Hey, friends, it's Len here from 1A Auto.
So, today in the studio, we have a Second Generation Nissan Rogue.
I wanted to go over some of the top problems that we've come to find, so let's get into
it.
The first problem that we're gonna talk about comes down to poor heat inside of your passenger
compartment.
You go ahead and you turn on the heater, you want it on hot, you turn on the blower motor.
For some reason, it doesn't really blow up very hot though.
To solve that, we're gonna go ahead and get right underneath the hood.
Now, the symptoms that we're having for this actually comes down to poor heat coming out
of the vents when we're sitting idling.
Once we start accelerating or even jump on the highway, the heat comes pouring out like
we want it to.
That's gonna lead me under the hood right here, and the first thing that I want to do
is check the coolant that's in the radiator.
Obviously, you never want to open up your radiator cap when it's hot.
That feels good.
We'll lift that up, set it aside.
Now you want to take a peek down in here and make sure that you have some coolant.
Commonly, the coolant could be a little bit low.
Otherwise, if the coolant isn't low and you're having this issue, it could come down to an
air pocket being trapped inside of your cooling system which could be partly located inside
of your engine, part of your cooling hoses, or even inside the radiator or heater core
located behind your dash.
Now, why would the coolant be low?
More than likely, it's due to the fact that you probably have a coolant leak someplace.
It might be an external leak.
So, go ahead and take a peek underneath the vehicle and see if you have any coolant that
comes dripping out.
If you find a leak, obviously, you need to fix that leak.
After you fix the leak, the next issue could potentially come in and that comes down to
bleeding the cooling system.
If you leave an air pocket inside the system, there's obviously gonna be a restriction in
the flow of the coolant going through.
If there's a restriction, the coolant can't make its way to the heater core, which, of
course, won't make it so it heats up and you're not gonna have any hot air blowing out the
vents.
So, like I said, the two most common reasons why you might not have good heat coming out
of your blower motor or out of your vents inside the passenger compartment typically
comes down to either a coolant leak, so double-check to make sure you don't have a coolant leak,
and, of course, air in the system.
Either one of those, you're gonna wanna make sure that you go ahead and bleed out any air
that's inside the system.
Commonly to do that, you can just go ahead and jack up the front of the car a little
bit so the car's sitting at an angle.
That's gonna help make it so the air bubbles will make their way all the way up to the
top, and then, of course, they'll make their way out.
Coolant will fill up that gap and then you shouldn't have any issue.
Other possible causes for this issue could potentially be a thermostat issue.
If for some reason the thermostat isn't functioning properly, it's gonna restrict the amount of
coolant flow going through the system, so, of course, there isn't gonna be hot coolant
making its way to the heater core.
Other than that, speaking of the heater core, if the heater core is blocked up with anything,
that's gonna cause an issue as well, the coolant won't be able to flow through it.
Once again, that means that you're not gonna have any heat coming out of those vents.
Other than that, if the coolant inside the system isn't diluted properly, or maybe it's
a little bit too strong, it's gonna cause a restriction in the flow as well.
That's a little less likely, but it is potentially a cause.
Now for our second problem, we're gonna talk about transmission issues.
Specifically, on this one, it has a CVT transmission, which essentially means it can seamlessly
change through a continuous range of gear ratios.
Some of the symptoms that you might happen to find if you're having an issue with your
transmission might be something as basic as shaking or shuttering under acceleration,
or even some kind of jonesing.
Essentially, you go ahead and you step on the gas, it doesn't seem like it wants to
go, then it does, then it does, then it doesn't.
Off and on, back and forth, and it just doesn't really feel like it's very fluent and it doesn't
feel comfortable at all.
So, let's talk about some quick fixes for this.
The first thing that I would wanna do is try to check and/or replace the transmission fluid.
Now, when you do this, you wanna make sure that you're using the proper fluid.
If you go ahead and use any other type of fluid besides what's recommended by Nissan
for this particular CVT transmission, you could potentially cause even more damage than
what's already happening now.
The proper CVT fluid that you're gonna wanna use for this would be the Nissan-specific
fluid.
It's NS-3.
So, you're gonna wanna get yourself a whole bunch of that fluid and flush out the system.
Make sure that you don't have any of the existing fluid that was in there in there anymore and
it's all brand new fluid.
After that, go ahead and take it for a road test.
Hopefully, that the shuttering and everything else is gone now.
If it isn't, for some reason, typically it's an internal transmission issue.
Inside the transmission, there's gonna be a valve body that's inside there and it has
a whole bunch of little valves that are gonna open and close, which, of course, is gonna
help with the range selection of the transmission.
Now the valve body itself can potentially go bad internally.
To fix this, you're gonna have to get inside the transmission.
It isn't necessarily something that I would wanna do in a driveway I would, of course,
wanna have a qualified service technician take care of it for me.
Now, a third problem that we're gonna talk about comes down to strut caps.
The strut caps are gonna be located out front of your vehicle right where your strut mounts
to the body.
Okay.
So, I have a strut right here so I can show you.
Know it's not the one from inside this actual vehicle because I'm not just gonna go ahead
and tear it out of there just to be able to show you.
But essentially, it's gonna have a shaft that comes down here.
It's gonna have the spring in between the coil spring.
And then, of course, it's gonna have the strut that comes all the way up through, and it
needs to lead to the strut mount which is located up along the top.
The mount itself is supposed to be in between the spring and the body of the vehicle.
So, essentially, you can still turn the wheel and it's not necessarily gonna bind up or
restrict you in any way.
