Hi all!

First time poster here, so if I'm posting this in the wrong forum I apologize in advance. I also apologize for any typos - as I tend to make a lot lol!

Bit-o-history...03, 85xxx miles when purchased from a dealer, 115xxx now.

I've replaced the belt several times - more than I'd think was necessary, but dealer replaced once, local mech replaced a second time, went back to dealer for the thrid time (said the local mech's belts were garbage and to only use infiniti belts), replaced a fourth time by ntb and that's the blet i still have.

Belt tends to squeak/squeal after driving in the rain. Ususally gets better after running a while.


the symptoms:
We had some rain the other day and the it sounded HORRIBLE last night on the commute home. But was quiet by the time I pulled in the driveway.

Squeaking again this morning, but normal "I'm wet" squeaking to me. Got about 2-3 blocks from work when I noticed that the car seemed to sputter when accelerating from a stop sign - almost like as if it had some bad fuel. I continued to work and the service engine light came on. Parked and decided to increase the throttle while in park. The engine would not go over 2000 RPM. Turned it off and made a phone call. As I was on the phone I noticed a wisp of steam coming from under the hood. Turned key to acc and noticed heat guage was almost to the top.

Came back to the car an hour or so later to check fluids and what-not. engine was still quite warm - but not burning hot. Oil, and rad fluid were good. Coolant resevoir was bone dry. Belt appeared worn, but in decent shape. Car started and rad fan was running and I could get RPPM over 2000. but I did notice she was running hot.

I plan to add a few liters of water to the coolant res and take it to my local mech about 12 miles of HWY and 3 miles of suburban driving from work.
Am I risking making things worse by doing this?

Any thoughts on what might cause this? Any thoughts on how much lighter my wallet's about to get lol?

Thanks for reading this and in advance for any wisdom shared! Have a great day - or at least better than I'm having lol!

 

welcome to the forum. yes, wrong section. you gave a fair warning.
don't know why it was acting funny. but I think it's time for a new thermo. I'm no mechanic btw.

 

Sounds like you let your coolant level in the overflow go empty - which caused air to get into the system. Fill your reservoir. Burp the system. Continue to monitor coolant reservoir to make sure it doesn't go down - if it does fill it back up to the MAX line.

Do not let the car get too hot - aluminum heads are easy to warp compared to cast iron.

If you need help burping the system do a search. When searching sort it by RELEVANCE and your results will be much better.


I dont think you will need to - but if after you have properly burped the system you are still running hot you might need to change the T-stat.