Problem with Coolant Change

Coomer · 11-10-2005, 11:37 AM

Last night I flushed out my coolant system, replaced my thermostat, and then re-filled the coolant system. I was following the instructions on zotz.com.

Once I put coolant in the car, I started the engine. Those instructions say "After the radiator fan begins to run, allow the engine to run a few more minutes, then shut down." My car ran at idle with a load on it(headlights, foglights, and rear defroster on,) and the temperature looked fine, but the fan didn't turn on. After about 20 minutes, smoke started coming from the area near the radiator cap and the area by where the lower radiator hose connects to the radiator. It smelled like burning coolant I think, so I immediately shut off the car.

Since my SE-R is my only form of transportation right now and I have no internet back at my parents' house, I just waited an hour and finished up the procedure. My heat still isn't as hot as I'd like it to be...in fact, it's barely warm. The car acts fine though...no overheating or anything like that. But the smoke worried me. Shouldn't the fan have turned on? Is there a way to test the sensor on the engine that triggers the fan?

Fonque · 11-10-2005, 12:02 PM

when I changed my coolant I did not have to remove the rear bleeder the second time. Plus that is not how to properly bleed the system. I would assume you have air bubbles in the system some where.

The bleeding procedure per fsm is to install a paper clip in the radiator cap to prevent it from sealing, to allow air to escape to the resevior. You also have to have to either jack the car or keep the car on an incline with the front of the car higher than the rear, this aids is getting the air to the front of the engine and pushes the coolant toward the back.

Im actually at work and I have the procedure at home, maybe someone else will chime in with some info

mickeyj36 · 11-10-2005, 12:26 PM

If it is just a little smoke then you might have just spilled some coolant on something that is getting hot....also when i was doing my gtir swap in my b13, i flushed the system out also and it messed up cts somehow..i dont know how but it did so i grabbed another one and slapped it on and everything was fine. ..also maybe when you were doing the flush you might have gotten some water on the fan connectors and it might have shorted it out...test to see if your getting power to the fans and test to see if the ground is good.

SHAWNATGERBROCK · 11-11-2005, 09:07 PM

Yea spilled coolant smeels bad when it gets hot ... if your not overheating and the heater is working good , your fine ....The fans can take a long time to come on , some I have seen go as long as a half hour ... again as long as its not overheating ...

As for the paperclip thing ..Huh ??? I dont have anything like that in any of the Nissan FSM's I have ....The correct way is the fill it with the bleader out till its a stream of coolant no air , bleader back in , then top it off , I usualy fill it through the top rad hose first , then connect it and finish through the radiator , after that I just put the cap on and test drive ..... I have done thousands of Nissans that way .... only problem ones are the Maximas ... they get air pockets easy .... I have a special funnel that raises the coolant point above the bleader so it bleads better ....