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Running Water Sound On Passenger Side??

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Old 12-20-2008, 06:40 PM
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Running Water Sound On Passenger Side??

Sup guys.. so a little while after i installed my fujita cai i started noticing when the engine is cold or if i just 1st drive off after allowing the car to warm up a bit i hear a sound that pretty much sounds like water flowing through a pipe or something.. the sound is coming from like behind the pass. air bag and on the pass. floor... also if i start up the car and its still cool & i rev it up i hear the water flowing through...not sure what this is.. after the water flows through the sound is gone and doesnt come back until the car gets cold again and i start it up and take off again... it kinda soundz like when you turn on a home A/C & u hear the water going through... anyone know what this may be?? i asked dealer when i was there for a oil change and the dude said the sunroof aint water proof so when water goes through theres hoses that leads out of the car so w.e water is there flows through...??? lol i know its not water in the intake cuz its at the other end of the engine...
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Old 12-20-2008, 07:17 PM
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You have air in the coolant system. It is a well documented issue. Usually accompanied by low heat output at idle. There is a TSB for this issue.

CM
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Old 12-20-2008, 08:13 PM
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anyone else could confirm that thats the prob? gotta look for this issue now.. thanks ^^
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Old 12-20-2008, 08:32 PM
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Had it, filled it, gone.... What CM said.
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Old 12-20-2008, 09:43 PM
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Had the same issue a couple of months ago and had a coolant flushed an fixed my problem. Sounded like water was going back and forth somewhere in the passenger side of the car. You could hear it when starting the car up and giving it a little gas. No big deal at all!
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Old 12-20-2008, 10:27 PM
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Originally Posted by 04FrostMax
Had the same issue a couple of months ago and had a coolant flushed an fixed my problem. Sounded like water was going back and forth somewhere in the passenger side of the car. You could hear it when starting the car up and giving it a little gas. No big deal at all!
+ one !
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Old 12-21-2008, 01:58 AM
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I had the heat problem at idle and did the flush. No more problems.


dude said the sunroof aint water proof so when water goes through theres hoses that leads out of the car so w.e water is there flows through...

I never heard the water go thru these hoses. This guy is a jerk.

Last edited by ramberg; 12-21-2008 at 02:00 AM.
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Old 12-21-2008, 02:37 AM
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lol. i was just wondering the same thing today! I guess its time for the flush on mine too. thanks for the fix guys!
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Old 12-21-2008, 08:48 AM
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No problem man, enjoy the ride :-]
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Old 12-21-2008, 10:57 AM
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thanks all for the feedback... gotta get this done... & ramberg.. to what that dealer fool said... i had the same response lol.. why would the remaining sunroof water flow through hoses to come out the car ONLY when i press the gas? lol.. thanks once again for all the help!
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Old 12-23-2008, 09:40 PM
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just last week i saw a customer come in with the same complaint. the technician kept on bleeding the system over and over again. finally, we came to the conclusion, the guy has a leaky headgasket. 04 with 108k miles.
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Old 12-24-2008, 10:57 AM
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can be caused by compression leaking from cylinder in water jacket through the head gasket. any white smoke coming out the tail pipe? if not do the flush and drive it. if it comes back look into head gaskets.
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Old 12-24-2008, 11:45 AM
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Mine just did this today ! No kidding. So all I need to do is do a coolant system flush ?? as long as it isnt a head gasket or leak somewhere I should be all set ? The heat just went out when I was sitting in the parking lot waiting to come into work. I revved it and kept it at under 2k RPM and the heat started working again.
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Old 12-25-2008, 12:01 PM
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so i went to a auto shop to 1.. get my inspection and 2 to get the coolant flushed and refilled.. they said they dont even have that color coolant.. they said mine was a blue color.. they said if i want to drain and refill it then i should go to nissan and get it done.. not sure if pepboys would have that color? would there be any downside in not going to nissan?
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Old 12-25-2008, 08:12 PM
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nissans come with a green colored coolant. i'd stick with the correct stuff. i believe blue is honda coolant. make sure you flush the cooling system properly before putting in the new coolant to remove contaminants and old coolant. you don't want to mix different color/type coolants. using incorrect coolant may damage the cooling system and result in overheating.
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Old 12-26-2008, 06:16 AM
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Originally Posted by Shoey1
can be caused by compression leaking from cylinder in water jacket through the head gasket. any white smoke coming out the tail pipe? if not do the flush and drive it. if it comes back look into head gaskets.
I am having the exact problem right now. Keep getting air in coolant and now i'm getting white smoke under hard acceleration.

