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Engine overheating issues during offroading


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UPDATE. Fill up the silicone fluid in the fan clutch if you have a fat wallet. I found out very painfully that it increases the overall  fuel consumption of your car. Mine is a daily drive car and I used to get 450kms from a full tank which has dropped drastically to 400kms average. The 50 km difference everyday adds up to your monthly spending. The upside is the cooling. The AC is cooling so much that you will find driving your car much better than sitting at home or office. 

Edited by Thomas Varghese
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  • 1 year later...

My testimony on this:

Cause: My fan clutch was dying few weeks back so I replaced with a new one and topped the silicone up.

Observation: The fan is much louder than before and ofc no more overheating now in the peak summer 😃😃😃, finally feeling what's like to be a Toyota owner but still flooring the mighty VQ40DE engine.

The downside:  is obviously a bit lose of power, (feel more like an additional ac compressor is working), fuel economy not sure because Pathfinder is no longer my daily. But it is nothing compare to solving the overheating issue permanently.

Experiment on extreme condition: Did IM with Ale few days back climbing dunes in Badayer in the afternoon, with ambient temperature of 47c at the start, no obvious overheating issue except the coolant temperature reached 100c at the first climb, the rest of drive was cool and temperature never reached beyond 95c including climbing extremely softened iftar super bowls, and few minutes of 4low maneuver on a slope with no wind. And I don't think any drive can be more extreme than this drive.

Additional benefits for Pathfinder is that the gearbox will not disable locking in low gears as the gearbox is cooler too.

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@Zixuan Huang - Charlie how much did u fill the silicone? The silicone comes in 10ml in one plastic bottle. After my experience you don't need more than 5ml ie half a bottle. This way the fan roar will be less. The fan roar makes up for the slight loss in power but you will feel you are driving a race car. 

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After researching on this subject I found out why Nissan engineers have designed the fan clutch like this. All Xterras are built as per US, Canada weather which is colder. Not much of an issue if you drive your SUV on tarmac. Different ball game when you take it to the hot desert. DON'T switch on your additional fans if you have any when you drive. This will make the engine run hotter as the air flow is disrupted by the additional fans. Only switch it on when you are idling. Dismantling the thermostat valve will help you cool the engine more but I will not recommend if its a daily drive. This procedure will not help the engine to reach operating temp if its a daily drive. 

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10 hours ago, Thomas Varghese said:

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie how much did u fill the silicone? The silicone comes in 10ml in one plastic bottle. After my experience you don't need more than 5ml ie half a bottle. This way the fan roar will be less. The fan roar makes up for the slight loss in power but you will feel you are driving a race car. 

Not sure how much the mechanic put, but definitely enough to make the fan roar

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After sometime you will start liking the roar. Makes others think you are driving a high performance engine with all the roar. 

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14 hours ago, Thomas Varghese said:

Dismantling the thermostat valve will help you cool the engine more but I will not recommend if its a daily drive.

Not advisable.

This seems like another local market myth from lazy mechanics.

I recently switched to waterwetter and spoke to Redline experts in US about the same and they advise that a thermostat is needed in all cars. It helps not only to raise the initial temp but also thermo puts the pressure inside the water jacket that raises temp slowly as opposed to free-flow water.

My second argument also put to rest why race cars don't use thermostats then? He answered that the racecar engine has another system to control the coolant flow (it reacts faster than the thermostat) but still, it restricts the water jacket side to put more pressure to raise the boiling point for delivering efficient cooling.

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Let's root for each other & watch each other grow.

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I was driving without the thermostat valve for more than 8 months. It never created any major issues except it takes longer for the engine to reach optimal operating temperatures. I fixed the thermostat valve back for only 1 reason. I bought an OBD 2 scan tool and it was impossible for the scan tool to set the idle air vol learning as it can only be done when the engine reaches operating temp of between 84 C & 91 C. The car was always running at colder temperatures and I could only execute the relearn program on a desert drive when it reaches the temp specified for the learning specifications. I had to do this procedure as my wiring harness was a mess and sometimes CEL comes on and even after clearing the codes the engine idles rough for sometime. Now I'm permanently rid of that problem because I brought a new Engine wiring harness from Nissan USA and is fixed. The new harness has created a fresh problem when all the signals are now proper. The CEL light illuminates sometimes because the Catalytic Convertor was deleted sometime before by the previous owner. The car runs very smooth, has increased fuel efficiency but now I got to solve the CAT deleted problem and the related CEL from a tuner who can do it. @Gaurav if you can share some knowledge of solving this issue it would be a great help.  

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