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Hi guys (novice from Australia)
2003 Nissan Pulsar 1.8l QG18DE engine, Automatic. I think USA calls them Nissan Almera ?
Couple of months ago while driving, the radiator got a crack in the tank & the temp gauge went up close to HOT. I quickly pulled over, popped the hood to let it cool down & waited about 20-30min, then crept home (about 3-4min drive) before parking and leaving it.
About a week ago I got a replacement radiator, installed, added fresh coolant & started car (with heater on hot and blowing, to help circulate new coolant through heater core). I noticed car idled rough and there was excess white smoke coming out of the exhaust. At first I dismissed this as it smelt like paint thinner & though perhaps the car sitting for a while, maybe it had something to do with stale or excess fuel?
I ended up turning the car off, checking the coolant levels, turning off the heater vent and starting the car again. The smell went away and the white smoke went away, but shortly came back though a lot less. I checked the oil cap and dipstick, the cap showed white froth and the dipstick was a little light in colour, not milky though
Today I took the car to get a safety certificate (required in parts of Australia before registering). It felt like there was a loss of power (accelerating but not adding power) and jerking at idle, perhaps misfires? Got to the mechanic, got my certificate & went home.
Couple of hours after getting home I decided to check spark-plugs. Plugs 1,2,4 came out OK, plug 3 was quite tight, I though I might damage the threads :/, but got it out ok (installed later, seem to go in fine).
Now the problems. All the ignition coils has water (& rust?) on them. The spark plugs had water on them and looking down into the piston, it looked like water down there. I used a rag with a claw retrieval tool and lowered it down into the cylinder to absorb the liquid, it didn’t smell like fuel, didn’t really have a scent.
I also noticed that coolant was on ‘low’. Before I went up the road, I filled it between Low and High. When I got home, the collant was back to ‘low’. Coolant level in radiator looks ok.
Any ideas where to go from here? Getting a mechanic is out of the question unfortunately due to costs and I don’t have a Torque wrench or a ‘straight-edge’ tool. I’m usually ok with attempting things myself but in this case, big job, lack of important tools, makes this a tricky situation. I really don’t want to scrap the car, but…
Is using an additive to plug the leak (depending on severity) a possible solution? I’ve seen Scotty Kilmer & ChrisFix talk about them.
Does anyone have a realistic view of this situation, from your experience, where am I at with this issue?
Thanks in advance, 🙂
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