Out of my powertrain by 3 months. Had it to Nissan one earlier this year to flush air out of coolant. I informed them this was the second time this needed to be done. Think i might be able to sway them to fix the head gasket under warranty?

If not, how much am i looking at to have the head gasket replaced? Or even better, what if its not just the gasket but the head itself warped?

Btw, this is an '04 with 54k
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Old 12-26-2008, 03:33 PM
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headgasket will probably run you atleast ~$1400 at Nissan.
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Old 01-08-2009, 08:16 AM
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UPDATE!!! So I went 2 pepboys..verified my coolant is green and bought a bottle of coolant... they said it would cost about $100 to do the coolant flush & fill... I didn't do it .. I askd 1 of their mechanics and he was familiar with doing mods & stuff with cars... he advised me that I don't need 2 do the flush.. he said all I gotta do is fill up the coolant container to max and then open the coolant cap on the radiator.. fill to the top and start the car.. he said ill see bubbles coming out which is the air in the coolant system and he said once it starts to over flow then just cap it... I tried what he said and it actually worked... now the noise is completely gone... Also I noticed that my coolant container cap was opened 1 day & when I lookd in it.. it was almost empty..(have no clue why) so I filled it up & the next day it went back down so I filled again and did what he told me again & it was all good.. since then my coolant is still @ max level and the noise is g0ne!!! ....hope this helps guys...
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Old 01-10-2009, 06:31 PM
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another way to check for coolant getting into your oil through a headgasket leak is by checking the oil fill cap for milky white stuff. looks like milk seriously. Had a small leak in my explodition and this is what I was told to check for a sure enough it was there. Used a Nano sealer from autozone and it worked like a charm. A year later no milky stuff. Ohh and if the coolant becomes a brownish color that is bad too. Ohh and if you smell a sweet smell coming from the exhaust that could also be an indication. trust me gas burning rich and coolant burning have quite a different smell.
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Old 01-11-2009, 01:19 PM
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I have this same problem. Easy fix, Thanx guys!
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Old 01-22-2009, 12:42 PM
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im new here, and i signed up just so i could post about this same problem. i hear that running water noise and when i stop or idle my heater blows cool air. but when i press on the gas pedal the heat works excellent. so last night i went out and bought some coolant, filled my resovoir to max and filled the radiator. heater is still acting up. so today i tried leaving the radiator cap off, started up the car waited to see bubbles come out of the coolan, i didnt notice any, the coolant started to rise and i capped it. still acting up. so should i just flush out the system or take it to a nissan dealer and have them fix it? will they cover this problem for free? thanks ppl.
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Old 01-22-2009, 12:49 PM
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try it 1 more time again -- try filling again to max and filling radiator and leave cap open until it starts to overflow or raise all the way 2 the top.. i left it opened for almost 10 mins.. it never overflowed but when i capped it it did since the cap pushed some out but since then it has been gr8.. hope this helpz
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Old 01-22-2009, 01:36 PM
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does the car have to be cool when i do this? ill try it again today. im flushing the system out this saturday for sure if this doesnt work. by the way my car is an 04 with about 59k miles, if that matters.thank for the help.
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Old 01-22-2009, 01:45 PM
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it should be cool when you do it cuz if you do it when its hot the coolant will spill if you open the radiator cap... the 1sst time i did it the car was hot... it didnt work that time .. the 2nd time - the next day.. when i went out to the car i did it that time. the car was cold so i filled up everything and left it uncapped and left for like 8 mins.. then i got tired of waiting as i didnt see if overflowing or any bubbles so i jsut capped it and i realized the sound was gone from then on lol.. try that if not then just get it flushed.. i think its like 90 @ pepboys.
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Old 01-22-2009, 01:54 PM
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ugh, this is happening to me now. time to flush
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Old 01-22-2009, 01:58 PM
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Originally Posted by BigPete
ugh, this is happening to me now. time to flush
try doing what i posted b4 the flush.. save some $$
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Old 01-22-2009, 02:06 PM
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Originally Posted by I3LaZeN
try doing what i posted b4 the flush.. save some $$
mos def. thanks for the info, ill post up this weekend after I do it and let ya know.
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Old 01-22-2009, 05:22 PM
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http://www.usatoolwarehouse.com/usat...LIS-22150.html

