Another poor 2005 infiniti fx35 overheating

so... I thought you may want to know.

Last night I have:


  • Sucked out all of the coolant from the expansion tank and some from the radiator

  • shook and poured the whole bottle of K-Seal sealant directly into my radiator, followed directions to the letter
  • had 2 30 minutes drives around town.
  • came back home, waited for the car to cool down a couple hours
  • opened the air release valve and topped off coolant a bit
  • to be safe used a brand new radiator cap
  • Woke up this morning, checked the coolant level - all fine and nothing was sucked into the system from the expansion tank like before.
  • Drove to work (65-85mph) as usual
  • checked the level and looked into the expansion tank - no air bubbles in tank, no raised coolant level (only slightly, as usual)


Here's a list of my symptoms:

  • sporadic coolant/bubbling and tank overflow under light-to-average engine load. This usually occurred in the city-type driving
  • subsequent overheat and engine cut-outs by ECU
  • after this, when cold, the ALL the coolant was sucked in back into the system from the tank.
  • smooth working engine, no knocks or misfire
  • no white smoke from tailpipes
  • no bubbling noises from behind the dashboard
  • no leaking fluids anywhere
  • no milky build-up under oil cap
  • no water emitted from tailpipes (glass-test against pipes to check for evaporation)
  • coolant looked nice and clean, no oil residue in it
  • oil looked great (just changed it)
  • heater and A/C work perfectly
Things I have done before to cure the problem:

  • replaced thermostat
  • replaced pipes
  • pressure-tested the system
  • flushed the coolant.
  • replaced radiator cap (at the dealership, now got a new one)
  • refilled system using spill-free funnel to eliminate air pockets
  • after none of the above worked, looked at the stupid faces in Infiniti dealerships that had no answer for me other than suggesting to keep replacing parts until the problem is found

Now, I know the kind of responses this may provoke, but the stuff seemed to work for me. I will keep testing and will post my findings about K-Seal.
 
FX OG said:
Hold up as of now dumping KSEAL into radiator has fixed the problem?
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kseal_311px.jpg
< View attachment 242088
 
Mark me down as another FX overheating. O6, 89K miles. I caught it and shut the car off immediately. I'm a product of years of training driving a rotary where one eye watches the road, the other watches the temp gauge. That chameleon has nothing on me. But the story gets better...

I've not had a single issue with my vehicle. That ended yesterday when it left me stranded in Orlando. Pulled off main roadway into mall, needle started to creep upwards. Pulled into fire lane, shut her off. Pop the hood and there's the coolant coming out of the top of the reservoir tank. Send family shopping. Whip out iPhone 4s and read through two dozen posts on the topic on two different forums before my iPhone battery dies. I let the car cool and source a large quantity of distilled water. Coolant overflow tank is now dry. I fill it to max, pop the radiator cap and top off radiator. Turn car on and let idle. Temp is normal. Send family on way in another vehicle and I gently drive around hoping it was a fluke or the thermostat "unstuck" itself. No luck. Read more, possibly air in system. Heat blows cold. Crap, it's getting dark. Buy long screwdriver at Walgreens to undo the bleed on the back left of engine (passenger's side) and let air out. Some success but not good enough. Drive a bit more, temps climb, I pull into another parking lot. Attempt to bleed more air and I go too far....coolant blows out and sends the bleed screw god knows where. It was like Old Faithful at Yellowstone. Except it wasn't yellow, it was green. Talk about feeling defeated.

Don't ever loose this bleed screw. Infiniti doesn't sell a replacement screw, you have to buy the ENTIRE tee with the screw fitting in it. Orland Infiniti doesn't stock that and won't pull the screw off another vehicle. I get a loaner and drive 3.5 hours back home. Tech feels it's a stuck thermostat (sees it frequently he says) but won't know until we get that damn bleed screw in and pressure test it. What an effing nightmare. So I drive the loaner G37 home and will have to come back up to Orlando, pick up the car at 9am in two days and drive back home and to work. Not fun. And the worst part is I was planning on taking the car in for a big R&R the week after Christmas. Was going to have all the fluids flushed, everything checked over. F*ck me. I mean if I really had wanted a car with a weak cooling system, I would have bought ANY E46 BMW.

Right now the bill sits at $578 if the thermostat is indeed stuck. That's around $130 in diagnosis, labor, thermostat, the T-fitting with bleed The tech working on my vehicle seems good, everyone seems nice at the dealership. I'm a little bit paranoid regardless. Having built/tuned high hp cars myself, and having seen the inner workings of a German performance indie shop, my hopes are not high. They're also an Aston/Lotus dealer but somehow I just didn't manage to snag an Evora or a DBS as a loaner vehicle. I mean I would have settled for a V12 Vantage or even a Vantage S cabriolet. I'm not picky.

I'm wondering what K-Seal would do long term to the passageways inside our blocks. I can't imagine it'd be good. I'll update when I have more information.
 
Force them to test the head gasket in every way they are able. This thread is a beautiful example of the mediocre practices of dealership techs.

Sent from my DROID RAZR
 
wow ape factory that sucks, especially on an '06 fx....i recently did a poor of kseal into the radiator, & am now going to remove the bleed screw -add coolant to remove air, screw back bleed screw & see if the system fills with air. if i don't hear that swishing -i may be temporarily ok.
 
