240sx s13 shutting off problems and over heating HELP - Zilvia.net Forums | Nissan 240SX (Silvia) and Z (Fairlady) Car Forum

s13Cory · 03-06-2014, 06:55 AM

I have a 1990 s13, and I've been having problems with the over heating and it shutting off. This might be a lot to read but I tried to provide as much info as possible, any questions just ask and I'll try to answer them as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thank you for your time!

Over Heating problem: It'll heat up to half way fairly quick, then after driving for a couple of minutes, it'll start to over heat, sometimes it'll stick around the H, sometimes it'll drop down a little bit or back to the middle, stay for alittle and go right back up, tried to put the heat on blast, doesn't help. I've replaced so far, the radiator, thermostat twice with a new gasket (The guy before me that i bought it off of had like 3 boxes of thermostats in the trunk), bleed it, just about everything and still over heats. The carpet on the passenger was wet in a spot, and someone told me it was my heater core and then after I found that spot, the next day, it didn't over heat for a while, then snow came and it over heated that day and the wet spot never came back again (And no nothing spilled to make the spot), so as of now I am completely confused as to what is making my car over heat, so any idea's or if you know what it could be, please let me know. I maybe thinking something with the heater core.

Shutting off problem: My car (besides the over heating), will run pretty good. Recently got a new distributor and everything and the ignition system, ran okay, then went to friends house to put my new exhaust on (I had no exhaust on for a while and ran it a little without one, 3' dual straight pipe from ISIS), after that was installed, I took it for a test drive, ran good for about 5 minutes, then all of a sudden the RPM's just flat lined at 0, no gas response at all, and just shut off. Sometimes it'll shut off, sometimes it'll bounce right back up and I can keep going, but its completely random when it happens and I don't know what could be causing this problem..so any help on this or the over heating would be greatly appreciated, hopefully you read all of this. lol Again, thanks for your time!

Ilya · 03-06-2014, 07:17 AM

Car overheating = from bad head gasket to faulty sensor that makes you think it's overheating. Check oil for milkyness. Replace the two coolant temp sensors. They are right next to each other. One has a single wire, one has two wires. One wire sensor is for your gauge and guage only. The two wire one is for the ecu to know the temperature of the engine which is used for engine fuel control. If the guage sensor is bad, you could be mislead to believe you are overheating, however, if the ecu temp sensor is bad, it will explain your shutting off problem(the ecu thinks the car is cold and floods the cylinders with fuel).

Replace those two sensor, properly bleed the coolant system, make sure the thermostat is installed correctly with the bump/nipple on thermostat @12 o'clock to help with bleeding.

Best tool to have is a nissan consult tool. I got one from eBay, and you can see everything that your ecu sees and it's greAt for troubleshooting things like this

s13Cory · 03-07-2014, 06:02 AM

Okay. I'll try and replace those and check on my thermostat because I didn't really know there was a certain way to put it in. lol What bump/nipple thing are you talking about exactly?

Ilya · 03-07-2014, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s13Cory

Okay. I'll try and replace those and check on my thermostat because I didn't really know there was a certain way to put it in. lol What bump/nipple thing are you talking about exactly?

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/s...tat#fragment-3

The nipple in the outter ring of the thermostat. Its Gold

s13Cory · 03-08-2014, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilya

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/s...tat#fragment-3

The nipple in the outter ring of the thermostat. Its Gold

The other one I had, had that but the one that is in there does not.

Ilya · 03-09-2014, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s13Cory

The other one I had, had that but the one that is in there does not.

Get a new tstat with a little gold nipple

s13Cory · 03-10-2014, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilya

Get a new tstat with a little gold nipple

Okay, I have replaced the 2 sensors, and got a thermo, and it seems like the shutting off problem is worse. I couldn't drive it long enough to tell if it over heats or not, but the temp did raise pretty quick. I got in the car, went down my street which is like a 2 minute road, it flat lined then bounced back up (RPM's) so I turned around, and as I was heading back to my house down my street, it shut off on me 3 times.

Ilya · 03-10-2014, 06:26 AM

Are you lowered? Check the wheel well harnesses.

