2011 FX50S Coolant Leaked Out

P

pfrederi

Member
Hello All
Im basically new again to this forum. I have signed sometime long ago but never really frequented the site until now. Of course now that I have a problem. I was driving home from work in hellacious traffic (stop and go brake repeat) which I heard is murder on engines. So a little backdrop I had my oil changed by a non dealer shop about 2-3 weeks prior to issue. So Im driving home and came to a stoplight in bumper traffic and noticed my heat guage was 2 notches from the high mark and thats when I noticed smoke emitting from under the hood. I slowly drove to the WalMart which happened to be the next light and pulled in the parking lot. I also noticed splashed of fluid (coolant) coming thru from the front grill passenger side. there was coolant under the car as well. I popped the hood and let it cool.

took the ol owners manual and tried to get that darn engine hood cover off. Finally wrangled it loose after about an hour to get to the Radiator cap. The reservoir expansion tank was empty so not knowing i purchased some coolant and added coolant to that first and tried to run the car with heat on but it didnt move. So i then added coolant to the radiator fill cap and started the car with heat turned up. The engine fan was at full blast until it finally mellowed out. I repeated that a couple times before figuring i could chance it getting home about 5miles away if i drove really slow and kept my eye on the temp guage. I finally drove off after about 3hours with my hazards on. Couple minutes in the temp guage started to inch upward at about 75%. i was driving really slow. I was about halfway home where there are a couple hills. managed to get over the hills but the temp rose close to the last tick mark. the final stretch home I was able to coast into my garage pretty much. At one point when I would try to give a little gas the car would hesitate and jerk but i did not push it.

Got it home and noticed the coolant leaked out again (shocker).

My question is
- Should I be concern about engine damage?
- I checked the hoses and they look fine; It looks like the radiator busted which is strange I dont go off roading for something to fly in there and punture it and there was no road debris so what could have caused this?
- Again should i be concerned about engine damage (warped head) or just replace the radiator?
_ When I do go to replace the radiator is it better to replace some other parts along with it like water pump etc??? Whats a good place I can order parts online at reasonable prices? and is there two radiators i see in there, looks like two seperate radiators.


Thanks in Advance
 
If you didn't get way up into the red then the engine is probably fine, but you would need to do a compression check or a leak down test to confirm. You could drain the oil and have it checked for coolant.
The radiator could have broken through vibration or may have had a weak spot that blew out with pressure. It is also possible that the waterpump failed, causing the overheating.
I would start by replacing the radiator and the hoses as well. I would also probably replace the thermostat assembly. As for the water pump, it is run by the timing chain and could be a challenge to replace since it is behind the timing chain cover.
You only have one radiator, the other is the air conditioner condensor.
 
was it the radiator or the fillerneck? my filler neck had cracked and the dealer had to replace it - got it warrantied by infiniit.
 
Thanks for quick response guys...

Nope not the filler neck far as i can tell. Thats one of the areas I checked first because I know thats a common fail point on radiators. I checked my hoses as much as i could without disassembling and from all indications they are fine as well. the leak is showing from the front grill where the radiator faces the front thru the grill. Theres a lot of coolant that sprayed out on the front bumper. The hoses are all dry so Im assuming they didnt fail. Although I plan to replace those as well.

My mechanic I normally go to quoted me low 600s for parts and labor!! Thats for a Denso radiator (no hoses) and coolant. I told him ill call back. Same Denso radiator i found online for $132 what hes charging me $400 for. Unless theres a difference in those radiators thats a big price difference. Dealer worse yet. They quoted me $700 for the radiator with a straight face lol. i hung up on them. Why the big price disparity?!!! really?!! They do realize we live in the information age and can check online right. That dealer radiator must be made out of gold or something. Unless somebody knows the difference between the two Denso radiators that Im missing can you please let me know??? Otherwise Im going to order the one online and take it to a shop, probably not the same shop that quoted me $400. Ive trusted their work before but this has me questioning. I hope its just the radiator because something obviously caused it to overheat unless it was the radiator itself failing.

Can anyone recommend a good online store to get parts for the FX50 or infiniti period? Also a good infiniti tuner paarts site as well? I have some future plans i want to get done to my car after i get this issue fixed.