if you have a funnel similar to this. just remove the cap stick the funnel inside the opening, fill the funnel about half way with coolant. turn the car on, blast the heat and let it idle for about 10minutes.
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Old 01-22-2009, 07:03 PM
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I sometimes hear this sound. I don't know if it bothers me enough yet to mess with all this though.
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Old 01-22-2009, 07:56 PM
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air pockets in the cooling system can lead to headgasket failure.
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Old 01-22-2009, 08:00 PM
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^^^lol on second thought I may be taking care of this.
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Old 01-23-2009, 06:23 AM
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well i tried doing I3LaZeN suggested. i let it idle for bout 10 min. with the rad. cap off and the fluid toped off, during that process the heat started working, and damn good i might add. so i waited til this morning to try it again while my car warms up, but it wasnt really cold today, but i got in my car after 6 min or so and the heat seemed to be working fine while in idle!! amazing, i think it worked. but i still hear that running water sound. is that anything to worry about?

also i know this is way off topic but, when i use my key fob to lock my doors my horn doesnt sound. the lights just blink twice. i set my personal settings for the horn to beep when i lock the doors and my horn works. what could be the problem? thank ppl.
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Old 01-23-2009, 06:50 AM
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To correctly remove the air pockets that you may have in your cooling system the car must get up to operating temperature. Until the fans kick on and start circulating coolant then it is pointless to take yourcap off on a cold start. buy an over flow funnel kit for doing coolant flushes for 20 bucks. fill it up with collant and let your car run up to operating temperature and wait for the fans to cycle a bunch a times and watch the over flow funnell kit and make sure it is not bubling up anymore and you should be fine.
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Old 01-23-2009, 07:02 AM
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Old 01-23-2009, 07:03 AM
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Old 01-23-2009, 07:56 AM
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if you're still hearing the running water sound, i'm probably leaning towards a leaky headgasket. see if you can bring your car to shop with a tail sniffer (used for emissions) and wave the tail sniffer over the coolant to test for hydrocarbons or you can purchase a combustion leak tester from NAPA or the like.
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Old 01-23-2009, 07:56 AM
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its a pretty ez fix if you ask me and saves you the $$ frm getting the entire system flushed...
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Old 05-13-2009, 11:00 PM
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Originally Posted by I3LaZeN
UPDATE!!! So I went 2 pepboys..verified my coolant is green and bought a bottle of coolant... they said it would cost about $100 to do the coolant flush & fill... I didn't do it .. I askd 1 of their mechanics and he was familiar with doing mods & stuff with cars... he advised me that I don't need 2 do the flush.. he said all I gotta do is fill up the coolant container to max and then open the coolant cap on the radiator.. fill to the top and start the car.. he said ill see bubbles coming out which is the air in the coolant system and he said once it starts to over flow then just cap it... I tried what he said and it actually worked... now the noise is completely gone... Also I noticed that my coolant container cap was opened 1 day & when I lookd in it.. it was almost empty..(have no clue why) so I filled it up & the next day it went back down so I filled again and did what he told me again & it was all good.. since then my coolant is still @ max level and the noise is g0ne!!! ....hope this helps guys...
Hey awesome post! I'm going to fix this problem in the wifey's max on Friday, but I have two questions.

Does the A/C need to be running when the car in on?

I've read that the car should be on a hill, does this matter?
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Old 05-14-2009, 11:30 AM
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Originally Posted by VANGtastic97
Hey awesome post! I'm going to fix this problem in the wifey's max on Friday, but I have two questions.

Does the A/C need to be running when the car in on?

I've read that the car should be on a hill, does this matter?
Thanks... i didnt have mine on but i was told the heat or a/c should be on so the fans would be running. Never heard anything about the car being on a hill. good luck!!
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Old 05-14-2009, 12:08 PM
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this is great to find out. i have had this going on for about a year, and have been told that it was normal and not to worry. glad that there is a fix, because i could not believe that it was normal...
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