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RPM governor in case of overheating on 95 Maxima?

Hi,

I've got a 95 Maxima GLE with about 135K miles on it. This past weekend while running some errands the car started lurching back and forth. I noticed the tach would hit 2000 rpms and then drop back a couple hundred. At first I thought it was the transmission going (automatic) but after pulling over and reving the engine in neutral it displayed the same behavior. But, after a few minutes it "broke through" the 2000 rpm wall and behaved as normal. I drove the car home and didn't mess with it.

The next day I went to an Exxon and bought some STP fuel additive and filled the car up. I thought I might have gotten a bad tank of gas because the Costco I had last filled up had a sign up saying they were out of premium a few days later. I thought either their premium was bad or I got the bottom of their tank and possibly picked up the lees. After adding the STP and filling up the car behaved fine on the ride home.

The next day I drove the five miles or so to my work without problems but on the way home I started hitting the 2K rpm wall again. Then white smoke started coming out from under the hood. I pulled over and saw the smoke was coming from a radiator hose. I didn't have anything to protect my hands in order to open the radiator so I opened the windows, turned the heat on full blast and drove the last mile or so home at

10-15 mph. The smoke went away fairly quickly.

I let the car cool down, popped the hood and opened the radiator. It was bone dry. The overflow resevoir was also dry. I added coolant and water to both and I think I spotted a leak in the radiator. No biggie I'll get it fixed or a new radiator. I've been adding coolant/water as needed and have not had the 2000 rpm problem since.

But, my question is, does a 95 Maxima have some kind of governor/sensor that will keep the engine from reving past 2000 rpms if the temperature gets too high?

Everybody I talk to has said they've never heard of anything like this?

Thanks,

Jason

Reply to
jason
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Reply to
JimV

Is your temperature gauge broken?

Reply to
223rem

That sounds more like what a dieing MAS sensor does.

Reply to
Steve T

Reply to
jason

Reply to
JimV

What was your temp gage saying through all this? Overheating a car is bad news. It may still work, but it won't be the same.

The 2000 rpm issue is usually related to a suspect MAF.SInce the problem comes and goes, it sounds like the MAF has a bad or loose connecton somewhere.

HTH

CD

Reply to
Codifus

And you're the typical grease monkey that is useless when it comes to helping people.

I let the car cool down before I started driving it again and watched the temperature gauge the whopping mile I drove home.

Reply to
jason

The engine does have a protection mode it reaches when it becomes severely overheated.

A few things will happen.

  1. the ECM will cut operation to any unneeded accessories , like the air conditioning.

  1. the ECM will command a richer mixture of fuel to be injected into the cylinders to aid in reducing cylinder combustion temps.

and it will reduce or govern the output engine in very extreme cases such as yours.

Just a little FYI for you,

If your Nissan even starts to look like it is going to overheat, PULL OVER and shut it off, and get it towed to a shop!!

Serious engine damage can occur even if it is overheated for a little while, such as a blown head gasket or worse a warped or cracked cylinder head = (BIG $$$).

I suggest getting you upper and lower radiator hoses changes with genuine Nissan OEM parts, after all, they lasted you this long didn't they.And have any other rubber hoses checked while in the shop

I hope all will be ok with yours.

Reply to
NissTech

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