All of a sudden overheated and shut off and will not restart

Tiny
CHRISTOPHER JOSH PIERCE
  • MEMBER
  • 2004 NISSAN 350Z
  • 3.5L
  • V6
  • MANUAL
  • 191,000 MILES
It's a 6-speed manual transmission. The problems that I know about the vehicle or that it needs a new lower steering shaft and a new lower steering coupler and an alignment. I just replaced the spark plugs 3 days ago and it was running fine. It just started acting really sluggish all of a sudden and I feel like it didn't want to get up to speed. Then there was a lot of loud vibrating in the steering wheel when I would turn then what sounded like noise in the gearbox or under it. Then I could feel the heat coming up from around the shifter like it was overheating but my gauge cluster said everything was fine. The oil pressure has been super high on this car since I got it a week ago. I've checked the oil everything was fine all the fluids are fine. But once it overheated it smells like burnt wire or plastic and it was white smoke coming from under the battery compartment not a lot but just a little. Up until this point it had shut off on me four or five times previously like when I would go from 5th or 6th gear into neutral when I was taking an exit or what not and I have to restart it while on the move because I'd lose power steering and brakes. Once it shut off it acted like it couldn't turn the motor over but then I cooled the engine off, and it started for a brief second and once I put it into gear it shut off again. The ABS lights on in the dash the slip light the check engine light and I think another one, but I can't remember exactly what it was. It was running completely fine up until I got my exhaust on it done yesterday, had them cut all the factory stuff off and then put a custom setup on it which was just mainly a resonator or muffler then to dual pipes with Camaro tips. I heard a lot of clanging under the car after the exhaust was done and it just got worse, I took it back to the exhaust shop and they said they didn't know what it could be then when I left is when it started acting sluggish while accelerating and then eventually shut off on me and had to have it towed to the house. I don't really know where to start or what to look for in the situation because it kind of happened without warning like most Auto problems do. Any help would be appreciated. Oh, and I haven't scanned it to see if they're what codes it's throwing because someone stole my code reader a while back.
Thursday, March 24th, 2022 AT 11:49 AM

9 Replies

Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
If the engine actually overheated, then we need to start with checking the head gasket and the compression.

I suspect we have an issue with the head warping or the coolant and oil mixing. So here are a couple of guides that will get us started:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/coolantantifreeze-in-the-engine-oil

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/head-gasket-blown-test

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-test-engine-compression

Once we know what the compression is we will be able to figure out the next steps. So, let's start with this and we can go from there.

Thanks
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Thursday, March 24th, 2022 AT 6:19 PM
Tiny
CHRISTOPHER JOSH PIERCE
  • MEMBER
  • 6 POSTS
Okay. So, I've replaced the starter and now it will start after a few attempts but is very sluggish. Once it does start, I hear a loud metal on metal sound and then it shuts off. I was told that since the starter burnt up it could've damaged the flywheel. I also forgot to mention that when I got the car it had an exhaust leak, and you could smell oil really bad in the cabin while driving. I'm wondering since it had the exhaust leak if the ECM had it running too rich for too long and that could've messed something up. Also, one of my o2 sensors has a clipped wire I just saw this morning so only two of those have been working this whole time. One other thing is that when I finally got it started this morning and for the 4 seconds it ran it was producing white smoke from either under the car or out of the tail pipes. The old starter was black one the end that turns the motor like it was burnt or something I've never seen one like that. You can smell a burnt wire/plastic smell coming off of it. These are all my new findings, hopefully it'll give you a little more insight into my nightmare. Lol, thanks again for your help, truly appreciated.
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Sunday, March 27th, 2022 AT 1:48 PM
Tiny
CHRISTOPHER JOSH PIERCE
  • MEMBER
  • 6 POSTS
Oh and there's no signs of oil in the water so seems the head gasket is fine.
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Sunday, March 27th, 2022 AT 1:59 PM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
Okay. Can you get a recording of the noise when you start the engine?

Can you get it started now to duplicate the noise?

I am concerned that the noise that sounds metal to metal is an engine knock. If it is, then that is a serious issue and the place to start is draining the oil and check for metal. So, we need to catch the oil in a clean drain pan so that we can find out if there is metal.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-change-engine-oil-and-filter

Then remove the filter and cut it open and find out if there is metal flake in filter and this will confirm that we are going to have to rebuild or replace the engine.

If we can't confirm this is not the issue first, then we are just wasting time on the other issues because none of them will matter if the engine is failed.
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Monday, March 28th, 2022 AT 6:34 PM
Tiny
CHRISTOPHER JOSH PIERCE
  • MEMBER
  • 6 POSTS
Good point! Thank you for the response! I will get on that today and also try to upload a video of starting it. I appreciate your time bud.
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Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 AT 9:27 AM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
Sounds great. Let us know what happens and if you have other questions on this.

Thanks
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Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 AT 12:07 PM
Tiny
CHRISTOPHER JOSH PIERCE
  • MEMBER
  • 6 POSTS
Confirmed! There are metal shavings in my oil. What would rub together to do that and how far down of a rebuild would it be? I'm assuming the metal flakes are probably from the cam or crank shafts.
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Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 AT 5:49 PM
Tiny
CHRISTOPHER JOSH PIERCE
  • MEMBER
  • 6 POSTS
Well, now that I've researched it, I don't think there's any amount metal that's out of the norm in the oil. It's very small pieces I mean if you don't have the right light and at the right angle you can't see them. They're no big chunks or any pieces bigger than specks.
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Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 AT 5:54 PM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
There is some info out there that says you will find metal but if you are seeing it in the oil then it is already an issue.

If it looks like the oil has glitter in it or has small flakes, then that is bearing material.

This comes from the cam or crank bearings, and you will need to do a complete rebuild. You will need to inspect all the bearings and replace all of them since you are there but once metal goes through the engine it needs to be torn down and rebuilt to ensure you get all the metal out. If you don't then as soon as you run the engine the metal that you did not clean out will go through the bearings again and score them all over.

It may be easier and cheaper in the long run to just replace the engine.

Can you get a couple pictures of the metal but if you have large chunks then the engine has already failed but the metal flake or specs are what come first?
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Tuesday, March 29th, 2022 AT 6:50 PM

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