Whats up, its been a while since I've been back here. My MaxXi has been running great up until last week.

Last week I had a radiator hose leak, I neglected to take care of it by just putting water in the radiator before work each day. Well, one night after drinking at a buddies house I filled up the radiator with water and went home, when I went to work the next morning I forgot to fill it with water..

So I'm driving on the highway and then I start seeing smoke rise up from the right side of the windshield. I was only a few minutes away from work so I kept going, then the car started to give less and less power as I was accelerating and making a bad knocking sound until it finally just gave out and started smoking everywhere.

I opened up the hood and there was fluid everywhere. And there was oil bubbling from the oil cap. I left the car at a gas station came back later and the car started up and I was able to drive it about 5 miles but I noticed alot of smoke from the exhaust and it was still accelerating erratically until it finally stalled again. I got a tow back and ran a test and found a KS code.


I changed the KS today, I know its really hard to look at. The car started fine. I let the car idle for about 10 minutes and there was still white smoke coming from the exhaust and small amounts of smoke coming from the rear of the engine. I drove it around the parking lot a couple times and the acceleration was still off a bit and there is a chirping/squeaking sound when it runs, and when at idle as well.

I didn't get the car up that hot so I'm not sure if its going to make it the 10 miles to my mechanic.

I'm at a loss. I don't have my diagnostic tool right now, but I'm going to try and get it back today and run another test.

 

u burned the oil so def change that.

as far as what else could have happened, well u gonna hafta inspect the coils and hoses.

 

typically, white smoke from the exhaust after a significant overheat is a "blown" head gasket. that would fit with sputtering accelaration (and maybe the oil spurting from the filler cap). the coolant entering into the combustion chamber causes the white smoke & sputtering and may harm the catalytic convertor.

 

this.

op, why in the world would you keep on driving after seeing any kind of smoke is beyond me. you've been a member for almost 4 years and that's how you treat your car?
just for the future: tap water isn't good for your car either, especially in the winter time. get at least distilled and mix it with the correct coolant, should something like this happen next time.

it almost feels like a trolling attempt, but sadly it's not. I also like how "chirping/squeaking" precedes the real problem in the title.

 

Poor car.

 

preventative maintenance prevents costly repairs

 

Its hard to blow a head gasket in the 4th gen but it is possible and you just might have done that. At least you can swap out some of your internals because youll be taking that top half apart and maybe youll be lucky and you wont have to replace the piston rings

 

You guys are making me feel horrible.. The smoke that I saw coming from the hood looked like just steam when I was driving, It wasn't thick but it was noticeable so I just kept driving, hoping I could make it the extra 3-4 miles to work. So whats recommended? I guess I will fill buy some oil and fill the engine up a little.

And I really do feel sorry for my car, we've been through a lot. And I was going to get the radiator leak fixed and get a tune-up/oil and filter change all on my next day off. But then all that happened!!


I don't want it to be a head gasket, does anyone else have other ideas?

 

Like I said blowing a head gasket is hard to do on the 4th gen and most other cars for that matter. Car just stalls before it can get that hot. It was probably just your water boiling. Should really only use distilled anyways. If you have oil in parts of the engine where it shouldn't be you can tell bc you will have exhaust smoke that is bluish in color. Take a good look at your exhaust smoke and you can get a good idea what happened without taking everything off. You said your car did stall so it was on the verge. something bubbling from the oil cap? that should be sealed pretty tight and if something was bubbling then something could of contaminated your oil. All very bad things. Just check it out and dont drive it anymore thats for damn sure

 

you will have to take to someone who knows what they're doing. it didn't matter what kind of smoke you saw, you had to pull over at the first opportunity. what was the temp gauge showing when all this was going on?
your symptoms now do say there is a possibility of a blown head gasket.

if we don't give you **** now, you'll do it again.

why? are you low on oil now? check your oil for coolant contamination and check the coolant reservoir as well (is it empty?).

welcome to life...

 

Well its shot, I tried to make it to the mechanic, I was definitely low on coolant and oil, so I filled it up. My mechanic is only 10 miles away so I figured I could make it. I was doing really good for about 10 min, despite the James Bond smoke cloud behind me lol. But with all the lights and traffic I stalled again and couldn't start. So I got it towed back to my apt.

I called my mechanic, who does cheap but quality work. He told me the car is done and it can cost up to $2k to fix. I've been reading around and I've read anywhere from $750 to $1000 is the cheapest its going to cost me to fix. Seeing how I bought it for $2k I don't really see a point in repairing it..

It sucks though, I've been through a lot with this car.. Sad to see it go.


Does anyone know If I would be able to get any money for it?

 

Poor max. Find a local member who can swap the motor for you. You can find a used engine for a few hundred.

 

The smoke you saw was most likely exhaust fumes entering the cooling system and boiling over the coolant overflow reservoir and you see the steam of the boiling fluid leak out of the overflow reservoir, I can make a video of it, my white car currently has a bad head gasket, just like what I think you have.....

That makes bad HG #2 for me.

Just like mine, yours is not completely blown, but start shopping for a motor. Swapping these motors aren't hard, just have a buddy or two and it can be done in a day easily.

The labor it would cost to have a HG replaced far exceeds the cost of a motor. I don't trust myself completely tearing down a motor just to replace a HG, especially since the block is aluminum and could have easily warped.

Oh and mine was caused by a coolant hose dry rotting on the way back home.

You can't trust the coolant gauge in our cars, it's quite useless especially in cases like this, the coolant gauge only bases it's readings based off of WATER TEMPERATURE... So if there is no water in the pipe guess what..... You ain't gettin accurate readings

After this I'm going to invest in some more accurate gauges, blow HG #1 shame on VQ, blow HG #2 shame on me.

 

you sure its not a diesel, could have just been cold, maybe your glow plugs are bad

 

Get out of here you troll.

 

just trying to lighten the conversation up, since it sounds like he was getting rid of it, but apparently that didnt work.

on topic, if you really enjoyed the time with the car, i would say get a used motor from a yard and swap it, get more enjoyment out of it, like someone previously stated, someone on the site would probably do it for a few hundered and some beer or food or something.

or you can always part it out, or sell it as a shell, or not running, you could definitely get money for, it but probably not much, maybe 700?

then get yourself another maxima and keep this one alive!

 

This man knows what he's talking about, he owns a SE-L.

 

finally someone understands me