We have a 97 altima, it has been running with the coolant gauge at 1/4 past cold as the "operating temperature" for as long as she's had this car. last night it made it to half way, and a little past, we added water, and we drove it around the block to diagnose it and it made a metallic rattling noise in drive or reverse when giving it a moderate amount of gas going up towards 2k rpm. we then tried reving it in neutral, brought it to 4,000 no noise. today i went out there to check it out in the light noticed some oil puddle forming beside the heatsheild on the passenger side which i wiped off, but formed again, and light smoke coming from the drivers side of the heat shield. and the oil hasn't been changed since october. when pulling the dipstick there was clear oil all over the dipstick, but then i dipped it back in to check the level, and pulled it out, the dipstick was dry and the dipstick feeder tube had some light smoke rising from it. im assuming that this "clear oil" is the water mixing with the oil and making it look clean, when it would obviously not be clean. the metallic rattling stopped today, we couldn't repeat the noise. i feel as if this could be an internal head gasket leak, but last night i was convinced it was between the water pump, thermostat, radiator, torque converter, or trans cooler. this is one of the most confusing problems i've ever had to deal with. this is my girlfriend, and her moms car, and it needs to be fixed ASAP. i live with them, and the amount of work i put into my car just makes them raise they're eyebrows that i can't figure out what's wrong with their car.
The car hasn't run since I checked the oil, I started the car revved up to 2000 twice let it idle 10 seconds, then shut it off, pulled the dipstick...
wiped it off stuck it back in, pulled it out....
I feel as if the oil should be really brown or black since it's probably 8-9 months/4k miles overdue
i added oil, and it was 2 qts low....
i figured this picture might help too...
can anyone shed some light on this for me?
i have a very unhappy girlfriend right now, and i think we all know how that goes.