AC130_404

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I have a 97 maxima se, my radiator cracked so i went ahead and replaced it, the two main hoses, and did a flush with distilled water and a coolant flush mixture from Prestone. I went to refill the new radiator with coolant and only got about 6 quarts in (i believe the whole system holds 9). I started the vehicle to get the water pump to cycle some of it and to continue to fill it, but it won’t go down anymore. While i was waiting for it to go down i noticed it started smoking (what i believe is burning coolant) from the rear of the engine near the firewall. I can’t find where it’s coming from, don’t know if i have enough coolant in the system, and i believe my fans are no longer activating. I let it get to running temp and rode it a bit (yes, while it smoked) and i still don’t think the fans came on. Did i mess up or is there another issue i’m unaware of? please help, this is my only vehicle.

AC130_404

update, fans kicked on

aq12

Whole system should take in 9-3/8 qts of coolant with the reservoir. Reservoir by itself is 2-1/8 qts. So it sounds ilke your engine has enough coolant by my math. You could try lifting the car up and leaving it on jack stands with the radiator cap off and letting it getting up to operating temperature to get rid of any air bubbles. There are specific funnels for bleeding coolant and replacing it with fresh fluid at the same time.

Regarding the smoke, it might just be the coolant burning off, so as long as the engine temps do not go higher than normal, it should be fine and personally I wouldnt worry about it. How long did you run your car after you replaced the radiator? I'm thinking you just had a lot of coolant that splashed everywhere and is barely burning off.

aq12

Here is what I found in the manual

AC130_404

So at first i only ran it for about 2 minutes before i shut it off after seeing the smoke. I then decided to just let it run and watch the temp gauge, and after a while the fans would kick on again and it never overheated. The smoke was very faint and my lighting changed so i at first thought i just couldn’t see it well anymore, however after letting it idle about 30 minutes the smell & smoke were gone. I ran out of time to mess with it so i parked it for the night. Hoping tomorrow i can just go back and top off the coolant, and maybe try out the trick you mentioned for burping the air out of the system. Thankyou for the support

Zerodrag

iTrader: (1)

Aren't you supposed to run the heater on high/recirc during this process?

The Wizard

iTrader: (43)

Yes, most definitely. Hopefully the OP did that and simply forgot to tell us.

AC130_404

Yes, i did make sure i ran my heat on high during the flush process, sorry i forgot to mention.

JvG

I raise the front of the car 1 ft or 30 cm . Such as on ramps or a floor jack.
I turn the heater control to high heat. Fan can be off.

Radiator cap must be OFF.
let run for 15 min or so after seeing coolant circulate in radiator neck. Blip throttle occasionally.