The coolant was tested for hydrocarbons and was clean, I have no clue if the mixture is correct, how can I tell? Is that something I can read off a scan tool?
I checked ignition timing at idle but not at any RPM over idle. As we are heading towards winter the overheating will soon disappear for a few months. What I will do is rent a vacuum gauge and carry it with me on my road trip from NC to GA towing a trailer. If the truck runs warm I will pull off the road and do a check on the intake,
A scan tool capable of showing âfuel trimâ, both long and short term, would provide a clue on that. I forget what year your Nissan is, but if it is OBD II compliant you should be able to see the fuel trim with the proper scan tool. Nissanâs own scan tool definitely. Aftermarket scan tools, youâll have to do some research. Not every scan tool has âfuel trimâ display capability. Any before-the-cat O2 sensor codes could imply a lean condition. ON my Corolla anyway thereâs a separate O2 sensor diagnostic code for âleanâ and another code for ârichâ, but thatâs OBD I.
The reason lean operation can cause overheating is that a lean mixture means there is more air than normal, and that is similar to like in the boy scouts when you blow air on a camp fire. Or how a metal worker uses bellows to blow air on the coal fire to get it to heat up. The fire gets really hot, and fast, right? So anytime youâve got overheating, you want to eliminate lean operation as a cause if possible.
Since you got some overheating at idle, I doubt ignition timing is the problem. But a failing distributor (or other parts of the ignition system) can cause the ignition timing to advance more than it is supposed to at higher rpms, and that can cause overheating too. Usually youâd notice some pinging though. But not always. And overly retarded ignition timing can adversely affect the cooling system too.
OK, Ill see if I can rent a scan tool this weekend that will show fuel trim and get some readings. I hope I can find the factory mixture specs online.
Well I canât rent a good scan tool anymore. I upgraded my torque app and here are some readings I got today while the truck was in the driveway. Idling with the AC on it climbed all the way up to 220 degrees so this problem does seem to be getting worse.
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If it makes you feel any better, my truck overheats a little too. Has since I first bought it over 40 years ago. Only at long idles on hot days or low speeds going up steep hills in 4WD-LO. I can actually hear the coolant boiling in the radiator when that happens, but the temp gauge on the dash goes to around 210 degrees is all. Never much more than that. I tried putting a lower temp thermostat in it, grasping at straws, changed the radiator cap, but of course none of that worked. Somehow Iâve been able to just live w/it for 40 years, so thatâs my plan going forward, just accept it as what my truck thinks best ⊠lol âŠ
Hi nissan11,
I had the same problem just cancel the heater core and your NISSAN will stop over heating. Had this same problem.
âIf the problem started with the heater core.â
Nissan11, did you fix your overheating issue with your car?
My fatherÂŽs car has the same problem, it is a Nissan Frontier SE, 2003, KG, VG33E.
About two months ago, I was driving this car, I took a non pavement road, selected 4H to had a secure driving, because I was climbing a mountain, I activated A/C, and drove with the headlights on; that day was about 90Âș. After driving about 5 miles, the temp needle raised, so I have to turn off AC, activited the heater, open the windows, and continued driving until the needle got to normal. Well I took the same road 3 o 4 times more, and the engine temp raised as the first time. So I called to the mechanic, he asumed that the car needed the auxiliar cooling electro fan, but he made some tests and he discarded water pump and thermostat malcfunction, even radiator obstructions, and told that the car did not get overheatied while he was making a test on the road. So he came to my house to gave me back the car, when he asked me for a ride back to his home. I drove the car on the highway and I felt a lack of power in the engine, and he felt it too, he thought about a timing issue, so when we started to climb a section of the road, the needle temp raised, without driving off road. the car on 2H, about 9:30 pm and outside temp of 73Âș. He asked me to pull over without stopping engine, and both of us checked for any steam leak or any boiling water noise in the radiator, and we got nothing, but I noticed something, once I left pushing the gas pedal, engine gone to normal temp. Other interesting point was that we heard a some noise inside the exhaust, specially in the catalyst converter. So we concluded, mechanic and I, the issue of the overheating and lack of power could be made by a obstructed catalyst converter. Next step will be uninstall from the exhaust system the converters in order to check their condition and replace them ASAP
I never diagnosed the problem. As discussed in previously in the thread a partially clogged cat was/is a possibility but very unlikely since I have experienced no power loss and vacuum tests has shown normal numbers.
