Overheating in long drive

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Hello everyone,

2004 Nissan Maxima 103,000 miles and transmission 180,000 miles.

The car overheat in the long drive on the highway after 30 minutes and I see temperature gauge going up barely not all the way. If I let the car running at idle for 30-60 minutes then I do not see temperature gauge rising at all only while driving on the highway. Yes, I did check the coolant and it not leaking, but during the winter time I do not have the heat working in the car.

Any help?
 
It sounds to me like your radiator is not functioning at full capacity; there is likely some buildup inside. It could be sludge or scaling, but only an inspection can tell.

If it's sludged, then a flush and refill might fix it.

If it's scaling then a new radiator is in your future.
 
If you have no heat in the winter you may also have a plugged heater core. These seem to plug up before the radiator in a badly neglected cooling system. Coolant should be changed out every several years along with brake fluid.

What I would look for:

1. bugs, dirt, or some kind of restriction in air flow through the radiator. Over time they can slowly become plugged.
2. Is coolant rusty and does it flow freely in radiator when the engine is at operating temp and revved up a little? If not, does it flow freely with the T stat out?
3. If you get what appears to be a free flow I'd drive it with the T stat out and see if it overheats. Typically going down the highway with the T stat out the engine will run at the lower part of the operating range. If it slowly rises to the point of overheating with the T stat out I'd say your radiator is plugged to the point that it can't remove enough heat or perhaps you have a combustion leak into the system from perhaps a headgasket leak.
 
Good advice above. If the coolant's old/low, you could have air in the cooling system. This leads to random overheats and no heat in the winter. Also check for leaks in the hoses and rad itself.
 
Last edited:
If your fans are running and your'e nearly overheating you should feel heat standing by the driver's door. It should be escaping under the firewall and out under the rocker panel. Open the hood and you should feel a similar blast of hot air from the rad fans there. The hoses should be hot. If the hoses are cold the thermostat is stuck shut. If the hoses are hot but the fan air lukewarm the radiator is clogged.

If you crank the heat and it temporarily provides relief you have a clogged radiator.

If you crank the heat and it's lukewarm you have bad water circulation (pump).

Hows your transmission behaving? Does its torque converter lock up correctly? If it didn't it would dump a lot of extra heat into the system.

edit, nevermind, sounds like water pump and air pockets.
 
No heat in the Winter, along with overheating in the summer could be a thermostat stuck in a single position. Care never heats up in the Winter, because there is too much flow....Overheats in the summer because there is not enough. Worth checking.
 
I would replace the thermostat w oem and replace all the coolant w new. If that doesn't work, I would follow the steps listed by the posts above
 
if the coolant level is fine, and has always been, you have a circulation problem. Since you also don't get heat to the inside, I say the waterpump is shot, or the belt driving the waterpump.
 
Radiator fuild look good and I might clean the radiator and replace thermostat. If the water pump is bad then wouldn't temperature gauge be rising all the way up to Hot temperature gauge?
 
Originally Posted By: Rohan
2004 Nissan Maxima 103,000 miles and transmission 180,000 miles.

What does this mean? The transmission is older than the rest of the car?
Originally Posted By: Rohan

The car overheat in the long drive on the highway after 30 minutes and I see temperature gauge going up barely not all the way.

By overheat, do you mean it blew steam? If it did that without moving the temp gage much, assuming the temp gage is working at all, then Chrisri has your problem:
Originally Posted By: chrisri
You've got air in your system. Try to bleed air and see if your heating is working.


(Also this should be moved to the Maintenance sub-forum)
 
I did try to bleed the air system by starting up the car with radiator cap off with radiator fuild on the funnel for 30 minutes, while car running at idle then turn the temperature button up to 90 degrees, and finally, it did not blow any hot air inside the car. I was getting cold air inside the car.

I have 2nd motor and transmission is original so engine have 102k miles and transmission have 180k miles.

To the user above, the car overheat after 30 minutes on the highway then if I press the gas pedal it will go back to the normal temperature. I think it won't do this in the city because we are stopping and keep pressing the gas pedal.
 
so, you're getting an overheat message or the temperature gauge is moving to the red?

either air or faulty waterpump.

Did this problem exist before you changed the coolant?
 
Overheating on the freeway means you have a water flow problem, probably a blocked up radiator. When you overheat during slow, stop and go driving, look for an air flow issue.
 
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