Ilya · 03-10-2014, 06:37 AM

Overheating also means you did not bleed the coolant right. Go out while the car is cold, open the bleed valve, and add more coolant until coolant pours out of the hole. Then start it with the heater on and full blast on hot. Also, read the EC & EF section of the 240sx FSM. It has all the trouble diagnosis.

s13Cory · 03-10-2014, 07:00 AM

I am lowered, but not that low but I will check. And I did bleed the car till coolant came out the bleed valve, but I wasn't able to drive the car enough to see if it does over heat or not. It didn't start the shut off problem till after I installed my exhaust, so whenever I get time I'm gonna take the exhaust off and see if the problem still continues.

vanfrankgo · 03-10-2014, 08:09 AM

Then start it with the heater on and full blast on hot. Also, read the EC & EF section of the 240sx FSM. It has all the trouble diagnosis.

Ilya · 03-10-2014, 09:27 AM

It should not be your exhaust unless it it has a plug in it.

Frank_Jaeger · 03-10-2014, 10:04 AM

I'm assuming you have the stock clutch fan. Try slowly inserting a rolled up newspaper into the blades as its spinning (the engine should be fully warmed up when you do this). If the blades easily stop, your clutch fan is bad.

Also when you bleed the engine, make sure the front end is jacked way up. Let it warm up about 1/4 and then use the throttle cable to rev it up a bunch. Add water until no more bubbles are coming out of the radiator. If bubbles keep coming out, you have a blown headgasket. If you have a big stubborn air bubble it's going to keep overheating until you fully bleed the system. Make sure the heater's on blast the entire time you do this.

Your water pump could be bad. Usually when they go bad they start to leak out the weep hole, but you didn't mention coolant loss. It's worth checking out.

The shutting off could be any number of things. Because it's intermittent I'd suspect electrical problems. Bad grounds, fuel pump wiring, etc.

s13Cory · 03-10-2014, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank_Jaeger

I'm assuming you have the stock clutch fan. Try slowly inserting a rolled up newspaper into the blades as its spinning (the engine should be fully warmed up when you do this). If the blades easily stop, your clutch fan is bad.

Also when you bleed the engine, make sure the front end is jacked way up. Let it warm up about 1/4 and then use the throttle cable to rev it up a bunch. Add water until no more bubbles are coming out of the radiator. If bubbles keep coming out, you have a blown headgasket. If you have a big stubborn air bubble it's going to keep overheating until you fully bleed the system. Make sure the heater's on blast the entire time you do this.

Your water pump could be bad. Usually when they go bad they start to leak out the weep hole, but you didn't mention coolant loss. It's worth checking out.

The shutting off could be any number of things. Because it's intermittent I'd suspect electrical problems. Bad grounds, fuel pump wiring, etc.

Okay, I'll do that ASAP and I'll post back progress when done. And I was thinking about the water pump but was un-sure about but planned on replacing it sometime just so I know that it's been done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilya

It should not be your exhaust unless it it has a plug in it.

I didn't think it was my exhaust because I couldn't see how, but considering it didn't start shutting off till right after I installed it, I figured I'd try it for the hell of it and see what happens. lol

s13Cory · 03-10-2014, 04:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank_Jaeger

I'm assuming you have the stock clutch fan. Try slowly inserting a rolled up newspaper into the blades as its spinning (the engine should be fully warmed up when you do this). If the blades easily stop, your clutch fan is bad.

Also when you bleed the engine, make sure the front end is jacked way up. Let it warm up about 1/4 and then use the throttle cable to rev it up a bunch. Add water until no more bubbles are coming out of the radiator. If bubbles keep coming out, you have a blown headgasket. If you have a big stubborn air bubble it's going to keep overheating until you fully bleed the system. Make sure the heater's on blast the entire time you do this.

Your water pump could be bad. Usually when they go bad they start to leak out the weep hole, but you didn't mention coolant loss. It's worth checking out.

The shutting off could be any number of things. Because it's intermittent I'd suspect electrical problems. Bad grounds, fuel pump wiring, etc.

