Please tell me I'm not the only one that is hearing this. It happens when you pull away from a stop. It sounds like a stream trickling over rocks. It sounds like it's in the dash and then moves to the right side of the car.

The a/c smells fine, so I don't think it's the a/c drain, but is that a possibility?
It has always done this since I have owned it and it drives me nuts!

thanks,

Dean

 

i got that sound too. i don't think it is anything to worry about. always happens pulling away from a red light and it sounds like a waterfall in your dash and door, right?

 

Yep, that's it. I guess the worst part is not knowing what it is.

Tell me if you figure it out.

I'm afraid my car will rust and fall apart someday due to the interior water fall.

 

I had that sloshing sound, check the coolant. Mine was low, actually the reserve tank was empty. The sloshing is from air in the cooling system and heater core. Once it works itself out no more sloshing.

 

I had the same thing, I got rid of my max so I never found out what it was...I thought it was my water bottle all the time, until i drove it without my bottle in it. too funny...who knows.

 

I think that there is a TSB out for this. I believe that the problem was that there was air getting in the coolant lines. At some point in our cooling system, the lines are higher than the rest of the system allowing for air to collect. When the engine spins up, more water is pushed through the lines pulling the air with it causing a gurgling sound.

If you are out of warranty, many have reported that you can park on an incline and then rev the engine once. This is sometimes helpful in removing the air. Otherwise, the dealer (as per the TSB) will bleed the system IIRC.

I've had this happen once or twice, but when I reported it to the dealer, they couldn't replicate it and just looked at me funny. For me, it went away on it's own (thankfully).

Good luck.

 

Heater Core gurgling Noise/TSB(NTB03-072)

For all those with gurgling heater core...

TSB Available - 2004 Maxima - Gurgling Noise From Heater Core

 

I had that problem, my coolant reservoir was low way pass the minimum line, added some coolant and noise is gone

 

I had it on my audi, it was the coolant

 

Well, I took my 2003 I35 to the dealership for a coolant flush/fill and tranny flush/fill. When I got back to my car, I immediately heard the "waterfall behind the dash" sound. I hadn't even made it out of the parking lot when I turned around and drove it back into the service bay.

The technician told me it was an air bubble, and that they would get it out...come back tomorrow. So I went back, same noise. This time they told me they would redo the whole flush/fill. Went back a third time to find the noise still existed. The Service Manager assured me that they would take care of it.

Today (one week later) I got a call from the Service Manager telling me that this noise is normal! WTH? I did some digging, found this thread, and sent her the .pdf of the TSB. She returned my call and explained that they used that method to flush/fill the coolant, so it's not the issue. She also told me that once the car warms up the noise will go away, but I should expect that in the winter. BS, me thinks.

What boggles my mind is that this noise NEVER happened before I took the car in for a coolant flush/fill, and it suddenly starts immediately following the service, yet they refuse to acknowledge that they caused the problem.

I don't even know where to go from here. Is there any truth to the fact that this is "normal" in cold weather, and that I need the car to warm up (she said something about a valve opening) before the noise will disappear?

 

They need to raise the front of the car and more or less purge the system.

 

This is more than a minor annoyance. It doesn't go away when the car warms up. It will go away only if you turn the heater or defroster off. This condition prevents heater or defroster operation below ~1800 engine RPM. It sucks!

 

There is no way water can 'gurgle' in closed lines unless there is some air in the system. For some reason, it seems some service departments don't know how to replace the coolant without getting air in the system.

It may require something like KCmaxx suggested above; raise one end of the car so the fluid being put in won't trap air in the lines. Which end? Depends on where the air is getting trapped. Surely Nissan has to be aware of this problem by now, and should have told the dealers how to avoid causing this.

This gurgling may be considered 'normal' by service departments because they don't know how to fix it. It may be considered 'normal' by dealers because lots of 6th gen Maximas do it. It may be considered 'normal' by owners because it only causes problems at low RPMs.

But I insist this should NOT be considered normal. Not even in a Yugo. There HAS to be a procedure available to the dealers that will enable changing the coolant without introducing air into the system. How do they install coolant at the assembly line? They manage to do it without trapping air in the system. That method should be made available to Nissan service departments.

It is really sad that this problem is still around after almost four years.

 

Kind of funny when you consider that there should be a write up called:

"Burping the 6th Gen"

I think I've heard it before as well. I run with the stereo on often, so I miss things like this. Thanks BlueMaxx for getting the info for this.

I know the crunching noise from the front end will require my turning down the tunes if I want to listen for that as well.

I read in another thread that you need to park on a hill, nose pointed up, take off radiator cap/resevoir cap, and rev it above 3,000 rpms a few times.

Then she should be burped and diapered!!!