a torque spec, but the drain plug just tight enough so it dont leak. make sure not to over tighten it.

is it possible to put that orange fluid in after the flush, thought the orange was long life? see it alot in new cars.