Today was the first time I have ever seen the temperature gauge go past the middle in the 78000 miles I've driven my 2004.

105 degrees out, 30 miles from my destination, and the interstate goes to 1 lane. 25 minutes later, after hardly moving, I notice that the AC isn't as cool. The gauge was about 80% up, or a few ticks below the last line before the gap before the H line.

I turn off the AC, and it slowly works it way down to the mid point again. It took about another 25 minutes before traffic finally moved again. It would drop to the mid point, I would turn on the AC again for a little cooling (had an animal in the car who was vocal about the heat). Once it got partially above the mid point, I would turn it off again.

Once I could get to highway speeds again, I turned the AC back on, and it worked fine. Gauge stayed at the mid point the remainder of the trip.

It hasn't repeated. When I got into town, it would work fine at stop lights. Got to my destination, and left it running for 5-10 minutes in the driveway with the AC on. Stayed fine. Fans looked to be spinning when I popped the hood.

Does this sound like it may be the e-fan issue that Infiniti notified us about a couple years ago? I think I may have received that letter (at home), which extended the fan warranty to 100000 miles according to my search of this site?

I have an appointment scheduled for Monday. Unfortunately, I'll be out of town on business so my father, who called the service department, will drop it off. They suggested compressor, but since the AC is now working fine again...

Thanks,

 

Haven't read the whole post yet, but do NOT let your car run up that high. Our temp gauges are weighted toward the center. They won't even leave the center position until like 215-220 deg.

 

Start your car, turn on ac....do you hear the fan kick on and ramp up to high?

If not...your e fan might be dead.

 

Everything seems to be working now.

I just went outside and started the car without the AC. Saw the normal fan between the radiator and engine running. Went and turned on the AC, and heard another fan running. I had never noticed the second fan in front of the radiator before

My hope is that it acted up Saturday after 3 hours of highway driving, then stuck in a construction zone for 50 minutes at 105 degrees.

This next week I'm having the car dropped off at the dealership while I fly out of town for work. Especially since, when I return, I plan to drive to Colorado and put a couple thousand miles on it starting next weekend. Don't want it to conk out on vacation.

 

Did you look in the overflow tank? They have been known to wear holes. If it is empty that might he your problem. Did you recently have your radiator serviced? If so, you might have a bubble in the system.

 

So, would have helped tp know ypu had a 03 or 04 with mechanical fan.

With the engine off after its been running, grab the fan and spin. Does it have good resistance to it?

 

Could be your thermostat.........

 

Since it's a 2004...

Can you confirm if it's Fan clutch or E-fan's.

 

I just had this same problem that started last weekend. Took it into the dealer and it ended up to be both my fans were out. Got those replaced (and only had a $100 deductible on this $580 bill) and everything works just fine now.

 

Ok, after reviewing this thread again with my pc...


It's your fan clutch. It's dead. Have it replaced.

 

Kind of late for me to do any further testing. I'm sitting in a hotel in Indiana right now, and my car is at the dealership in Oklahoma

Otherwise, seeing what resistance my main fan has would be something I would do if I had seen it suggested yesterday.

If it is my clutch, I assume the dealership will find that out, and I'll be responsible for paying it. If it is the e-fan with an itermitant failure, hopefully they can diagnose it and it is covered under warranty.

In any case, especially in Oklahoma, I have to be able to depend on the cooling system. Overheating leads to engine problems.

 

That's why a sig with your year and model really helps out in diagnostic work on the net. There are changes over the years, later models don't have the mechanical fan clutch. So in any case, letting us know what you are driving can get better help for you as otherwise, we'd guess if you had a mechanical fan or not

There is an extended warranty on the electric fans. Seems they fail a lot. I forget the terms and years, but something you might want to check into.

EDIT: Just checked...04-07 sedans are covered...96 months (8 years) or 100,000 miles from in service date

 

I wonder what happened to my signature block. It used to be there.

It is an early 2004 auto sedan.

The dealership called today, and still hadn't been able to reproduce the problem. Speculation is that it may be the radiator, but they didn't want to just start replacing parts without knowing what the problem is.

I don't have the part that the TSB refers to, so I guess I don't have the e-fan.

 

Contacted me this evening. Finally they recreated the problem in the heat of the afternoon. Blaming flow through the radiator. Guess that can happen even when I do a coolant service every 30,000 miles. So will be getting new radiator.

Could have been worse. I had a heater core start leaking in my pickup in May, and replacing that and doing other service like AC, coolant flush, and hoses cost me $1050. This is costing me $750.

 

Latest status.

Got the radiator replaced. Seemed to be working fine. Head out on vacation.

This morning, when I started the car, it felt like it was kind of running a little noisy/rough. But within a couple minutes went back to normal. Don't recall hearing anything like this before.

In a small town, and stopped by a service department (not infiniti or Nissan, none close). Service guy came out and didn't hear anything odd to him. At this point it seemed OK to me too.

So, 37 miles out of town, my Charge/brake lights came on, and I didn't have power steering. Luckily a pullout was right up ahead. I looked under the hood, and the mechanical fan wasn't spinning so I turned off the car and called a tow truck.

While waiting, after it cooled down, I noticed that the belt was still there, but behind the fan pulley.

Why would it jump?

The Infiniti dealership which did the repair said they wouldn't have removed the belt to install the radiator. And anyway, if they had done something wrong it would likely have shown up before 800 miles had gone by.

I'm hoping that the Ford/Dodge dealership next to my hotel can figure it out. And not anything that requires special knowledge. Up until this happened, it was driving fine and not overheating. The AC was off, but only because it was under 80 degrees outside and I had the sunroof open.

2004 Sedan, automatic.