[hs thompson]

I have a coolant leak and the dealer said it was coming from my upper thermostat housing. So what sealant do i need to use? I was told that there is no gasket just sealant. I know the motor need to be cold but thats about it. I've changed thrmostats before but they had gaskets. Do i need to do anything different? Thanks.

 

[hs thompson]

I probed under the hood real good today and the oder seems to be coming from the top of the radiator. I can't see any leakage at all near any of the thermostat/housings. Could it be the cap?

 

[Dangling Fury]

Given your model year I think your radiator is springing a leak, probably where the plastic meets the aluminum near the top. You can do 3 things:

1. Use $5 stopleak to patch the hole
2. Buy a new factory radiator for $400+
3. Buy a new aluminum radiator from www.coolradiator.com for $259 shipped

The first option works, I tried it myself using some thick silver solution because I needed a quick fix for an autox event. A couple of days later though I flushed out the cooling system (like 5 times) to get all that crap out.

I went with door number 3, and so did pituala. Check out this thread:

http://www.b15sentra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=84378

 

[hs thompson]

I did a search on here and i thought someone said that the hoses didn't quite fit onto the all metal one. They were too big or something like that. The radiator seems very simple to replace. The hardest parts looks like draining the radiator. Was yours hard to replace? My sniffer seemed to point towards the area around the top of the radiator. Why in the hell did Nissan use plastic? Cheap a$$es! I think they skimmped on everything on the b15. I've been looking at Corollas lately but i don't want more and higher payments, plus i think the SE is quiker. Oh, how is the performance on your all aluminum radiator? I'm not looking to gain hp just no leaks! $259 not bad but i gotta sink $600 into a frigin ac compressor!

 

[Dangling Fury]

I did a search on here and i thought someone said that the hoses didn't quite fit onto the all metal one. They were too big or something like that. The radiator seems very simple to replace. The hardest parts looks like draining the radiator. Was yours hard to replace? My sniffer seemed to point towards the area around the top of the radiator. Why in the hell did Nissan use plastic? Cheap a$$es! I think they skimmped on everything on the b15. I've been looking at Corollas lately but i don't want more and higher payments, plus i think the SE is quiker. Oh, how is the performance on your all aluminum radiator? I'm not looking to gain hp just no leaks! $259 not bad but i gotta sink $600 into a frigin ac compressor!

Yeah, the metal inlets are smaller, you just have to buy new clamps and it works fine. Swapping the radiator is very easy 4 screws and that's it. Draining the radiator is easy too, the stock one has a nice mini faucet on the bottom toward the driver side. And Nissan is not the only company to use plastic, seems to be a general trend. No real performance gains, the car does seem to run cooler (fans turn on less often), and the engine bay looks more bling bling now with the new shiny aluminum unit. CSF offers a 2 year warranty, and if it ever leaks after that you can simply weld patch the hole because it's all aluminum. Our factory ones are pretty much disposable, once they leak throw it in the dumpster.

 

[hs thompson]

Thanks! I bought some Alumaseal liquid and that seems to have taken care of it for now. I don't smell the coolant anymore. But thanks for the web site info. I'll definatly use it when it finally goes. Don't know anything about ac compressors do ya? My bearings seems to be going bad.