Actually come to find out, I have an after market electric fan.

s13Cory · 03-11-2014, 05:59 PM

UPDATE: I'm pretty sure I have bleed it correctly. But un-sure about over heating because of the shutting off problem causing me not being able to drive it. But as it was sitting there for a bit running, the temp slowly raised and stayed in the middle, nice hot heat.

ALSO, the car seems to only shut off while driving, but never really while sitting.
EDIT: Just went to go start it up, was running for not even a minute and it just quit on me. lol

*fliprayzin240sx* · 03-11-2014, 08:41 PM

Still doesnt sound like you bled the system enough...just because you had coolant come out of the bleeder screw doesnt mean you got all the air out of the system.

s13Cory · 03-11-2014, 09:04 PM

Well everyone always say make sure you have coolant at both ends, and I had a nice stream of coolant coming out of the screw before I screwed it in, but I could do it again tomorrow if its a good idea.

Ilya · 03-11-2014, 09:47 PM

Pull the spark plugs out and see if the cylinders are wet, after you run it for as long as possible before it shuts off. Roll a piece of paper into a tube and shove it into the now empty spark plug hole and smell if any cylinder smells like gas more than others. It's either fuel, air, or spark problem. Test spark plugs by inserting them back into the spark wire, hold the spark plug end against the engine block, and crank the engine(make sure to disconnect injectors to keep them from spraying fuel into the cylinders). Let's start there.

Ilya · 03-11-2014, 09:49 PM

Take Apart all your recent ignition upgrades you mentioned in the first post and put them back on or put old parts back on

s13Cory · 03-11-2014, 11:10 PM

Okay, I will try this as soon as I get the chance and I'll report back here with updates. And I can't put the ignition system back on because the other one was bad and I took it to a shop to get that done so I don't even have it. lol

Ilya · 03-13-2014, 06:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by s13Cory

Okay, I will try this as soon as I get the chance and I'll report back here with updates. And I can't put the ignition system back on because the other one was bad and I took it to a shop to get that done so I don't even have it. lol

OHHHHHHHH GREAT!

s13Cory · 03-13-2014, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilya

OHHHHHHHH GREAT!

Is that sarcastic because of the ignition thing or just great because I'll report back when done? Lol

s13Cory · 03-13-2014, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ilya

Pull the spark plugs out and see if the cylinders are wet, after you run it for as long as possible before it shuts off. Roll a piece of paper into a tube and shove it into the now empty spark plug hole and smell if any cylinder smells like gas more than others. It's either fuel, air, or spark problem. Test spark plugs by inserting them back into the spark wire, hold the spark plug end against the engine block, and crank the engine(make sure to disconnect injectors to keep them from spraying fuel into the cylinders). Let's start there.

Okay, I pulled the spark plugs after running the car for a little bit. The first hole you could barley smell any but gets stronger as you go towards the back. And while pulling the spark plug cables, the medal pieces inside came out on 3 of them so now I needa get 4 new cables. lol And tomorrow I'm gonna be checking the ECU and see if its throwing any codes.

Ilya · 03-14-2014, 08:35 AM

sounds like you found one problem! Spark plug cables should not break when you take them out...

s13Cory · 03-14-2014, 08:42 AM

I might be getting them today or tomorrow. And what about the smell getting stronger as you get to the last spark plug hole, anything about that?

Ilya · 03-15-2014, 11:12 AM

Depends on whether the cylinder top was wet or not. It could be anything from weak spark to a leaky injector to a bad fuel pressure regulator. Hopefully it's just spark plug wires

s13Cory · 03-15-2014, 01:46 PM

well I got the new spark plug cables, but I think they're too big or something and I'm pretty sure I have the firing order correct because when I start my car it sounds like crap.

Ilya · 03-18-2014, 06:20 PM

no such thing as too big of wire. The Distributor should have the firing order and spark plug wire number to cylinder indications on it.

s13Cory · 03-19-2014, 06:19 AM

I only thought that because they're a pain in the a** to put in. lol But on the distributor it only has the number 1 on it indicating where the first one goes. But I might have done it wrong, so I'll have to re-check it maybe today if it doesn't rain.