Something interesting is that I towed a 16ft open trailer with 3 atvâs on it through the NC mountains a couple of weeks ago. I had a couple extremely steep, difficult climbs at which my truck could not exceed 35mph at around 4k RPM. During this time the truck never ran hotter than 200. The only difference in this driving and previous driving when the truck was running hot with no load is that I had overdrive off. I suppose it is possible in overdrive the transmission fluid is getting hot and when it runs through the radiator it is heating it up, but that does not explain why is was running warm when idling or in 1st gear going slow off road.
This entire project has been interesting. Good work all.
Put a trans cooler on it auto trans us over heating. Pull trans stick see if itâs to hot to touch
There are 130 posts on this 4 year old thread. Please let it die a natural death.
Trans over heating drive pull trans dip stick if itâs too hot to touch. U need to put trans cooler in having same problem will burn up tranny if not.just had to get my rebuilt. Has to do with how hot out side it is
I really wanted to just let this topic die, but I feel like I owe it to everyone who replied to inform you my issue has been solved. I made a couple of changes a couple months ago but wanted to do lots of testing before posting here. I towed a trailer with a weight of about 4k lbs back through the NC/WV mountains on an 80 degree day and the temp never got over 203.
Last weekend I took my truck back to the Uwharrie national forest off road trails for the first time in years. The previous time I went my truck got very hot within the first 1/4 mile of slow climbing in 4x4.
I 'wheeled all day in 4L and the temp never got over 193.
So, I am confident my problem is finally gone.
The people that helped from the beginning of this thread were right. It was something simple right under my nose.
One of the changes I made was that I filled up my coolant reservior 3/4 the way up. It was always very low (around 1/4 full or less) which I thought was plenty.
The second change I made was I replaced the factory style air filter with an aftermarket K&N style filter. The aftermarket stock style filter must have been restricting air because I could notice a difference in the way the truck ran when I changed it.
Anyway, I just thought some folks might want to know. Anyone battling a similar issue, listen to the folks on this site and try the simple options FIRST before digging deep into the cooling system.
I wouldnât think either of those things would cause overheating, especially the air filter, but if itâs fixed, good.
If it wasnât either of those things then the truck fixed itself.
Good for you for getting it to run cool, one way or another. It may be that the air filter change somehow made the engine run a little richer. I donât why that would happen, but perhaps it affected the O2 or MAF sensor readings enough to cause the engine computer to inject a little more fuel.
I know this is a old thread, but seeing how as no one ever got it right. I worked at a radiator shop for about 3 1/2 years. Two things, a lot of âcrapâ builds up in between the radiator and condenser causing little air flow and the most important, that the system is probably partially clogged. It will get build up and make passages smaller in size. That causes a restriction, especially in the cores of the radiator. We would have a gun from a pressure washer with the compressor air fed to it also. take off the upper radiator hose and we had a rubber cone on the end of it. Blow it out, man you should see the junk that come flying out of EVERY car. Like tons of it. Then you have to do the same thing with the heater core, except the valve has to be open for heat. And blow it out as well both ways. You can only one way on the engine because of the thermostat. Sometimes on really bad ones we would take out the thermostat and put it back together so there would be no restriction and you could blow it out both ways. So hopefully if you have come to this forum scratching your head, here is your answer, sorry to the original poster its 7 years later. Also this holds true with most cars.
Oh to clarify, your trigger controls both the air and water, basically a garden hose up full blast with the shop compressor at about 110 psi.All coming out of a handle with a big rubber cone so you could push it to any opening and hold it and it would seal. And leave your rad cap ON. You blow thru one of the coolant hoses, usually upper or rad neck⊠Crap comes out the other side. You can if you want, do the engine seperatly then the radiator.
My father has a 2002 Nissan frontier and it is doing the same thing we have replaced everything you can all new stuff this is the 2nd truck thatâs done it now a question for Nissan11 so by doing what you said do you think that will fix it I heard also if the reserve tank had a small hole in it that would cause it to please reply. I need all the help I can get well just say a big thanks to lol
@cdaquila Carolyn could you please close this thread .