You can't replace *just* the plastic part because it's integral to the heater core (and you don't have a way of connecting the two). It's a factory design. It was made of plastic because it needed to last 20 years. It did its job.

$233 for a 23 year old heater core is far from ridiculous. That's 1/2 of a car payment - when was the last time this car cost you money?

You said you'd be willing to pay a ridiculous markup for the plastic piece. Well, you are. $233 and it comes attached to a brand new heater core.

Let's go back to the beginning of this thread: You have a $50k car that you paid next to nothing for. Maintenance was deferred for 23 years.
You've driven it for how many years for how much total investment?

Infiniti doesn't need to accommodate you. Remember, you dumped voodoo juice in the cooling system after we all told you not to.

Want cheap transportation? Sell it for $500 as a mechanic's special and buy a mid-90's to mid-00's Corolla or Camry. Bulletproof and cheap to fix.

AZhitman wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 06, 2019 10:05 am

You can't replace *just* the plastic part because it's integral to the heater core (and you don't have a way of connecting the two). It's a factory design. It was made of plastic because it needed to last 20 years. It did its job.

$233 for a 23 year old heater core is far from ridiculous. That's 1/2 of a car payment - when was the last time this car cost you money?

You said you'd be willing to pay a ridiculous markup for the plastic piece. Well, you are. $233 and it comes attached to a brand new heater core.

Let's go back to the beginning of this thread: You have a $50k car that you paid next to nothing for. Maintenance was deferred for 23 years.
You've driven it for how many years for how much total investment?

Infiniti doesn't need to accommodate you. Remember, you dumped voodoo juice in the cooling system after we all told you not to.

Want cheap transportation? Sell it for $500 as a mechanic's special and buy a mid-90's to mid-00's Corolla or Camry. Bulletproof and cheap to fix.

Lol, dude I’ve been putting money into this car all year long: started with the rear shocks, then the a/c compressor/condenser (already dead when purchased, so was prepared to do it), Fan clutch, all 4 belts, front shocks/mounts, heater core, and now waterpump (I woulda replaced at same time as the clutch, but I was working out of a friend’s garage and had limited time and money) lol. That’s why if I can find the part by itself, I could use the break. Not to mention little stuff here and there: multiple trips to the junkyard, the initial $1,200 I spent when first purchased, etc.

Sorry if it sounds like I’m bitching lol. It’s just as I’ve said before, I have a 97 Maxima with more miles, and I’ve not had water pumps and heater cores go bad on it. Granted, I’ve dumped a lot of money into that over the years too (since 2012). So it’s no angel either. But I’m like dayum, where does it end lol.

And I understand even if I buy a 2000-something Infiniti, I’m still going to have stuff to fix at some point, so you’re right...this is still relatively cheap ESPECIALLY considering I’m doing it myself. I just hate how whenever I want to order a part, it never comes with the full thing. Like with the struts: I wanted the Springs and boots. I had to buy that s*** separately.

But I must admit: I do drive the sh*t out of this car. Put about 6,000 miles on it since September: drove from Midwest to San Diego and back. And (almost) no breakdowns, waterpump made it home. So I give Infiniti due credit. It’s never left me stranded lol.

But I had a 96 Camry on the other hand, that car was voodoo! Lol. Left me stranded multiple times: motor mounts, timing belt/water pump, distributor cap, ignition cap. It was the car from the hell lol. no way in hell would I demote myself to some cloth interior, 4 cylinder piece of sh*t lol.

Well, there you have it.

At the end of the day, it beats a $600/mo car payment on a depreciating asset. Now stop bitching and go fix it.

This thread should be stickied as a warning of how not to do things. You have spent more time d!ck around, avoiding a real fix, than it would have taken to do the correct fix in the first place. And it looks like you are in it for even more time. Everyone told you not to, but you complain about it anyway. I don't understand that train of thought. I don't want to dissuade anyone from a Q45, but maybe this car is not for you.

Well, as an update...new waterpump is finished. Mostly straightforward fix except the hidden bottom bolt that had me confused for a good half hour wondering why it wouldn’t come off. Having inspected the waterpump and thermostat, it doesn’t seem like my “voodoo juice” clogged anything. Even the jiggle valve was clear. The waterpump likely failed because it was time to anyway. Can’t tell if it’s OEM or previously replaced.

That said; wow be easy on me

I’m not just bitching. Just understand I’ve put A TON of work into this car, and despite friends telling me to get a new car, I still continue to drive this reliable. They just see the repairs I post on Facebook, but they also see I’m putting about 7,500 highway miles on it every 2 months. Just did an oil change back in October, and another today.