03-06-2014, 06:55 AM	#1
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	240sx s13 shutting off problems and over heating HELP I have a 1990 s13, and I've been having problems with the over heating and it shutting off. This might be a lot to read but I tried to provide as much info as possible, any questions just ask and I'll try to answer them as quickly and efficiently as possible. Thank you for your time! Over Heating problem: It'll heat up to half way fairly quick, then after driving for a couple of minutes, it'll start to over heat, sometimes it'll stick around the H, sometimes it'll drop down a little bit or back to the middle, stay for alittle and go right back up, tried to put the heat on blast, doesn't help. I've replaced so far, the radiator, thermostat twice with a new gasket (The guy before me that i bought it off of had like 3 boxes of thermostats in the trunk), bleed it, just about everything and still over heats. The carpet on the passenger was wet in a spot, and someone told me it was my heater core and then after I found that spot, the next day, it didn't over heat for a while, then snow came and it over heated that day and the wet spot never came back again (And no nothing spilled to make the spot), so as of now I am completely confused as to what is making my car over heat, so any idea's or if you know what it could be, please let me know. I maybe thinking something with the heater core. Shutting off problem: My car (besides the over heating), will run pretty good. Recently got a new distributor and everything and the ignition system, ran okay, then went to friends house to put my new exhaust on (I had no exhaust on for a while and ran it a little without one, 3' dual straight pipe from ISIS), after that was installed, I took it for a test drive, ran good for about 5 minutes, then all of a sudden the RPM's just flat lined at 0, no gas response at all, and just shut off. Sometimes it'll shut off, sometimes it'll bounce right back up and I can keep going, but its completely random when it happens and I don't know what could be causing this problem..so any help on this or the over heating would be greatly appreciated, hopefully you read all of this. lol Again, thanks for your time!

03-11-2014, 08:41 PM	#17
fliprayzin240sx Man w/ CTSV & a Car Seat Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Tampa Posts: 17,998 Trader Rating: (19) Rides Gallery: fliprayzin240sx Feedback Score: 19 reviews	Still doesnt sound like you bled the system enough...just because you had coolant come out of the bleeder screw doesnt mean you got all the air out of the system. __________________ If you think Zilvia has too many assholes... CLICK HERE!!!

03-06-2014, 07:17 AM	#2
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	Car overheating = from bad head gasket to faulty sensor that makes you think it's overheating. Check oil for milkyness. Replace the two coolant temp sensors. They are right next to each other. One has a single wire, one has two wires. One wire sensor is for your gauge and guage only. The two wire one is for the ecu to know the temperature of the engine which is used for engine fuel control. If the guage sensor is bad, you could be mislead to believe you are overheating, however, if the ecu temp sensor is bad, it will explain your shutting off problem(the ecu thinks the car is cold and floods the cylinders with fuel). Replace those two sensor, properly bleed the coolant system, make sure the thermostat is installed correctly with the bump/nipple on thermostat @12 o'clock to help with bleeding. Best tool to have is a nissan consult tool. I got one from eBay, and you can see everything that your ecu sees and it's greAt for troubleshooting things like this

03-07-2014, 06:02 AM	#3
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Okay. I'll try and replace those and check on my thermostat because I didn't really know there was a certain way to put it in. lol What bump/nipple thing are you talking about exactly?

03-10-2014, 06:26 AM	#8
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	Are you lowered? Check the wheel well harnesses.

03-10-2014, 06:37 AM	#9
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	Overheating also means you did not bleed the coolant right. Go out while the car is cold, open the bleed valve, and add more coolant until coolant pours out of the hole. Then start it with the heater on and full blast on hot. Also, read the EC & EF section of the 240sx FSM. It has all the trouble diagnosis.

03-10-2014, 07:00 AM	#10
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	I am lowered, but not that low but I will check. And I did bleed the car till coolant came out the bleed valve, but I wasn't able to drive the car enough to see if it does over heat or not. It didn't start the shut off problem till after I installed my exhaust, so whenever I get time I'm gonna take the exhaust off and see if the problem still continues.

03-10-2014, 08:09 AM	#11
vanfrankgo Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: CA Age: 38 Posts: 2 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Then start it with the heater on and full blast on hot. Also, read the EC & EF section of the 240sx FSM. It has all the trouble diagnosis.

