On top of a flatbed that is. Tonight was not a good night for my max at all. I was leading someone over towards the Bear Mt Bridge in NY and on the way back my car started clicking. I couldnt figure out what it was, not the cd player, not the heat and not a vibration. It sped up, died out and came back. I'm paying attention only to the road and to the noise. I noticed smoke from my exhaust tho i thought it was just dirt or because it was cold. About 5 mins later im going up a hill and give it more gas and i notice the temp is rising fast. My car over heated and i was parked at an intersection for 2 hours till a tow truck showed up.

To make matters worse, the car was just serviced yesterday, i just got home from school today, and i had huge plans because its the gf's birthday, valentine's day and such. When i poped the hood smoke poured out and when it finally cleared and i had a flashlight i noticed the anti freeze all over the place, the covering on the left was all off, either by the pressure or something. For now its sitting at the dealership, i'll find out tomorrow what wrong, but for now im just really aggrevated. And had to let off some steam, much like my car did tonight.

 

Got the car back today, apparantly when the car went in for the ac fix they didnt tighten a clamp and an air bubble got in and caused all that. Well luckily they didnt charge or try to, but its bs that it even happened. But of course that clicking noise is still there, any suggestions of what it could be???

 

Hmmmmm. An air bubble got into what?? Into the cooling system? Must have, if you overheated. And if it did overheat, I'm worried about that clicking sound. Does it speed up with engine rpm, like tappet noise?

I'd be all over them until that's fixed, because if it got too hot, you could have serious engine damage.

Sorry, but it doesn't sound too good to me!

Mike

 

Yeah it speeds up with engine rpm, and it only started happening when it overheated. I hope its just a lose vibration tho i have a feeling with my luck it wont be. Unfortuently i cant say i've had much luck with nissan's service, and this just adds to the list.

 

This sounds really odd. What did you bring it in for originally and what did they do? You need some documentation of what repairs were made on paper. Go to another Nissan Dealer and have them investigate the engine sound. It is possible that you have engine damage, based on the vague description. At least demand a 7yr 100K mile powertrain warranty!

 

If indeed you just had it serviced the day before, and the "cover" (I'm assuming overflow cap?) was off, it sounds to me like they checked the coolant level and didn't replace the cap. If the tapping didn't go away after it cooled down, you may have some engine damage from overheating.

This reminds me of a story..... I had an 82 Supra, purchased brand new from a dealership. At 3000 miles, I took it in to have the oil changed, and everything checked. A week later, on my way to college one morning, I spooled it up to about 6k RPM (6500 redline)going up a hill and all of a sudden, there was oil smoke coming from under the hood, oil mist on my windshield, and the oil press gauge went to zero. I immediately pulled over and called the dealership and they came and towed it. They kept me stringing along for THREE WEEKS because their "engine man" couldn't find the problem and they were waiting for the "factory engine expert" to come look at it. As it turns out, the grease monkey doing the oil change left the old gasket behind when he took the old filter off, and I was double gasketed. When the pressure built up on the high revs, it blew out the gasket material and sprayed oil everywhere. Here I was thinking I had blown the engine and done some very costly damage. They had the nerve to try to CHARGE ME for another oil change when I went to pick it up! Needless to say, I rarely let dealerships touch my vehicles anymore unless I need warranty work

 

I need warranty work too but I dont wanna go into the dealer, Id haveto take off my intake. Honestly though I dunno how they react to modded cars around here. Guess il just have to take it in and find out.

 

The service that was performed concerned the Dual controls of the AC. Not 100% sure of the details of it. All this talk of serious engine damage is really starting to scare me...Unfortunently i had to go back to college before i could have it looked at again, so i'm stuck with a stratus for the mean time. Hopefully, if they are open, my dad will get intouch with the dealership tomorrow, if not it'll have to wait till later in the week when i come home. This really couldn't have come at a worse time, but im glad it happened while i was home and not out of state.

 

The car was takin back today, and they say its a wind vibration and not engine damage. They think its due to the new grille but we still think its something they did when they did the service. The grille has been on for months without a problem, the noise only started after they took it in for the service which points to that. Hopefully soon it gets fixed.