Head Gasket Problems

[BUBBA0420]

I have been informed on this board that the Nissan
Sentra 1.8 engine is prone to head gasket failure.
Is there anything maintenance wise that can help
prevent this problem ?? IE Changing coolant more often ect..
The car has the green antifreeze.

 

[Chris142]

Dont get it hot.

 

[Cutehumor]

use bar's leak..but you want it to blow before your warranty is up so nissan will fix it.

 

[Al]

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Dont get it hot.

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Exactly. Also don't use the 1.2 bar Nismo Radiator cap.

 

[ConfederateTyrant]

Change the coolant to a propylene glycol based coolant. It is less damaging to engine internals in the event of contamination. And perform UOA's to keep a check.

 

[Mokanic]

The possibility of this happening is going to be with you from here on. Every time you want to go somewhere in the thing you'll be wondering if it's going to leave you somewhere.
Do you have one of these models? How close are you to the end of your powertrain coverage? How many miles?
You can pour all the radiator stop leak in it you want but it won't correct a poor design so if I was really in love with the car or unable to get out of it and into another car I would do this first.
1.)I would take a trip down to the local Nissan dealer and this is how I would present the problem to the service manager. I would tell him that the car has been slowly loosing coolant internally. There are not any external leaks but about once a week you have to fill the coolant jug up and top off the radiator. You also notice the car runs rough sometimes when you first crank it up in the morning.
Insist on seeing the service manager to talk about this and be very cordial. Being a rectum will not help even if they deserve it.
By doing this,they have created a repair order on your car for symptoms of a headgasket failure while it is under warranty. Don't leave the dealer without that copy of the repair order even if they look at your car and say there is nothing wrong. If it does fail after the warranty period,you would be surprised how many times a dealer will take care of a problem in order to please a customer.
Second,if you go in and the shop is having a slow week and give them the symptoms listed;they may go ahead and do the repair to try to keep their techs busy for that week.
I worked in dealers for 15 years and have seen many times dealers would fix a known problem erea like that when the customer would come in and describe the correct symptoms to the service manager in a friendly,cordial way. I see alot of people like to call all dealers crooks on this site and some of them do deserve the rep that they have but others will bend over backwards to help a customer particularly when it is the manufacterer footing the bill for the repair. Before you laugh it off let me ask you what you have to loose by doing so? You can't loose either way-if they don't do the repair at least you have a record of complaining while it was under warranty which you can use later if it blows after powertrain coverage is up. There is the possibility that they may also elect to go ahead and fix it based on your description and the desire to make you a customer at the exspense of Nissan Motor Manufactering.

 

[brianl703]

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others will bend over backwards to help a customer particularly when it is the manufacterer footing the bill for the repair.

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Some manufacturers pay less than the normal book rate for warranty repairs. That is, if a customer-pay headgasket job pays 6 hours, a warranty-pay headgasket job may only pay 4.

As a result of this, some dealerships will do anything to avoid some warranty repairs that they perceive as not being paid a fair amount by the manufacturer.

 

[Mokanic]

All warranty-covered engine repairs pay less than customer-pay repairs do. I know from experience that Nissan pays less as well. I know also that if a service manager has ten techs standing around with their finger up their rectum becouse business is slow,they will jump through hoops to find some of them work to do even if it is a warranty repair. When you live on full flat-rate commision,getting paid for 6hrs work is better than nothing. That service manager has numbers the GM or owner of the dealership expects him to hit every month and if Nissan Motor Manufactering has to chip in for him to meet them he will write the warranty RO many,many times. I've seen it too many times in 15 yrs. The tech may not like having to do the job for less but most of them have done the same repairs so many times that they can still beat the clock at a lower number of hrs.
I would say the owner has nothing to loose to try. Maybe they won't fix it but it has been recorded for future reference if needed.

 

[widman]

Head gasket problems are often in the category of "if it isn't broke, don't fix it." If properly installed, they don't wear out. Nissan has very engine specific torque specs and procedures on head gaskets. The mechanic has to do it exactly right.
I imagine that these weird specs are based on learning curves from the factory, with less problems on newer engines.
The 2004 sequence for the 1.8 engine is a 6 step process of tightening, loosening and tightening in the right order, although they don't require new bolts as they do on some engines.

Once properly done, I'd leave it alone. The only question is whether it was properly done. Most of the problems I've seen with factory problems of head gaskets has been between 30,000 and 70,000 kilometers.

 

[Jim 5]

My first vehicle was a 1980 Mazda B2000 pick-up.

My headgasket failed and I later found out that the service manual prescribed re-torquing the cylinder head every 60k miles. Or at least that's what the mazda dealer told me.

That's the first and last thing I've ever heard as far as preventative maintenance for headgaskets.

 

[dave1251]

Quote:

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The possibility of this happening is going to be with you from here on. Every time you want to go somewhere in the thing you'll be wondering if it's going to leave you somewhere.
Do you have one of these models? How close are you to the end of your powertrain coverage? How many miles?
You can pour all the radiator stop leak in it you want but it won't correct a poor design so if I was really in love with the car or unable to get out of it and into another car I would do this first.
1.)I would take a trip down to the local Nissan dealer and this is how I would present the problem to the service manager. I would tell him that the car has been slowly loosing coolant internally. There are not any external leaks but about once a week you have to fill the coolant jug up and top off the radiator. You also notice the car runs rough sometimes when you first crank it up in the morning.
Insist on seeing the service manager to talk about this and be very cordial. Being a rectum will not help even if they deserve it.
By doing this,they have created a repair order on your car for symptoms of a headgasket failure while it is under warranty. Don't leave the dealer without that copy of the repair order even if they look at your car and say there is nothing wrong. If it does fail after the warranty period,you would be surprised how many times a dealer will take care of a problem in order to please a customer.
Second,if you go in and the shop is having a slow week and give them the symptoms listed;they may go ahead and do the repair to try to keep their techs busy for that week.
I worked in dealers for 15 years and have seen many times dealers would fix a known problem erea like that when the customer would come in and describe the correct symptoms to the service manager in a friendly,cordial way. I see alot of people like to call all dealers crooks on this site and some of them do deserve the rep that they have but others will bend over backwards to help a customer particularly when it is the manufacterer footing the bill for the repair. Before you laugh it off let me ask you what you have to loose by doing so? You can't loose either way-if they don't do the repair at least you have a record of complaining while it was under warranty which you can use later if it blows after powertrain coverage is up. There is the possibility that they may also elect to go ahead and fix it based on your description and the desire to make you a customer at the exspense of Nissan Motor Manufactering.

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That has to be the best advice that I heard in the 18 Months that I have been on the board.

 

[B15SE]

I also have one of these 1.8L Sentras. I plan on doing an UOA once a year or so just to see how things are looking.

The most important thing is to keep the cooling system in top condition. Overheating will cause the head gasket to leak.

Al, I was thinking the same thing about the NISMO rad. cap. Why try and force the AF under more pressure, after all, it's a 1.8

Brian