Another poor 2005 infiniti fx35 overheating

there going to want to replace the thermostat first, itll probably take a few hours or days depending on how you drive for it to overheat, then there going to talk about hoses having a leak then replacing the whole radiator. It becomes a vicious cycle of dumping money into things that are not the orginal issue, i wish there was any other way, but it seems everyone will have to spend close to $700 by the time its officially figured to be a head gasket. I have not taken the air out of my system after kseal pour, but i will tell you this much, it hasnt overheated & my heater gives off heat as soon as pin reaches the middle -this was not common before -i would get cold air blowing for a few minutes even though pin was in middle & my engine wasnt even overheating, but even now with air in system heater works like "brand new". i have been told to keep the kseal in the system and let it cycle through forever...& if i replace coolant do another poor...
 
Their verdict is in, thermostat. Total bill is $641.83. $400 and change is labor. I can tell you this, it would have been at least a third less at Infiniti of Fort Myers. I guess you pay extra when it's an Aston dealership too...

According to the service rep, they do see stuck thermostats quite a bit. Once the car overheats, the thermostat is toast. The wax element gets distorted and it never works right again. We shall see...they did a 22 mile loop without issue.
 
Ape Factory said:
Their verdict is in, thermostat. Total bill is $641.83. $400 and change is labor. I can tell you this, it would have been at least a third less at Infiniti of Fort Myers. I guess you pay extra when it's an Aston dealership too...

According to the service rep, they do see stuck thermostats quite a bit. Once the car overheats, the thermostat is toast. The wax element gets distorted and it never works right again. We shall see...they did a 22 mile loop without issue.
Click to expand...
$400 for labor? Is it that complicated to change the thermostat? Holy cow
 
Ape Factory said:
Their verdict is in, thermostat. Total bill is $641.83. $400 and change is labor. I can tell you this, it would have been at least a third less at Infiniti of Fort Myers. I guess you pay extra when it's an Aston dealership too...

According to the service rep, they do see stuck thermostats quite a bit. Once the car overheats, the thermostat is toast. The wax element gets distorted and it never works right again. We shall see...they did a 22 mile loop without issue.
Click to expand...

I hope for your sake that your problem is solved. I'm afraid though that this is exactly how all the other head gasket sagas start. We'll know for sure in a couple weeks when yours either does or doesn't overheat again.

Sent from my DROID RAZR
 
Well I got up at 4:30am this morning, drove to Orlando and picked up the car. Back in Naples by 11:30! Not a single issue on the way home and car feels like it always did.

Now why it cost so much...this dealership, Orlando Infiniti, charges $145 AN HOUR in labor rates. That's double what they charge in Fort Myers/Naples. An absolute ass raping. I let them know as much as politely as possible. This is obviously the owner's policy. Problem is, they never divulged labor rates on any invoices or told me in person. I had to ask what the labor portion of the bill was and there was still no per hour charge. Nothing on my final receipt showing how many hours they worked, etc...complete scam. I'm actually going to make a new thread warning people about their labor rate. Everything else was fine although they didn't do a very good job of hosing down my engine bay. I'm happy the car is "fixed", not happy at all with what I was charged.

Now on to the thermostat issue...I did have a talk, again, about the thermostat and it is something they see a lot of. They fix it once and they don't see the same car back for cooling issues. The thermostat is the problem. It's my theory that it's failure, if combined with excessive overheating, is what's causing the head gasket failure. I don't think that in each and every case (really very few overall), if the thermostat fails, the head gasket will be compromised.

With that said, I'll try to update this post every once in a while. If something else fails, I'll post it right away. And feel free to post a message some time in the future if you' haven't heard back from me!

---------- Post added at 01:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:01 PM ----------

I forgot to add...I really think owners should consider replacing their thermostats between 50K and 75K if the tech is right and it's a common problem. I haven't searched for a how-to post yet but it looks fairly simple and it's something most could probably do in their driveway. The most difficult issue would be getting the air out of the system.
 
thermostat hmmm that thing that is in the upper radiator hose or by the water pump... cant be that hard just make sure you do it right and replace the sending units while at it.
 
Just a small update. No new issues, car performing like it should. I've put about 700 miles on the car since the service, accelerated hard, highway, city, heat on and off, etc...no overheating issues. Fingers crossed!
 
Ape Factory said:
Just a small update. No new issues, car performing like it should. I've put about 700 miles on the car since the service, accelerated hard, highway, city, heat on and off, etc...no overheating issues. Fingers crossed!
Click to expand...

Very nice. I think I'm going to order a thermostat today.

