In a message dated 12/27/00 7:15:16 PM Pacific Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> After I chaged my fuel filter, I jump started my car,
> and I let the car idle in the driveway for maybe 45 mins to charge the
> battery.
>
> This was a mistake.
> When I returned to turn the car off, the coolant had boiled over, and
> temperature gauge was pinned.
>
> The next morning, I noticed that the pools of fluids were not only green
> antifreeze,
> but lots of brown, presumably lots of motor oil. !
>
> I've never had a large oil leak caused by overheating like this.
> Did I cause serious damage to this motor?
>
> PS: Since the car doesnt start again, either the fuel filter wasnt the
> problem, and its the fuel pump,
> or I've ruined the car....
>
> Any opinions would be appreciated,
> before I tow this car to a dealer to examine the oil overflow and/or
> possible fuel pump failure.
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
I hope you did not do any damage to the engine, not being there and not being
able to see the other fluid that ran out of the cooling system, I'm going to
take a GUESS and say it might just be (if you were lucky) the crap that over
time builds up in your rad. and engine block, it has a brownish color to it
and looks like rust there might also be a few flakes of crap in it. What
happens is when you Sentra over heated this build up comes lose from inside
the cooling system and travels along with the anti freeze thur out your
cooling system. Will the engine still turn over? or is it froze up? When you
went to check on the car was it still running, even tho it was over heated
and you shut it off? Lets see, if I remember right, you changed the fuel
filter, you had left the ing. switch on over night and it ran down the
battery and that was the reason for the jump start the next day. Ok next
question have you checked to see if there is any gasoline coming out of the
fuel pump? Did you disconect the fuel line (at the fuel filter) and try to
turn over the engine (a friend, turns the ing. key on as in your trying to
start the car) while you watched to see if gasoline was squirting into some
kind of a contaner (gasoline safe, you don't want to use some kinds of
plastic as the gas will melt the plastic) you were holding under the gas
line, or if you have a service manuel and have a guage and know the amount of
pressure you can hook up the gasoline line pressure gauage and have somebody
turn the engine over while you watch the pressure gauage, that would tell you
if it is your fuel pump or not and you could rule that problem out. Right now
I really don't know what to tell you to try and be of some help to you
because now you've gotten another problem. To start out with you had a Sentra
that wasn't running right, so you changed the fuel filter (which it probley
needed anyway) your battery went dead, your car over heated, I feel if your
cooling system was in good, clean, free flowing shape it should not of over
heated, sure it would of gotten hotter but not to the point that it boiled
over on you as it did, unless where you were working on the car was in the
middle of the dessert someplace and the outside temp. was real hot, but with
the way the weather has been from what I've seen on TV the last few days its
been cool to cold to freezing all accross the hole of the USofA so I'm
guessing I can rule that out, so you've got to ask yourself why did my car
over heat, didn't your elect fans kick in when the temp. went up? Sounds to
me like you might have more than just one problem, there again I'm not there
to see your car and what's happing to it and see the color and types of
fluids that your talking about. Once again just taking a GUESS and if the
engine does turn over I'd check the fuel pump pressure, if its not good then
change out the fuel pump, if you find it is the fuel pump that was the start
of your problem and by putting a new one in that fixes that part of your cars
problem and it runs fine then I'd change the oil and filter but when you
change the oil look for anti freeze in your oil drain pan, finding none I'd
look into why it over heated, do the elect. fans cycle on and off like they
should? If they do then your Rad. and engine block must be really stuffed up
with build up, when was the last time you flushed the cooling system out and
put a new anti freeze/water mixture in? When was the last time you changed
out your thermostat ? Sents it got so hot you might start to have problems
with your thermostat starting to stick open or closed or only opening part
way now, so it might be a good idea to replace it at this point, while you've
gone this far when was the last time you changed the rad. hoses and all the
by pass hoses?If your Rad. looks really super stuffed up to you, you may need
to remove it and take it to a Rad. shop to have it cleaned out (hot tanked)
Sents I'm not able to see every thing your talking about its kind of hard to
give you good advice on what I think you should do. If the above kind of
maintance work is more than you think you can do or fill like working on then
I guess you might be better off taking it to a dealership or some place you
like that works on Sentras and can help you out, but just be ready to pay for
the parts and labor the will charge you. An est. of the costs would be some
where around $450.00 to $600.00 to R and R your fuel pump, change oil and
filter, change out all rad./by pass hoses and new anti freeze/water mixture,
flush out engine block, R and R thermostat, replace water pump and Rad.cap
(how many miles does that have on it?, if you've gone this far on the cooling
system why not make it a complete job.) Hot tank the Rad. if it needs it.
Your probley looking at closer to $600.00 (or more/parts/labor) to have a
shop do all this work if it really needs it.
Good Luck
Ron
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