And yes, I did use stop leak, but at the time I was desperate. The leak was spilling so fast, I didn’t even know what it was. I thought it was headgasket. I couldn’t see where it was coming from though. My car almost died in downtown Indianapolis because so much coolant leaked out without my knowledge (after I had previously added coolant 600 miles earlier in the trip), and the gauge reached all the way to the H before I shut it off in the middle of the street. The radiator was completely empty and it wasn’t sucking from the reservoir either. It was at that point I know I had an issue. But I had to drive for another 800 miles before I got home, and being afraid I would run out of coolant while driving, I had to do what I thought was best decision at the time. I didn’t really know it was the heater core for sure until I returned home from my 2,000 mile trip, and removed the carpet to find an inch of green coolant on the floor. If anyone hasn’t ever removed the carpet, it’s insulated by thick foam and fiber, so the carpet wasn’t “wet”. Plus I have floor mats.

I understand old cars need lots of patience and TLC, but considering there aren’t many aftermarket parts of our cars, I’d think Infiniti would be a bit more accommodating.

You're gonna be just fine.

I can recall having a '95 Q45t and having similar frustrations (back in 2002 when all this came together).

AZhitman wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 08, 2019 9:39 pm

You're gonna be just fine.

I can recall having a '95 Q45t and having similar frustrations (back in 2002 when all this came together).

That would have been Barely 10 years old. I know I’ll be fine, the car is what I worry about.

Got the waterpump/therm all changed out. But my Gawd, due to the coolant dumping out on the belts after changing waterpump, my belts were squealing like never before. Had to hose off at car wash.

And the damn waterpump belt adjustment bolt...arrgghhhhh. Stupidest thing ever. The proper way to do it is to tighten while the eclip is on. Tighten it too much, the eclip retainer pops off and the tension loosens. I toyed around with the stupid thing for over an hour. Each time it pops off, I have to either take the alternator pulley bracket off, or force pull the eclip back into the groove. The first time around I didn’t tighten the belt enough (because there’s barely any room to feel for tension), and it slipped and smoked like crazy for a couple seconds. I think I have it tight enough now, but a cold startup will tell

What’s got me vexed, I still have a little bit of belt squeal during cold start driving. But because Infiniti discontinued the compressor pulley adjustment bolt, I’m left to manually tighten the compressor belt with nothing but the pulley itself. I tightened that down, which helped. But now I’m suspecting power steering pump or alternator. Only time will tell what goes next

But, I want to do another cold start since I’ve cleaned my belts and see if that’ll help. But for the most part, the hardest part is over.

Update:

So the new Infiniti heater core is here. Complete with the plastic tubes. However, I was bit taken aback that they used plastic tubes again on this supposed “superseded” part.

I’ve also order an evaporator core from an aftermarket. All in all, taking 3 days off to do this s***. Considering these parts like to go in sequences (fan clutch, then fan belt, then waterpump), I figured I might as well stay on top of what could be next.

You are driving a dated Japanese vehicle. In which there is little to no market for parts in this country. Therefore not cost effective to even ship the parts to try to sell. Source the parts from, you guessed it, Japan. You will find surprising low mark up. Availabilility on most if not all "discontinued" parts. Shipping is quicker than you could imagine. Been doing it for over a decade now.

BCC93QT wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 11, 2020 12:10 pm

You are driving a dated Japanese vehicle. In which there is little to no market for parts in this country. Therefore not cost effective to even ship the parts to try to sell. Source the parts from, you guessed it, Japan. You will find surprising low mark up. Availabilility on most if not all "discontinued" parts. Shipping is quicker than you could imagine. Been doing it for over a decade now.

Ok give me the rundown on this lol. I thought about that myself. Have tried looking up parts in Japan on eBay and google, but usually shows it all Japanese or still shows local listings.

So far I’ve been able to find most parts I need on eBay and rock auto, and of course the occasional salvage. Only things I’ve run into dead ends on are heater core and the front struts, which I had to get from the dealer.

https://nissan.epc-data.com/

Of course. There is the RHD/LHD difference in certain in dash parts.

Ahh, interesting. Nissan cima. However I can’t say their prices are much better than affordableinfinitiparts.com and infinitipartsdeal.com

The site you showed quoted $664 for the heater/a-c control. Generally goes for around $300. Poverty stricken folks like me have to shop eBay and junkyards for such luxury parts lol.

However, anything that involves big labor, a/c parts etc, I won’t get used. I’m just glad a/c parts for this car are relatively cheap. Just bought my evaporator core from Walmart online. There’s nothing wrong with the one I have, but just preventive while I’m already doing the heater core.

Well just as I thought I had made progress:

I should have checked the core before putting everything together. Today my brand new Infiniti heater core is leaking yet AGAIN. Under my carpet I pull it back and can see. I’m pretty sure I did everything correctly. Nothing was forced or broken.

I’m just wondering if by chance I had needed to apply a sealant between the tubes and the heater core itself. But based on the previous one and the new one, no sealant was used. And it already had a rubber gasket thing around it. Unless by some off chance it fell off.