Now, the strut that I showed you didn't have a bearing cap on the top that made it so it
could be able to spin.
It's for a completely different application, but I do have a cap here that I can show you.
So essentially, just look along the bottom here.
Imagine that the spring is sitting right there and, of course, the shaft of the strut is
coming up through the center right here.
This part right here is gonna be mounted to the body of the vehicle.
It's gonna come right up through into the engine compartment.
Now, when I go ahead and turn my wheel, this down right here should be able to spin.
So, what can happen with this though is as you're spinning, if the bearings that are
located on the inside area right here are binding up or rotted or damaged in any way,
it's gonna cause an issue where you hear some creaking, some grinding, and even some clunking,
especially under sharp turns.
So, what does this mean to you?
Essentially, that means that the bearings up along the top right here are damaged.
How can that happen?
While driving over a lot of bumps, of course, you're putting a lot of strain on everything
that's involved.
Other than that, if you had somebody try to do any service to it and they went ahead and
tightened up the nut that's in the center right there, that's gonna crush this bearing
right down.
And then, of course, it's gonna put a lot of excess pressure on those bearings and,
of course, wipe them out prematurely.
Now let's quickly talk about fixes for this.
For me personally, of course, I'm gonna have to replace the strut cap on it.
Typically, when I do these, I'm gonna do them as a pair.
Also, something to think about though is to get this off of there, you're gonna have to
take apart your entire front strut to be able to do this.
When you do that, it can be very dangerous overall because the coil spring that goes
around it is gonna be under a tremendous amount of pressure, and if you do it wrong, it could
be very dangerous.
So, my opinion, if you're doing this in the driveway and you don't have a whole bunch
of the proper tools such as a big old strut compressor or anything like that, it only
really makes sense to go ahead and get myself a whole complete assembly, brand new strut.
And when I do them, I do them as a pair.
When I'm done, I get myself a four-wheel alignment.
Now for our fourth problem, we're gonna talk about fuel level sensor issues.
Now your fuel level sensor is generally gonna be located on your fuel sending unit, which
is gonna be located inside of your fuel tank underneath your car.
So, let's say you're driving down the road, you think you have plenty of gas, but for
some reason, the car runs out of fuel.
Well, obviously, that would tell you that there's gotta be an issue with the range selector
on the actual fuel pump assembly itself.
If it's not functioning properly, the car up at the front right there might think that
you have plenty of gas where really you don't.
Now real quick, what can happen to this?
I'm gonna show you on this particular sending unit.
It's not necessarily the one for this particular application, once again, because I'm not gonna
go ahead and tear out the gas tank to be able to show you the one in particular.
But if you were to look real close at it where the range selector is, you can tell that it
has a whole bunch of little indicators on there, but what can happen over time is the
range selector tends to get worn out.
As you can tell on this one right here, you can see that all the areas where it's supposed
to make its little range selection, well, they're just kinda wiped out a little bit
and that's gonna happen over time.
Now for a fix for this, you're gonna have to get inside the fuel tank, go ahead and
remove the fuel sending unit and, of course, you're gonna have to inspect it.
Make sure that there isn't any debris in there.
If it looks like it has any type of like a slimy coating or anything like that on there,
of course, you can try to clean it and retry it.
Overall, what it comes down to is you're gonna have to replace the unit.
Now for our fifth problem, we're gonna talk about the canister purge control valve.
Symptoms for this that you might happen to find would be a check engine light that comes
on in your dash.
You go ahead and grab your little scan tool, you pull the code and it comes up PO444.
Essentially, that's gonna tell you that you're having an issue with your emission system
and the issue is gonna be located in the rear of your vehicle.
Now to start diagnosing this issue, obviously, you're gonna wanna be able to find where the
valve is actually located.
If you get underneath the passenger side rear bumper of your car, you're gonna be able to
find a big old black canister underneath there, and on it it's gonna have a couple of different
valves.
You're gonna wanna make sure that you're picking out the right valve though.
Take a look at all the wiring that goes to it.
If you find wiring that looks like it's been chewed through or rubbed through, obviously,
that's probably the issue.
That is actually a common issue.
Other than that, you could actually have an issue with the valve itself.
If it goes bad internally and it seems like it's shorting out, it could potentially put
a little burn in that wire.
You go ahead and you touch on those wires, you find like a little swollen area, or even
it seems like the outer sheathing's worn off, commonly it's because it's overheated.
And if that's the issue, it's actually the valve that's the issue.
So, what you'd want to do is, of course, look at the wiring, make sure it looks like it's
good.
If it is, go ahead and find that valve itself and give it a couple loving bonks just to
see if it actually breaks free.
Sometimes the little valve inside sticks.
Other than that, if it still doesn't seem like it wants to work, you're gonna have to
go ahead and replace the valve itself.
Now, if you did happen to find that there was an issue with the wiring itself, commonly,
you just want to go ahead and replace the wiring harness that leads to it.
Maybe you're a little bit more handy or maybe you just don't really wanna spend that kind
of money.
If the wiring itself just has like a little rubbed-through area or looks like it's broken,
just go ahead and cut off that rubbed-through area or the broken area, and then just put
in a little splicer there and go ahead and connect it back together.
Overall, this should work okay for you, but typically, the best case scenario for this
would be to just go ahead and replace the wiring and the actual valve itself.
Okay, friends, so that's pretty much what I've got for you for some of the top common
problems on a Second Generation Nissan Rogue.
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