Coolant Consumption 2019 Nissan Altima

I have a 2019 Nissan Altima 2.5L with 65k miles on the odo. I've owned the car since new. In the last 3 months, I've gone through 1.5 gallons of Nissan 50/50 coolant topping off the reservoir.
Open to feedbacks and opinions.

-ttvr4
Sorry for the thread hijack. Def bring that in, that is a lot of coolant disappearing. They may give you special consideration as the vehicle is just off warranty by mileage but short years in service. Problem is if they hit you with a 4K repair bill you dont want to pay you will have the service record in the system if you later wanted to be naughty and "flip" the car on vroomba or carnivore.
Don't let service say "lets do a consumption test". They should be able to pressure test that with the plugs out and scope for leaks. Bet Other than HG , there could also exist a crack or porosity in the EXHAUST runners or valve pocket that dumps right into the cat/exhaust. I would first insure you don't have a bad rad cap gasket or split overflow siphon hose or weeping WP.
First monitor the consumption over the next month. CAREFULLY. Use 100% undiluted coolant (if available) added to the reservoir filled to the MIN COLD line after an overnight sit. See how it goes. Good luck.

- Ken
 
Thank you for everyone's input and suggestions!

I performed the pressure test on the cooling system and it held constant pressure with no coolant leak. I dropped the car off at our local Nissan service department (they are very good, IMO). Nissan performed their own pressure test on the cooling system and didn't see any issues. They also pulled the spark plug and everything looked good. They want me to bring the car back in 1,000 miles and verify the coolant consumption...I have a feeling that this is going to be an odd one...

-ttvr4
 
I know I get a coolant-like smell from the engine bay of our 2019 Nissan Pathfinder when it's up to temp. I have topped up the overflow bottle once to the full line. Currently has about 64K miles on it.

There are a lot of little hoses and some steel lines that route coolant to the engine oil cooler, the CVT heater/cooler and to warm the throttle body on some Nissans. I'd look for crusty areas around hose clamps, etc.

The steel lines can rot out in a matter of a few years in the rust belt.

Thing is, with 1.5 gallons in 3 months, unless it's some kind of weird anomaly where the system was quite low of coolant for a long time, you should be able to see or smell coolant somewhere. That is a lot in a relatively short period of time.
 
powertrain is still under warranty.
Did the consumption start or get worse when the radiator or coolant reservoir cap was replaced?
Nissan have it reversed compared to many other cars, the cap with the spring goes on the reservoir not the radiator and conversely the radiator takes a non spring cap.
Doing it the other way around will lead to small coolant leaks that add up.
 
powertrain is still under warranty.
Did the consumption start or get worse when the radiator or coolant reservoir cap was replaced?
Nissan have it reversed compared to many other cars, the cap with the spring goes on the reservoir not the radiator and conversely the radiator takes a non spring cap.
Doing it the other way around will lead to small coolant leaks that add up.

Powertrain warranty is 60k miles or 60 months, whichever comes first. Therefore, my 2019 Altima is out of the powertrain warranty. Replacing the radiator cap did not resolve the coolant consumption problem I am seeing.
 
Powertrain warranty is 60k miles or 60 months, whichever comes first. Therefore, my 2019 Altima is out of the powertrain warranty. Replacing the radiator cap did not resolve the coolant consumption problem I am seeing.
Sorry I missed where u were already at 65k.
 
I have an update on the coolant consumption problem. My local Nissan dealership was unable to determine the root cause of the coolant consumption. The dealership reached out to Nissan USA and according to the service manager, Nissan USA immediately responded and asked the dealership to replace the EGR cooler. Apparently Nissan USA has seen multiple EGR coolers fail on 2019+ Nissan Altimas that has a direct correlation to coolant consumption. The EGR cooler has radiator like fins inside and if the fins are broken, coolant is unable to flow through the fins and evaporate due to hot exhaust gas.

The good news is the EGR cooler is covered under California emissions warranty, 7 years, 70k miles, whichever comes first!

-ttrv4
 
EGR cooler.....sheeesh....they are turning these things into the same numb unreliable things we have been seeing on diesels the last decade.

I thought pretty much all gasoline engines had done away with EGR long ago. Replaced by exhaust/intake cam phasers.
 
Only two current Nissan models in the lineup have a EGR cooler, 2.5L Nissan Altima (NA Engine) and the Sentra SR Turbo.

-ttvr4
 
Trying to grasp this leaking EGR cooler situation. Where is the coolant loss going? Was it an external leak or was is going into the intake manifold or exhaust system? It's gotta be one of the three. The last two would be bad.
 