This s*** is just getting way too ridiculous. I’m literally at the crossroads of trading this one in for something else...I just can’t do it anymore. I start to lose faith when I keep trying to fix s*** and it doesn’t work. On 1 of my previous cars, it was a sign that I would lose the car in the near future, but I’m trying to stay positive and patient. The heater works great, and I got my blower motor working again by cleaning the leaves and twigs from it.

I did everything right. There was no instructions saying to add sealant around the pipe and the core, but dammit it seems to be the case. At this point I haven’t taken things apart again to see where it’s coming from, but between the evaporator hoses and the core hoses, it’s a pain in the a** to remove again.

If anyone wants to help me make a down payment on a new vehicle and can buy my Q, let me know lol

Not sure what "rubber gasket thing" you speak of, but there's no sealant used. Just hose clamps.

https://www.infinitipartsdeal.com/parts ... iping.html

Hoses replaced? Very likely one is cracked, they're 23 years old.

AZhitman wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 19, 2020 9:07 pm

Not sure what "rubber gasket thing" you speak of, but there's no sealant used. Just hose clamps.

https://www.infinitipartsdeal.com/parts ... iping.html

Hoses replaced? Very likely one is cracked, they're 23 years old.

On the plastic heater core tubes, inside (you’ll never know they are there unless you take them apart) there’s a black gasket surrounding each of the holes. However, looking at the old one I didn’t see any sealant so figured I wouldn’t need to add any.

BUT, good news is I just went ahead and quickly dropped the evap box again and looked at the heater core again. I could see where the coolant had leaked from. It was the tube connections It was the lower hose. Had 1 of the spring clamps mixed up with my other car’s hose vacuum clamps which look identical but the coolant clamps can’t be compressed by hand.

Simple mistake, but fixed. But now my carpet is all wet underneath again. Felt like I was reliving the nightmare all over again thinking the core got punctured or the plastic hose broke.

Moral of the story: you don’t need to remove the dashboard to get to the evaporator or the heater core. Unless you’re not physically agile lol.

I'm glad you got it figured out!

Q451990 wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 20, 2020 9:57 am

I'm glad you got it figured out!

I did figure it out but my car was acting as if was possessed today again lol.

So heater core all put together, no leaks. But I drive a 3/4 mile up the street and after the car warms up to operating temp, the needle starts dropping. Like I’ve never seen this before. Instead of running hot, the needle kept going down all the way to cold. Thermostat was changed with waterpump last month, so it can’t be that. I pull over to stop because I didn’t know what was happening. Heat would not work.

After a few minutes I open the radiator cap and sure enough it’s a little low on coolant, but I figure that’s from the heater core ingesting the full amount of coolant this time. Topped it up. But then, the car wouldn’t start. So had to get a jump. It’s 15 degrees here so was hoping I didn’t “freeze” the engine in the process. But it’s at proper mixture.

Later in the evening I drive it for 20 miles on the highway, and everything seems to be normal and working with the heat. So I’m thinking maybe it was just air in the system causing it, but it did seem to do it again some even after I added coolant. But not since the highway drive.

Btw I had to get a jump twice today so it’s either from leaving the doors open too long while fixing it, and it really needed a drive to recharge, or something completely unrelated to this thread. I’m going to be devastated if I have to get a new stater.

Update: was likely just air in the system and lots of it. Temp gauge working normally, heat blowing hot. Not as hot as it seemed before, but then again last time I felt the heater working was a few months ago when the temp gauge kept going nearly to the H due to the coolant running low.

Project would have been much easier had I not changed out the evaporator, but that’s not too hard either. The problem is the O-rings around the expansion valve, and using the same ones because the afternarkets wouldn’t fit. Then the aftermarket evaporator I got was not bent the way the factory evap is. So that was temporarily giving me hell because 1 the cabin filters wouldn’t fit, 2 I had to bend it more into shape, and 3 it made it super difficult to get the lines on...so at one point I had to pull the evap box again and re-bend it.

Hoping the a/c system stays leak free. I should be getting super cold a/c next Spring with all new a/c components.

98_Q45 wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 22, 2020 9:59 pm

Update: was likely just air in the system and lots of it. Temp gauge working normally, heat blowing hot. Not as hot as it seemed before, but then again last time I felt the heater working was a few months ago when the temp gauge kept going nearly to the H due to the coolant running low.

Project would have been much easier had I not changed out the evaporator, but that’s not too hard either. The problem is the O-rings around the expansion valve, and using the same ones because the afternarkets wouldn’t fit. Then the aftermarket evaporator I got was not bent the way the factory evap is. So that was temporarily giving me hell because 1 the cabin filters wouldn’t fit, 2 I had to bend it more into shape, and 3 it made it super difficult to get the lines on...so at one point I had to pull the evap box again and re-bend it.

Hoping the a/c system stays leak free. I should be getting super cold a/c next Spring with all new a/c components.

.






So I can pull the heater core out from the glove box section with out touching the dash?