Thanks
 
$400 for the job is not that bad. Depending on how skillful he is, he may need to drain the Freon and take almost the entire front out before he can replace the radiator. It took me a good 3 hours to do it without draining the Freon. But that job was a whore.
 
Hoang Le said:
$400 for the job is not that bad. Depending on how skillful he is, he may need to drain the Freon and take almost the entire front out before he can replace the radiator. It took me a good 3 hours to do it without draining the Freon. But that job was a whore.
Click to expand...

I might have confused you but
$400 for the Denso Radiator + $200 for the labor = total $600 (quote)
 
$200 for labor is very cheap in my opinion. You should ask him if you can buy the radiator yourself.
Since you're going to flush the coolant anyway, you should consider replacing the hoses and the thermostat. You also need to buy 2 gal of nissan blue coolant, which is about $40-50.
 
Ok so got my car back from my mechanic. He said he replaced the radiator and the thermostat and coolant. So now I noticed the car jerked a couple times like when you engage the gearshift to drive or something. It happened a couple times in the parking lot when I was leaving. My cars never done that except when I shift it into drive or something. So I said Ill just drive it home maybe its nothing. on my way home i go to get on the highway from a dead stop from an off street that connects to the hwy and the transmission did not respond. the car rolled fwd a lil bit and I hit the brakes so I dnt roll out into hwy traffic. Im not sure whats going on here but i dnt want to find out when Im trying to merge unto hwy and a tractor trailer is bearing down on me to find out my transmission is acting up.

Does anyone have any ideas what this can be and if it could be related to the work i just got done? If so how? I went to get the radiator replaced and now these gremlins have popped up. Driving it to work tomorrow.
 
Just speculation here. Did he refill the transmission fluid? The radiator holds about 1/4 of a qt, plus any amount of fluid that leaked out if he didn't clamp the hoses. Maybe it's time for a transmission flush+refill?
 
Hoang Le said:
Just speculation here. Did he refill the transmission fluid? The radiator holds about 1/4 of a qt, plus any amount of fluid that leaked out if he didn't clamp the hoses. Maybe it's time for a transmission flush+refill?
Click to expand...

Are you saying the transmission fluid needs to be refilled when changing the radiator? Not sure i understand the second sentence. Im pretty sure he did not refill the transmission. he did not mention anything about that and he would have charged me for that if he did it. I dnt see anything on my service list itemizing doing any transmission work or fluid change.

Is there anyway for me to check to see of the transmissionb fluid needs filling or changed? My car has about 93,000 miles.
 
The transmission fluid runs through the radiator. There are two small hoses coming in and out of the radiator on the driver side, one is next to the cooling fan, and the other one is near the bottom of the radiator. The radiator holds about 1/4 of a quart of the transmission fluid. You're supposed to refill it, otherwise you'll be 1/4 qt. short, plus the amount that leaks out when you detach these hoses from the radiator.

I believe your car comes with a seal trans unit, meaning there is no dip stick for you to check. You need to check through the fill plug located at the bottom of your transmission oil pan.

At 93K miles, if you've never had you transmission fluid changed, then I highly recommend a drain/refill service. There are a few threads that show you how to do it yourselves. I did mine at 70K miles and my transmission shifts much smoother and is more decisive. I got the car used, and my impression prior to the fluid change was this is the worst tranny that I've ever driven in my life, too jerky and lagging. I never knew what I missed until I changed the transmission fluid.
 
Looks like my mechanic is not aware of that transmission fluid in the radiator bit. I mentioned it to him and his response told me either he did not know or forgot to do it. My transmission is not the same now. At time it just revs when i hit the gas and and the suddenly jerks fwd. Im freekin pissed at this point. Oh yeah does a flash help with the transmission issue as well? After i get this issue fixed i may see about getting the chip updated.

So for my understanding when you say transmission fluid runs thru the radiator is it mixing with the coolant in the radiator as well or is it using a seperate path thru the radiator.?
I read on this forum that you can damage your transmission by changing the transmission fluid?!! Not sure i understood that.

Appreciate all the info though. Im learning as well.
Thanks man
 
It uses a separate path through the radiator. I think you already have the latest software for your transmission. Changing the fluid won't damage your transmission. Flushing it out at once may shock the transmission, but a drain-and-refill won't cause any damage.
 
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