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Not hard at all take it in and a couple hundred dollars later it’s all done. LOL
Sorry but you have to confirm that it is the pump first and then get yourself a repair manual that covers this job. After you’ve read the procedure then make the choice of whether you want to attempt this.
Dan.

It sounds as though you may have caught the O ring when you were reinstalling it. Did you use any type of lube on the O ring?

I don't know if you have a pressure tester but the best thing to do would be to take the cover off & pressurize the system to see exactly where the leak is be for tearing it down...

I'm assuming you weren't getting this mix before the water pump replacement.......

I just did two oil changes on it and most of the coolant is out but I will do another one tommorow, it was saturated with coolant. How do you do an engine flush ?

There is a variety on engine flushing products. Most parts stores carry them in their chemical sections. You just add it to the engine, run for about 10 minutes & then change the oil & filter.

I usually won't do it on high mileage engines with excessive sludge build up due to the fact you may break up some big pieces & plug up oil ports or pick up screens.

I believe you are right.......you got me assuming again...lol

Change the oil & filter and you should be good. Since you did run it with coolant, after the change if there is any evidence of coolant left and the mileage is low enough I would be tempted to flush the engine...........

Which year?

2000

There are three belts. Alternator, PS, and AC. Which ones are rubbing together? Was there any recent repair work done prior? Visual inspection of the pulley alignment as HT stated should give you an answer.

Its the AC and Alternator belt. If you look at this picture its the area where the belts cross together between the two idler pulleys

Maybe the water pump is coming apart.

That is the most likely thing to make a grinding noise and belt alignment problems.

Thanks for your help guys. I will check the water pump today. If this is the problem, is it a thing I can fix on my own? Ballpark estimate?

Thanks

I don't know. Can you tell me if I would be capable of tiling my house? We don't know what your abilities are.

Ive changed out a radiator, brakes and average things on cars. What I was asking is if I will need access to things that a typical person wouldnt have, like a lift or a special tool. I have pictures attached of the pulley. The pulley in question had an extremely small amount of play that's hard to notice.

/

Thanks

That is the belt tensioner pulley and will have play when the hold down nut is loosened but shouldn't have any when tight. It appears you're missing half of the outside belt and that needs to be resolved.

Thanks Hammer Time. I ordered a new belt. I still haven't figured out why those belts are rubbing as everything seems to be tight and in working order.

I assure you that either there is still a problem or they were installed wrong in the first place and my money is on that there is still a problem and you are just going to ruin the new belt and when whatever is failing lets go all the way, you are going to be on the side of the road.

Something caused that belt to run off the side and you need to find it. Look for any pulley that tends to lean when the belt pressure is on it.

I'm going to examine this further over the holiday weekend before putting on the new belt. Thanks again for your help.

Sometimes temporarily putting the belt on will help you spot the misalignment.

Can you tell me if I would be capable of tiling my house?
NO!!!! You don't have the patience for it.................lol..................

Haha Brian......................... That's why I hired someone to do it.

LOL...I was expecting you to comeback & say "that was a trick question"..........I already did it!!!!!

I did the same, paid someone to do it......

I've watched guys do and it really doesn't look to hard but then thought of the saying I always say..........A good professional always makes his job look easy

Btw....The white flakes that you see in the pictures was the bar soap I used on the belts

That's happening because there is a failure in one of the components causing the belt to run off the side of the angled pulley. The noise is likely coming from the bad component,not the belts rubbing together.

My 2005 altima does the same thing. I can go outside 10 mins before I leave to start the car for it to be warm for my 2 small children and warm air doesn't blow until I'm half way down the road. My temp gauge is in the middle. It's a pain in the you know what! I bought this car 3 months ago and regret it. Why isn't nissan responsible? I'm horrified to know that so many people are having this issue. I will show this forum to my husband. Thanks.

