Alright so today I was in theory heading to Orlando by car, but about 2 and a half hours out I notice I’m dangerously hot. So I pull over, pop the hood and let the radiator cool. I limped along for an hour before giving in and turning around. During this time it was suggested I replace the radiator cap which I did.
While it made an immediate improvement, if I pushed the engine too hard it began heating up again. As long as I kept it around 60, it drove fine.
I drive a 96 Nissan Maxima and I had refilled the liquid before heading home. I’m about to get out and check its level once it cools back down. Any thoughts on what that is a sign of?
When anti-freeze gets old it will start to corode the aluminum in the cylinder head, and deposit that material inside the radiator. As time goes on more and more of this crud is deposited, and this limits the water flow and the radiators ability to transfer heat. Around town, this is not an issue since the engine is not producing that much heat. Get on the road however and more heat gets generated than the now impaired radiator can throw off. Slowing down to 60 generates less heat, and the radiator can cope, barely.
To fix the problem you need to have the radiator removed, and cleaned by a radiator shop. Don’t bother with flushes, you can’t flush this crud out, it needs the radiator shop to disassemble and physically clean the radiator. Ask me how I know this.
Oh, and while a thermostat is probably not a bad idea, most likely it is not the root cause of the problem. Don’t bother to check the radiator fan. RAdiator fans work to keep the car cool in town. They don’t even run when you are blasting down the highway, only in town. On the highway the ram air effect is much much greater than any radiator fan can move.
If it seems to stay cool at highway speeds, but gets hot when sitting in traffic or going slow, it sounds like it could be the fan or fan switch (fan comes on at a certain temp).
This is the most logical analysis. If you’re looking for a cheap fix you might try replacing the thermostat and reverse flushing the radiator. That should, at least, buy you some time. You might also compare the cost of installing a new radiator, it may be comparable w/ refurbishing the old one.
Because I have tried flushes and had them fail to cure the problem. :smack:
As far as the ballpark figure goes, it will depend on how much labor costs are around where you live. I am going to take a wild ass guess here and say about 1-1.5 hours to remove and replace the radiator, and change the t-stat.* Multiply that by the local labor rate. Add the cost of the work the radiator shop does. Mabe $50-100 dollars.
You local shop may be able to sell you a new radiator for about the same money as reworking your old one would cost. My daughters '89 had the same type of overheating problem, and I would up putting in a new radiator because the cost was within a few dollars.
You may find that you can save a few dollars by going to a radiator shop rather than a general mechanic. The general mechanic is going to sub out the actual work on the radiator to a radiator shop, and will probably mark up his bill.
*If we can get Gary T to stop by, he has shop labor guides and can give you a much better estimate of the time involved.
One more thing.
This repair is going to cost a couple of hundred dollars. That is a lot of money. But if you try and put it off, the problem will only get worse. Also the weather is going to get hotter in the next several months. Modern cars are not very tolerant of overheating. The next time you overheat that engine, just might be the last. A new engine is going to cost way way more than fixing the radiator will.
