Ok, drove the wife's Supercharged X to work today and it smells like coolant (antifreeze) after driving it for awhile. No smell, no leaks before driving... replaced the radiator cap 3 days ago... no help.

Any advice or things to check? Doesn't smell inside cabin, just around engine bay and only after it's warmed up.

She also spoke of strange grinding noises when stopped on a hill and then accelerating up that same hill... claims the X rolls backwards a bit then upon accelerating grinds into gear and is sluggish. Haven't experienced it yet but she claims it happens daily. Only on steep uphills and after stopping. Does anyone's xterra hold on hills? I know my Jeep rolls just a slight bit but only when its really steep!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Sold my car recently so I'll be around on here with sharing the XTerra and all!

Ohh, also has a wicked annoying rattle... sounds like its coming from passenger side engine compartment... small bumps, large bumps, very small bumps... rattles like crazy! Sway bar bushings? Front shock? Bumper?

the rattling is prob a heat shield under the truck
as for coolant smell.... i dunno about that, i know hen the head gasket goes on the old yotas(i have one) you can mell it mad, but theres usually white/blue smoke and oil in the coolant

Alright, there IS a possibility that you might have put too much coolant inside the X. As it heats up, it overflows onto the other hot components. In turn, it evaporates. This happens often actually. The coolant smell could just be residual antifreeze burning off.

Check your coolant level

Check your coolant temp

Did you put the stock replacement back in? meaning the same PSI?

The PSI rating of that cap is SOOOSOSSSOooooo important.

While the engine is cool, try spraying it down to wash off any coolant that might be there.

The rattling.....I would have to agree with ricer on the heat shield as something to at least check out.. Also check how secure the fan is. It might be hitting against the shroud. While investigating, check for even wear of the tires.

Explain the rattle a little more in depth if you could.

Also, duplicate the instances where these problems occur. Ie hill, after stopped, etc.

Is it an auto or stick?

Also point it DOWN the hill and see if the problem occurs.

on the uphill, actually take it there, and stop it. Pull it to the side of the road

rev is up, and listen for a rattle.

Try all of that out....

P.S.-Welcome to Club X! There is a new members introduction section. Check that out and stay a while! Good to have you here-James

thanks for the quick replies folks! Interesting about the antifreeze being overfilled... had the car serviced about 2000 miles ago and come to think of it this smell might be since then. When I pull the radiator cap it is VERY full.

Thanks for the info I am on my way to go diagnose what I can. Gotta run to have it inspected as I am officially expired as of today...but now I get that free month for next year...lol

ok update:

Alright, I'll inspect further into the antifreeze smell later today but the rattling is killing me! Feels like its from underneath the passenger side floor but sounds like from the engine compartment. Rough road surfaces are killer but turning on rough road 90 degrees to the right is worse and something sounds creaky too. Gotta be bushings. What goes first on Xterra's? Front sway bar? Body mounts? control arm bushings? Maybe I will spray all of them down with some lube and listen for improvements..

Did notice that the coolant has something else... As the car is warming up it stays on ice cold for the first 5-10 minutes then jumps to 50% temp immediately and doesn't move. Maybe just a stuck needle that unsticks as you drive? Or part of my antifreeze smell problem.... ?

my temp needle does tha same thing, dosent move at all til my coolant reaches 175 degrees

the creaking you are hearing is probably your turn stops, just put some grease on them, eventually the grease will wear off and you aill have to apply some more

i doubt the creaking is from anything else, especially if it happens when you turn

im still confident the rattling is an exhaust heat sheild under the truck, OR you may have lost a bushing on one of your sway bars(which allows it to rattle around in the clip), most likely the rear

Alright, as far as the rattling, does it clunk at all? IF you lube it up and hope for improvements, I would start that the UCA and LCA bushings. These go out a lot. The body bolts are pretty stout, and from the "feel" of it being under your feet on the pass side, I am thinking that it is most likely the UCA, and not your swaybar.

When was the last time you had it aligned?

How many miles do you have on it?

About the coolant....weird...thermostat?

had it aligned recently... it doesn't clunk really... just constant rattling over bumpy surfaces and worse as the bumpiness increases. Its not ONLY when I turn, its all the time.. I just wanted to say that as I am turning AND the road is bumpy its even worse. I'll check out the control arms and lube the hell out of everything. Gotta love spray lube!

I'm just a stickler for problems, this is the wife's car. I just took it for the day and trying to fix up the issues she thinks are normal. haha, gotta' love women and cars - no offense to any women here!

thed rattling is the heat sheild's i hade the same problem.... and as far as the coolant i agree with soccer it is proab the cap ( not right psi ) an dit is allowing the coolant to overflow into the overflow tank which is where the smell is coming from.... check the tank and see if there is any fresh coolant there.... good luck

What you have described with the temp guage is normal behavior. I usually run mine slightly overful on coolant. Mark the level and keep an eye on it. If it goes down then you know you have an issue. One place to check is the factory spring type hose clamps. It would be a good idea to replace them with the screw type.
The rattle is harder to diagnose. Have you checked the shock bushings?
Try and spray one thing at a time and then do a test drive. That way you'll know when the noise stops it was the last thing you sprayed/lubed.

alright, smell is getting worse... same deal, only coming from engine bay, nothing inside car. Only smells when its heated up and coolant is circulating. Anyone ever have it burn off with the supercharger? Like underneath it maybe? It's definitely burning as still no leaks... but the level isn't moving so its very minimal... just smells like hell!

did you check the reservoir to see if any was overflowing

The reservoir is filled to where it should be... It almost smells very sweet like I read in another thread on here... they commented on the engine smelling like maple syrup. It's damn close! I'm going to run a pressure test on it over the weekend... maybe something conclusive will come out of it.

Still got the rattles too even though I lubed up all the rubbers. I can feel it rattle under my feet on the passenger side. Is this the heat shield everyone is talking about? I can't see it.. unless I'm not looking hard enough, lol. THanks for all your input!

more than likely it is the heat shield, which is the shield that wraps around the exhaust..... i took mine off all the way to the bend up to the motor. the reason being i couldn't get the rest of them off, but it no longer rattles.... crawl under there inspect the exhaust... maby someone has some pics they could share, i don't have any for the heat shields.... here is what the fsm has on the subject....

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h255/jsongrl/jason/superexaust.jpg

the only thing is the diagram dosent show the heat sheilds.... huh i will look into the situation and get back to you........

When was the last time you just cleaned your engine compartment?

I cleaned it just about a month ago with a good Simple Green degreasing and then a light hose off with water. Didn't work out too well, but I could at least wipe away some of the worse stuff. Why do you ask? Maybe so I can see the "leak"? It's gotta be burning it...

I cleaned it just about a month ago with a good Simple Green degreasing and then a light hose off with water. Didn't work out too well, but I could at least wipe away some of the worse stuff. Why do you ask? Maybe so I can see the "leak"? It's gotta be burning it...

I ask because that ish "carmelizes" and that is why it gets worse and worse. IF you spilled some on the engine, it might still be there. Unless of course it was washed off after. Pretty common in my line of work.

Check around the bottom area of the throttle body. There's a wax pellet there for the high idle when the engine coolant is cold. Those tend to leak, and they'll leak onto the driver's side exhaust manifold heat shield, causing you to smell it, but not see a leak, unless you look really hard.

Those 2 hoses, if messed with under the TB are really a PITA

You can usually finagle the wax pellet out of there and reseal it with an o-ring from NAPA. I don't take the t-body off to do it.