I bought a 1996 nissan maxima gle and I was driving around and everything was going smooth. I went to a gas station and noticed there was nothing in the coolant reservoir. I went to Wal-Mart to get some coolant and on the way noticed the engine heating up and the needle started heading to the "H" indicating it was getting hot and then the check engine light came on. I didn't let it get all the way to the h as I was driving fairly slow. When I went to put coolant in the reservoir it started immediately leaking out the bottom of the plastic reservoir because of a crack in it. I then got it towed to my house and ordered a replacement reservoir last night. Is it something more than just the reservoir?

 

Thinking things through..... why would the plastic reservoir have a crack in it? Pressure. Where would the pressure come from........ the engine. Possible reasons.......
Most likely radiator cap. Perhaps the cap is bad, and lets the pressure into the tank. other possible reasons include bad water pump and thermostat.

 

Can't really answer that. Not enough info. Replace the tank and then see what happens. Pull the CEL code also. Don't drive the car.

 

Also, be careful about mixing different antifreezes.

 

Alright ill do that I already had it shipping I'll keep it posted

 

Just to be on the safe side, go ahead and replace that radiator cap when you replace the reservoir. Radiator caps are cheap.

 

If the engine is overheating, you are low on coolant. When the engine is cold, remove the radiator cap and look in the radiator. It should be full of coolant all the way to the opening. I'm sure yours is not, you probably won't see any coolant.

While the reservoir/overflow tank is cracked, it is not the reason for the overheating problem.

The reservoir/overflow tank is not the place to be adding coolant when you are trying to fill the cooling system. You fill through the radiator.

So when you are checking the radiator level, pour the coolant that you bought at Walmart into the radiator. But don't fill it up all the way, leave the top tank of the radiator half full. Then, leaving the radiator cap off, start the car and let it idle until the engine gets hot enough for the thermostat to open. When this happens, you will see the coolant in the radiator disappear because trapped air from inside the engine is escaping now that the thermostat has opened. Add more coolant to the radiator until the top radiator tank is maybe half full and let the engine continue to run.

After a couple of minutes, all the air should be out of the engine. Fill the radiator all the way to the top and put the radiator cap on. You can now drive the car. You don't need the the reservoir/overflow tank.

But you probably have a leak somewhere in the cooling system, so you will be losing coolant whenever you drive the car. Now you have to find the leak. Look everywhere a hose connects to something, see if any coolant is dripping on the ground.

 

too bad you towed it. You could have just filled up the rad and drove it to a shop...

 

Except there is a 1/4" vent hole in the reservoir, there is never pressure in the reservoir. The crack is from under hood heat making the plastic brittle. Chances are that the engine comes to temp and the rad cap sends some coolant to the reservoir as it is designed to do. When the engine cools back down it can only suck air. Then you get air pockets and resulting overheating.

 

So I flushed out the coolant and got a new reservoir and there is no overheating but about two minutes into my drive the needle is halfway between the hot and cold but doesn't go all the way up. Is this okay?

 

this is normal.

 

^ ^ yaaas, I was sitting here reading JVG's terrible criticism like dafuq?