I'm going to make sure the techs take it for a long drive at the very least. My wife wanted to drive back up and get the car as her work hours are more favorable but I in no way shape or form would want her to become stranded on the way home. I'll definitely get conclusive evidence the thermostat is the issue before letting them release the car back to me. Simply thinking they fixed it won't be good enough. Maybe I got "lucky". Thermostats and radiator caps do go bad. Still, a decent thermostat is less than $20 and I could probably swap it out myself in less than an hour. If it had only happened closer to home! Hell, I'm capable of replacing the head gasket. I have the tools and experience. Up to this point, my car has not leaked a bit of any fluid. I can smell coolant from at least three miles away.

Wonder if this is an actual gasket issue or a flaw in the design of the head itself. Perhaps insufficient clamping load in the area that fails, passage too close to the cylinder, etc.... I'd love to see the supposed pinhole failures that cause this. I think the images would be quite informative if not alarming.

They should perform the pressure test on the cooling system tomorrow morning at some point. I've asked for a complete breakdown of the current charges relating to the thermostat and bleed screw replacement.

---------- Post added at 11:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:15 PM ----------

Tchuck, I hope you're incorrect in your assumption about the blown head gasket. Nothing personal :) With that said, I always start with the least expensive part and work my way up. The tech did start with the fans (which I knew were working as I'd tested them myself) and wanted to pressure test but obviously couldn't. Personally, I would have "borrowed" a plug until the new one came in so I could run tests then an there.

But like I said in my previous post, thermostats and caps do go bad. I don't think we can assume every time an FX or other Nissan VQ35 equipped car overheats that it's the head gasket. Trying to stay positive here, LOL.
 
I understand your optimism, but in my experience (reading about several cases) the cause of an FX overheating is most likely the head gasket. On its own, not a huge deal, but every time its incorrectly diagnosed is another week of downtime, another overheat cycle on your motor, and another couple hundred bones out of your pocket. I'm not saying its the HG for sure, I'm saying check and double check it, because far more often than not it turns out to be just that. With no history of overheating for the FX, I would totally agree with your "cheapest part first" theory.

Sent from my DROID RAZR
 
My point is the internet, and this forum, might not represent enough of a sample to make that leap. How many vehicles have gone in for something simple like a thermostat, with the same symptoms, and nothing more? We honestly don't know because a majority of owners do not post on this, or any other forum. I secretly believe it's the head gasket too but that's mostly from reading posts on this forum, not from any actual facts deducted from testing my personal vehicle. I'm preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. The way this car was holding up, it would have gone another 180,000 easily.
 
Ape Factory said:
Was it the V6 or did it happen on your FX45?
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He has a FX45.

I still don't believe this is a common issue. It's like changing shocks at either 30k miles or 100k miles, you just never know when they will fail/leak. I went all out since I don't intend to sell the car anytime soon.

I have been lucky no issues at 100k miles, but I went ahead and changed my coolant hoses, thermostat, water pump and coolant. Rather spend the money now and not wait for a failure. Also, my radiator was extremely dirty -- simply hosing it off did the trick.

Those that had failures with low mileage, that does suck -- not saying it doesn't.
 
Cooling system failures are a major issue with the E46 chassis BMW's (and that's just the start of their issues). Their radiators WILL fail, usually between 75K and 100K, it's almost a given by the sound of things on the forum. Plastic end tanks crack like clockwork. So I thought about, at the very least, changing out the radiator cap, coolant, thermostat and cleaning the radiator (outside) and even having it flushed. I had the coolant changed at 42K and haven't had any issues since. No coolant loss or anything. I'm under the hood giving everything a look over at least once a week. Car is used for commute only. No towing even though I've had the tow hookup sitting in my garage for two years waiting for me to install it.
 
Hope they fixed it for the E90's -- or else I'll be selling mine ASAP...

Ape Factory said:
Cooling system failures are a major issue with the E46 chassis BMW's (and that's just the start of their issues). Their radiators WILL fail, usually between 75K and 100K, it's almost a given by the sound of things on the forum. Plastic end tanks crack like clockwork. So I thought about, at the very least, changing out the radiator cap, coolant, thermostat and cleaning the radiator (outside) and even having it flushed. I had the coolant changed at 42K and haven't had any issues since. No coolant loss or anything. I'm under the hood giving everything a look over at least once a week. Car is used for commute only. No towing even though I've had the tow hookup sitting in my garage for two years waiting for me to install it.
Click to expand...
 
I haven't read much on issues with the current generation unless you're a 335 owner and then look out! The M3's appear to be holding up well. Especially the 08's on the 335 series, lots of little issues. Co-worker's new (I think it was an 2010) 335i w/sport package, silver with the cinnamon interior, less than 12K miles, traded it in because it left him stranded twice in the middle of the road due to fuel pump issues and it going into limp mode. He went with a 328 convertible since it was N/A and apparently doesn't suffer from the same issues. Lots of good reading on the m3forum.net
'
 
I can't claim it...comes from owning a "Factory" variety of an Aprilia motorcycle.

---------- Post added at 03:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:34 PM ----------

No updates yet other than this dealer IS aware of the forum threads pertaining to this issue and I talked to the service rep about not doing any work that won't solve the problem. Unfortunately, the dye test is $185, my choice, which I found a bit odd. I guess they should do the pressure test first and if it passes, do the dye test. She did say it's not 100% definitive however and that sometimes it still doesn't show there's a leak. I'll have a quote on how much to replace the gasket tomorrow (if necessary). I told them to give it a good drive (not just around the parking lot) first and see if the symptoms reoccur. Should have a call later this afternoon with an update.
 
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