My 2005 altima does the same thing. I can go outside 10 mins before I leave to start the car for it to be warm for my 2 small children and warm air doesn't blow until I'm half way down the road. My temp gauge is in the middle. It's a pain in the you know what! I bought this car 3 months ago and regret it. Why isn't nissan responsible? I'm horrified to know that so many people are having this issue. I will show this forum to my husband. Thanks.


Just purchased a 2011 altima 2.5s and the salesman even cmmented on how much better the heater is in the new Altima's and he is absolutely correct. ON the problem with the heater on the 2005,the best situation is start engine and then turn on heater. If you start car with defroster on you will get intermittent heat and cool air.So yes it's better but it ain't fixed.

This thread is a year and a half old. Please check dates before posting. We don't address more than one vehicle in a question anyway. please start a new one of your own.

Hey Ara and wmj5299usa, I'm new to this forum . . . u are absolutely correct, Nissan shld do something about this. I'm having the same issue as we speak. I too, feel better to know that there are others who are hvng the same issue and that I'm not hallucinating. I hv a 2005 Nissan Altima 2.5 - the heat inside was very comfortable at the low setting and now I find myself hvng to blast it at hi and still isn't hot, but lukewarm. When I'm at a stop light, it cools and when I accelerate, it goes to lukewarm. I never had to adjust the temp to hi, always low. I had my radiator hose replaced b/c of leaking and thought that wld fix the heating issue. When I left the dealer after the hose was replaced, my heat was where it was suppose to be at a low setting. After a few hours, unfort., it went back to being lukewarm. They did pressure test which was fine, but noticed that the lower hose wasn't getting as warm as it shld; therefore, they suggested that it could be the therm. This wld cost $243, so I purchased the part ($25) from Nissan and dropped it off at another place this morning. B-4 they installed the therm. they did their own testing and called me a few minutes ago to tell me that they don't think it's the therm. They suggest that I wait until the weather breaks and they'll do another test on it to see if anything has changed. They mentioned that as long as I'm getting some air and the guages inside is normal, to hold off . . . no use in spending money on something that may not fix the problem.
If you have your car checked out, plz let me knw what they suggest.

Just a thought on this:

If this is somewhat common to this exact car and engine then it could be a design flaw.

BTW: Many cars and I'd bet this one included are made for both right and left hand drive. Heater cores are normally placed on the right side of interior where in the US a passenger would sit such as to allow more room for driver controls and heater box designs could be (don't know all for sure) mirror imaged to fit either drive type and should be.

Perhaps this car has a VERY long path of heater hosing that isn't adequate or waterpumps that could be enhanced to remedy the problems - IF THIS IS HAPPENING IN EXTREMES. I have a hard time believing that in moderate conditions this would apply as I'd think the flaw would have been noticed before production of so many vehicles.

As said - just a thought,

T

I contacted Nissan today and informed them that there are multiple people having this same problem . . . hopefully, they will look into it. In the meantime, I am scheduled to get a diagnostics test done next week if money allows me to . . . we'll see

I agree with your mechanic. If impellers are worn, the pump can not pump enough coolant at idle to keep the heat up to normal temps.

Thank you, wise one.I felt pretty good about his assesment but wanted a second opinion.You have been extremely helpful.

Although this is a Tom question, vacuum loss or faulty blend door actuator?

Self portrait !

No Tom and Kitty don't have all the answers. Generally this would be a water flow problem and may still be. What probably would be noted is WHERE the heat went as input hose should be hot to touch and return cold if it transferrred all that was available. Coolant should win the transfer battle and have enough to return warm coolant still with just a heater core.

Thnking??????? At speed there's a lot more flow and temp of coolant is probably at it's most as allowed by thermostat. The "residence" time of air matters too. I think available heat has been transferred and a return hose will be found cool/cold in this car. They are usually designed to limit pressure from water pump using a few concepts - smaller hose to inlet, retriction in the inlet hose, water flow regulator (AKA-Heater Control Valve if used) in line on inlet hoses. Return line must have a clear path back to engine with little restriction. Just maybe return gets some problem or pressure slowing the flow at lower rpm.