Sent from my DROID RAZR
 
What's going on fellow FX'ers. Unfortunately, I have been experiencing the same overheating issues that have been plaguing the few and far between members on various forums that I've been trolling on. Now, I want to start by saying that I experienced this issue a few weeks ago, but decided not to go to the dealer and to do the troubleshooting myself within my garage. I went through the list, starting w/ the cheapest fixes first, EX: flush, cap, new thermostat, new rad, new hoses, and pretty much every inexpensive cooling system component I could think of that was causing the overheating issue. Now, I first experienced this while driving when I noticed my temp gauge started to creep to just about to the halfway point. I also noticed that my rad fan was loud, I mean seriously loud. (I have an amp wired to my Bose subs and had my iPod turned up and could hear it over that!) So I immediately pulled over and let my car sit before I shut it down to avoid any heat soak. I immediately noticed that I had coolant leaking from my thermostat and a pool of coolant on my splash guard. I let the car cool off then drove 11 miles home while maintaining a good cool temp. By the next day, I noticed while driving that it was overheating much sooner than the first incident. Now, I said that I replaced all the inexpensive cooling system components, so I naturally assumed that this was my fix to my problem. After I buttoned everything up, I drove about 3 miles before it happened again.

My next conclusion, and originally my first suspicion when I noticed floaties within my radiator before changing it, that I had something clogging my coolant jackets within my engine. I called my local infiniti dealership and one of the service managers told me that she was "100% sure that it's my radiator fans" but to me that just didn't seem true. I found it completely unprofessional that she would tell me with 100% confidence, without even looking at the car mind you, that my radiator fans were the root cause of this issue. So far that's where I'm at, I'm going to head back home after work and spin my fans to see if any bearings are out or if the fan motor is starting to seize. I'm praying really hard that my assumption of clogged water jackets isn't the case because frankly, although having experience in building engines and working w/ automobiles for a good portion of my life, I just don't have the damn time to strip apart my daily driver for a month and pay rental fees and I REALLY don't want to pay 8-15xxx$ on a new engine because my trans is also starting to take a dump on me as well....

I hope that the service manager that I spoke w/ is correct and that it truly is my rad fan, because I'd rather pay a few hundred than a few thousand...


Good luck to any and all else dealing w/ this problem. I can only imagine how much stress this can cause you because it's certainly stressing me out.
 
If you replaced the thermostat and it's now leaking around there and not holding pressure, that could be at least part of the problem. Noisy fans is not normal either. How many miles?

An update on my end, no overheating issues whatsoever since having the dealer change it out (along with a new cap) and rape my wallet.
 
I was haveing the same problem with my fx35 i did everything even spent 100.00 on some steel seal NOTHING WORKED. I went to the dealership and there solution was replace the engine (they dont know shit on how there cars work on the inside) dont waist your money messing with the dealership.the only thing that they comfirmed for me was that exhaust was getting in to the coolent so i ended up tearing the engine apart to replace the head gasket it is almost done hope to be driving it by the end of the week. i noticed that the gasket on the fx35 is only a 2ply gasket and the new one is a 3ply steel gasket, i did the head gasket myself alot of screws but it was pretty easy so far im out only 500.00 most of that went to having the heads milled, tested, and new valve seals put in.
 
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just an update. my car started overheating again randomly. not so much when i don't use the air conditioning but still does. so i have all new hoses, thermostat and newer radiator cap but there's more to check. noticed air from the passenger side fan is extremely hot but the air from the driver side is pretty cool. thinking it's also a flow problem because the coolant that ends up in the expansion tank never flows back into the radiator. perhaps its radiator replacement time. will let y'all know...

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just to share my experience... my 2003 fx35 had 2 overheating problems this past year.

1st occurrence: dealer pressure checked the system and it passed. they guessed and replaced the thermostat and dropped it off at my house. drove 12 miles to drop kids off at school and it overheats. i hitch a ride to the dealership and buy a radiator cap because they are cheap and if it works then its a cheap fix (i read somewhere to replace the radiator cap first because it is a cheap fix and the seal wears out over time). the cap fixed it and no overheating for about 3 months.

Recent occurrence: radiator cap and thermostat appear to do their job. check all hoses that coolant flows from and quite a few of them are squishy gummy but no leaks. heard this squishy gummy breakdown of the hoses can impede coolant flow. so replaced all hoses and that breather gismo towards the left back side. been a few days and no overheating. knock on wood.

When yours overheats, my recommendations for quick diagnosis are:
1. replace the radiator cap cuz its cheap and if the seal went then it disrupts coolant flow.
2. check the functioning of your heater. all good then waterpump is good.
3. when overheating and the fans are working then likely your thermostat is working.
4. check for coolant leaks and replace bad hoses if there are any.

But then again... i'm just a hack and don't work on cars anymore.
 
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Sadly I have also had this problem. After searching for a safe, reliable vehicle and reading many glowing reviews on the FX35 I purchased a 2004 fx35 awd on Sept 17th. Lovvvved the car. Then on Oct 5th on the way to take my son to school I could not get any heat going and the temp. gauge shot all the way to "H" I called the dealership (which was actually a Ford dealership) and they towed it there and stated it was the radiator and they were going to replace it. Well I got the car back a week ago (Oct. 15th) and what happened this morning? Only a week after getting it "fixed" another overheat on my way home from taking my son to school. So its been towed back to the dealership again.

On the brightside the dealership has taken full responsibility in fixing the problem but frankly its still a crappy situation.
 
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