03-10-2014, 09:27 AM	#12
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	It should not be your exhaust unless it it has a plug in it.

03-10-2014, 10:04 AM	#13
Frank_Jaeger Zilvia FREAK! Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Port Charlotte, Florida Age: 32 Posts: 1,352 Trader Rating: (1) Feedback Score: 1 reviews	I'm assuming you have the stock clutch fan. Try slowly inserting a rolled up newspaper into the blades as its spinning (the engine should be fully warmed up when you do this). If the blades easily stop, your clutch fan is bad. Also when you bleed the engine, make sure the front end is jacked way up. Let it warm up about 1/4 and then use the throttle cable to rev it up a bunch. Add water until no more bubbles are coming out of the radiator. If bubbles keep coming out, you have a blown headgasket. If you have a big stubborn air bubble it's going to keep overheating until you fully bleed the system. Make sure the heater's on blast the entire time you do this. Your water pump could be bad. Usually when they go bad they start to leak out the weep hole, but you didn't mention coolant loss. It's worth checking out. The shutting off could be any number of things. Because it's intermittent I'd suspect electrical problems. Bad grounds, fuel pump wiring, etc.

03-11-2014, 05:59 PM	#16
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	UPDATE: I'm pretty sure I have bleed it correctly. But un-sure about over heating because of the shutting off problem causing me not being able to drive it. But as it was sitting there for a bit running, the temp slowly raised and stayed in the middle, nice hot heat. ALSO, the car seems to only shut off while driving, but never really while sitting. EDIT: Just went to go start it up, was running for not even a minute and it just quit on me. lol

03-11-2014, 09:04 PM	#18
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Well everyone always say make sure you have coolant at both ends, and I had a nice stream of coolant coming out of the screw before I screwed it in, but I could do it again tomorrow if its a good idea.

03-11-2014, 09:47 PM	#19
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	Pull the spark plugs out and see if the cylinders are wet, after you run it for as long as possible before it shuts off. Roll a piece of paper into a tube and shove it into the now empty spark plug hole and smell if any cylinder smells like gas more than others. It's either fuel, air, or spark problem. Test spark plugs by inserting them back into the spark wire, hold the spark plug end against the engine block, and crank the engine(make sure to disconnect injectors to keep them from spraying fuel into the cylinders). Let's start there.

03-11-2014, 09:49 PM	#20
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	Take Apart all your recent ignition upgrades you mentioned in the first post and put them back on or put old parts back on

03-11-2014, 11:10 PM	#21
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	Okay, I will try this as soon as I get the chance and I'll report back here with updates. And I can't put the ignition system back on because the other one was bad and I took it to a shop to get that done so I don't even have it. lol

03-14-2014, 08:35 AM	#25
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	sounds like you found one problem! Spark plug cables should not break when you take them out...

03-14-2014, 08:42 AM	#26
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	I might be getting them today or tomorrow. And what about the smell getting stronger as you get to the last spark plug hole, anything about that?

03-15-2014, 11:12 AM	#27
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	Depends on whether the cylinder top was wet or not. It could be anything from weak spark to a leaky injector to a bad fuel pressure regulator. Hopefully it's just spark plug wires

03-15-2014, 01:46 PM	#28
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	well I got the new spark plug cables, but I think they're too big or something and I'm pretty sure I have the firing order correct because when I start my car it sounds like crap.

03-18-2014, 06:20 PM	#29
Ilya Zilvia Addict Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: San Diego Age: 34 Posts: 712 Trader Rating: (2) Feedback Score: 2 reviews	no such thing as too big of wire. The Distributor should have the firing order and spark plug wire number to cylinder indications on it.

03-19-2014, 06:19 AM	#30
s13Cory Leaky Injector Join Date: Mar 2014 Location: North Carolina Posts: 84 Trader Rating: (0) Feedback Score: 0 reviews	I only thought that because they're a pain in the a** to put in. lol But on the distributor it only has the number 1 on it indicating where the first one goes. But I might have done it wrong, so I'll have to re-check it maybe today if it doesn't rain.