Hoses just might have a flaw in them. If all items flush thru properly both ways it kind of rules that all out.

Question for this is does the temp remain constant or fluctuate. I'm wondering if prescribed leakage past thermostat allows engine to run too cool at lower speeds - complete "I dunno" so far and would be checking temps all over this thing to see and feel what temps are where??

T

Self portrait? I knew you had to better looking than Kitty!

Tom or whomever, on highway at normal speed the heater is perfect.As soon as you start slowing down there is a temperature drop,when you come to complete stop the air is cool and continues on cool until you accelerate.sittin and idling the car has 1 hose hot and the other hose is cool. If you accelerate the cool hose becomes warm again.My mechanic said the only thing left is the heater core .In early morning start ups the defroster will not melt ice on windshield.You must scrape windshield or sit in car and press accelerator.

Hey. I was just wondering if you ever got that heating issue sorted out. I have a 2005 Altima 2.5L with the exact same problem. (And it's really cold here in January!)

I'm not ready for a heater core just yet as this works "perfectly" as you said with RPMs up.

Flow isn't adequate OR the engine is ridding itself of heat too easily elsewhere??

Tests:

1. Check upper hose right after thermostat upon cold start up. It should stay dang near COLD till gauge starts to read a credible temp on dash gauge. The idea of a thermostat is to lock coolant inside engine - allow mixing within engine (the bypass system) and allow whatever temp of coolant available to heater core. That hose frequently will begin near waterpump - may or may not have a water flow regulator on way to core and be unrestricted for return. Some engines use the heater core as a bypass for the engine. This bypass thing is about keeping the engine ONE uniform temp, side to side, front to rear which is imperitive for even expansion of metal and not allowing a hot spot at a distant corner from the water pump which is always working BTW - not just when heat or engine is hot.

1a. If upper hose gets even slightly warm a few inches away from thermostat towards radiator then I'll declare the thermostat is leaking past itself too much. In colder weather it doesn't take much radiator with an idling engine to stay cold. Engines generally make abundant heat such that a heater core alone won't prevent it from reaching a normal operating temperature.

2. Does this engine read a "normal" operating temp and stay there? It should reach a spot in normal range and stay there the whole time it's running. Only minimal variations are acceptable - usually too hot for a moment before fans can catch up, at start up after short shut down, or perhaps a sudden slowdown (from hwy speeds) to stop in traffic on hottest of days with A/C having been blasting.
NEED TO KNOW THIS AS FOR THE MOMENT I SUSPECT THERMOSTAT IMPROPERLY INSTALLED OR DEFECTIVE if temp won't stay put.

You notice the temp drop of hoses to core so heat gets exchanged but we still don't know if volume is the problem or the heat went elsewhere - meaning not inside the car.

YOU or mechanic need to follow the path of heat available from heater hose where it starts at engine, see if there's any obstruction or device along the way that might be faulty. I'd try flushing the core just to satisfy myself but I'll bet it's fine. It must flush from first hose at engine to open last connection to engine for return hose to verify the hoses (never seen one faulty but could) do carry coolant and force them both directions. It's possible that multiple ply hose can separate inside and unseen causing blockage

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Oddities for this complaint: Anti-freeze 100% pure - not mixed with water! EG is a terrible heat exchanger which is why all say mix 50/50 --- some less! Subnote: 50/50 will read -34F protection - lower(colder) #s not wanted.

Other work: If something else has been done and too much gasket sealer plugged an item this could be trouble.

Thermostats: Ones mounted vertically on engines or hard to get at can fall out of place when assembling causing too much cooling - mentioned earlier.

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It's possible that the core is truly plugged up but this is dang early for a 2005 model vehicle IMO. Have you followed coolant change schedules since new? If clogged with corrosion debris it would likely show elsewhere too.

Keep at it and as said - not ready for the heater core yet!

T