The Nissan Path

Did my second oil change on the 05 pathy today. Not much fun when its -20C (-5F).

Did a quick fluid check, and noticed i was low on coolant. All I had in my garage at that hour was premix Honda type 2 coolant (designed for aluminum long life applications).

Anyone see any problems with my using this coolant to top off the pathy? It was down about a quart.

t

I don't know, I topped mine up with regular coolant, Prestone.

Npath wrote:I don't know, I topped mine up with regular coolant, Prestone.

Same here. 50/50 premix

You should be fine, most antifreeze is all the same in retrospect. and only 1 qt added, I wouldnt lose any sleep.

KEVSTER wrote:You should be fine, most antifreeze is all the same in retrospect. and only 1 qt added, I wouldnt lose any sleep.

Do all GM vehicles use an orange coloured coolant? I've seen orange coolant in the radiator and it wasn't rust water.

Orange antifreeze is OAT Organic Acid Technology. Here is a little except from wikipedia:
Organic acid technology
Certain cars are built with Organic Acid Technology (OAT) antifreeze (e.g., DEX-COOL[3]), or with a Hybrid Organic Acid Technology (HOAT) formulation (e.g., Zerex G-05[4]), both of which are claimed to have an extended service life of five years or 240,000 km (150,000 miles).

DEX-COOL specifically has caused controversy. Litigation has linked it with intake manifold gasket failures in GM's 3.1L and 3.4L and with other failures in 3.8L & 4.3L engines. Class action lawsuits were registered in several states, and in Canada,[5] to address some of these claims. The first of these to reach a decision was in Missouri where a settlement was announced early in December, 2007.[6] Late in March 2008, GM agreed to compensate complainants in the remaining 49 states.[7]

There are rumors that mixing Dex-Cool with standard green (non-OAT) coolant causes a chemical reaction that produces sludge in the cooling system. According to the DEX-COOL manufacturer, however, "mixing a 'green' [non-OAT] coolant with DEX-COOL reduces the batch’s change interval to 2 years or 30,000 miles, but will otherwise cause no damage to the engine."

According to internal GM documents, the ultimate culprit appears to be operating vehicles for long periods of time with low coolant levels. The low coolant is caused by pressure caps that fail in the open position. (The new caps and recovery bottles were introduced at the same time as Dex-Cool). This exposes hot engine components to air and vapors, causing corrosion and contamination of the coolant with iron oxide particles, which in turn can aggravate the pressure cap problem as contamination holds the caps open permanently.

Typically OAT antifreeze contains a red or pink dye to differentiate it from the conventional glycol-based coolants (blue or green). Some of the newer OAT coolants claim to be compatible with all types of OAT and glycol-based coolants; these are typically green or yellow in color (for a table of colors, see )

Ohhhh-Ahhhhhhhh

KEVSTER wrote:You should be fine, most antifreeze is all the same in retrospect. and only 1 qt added, I wouldnt lose any sleep.

Well I checked it again today, and added a bunch more. I have never topped it off since we got the truck in August, and have done some heavy towing with it.

I may start a new thread for this, but I was wondering if the caps on my cooling system are reversed? There is a cap for the rad and a cap for the overflow bottle.

Which cap goes where? 1 cap is just that, a cap. The other is the pressure cap with spring assembly etc in it rated to 15 PSI.

So where does the pressure cap go?

t

disallow wrote:

KEVSTER wrote:You should be fine, most antifreeze is all the same in retrospect. and only 1 qt added, I wouldnt lose any sleep.

Well I checked it again today, and added a bunch more. I have never topped it off since we got the truck in August, and have done some heavy towing with it.

I may start a new thread for this, but I was wondering if the caps on my cooling system are reversed? There is a cap for the rad and a cap for the overflow bottle.

Which cap goes where? 1 cap is just that, a cap. The other is the pressure cap with spring assembly etc in it rated to 15 PSI.

So where does the pressure cap go?

t

Scratch that, they are not interchangeable so that answers that!

t

I actually just changed the coolant in my '05 today, with 50k miles.

The cap with the spring came off the reservoir, the radiator cap is just a cap.

I'd be a little cautious with what coolant you put in though. I was going to use the typical Prestone but the guys convinced me to stick with OEM in another thread, and it's probably a good thing. The Nissan stuff indicates that it doesn't contain silicates or borates, which could damage seals or cause corrosion...not sure if Prestone complies with this. Also, the color is a deep forest green that looks something like NyQuil, rather than the typical neon green that I'm used to seeing.

The Nissan stuff was pricey, at $28 a gallon, but I'm going to stick with it. I was only able to drain about 2 gal from the system, so it's only about a 70% change. I decided against flushing the system because the coolant came out looking great (clear, no flakes or obvious contaminants) and I didn't want to mess around with trying to get a 50/50 ratio with not being able to drain the whole system.

LittleStevie wrote:I actually just changed the coolant in my '05 today, with 50k miles.

The cap with the spring came off the reservoir, the radiator cap is just a cap.

I'd be a little cautious with what coolant you put in though. I was going to use the typical Prestone but the guys convinced me to stick with OEM in another thread, and it's probably a good thing. The Nissan stuff indicates that it doesn't contain silicates or borates, which could damage seals or cause corrosion...not sure if Prestone complies with this. Also, the color is a deep forest green that looks something like NyQuil, rather than the typical neon green that I'm used to seeing.

The Nissan stuff was pricey, at $28 a gallon, but I'm going to stick with it. I was only able to drain about 2 gal from the system, so it's only about a 70% change. I decided against flushing the system because the coolant came out looking great (clear, no flakes or obvious contaminants) and I didn't want to mess around with trying to get a 50/50 ratio with not being able to drain the whole system.

Thanks for the tip. The honda premix I have is silicate and borate free as well, but has a blue colour to it. I did some reading, and in fact alot of nissan tuners use the Honda blue stuff in their nissans, so I think I should be OK.

Hondas are very sensitive to the type of coolant used, many honda people call prestone "hondacide"...

Not sure why I had to add so much fluid though. Almost 3 liters! I am taking it in to Nissan for a diagnosis on a squeal at idle on Monday, so I will have them do a pressure test. Anyone think my squeal could be from the waterpump? It goes away after a couple miles.

referring to this thread: http://www.thenissanpath.com/viewtopic.php?t=1327

t