2006 Nissan Altima
2.5L 4 cylinder
233k miles
The radiator cracked on this car earlier this year and the wife didn't notice anything was wrong until it bucked hard trying to accelerate from a light and looked down to see the temp gauge on the H. I replaced the radiator, but ever since it's been going through about a quart of coolant every 200-250 miles. Some stop leak did absolutely nothing. I've accepted I need to replace the head gasket, but we both agree that it's time for a new(er) car anyway. We're just trying to limp this thing along until after the New Year.
Back story out of the way... the coolant leak is occurring in the #2 cylinder and causing a misfire that only occurs after coasting in gear for a while such as on an exit ramp coming off the highway. I'm assuming this is because the CPU is shutting off the fuel (and therefore combustion) to the cylinders when coasting in gear, allowing the cylinder to fill with a little bit of coolant, and when you get back on the gas, the cylinder isn't firing. When this occurs, I usually just bump it into neutral and peg it off the rev limiter for a second to clear it out, and all is well... much to my wife's dismay. At least my daughter finds it funny.
My solution to the issue is anytime I'm coasting/braking, I just bump it to neutral so the fuel doesn't shut off and the cylinders keep firing, not allowing that cylinder to get wet down with coolant. My wife, however, finds this to be an impossible task and almost every time she drives it, I get a call from her sitting still at a green light complaining about the car doing that "thing" again and she doesn't know what to do. So, I'm looking for a better solution.
It's worse when the plug is caked up with deposits from burning coolant. I take it out and clean it every month or so, and it doesn't seem to do it for a little while until it gets cruded up again. I thought about going to a hotter spark plug (from NGK LFR5A to LFR4A) in hopes that it could keep the tip cleaner, along with a wider gap for a larger flame kernel that might could pierce through the moisture in the cylinder. Then hope the added resistance doesn't kill the coil before we sent it to its grave. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is that a viable solution?
2.5L 4 cylinder
233k miles
The radiator cracked on this car earlier this year and the wife didn't notice anything was wrong until it bucked hard trying to accelerate from a light and looked down to see the temp gauge on the H. I replaced the radiator, but ever since it's been going through about a quart of coolant every 200-250 miles. Some stop leak did absolutely nothing. I've accepted I need to replace the head gasket, but we both agree that it's time for a new(er) car anyway. We're just trying to limp this thing along until after the New Year.
Back story out of the way... the coolant leak is occurring in the #2 cylinder and causing a misfire that only occurs after coasting in gear for a while such as on an exit ramp coming off the highway. I'm assuming this is because the CPU is shutting off the fuel (and therefore combustion) to the cylinders when coasting in gear, allowing the cylinder to fill with a little bit of coolant, and when you get back on the gas, the cylinder isn't firing. When this occurs, I usually just bump it into neutral and peg it off the rev limiter for a second to clear it out, and all is well... much to my wife's dismay. At least my daughter finds it funny.
My solution to the issue is anytime I'm coasting/braking, I just bump it to neutral so the fuel doesn't shut off and the cylinders keep firing, not allowing that cylinder to get wet down with coolant. My wife, however, finds this to be an impossible task and almost every time she drives it, I get a call from her sitting still at a green light complaining about the car doing that "thing" again and she doesn't know what to do. So, I'm looking for a better solution.
It's worse when the plug is caked up with deposits from burning coolant. I take it out and clean it every month or so, and it doesn't seem to do it for a little while until it gets cruded up again. I thought about going to a hotter spark plug (from NGK LFR5A to LFR4A) in hopes that it could keep the tip cleaner, along with a wider gap for a larger flame kernel that might could pierce through the moisture in the cylinder. Then hope the added resistance doesn't kill the coil before we sent it to its grave. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is that a viable solution?