No heat at idle

mdfatboy · Dec 6th, 2007, 08:32 AM

My wife's 2004 Maxima has no heat when the engine is idling. After she starts moving or the engine is reved up the heat will work. Does this sound like a heater core issue? I have heard they are terrible to reach in order to rerplace them.

cbake · Dec 6th, 2007, 05:58 PM

Check the reservoir, make sure it is filled, if the reservior is full, check the radiator itself, with the engine cooled down of course. Ive had 2 vehicles do this, on one of them (maxima) the reservior was full, when I checked the radiator itself, it was low and took almost a gallon of antifreeze. The other car (intrepid) the reservior was just empty. Both cars would not blow heat at idle. hope this helps

metro273 · Dec 9th, 2007, 08:54 PM

If you don't have an obvious coolant leak externally, then you have a huge air pocket in the cooling system! The A34s are notorious for this issue and there is an actual Nissan TSB on this too. We have a special coolant tool that removes all of the air out of the system and what's left? Vacuum. One end of the hose goes into a 50/50 mix of coolant and you just turn the handle on the tool to suck the fresh coolant in...