The Nissan Path

Well I need some help.

Winter is fast approaching here and we've moved to a house with no garage.

I really need the heater to be able to heat the car up so we don't have to put the baby in a cold car (avg -20F).

I just replaced the thermostat hoping that would fix the problem, the car wasn't reaching proper temperature.

I've read about air in the system but haven't tried anything with it yet.

Give me your best suggestions!

2011 Pathfinder V6 4x4

This was recommended to me and it worked. Just check if you have green or blue anti-freeze. This is for getting trapped air out. Mine was a combo of that and low fluid. After this, super hot heat again. Good luck


Regardless, it does sound like you have some air trapped in the system. What I would do is, when the engine is cold, top off the radiator, install the cap, and fill the reservoir to the "MAX" line. Jack the front end of the vehicle up as safely as you can; if you don't have a jack and jack stands, try finding a relatively steep hill and park with the nose facing upwards. Start the engine and set the front and rear heaters to the maximum hot positions. Run the engine between 2500-3000 RPM for at least 10-15 minutes, making sure there is good heat coming out of the vents before shutting it off. Shut the engine off and lower the vehicle (if applies) and check the level in the reservoir. Top off the reservoir, if necessary, and reinstall the reservoir cap. This process will usually work. If not, you may want to check the heater pump. This is a small electric pump that circulates the coolant through the heater cores. It mounts on a bracket bolted to the firewall on the driver's side of the engine, has two wires going to it and heater hoses connected to it.

Thanks, I'll try this in the next couple of days.

I flushed all the coolant when I replaced the thermostat and filled with new green 50/50 coolant. Prestone I think. So there's no mix and no extra water added.

Will update soon!

I followed all directions and have ended up with heat during idle but only in the front of the car. No such luck in the rear.

Just can't win!

Thanks

I am also having this issue for the first time. This winter is very cold. However, if I rev up the engine while parked, warm air comes out the front defrost. If I come up to a red light, the air will get cold again. I put it in park, rev up, warms up.

I think I will try this suggestion. For thd rear- I can only get semi-warm air after driving on the highway for sevral minutes.

Almost tempted to put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator with bunch of holes cut out (smj999n please don’t kill me) I also have a newborn, and next week wind chill is supposed to be around-15 Farenheit.

Hard to decide which is more important baby or pathfinder. Lol

itstoodangcoluphere wrote:
I've read about air in the system but haven't tried anything with it yet.

Had the same symptoms with our 2011. Read this thread and some others, ended up simply adding about 1 qt of coolant and that did the trick. Before I could actually heard bubbling in the heater core at stoplights, which tipped me off. To fill I parked on an incline, added coolant to the radiator with the engine warm, and "pumped" the lower radiator hose to move the bubbles out. Worked like a charm.

Thanks to all who offered advice on this, saved me a service call. I suspect the radiator was underfilled as I had it flushed last spring and would not have noticed low coolant impact until it got cold this winter.

So I have been having this issue and a friend of mine had the same issue on his 2012 Titan. He had to have his "auxiliary water pump" replaced. I took my Pathfinder to the dealership (as it's certified pre-owned and still under warranty) and sure enough, auxiliary water pump is what sends warm coolant into your heating system at idle. This pump turns on when you don't have the engine revving high enough to pump (warm) coolant through the heating system. If the pump isn't working the engines heat will be normal and the heat through your vents will be intermittent or not working at all (depending on revs).

Unfortunately Nissan argues that this isn't covered under my Certified Pre-Owned warranty and they want to charge me $385 for the part and another $300 in labor. They claim that Nissan doesn't manufacture only the auxiliary water pump without the hoses it is connected to.

5 minutes of searching online and Cardone makes a replacement pump for this and it's only $108. They also have a video of how to replace it (the pump is on the very top of your engine bay in the back in a very accessible spot) by removing 2 screws and taking off 2 hose clamps. Here's a link of the part:

https://www.carid.com/cardone/water-pum ... plications

Hopefully this helps out a few of you guys out there. This is apparently a very well known problem with Nissan that obviously isn't something they're willing to help their customers out with.

...YouKnowWho wrote:So I have been having this issue and a friend of mine had the same issue on his 2012 Titan. He had to have his "auxiliary water pump" replaced. I took my Pathfinder to the dealership (as it's certified pre-owned and still under warranty) and sure enough, auxiliary water pump is what sends warm coolant into your heating system at idle. This pump turns on when you don't have the engine revving high enough to pump (warm) coolant through the heating system. If the pump isn't working the engines heat will be normal and the heat through your vents will be intermittent or not working at all (depending on revs).

Unfortunately Nissan argues that this isn't covered under my Certified Pre-Owned warranty and they want to charge me $385 for the part and another $300 in labor. They claim that Nissan doesn't manufacture only the auxiliary water pump without the hoses it is connected to.

5 minutes of searching online and Cardone makes a replacement pump for this and it's only $108. They also have a video of how to replace it (the pump is on the very top of your engine bay in the back in a very accessible spot) by removing 2 screws and taking off 2 hose clamps. Here's a link of the part:

https://www.carid.com/cardone/water-pum ... plications

Hopefully this helps out a few of you guys out there. This is apparently a very well known problem with Nissan that obviously isn't something they're willing to help their customers out with.

Thanks for this. I'll take a look at it and see if it's something that I need to change as well. I live in Texas and summer is coming so there will be no shortage of heat until about late October-early November. Hell, sometimes Christmas is 80 degrees and sunny.