rond310

Drained and filled the radiator last night but now have no heat. I put the car back up on the ramps and opened the cap and let it idle for at least a half hour but still no heat comes out. The car temp gauge moved up to where it should be and did not get any hotter while idling but cool air comes out of the vents still. Any ideas???

Thanks,

Ron

DAlastDON

You probably still have an air bubble in the heater core. You may have to get the rpm up to 2k-3k before it will push it out.

bamboomerang

iTrader: (14)

I just dealt with this issue yesterday in my 04. The system is airlocked, and you'll probably hear a 'running/gurgling water' sound every now and again. There is a TSB out on it, but I'll give you the breakdown of what I did to fix it. 1- front of car being elevated is best, disconnect the overflow bottle (2 10mm bolts), and rad cap. Bring the levels of the overflow bottle to 'max' and the rad up to the filler neck. Situate the uncapped overflow bottle somewhere in the bay (hanging is best) so that the hose has an unkinked path to the rad and the point where the hose connects to the bottle is at the bottom. 2 - If you don't have a special funnel for bleeding air out of coolant, you need to modify the rad cap so it can bleed air. a) find a small piece of metal that is atleast 2mm thick, huge paperclip, wire, I used a small nail. b) With the underside of the rad cap in hand, bend the metal piece so that it fits around the shape of the rad cap. Insert it under the 'negative relief valve' - it'll be above the black rubber piece but underneath the metal piece of the rad cap. To slide it in, you need to compress the spring on the rad cap by pushing down on the assembly. Make sure the metal piece doesn't stick out the sides too much, and install the 'modified' rad cap. 3 - Now with the coolant levels maxed out, the modified 'air bleeding' rad cap installed, and the overflow bottle slightly elevated with the cap off, run the engine with the heat blasted, sometimes revving it to 2-3k. Keep an eye on the overflow bottle coolant levels. The in-cabin air should get hot when you rev it, but blow cold air while idling. It'll take 15-25 minutes, but run the car until the t-stat opens. You'll know the T-stat has opened by feeling the return line (lower left from the front of vehicle), it'll get hot. The airlock should relieve itself, and hot air should start blowing at idle rpms. The TSB says to run it until the fan kicks on, but I didn't need to wait that long. 4 - Let the car cool down, reinstall overflow bottle, 'demod' the rad cap, and you should be good to go. It should now blow hot air at idle RPMs once the engine is relatively warm.

rond310

drove it this morning and it seemed fine. Heat was blasting. I will check it later after it cools and see if the heat works as it is idling.

marstons

I have a similar problem, but just not sure its a big problem. Had to drain the radiator due to a leaky lower rad hose. Replaced that, the oil cooler line (was getting corrosion on the lower pipe) and the t-stat. Refilled, ran the vehicle to operating temp, but only cold air blowing. Revved engine and that seemed to do the trick because air now blowing plenty hot. I burped the radiator (didn't modify cap, just left it open) twice, but I'm hearing a slight gurgling in the heater core when I start the car, turn it off and sometimes when I rev. Heater is working fine, engine temp gauge solid in the middle, should I be concerned? (It's winter here now, so I worry that it could overheat in the hot days of summer).

geenowalker

I have a similar problem when the car starts. No heat long after it should (used to). When I start driving, I get heat. But if I sit idle for a while, the cold air comes back. Any suggestions (other than the above). Thanks,

blakedanatural

Hello All,
I want to change my coolant myself. I have 150,000 miles on my 04 Max se. I had it serviced every 30,000 miles. Looking at my records I do not see where my hoses has been changed. Can someone give my step by step DIY to change the coolant. Where can I buy OEM hoses and what name brand coolant. I thank everyone on this forum.
Blake

KevMaster

This is the way I did.
You can follow this but at your own risk. Make sure your car is cooled down and radiator coolant is also cooled down before you do any of this. Extremely careful because coolant gets very hot when car is running. However I am not sure why you want to replace coolant hoses unless you have any leak.

My car has enough clearance so I don’t need to jack my car up from front.

Remove the plastic engine splash shield underneath the radiator. Extremely careful about retainer’s clips as they are biatch to come off and breaks easily. I use flat head screw driver and pliers to remove them safely. Later open the radiator cap and put it away somewhere.

Here is the picture underneath your radiator. Thanks to C-Young for this pictures.



That radiator drain plug is not that easy to come off sometime. Instead, I simply unplug the lower radiator hose and drain all coolant out of radiator. Of course I use coolant collector tub underneath to catch all coolant draining out of radiator.

When coolant is drained completely out of radiator; I simply plug that lower radiator hose back in and pour the coolant that I buy from Nissan dealer. That coolant from Nissan dealer requires adding 50% water. Pour some into coolant reservoir as well. Close the radiator cap back on.

Start the car and let it warm up to normal operating temperature. Stop the car and let it cool down. Checks the radiator and reservoir coolant level again and pour more if require.

This may not be the best way to do this but this get the job done for me.

Hope this helps.

Edit: Go to earth911.com and find your used coolant collector location and recycle your used coolant there.

LINK

lobewiper

Before changing the coolant you should look carefully at the condition of the fins inside the radiator (take off cap first!). If you see signs of scale, clean your cooling system first. My radiator had light scale in it. What I did was I put a couple of cans of Prestone heavy duty rad. cleaner in and drove it for several days. Then I drained everything out and refilled w. fresh antifreeze.

KevMaster

Good point lobewiper. Also if possible then get and pour THIS with new antifreeze.

sgthackett

Hey guys,

Bamboomerang has a fantastic write up about burping the cooling system. I did as instructed and I still don't have any heat. My car is a late year 2004 maxima and after flushing the heater core, then burping the system, I still have no heat until revving the engine - no heat at idle. I also noticed that the fans turned on and off a few times during the burping, however, the lower radiator hose on the left side of the engine (as viewed from the front of the car) was only warm. The upper hose was hot. With this does anyone have any other suggestions? I bought a new thermostat just in case but I don't think thats the problem unless its got a "lazy" spring. If someone could shed some light on the issue that would be fantastic.

Thanks a bunch.

sgthackett

Just replaced the thermostat today ($42.99 @ Advanced Auto), burped again, and still no heat at idle.

jasoneon

I bought my 05 in late 2009k (has 83,000 now). I could always hear coolant gushing through the heater core the first few times I'd rev it up each time I drove it. My mom bought her 05 new (42,000 miles now) and I've noticed it several times in it also but nether have had any heating issues until recently. Mine stopped blowing warm air at idle and I noticed the higher the revs were the hotter the air got. I checked my coolant level and the reservoir was completely empty. I took off the radiator cap and between it and the reservoir it took about 1/2 gallon to the car up. Checked my mom's car and it was exactly the same. Now you don't hear the antifreeze going through the heater core and both cars blow out warm air at idle. Since you've already done all of this I'd say you're heater core must be stopped up and you need to run a good flush through the system. If you have a NAPA close by go in and ask for ET106. It's a radiator flush made by E-tech and the garages around here all say it's the best they've ever used. It's about $8 and might help you out.