Poor heating/loss of acceleration. Help! It's -35 C today.

35

Asked by Sushi Nov 27, 2007 at 06:38 AM about the 1983 Nissan Sentra

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

As the cold weather has moved in (-25 celcius), my 1983 Nissan Sentra is barely putting out any heat.  Yesterday I couldn't get the car to go faster than 80 km/hr on the highway.  What do you suggest checking besides the thermostat and maybe a rad flush?  The rad is full but I don't know if the concentration is right.  I had to add antifreeze in the spring and the fall after the car overheated while on the highway.  After taking the rad cap off yesterday after driving 5 km on the highway, some antifreeze overflowed, but it was warm, not hot.  It also stutters really bad when cold and it takes a while to warm up.

1 Answer

83,795

Sounds like a thermostat, possible water pump issue, but most likely thermostat. Have the coolant system backflushed to get any gunk out of the heater core as well -- not just flushed, backflushed. :)

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