Overheating 2001 Sentra

[joshuamac]

Hey, hope you guys can help because I'm out of ideas!

2001 Sentra suddenly overheated one day. Replaced the thermostat...nothing. The radiator...nothing. Today replaced the water pump. Still overheating. The weird thing is that even when the needle is near the red line I crank up the heat, and cool air blows (not AC cold, but definately not hot). I know its not just a faulty gauge because when it does hit the red line water/antifreeze is spewing out of the overflow.

I've searched around here and on various forums, but haven't seen this problem described. I'm not a mechanical whiz by any means. I've had help with the work I did, but I'm completely out of ideas, and don't have the money to take it to a mechanic at this point.

Anybody heard of this or have an educated guess?

Thanks for any and all help you can give!

[Towncivilian]

Welcome to NICO.

Was the radiator cap replaced? If not, inspect it according to this TSB; replace if necessary.

[joshuamac]

Wow. Mine looks exactly like the illustration of what it shouldn't look like. Gonna get the new cap and try it out. Thanks so much!

[RED_DET]

Yeah the cap can be the culprit. Are you bleeding the system properly?

[joshuamac]

Got the new cap but it didn't change anything (at least it was only $4!). Still overheats within 1 minute of driving (seems to stay fine idling). I've tried bleeding the system a couple of times, but I may not be doing it right. It seems to take an infinite amount of water and bubbles and spits forever. I did it once this morning for about 15 minutes - car parked on a hill with the engine running, heater on, radiator cap removed, added water until it reached the top, bubbles and spits and gurgles, water level drops, add more water, bubbles and spits and gurgles, repeat...finally after 15-20 minutes of this the water level seemed to settle, so I took it for a spin and it overheated almost immediately. Removed the cap and the water seemed low again, added what seemed like way more water than the system could handle - more bubbles and spits and gurgles for another 15 minutes. Still overheating. Also, I was doing this in the rain this morning so I couldn't tell if water was coming out anywhere else, but I have tried this before and didn't notice anything obvious. Am I doing something wrong?

Blown head gasket?

[RED_DET]

I guess parking on a hill would replicate jacking the front of the car up to bleed the system. There is a small bleed valve on the thermostat, did you position it to 12 o'clock when you installed the new one. The bleed procedure is very basic for this platform, so you may have some head gasket issues.

[06_blkout]

I was going to ask if it had the bleeder like the KA24...don't lose that bleeder, Nissan parts departments refuse to acknowledge that it exists.

Welcome to Nico!