Trying to grasp this leaking EGR cooler situation. Where is the coolant loss going? Was it an external leak or was is going into the intake manifold or exhaust system? It's gotta be one of the three. The last two would be bad.
It would be going either into the exhaust after the combustion process or into the intake before the combustion process.

You wouldn't likely see anything in the oil with a UOA.
 
I'm a fan of Nissan, but reading Sentra Turbo reads like a Why Bother, lmao...
And why Civic Si or VW Jetta Turbo or why Kia Forte GT ? Same kind of stuff.

The redesigned Nissan Sentra is a good handling car for FWD, but quality is suspect.
Same with Korean stuff. Actually same with Honda stuff.

My door armrest crumbled to dust on my Honda Fit Sport and Honda said that my fault and wouldn't fix it.
They are so good in their own minds everything is your fault :)
 
I have an update on the coolant consumption problem. My local Nissan dealership was unable to determine the root cause of the coolant consumption. The dealership reached out to Nissan USA and according to the service manager, Nissan USA immediately responded and asked the dealership to replace the EGR cooler. Apparently Nissan USA has seen multiple EGR coolers fail on 2019+ Nissan Altimas that has a direct correlation to coolant consumption. The EGR cooler has radiator like fins inside and if the fins are broken, coolant is unable to flow through the fins and evaporate due to hot exhaust gas.

The good news is the EGR cooler is covered under California emissions warranty, 7 years, 70k miles, whichever comes first!

-ttrv4
Wow-I would be buying a lottery ticket, that’s beyond lucky! I had a company van that leaked coolant from day one (‘18 Transit 250 3.7), after 5 or 6 trips to multiple worthless Ford dealers I just gave up & put ginger root stop leak tablets in it. Which stopped all the leaks & promptly plugged the plate & stack transmission cooler… I was glad to see that one go at ~120K miles!
 
Had a 2002 Altima, last Nissan we ever bought. 5 or 6 years later coolant started disappearing, just a little at a time, couldn't figure it out, never any trace in the oil, no white smoke, no signs of head gasket.

THEN=
Engine would sometimes run rough for a short period of time until warm and then run perfect the entire day, I worked on several possibilities why the rough, none worked... Finally gave in and took it to the dealer. Said it was the CAT, well, guess what? It wasnt and the CAT wasnt cheap.
Back at the dealer whom was fantastic, narrowed it down to the head gasket. Replaced the head gasket and gave us a full credit on the cost of the CAT. They actually said they were sorry!
Of course the head gasket was still like 2k ... cant remember as it was a long time ago.
Hope this helps even though it was along time ago.
 
In the early 2000s, at the company I work for we were allowed to start buying "other" brands of vehicles after using only Ford products exclusively. After looking at various models and prices, we bought many Nissans - Sentras, Frontiers and later Versas, The comparatively lower purchase prices (versus, for instance, an equivalent Toyota) made them attractive as well. I kid you not, every single one of those Nissans blew their head gaskets. Some as early as 60k-80k miles. By the time it had started happening, we had already bought roughly 20 to 30 of these things. You guessed it, eventually they all had HG failure, every single one of them. The highest mileage any of these could get would be just over 100k before the failure occured. We now buy only Toyota Tacomas and Corollas and guess what, haven't had one single HG failure since. In fact, one of the first Tacomas we bought was still running at 230k miles and it only got retired because someone in our upper management noticed and said "why are we still running such a high mileage vehicle? It'll break down and we'll have to deal with the towing/repair costs." Ooookay.

On another note, I remember a coworker who bought himself a 2002 Nissan Altima brand new. This was the first year of the new 3rd generation Altima and it looked amazing, it was so much more modern looking than the 2nd gen Altima. The whole office was impressed with his shiny new car. I remember it was only about 3 or 4 years into his ownership before, you guessed it, the head gasket blew out and the repair was prohibitively expensive causing him to dump the car. Before he did, I took a good look at it and was very disappointed at how "old" the car looked, especially the interior. It just didn't hold up well. I think it had about 120k miles on it. Thinking about this now, I'm reminded of how many Inifiniti vehicles from the 2000s that have either horribly cracked or melted (or both) dashboards. It's sad to think they could make an interior 20 years earlier that held up well, but not now.
 
Trying to grasp this leaking EGR cooler situation. Where is the coolant loss going? Was it an external leak or was is going into the intake manifold or exhaust system? It's gotta be one of the three. The last two would be bad.
Water/coolant going into the intake will help keep the top end clean. Water injection cleans carbon deposits quite well. 😄
 
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