WHat is this infamous VTC thing??? Ticking at some point in my '92 SE's middle years of life? Shes got 84k, and someone said somehting about my lifters.... Can some one please explain? Thanks!!!!

 

internetautomart helped me out with showing me how to do my VTC's. If he sees it he'll def. help you out. It seems pretty simple though.

 

oh crap - mine ticked, then i broke it and now im finally about to get her back. After my mistakes i can do these things forwards and backwards. you will know when they tick, your can will sound like a diesel about to explode, LOL neway for a do it yourselfer you CAN do it however you WILL need mechanical experience to do this. if you don tknow where lets say your EGR valve is on the car and can point it out DONT try this. if you know where it is then to you. its a lengthy process so start EARLY and expect to lay the car up for a while unless you buy another set of vtc's like i did and had them rebuilt. ( i have two extra sets by the way.) at any rate if you dont get an extra set you will have to take the intake, valve cover, side timing chain covers, timing tensioners and a few (lol) other things that need to be taken out. the vtc's sit under the valve cover look to the left of the motor see the hump in the valve cover ? thats the vtc. KEY RULE TO REMEMBER when realigningthe chains the silver links align with the vtc and the exhaust cam gear the gold link lines up at the bottom and make sure the chain diddnt jump from the bottom. ( and yes it can jump) i have a .pdf that can help you with removal if youd like it i can pm you the web address.

 

I did?
Dam this senility!

the easiest fix if it is just starting is to:
use the toyota or wix filter at your next oil change and from then on
or Ground em Craig has the how to on his page IIRC

 

The VTC is the device which shifts the valve timing. If you have a '92 SE with MANUAL transmission you have one and they tend to go resulting in what sounds like a lifter noise. If you don't have an SE or have an SE with an AUTOMATIC transmission these cars did not get this variable cam so this issue doesn't come up. They do this in only one position. The way to diagnose it is to energize the solenoid which shifts it to the other position (high rev position) and the noise goes away. One way to do a cheap fix is to wire these so they're on all the time. Some say you don't notice the difference. Saw several references to this procedure on this forum but didn't try it myself.

The dealer I bought the car from charged me about $30 to confirm the diagnosis. He then quoted me about $2,600!! to fix it. This included about $450 each for new VTCs. I called another dealer in the area. He said he does these regularly and just uses the VTC rebuild kit supplied by Nissan per the Technical Service Bulletin. Quoted me about $850 for the job. Job went smooth and no clatter, at least for the year I had it before I sold it to buy my '03 SE. Unfortunately, the lady's who I sold it to bought it for her son who totaled it about 3 weeks after buying it.

Do it yourself and I think it's about $45 for the rebuild kits although you will have to find someone with an appropriate press to rebuild it (See the TSB). As mentioned before on this thread it's not a quicky do-it-yourself job. I'd say if you've changed a timing belt on a car before you can probably do it but get the Technical Service Bulletin, Factory Service Manual, and follow the instructions in the TSB TO THE LETTER!! When I got the quote for the repair from the second dealer he specifically asked if anyone had tried to fix this before. If they had he had to add about $900 to his quote because if someone screwed up the VTC rebuild he has to go with new VTCs at $450 each.

 

ALL VE30DE have varible timing intake cams. Only 5-sp manual VE30DEs have varible volume INTAKE manifolds.

 

I stand corrected, Thanks.

I had the 5 speed with both the VTC and variable intake and got it backwards about which of those two the auto didn't have.

Jim

 

i read the craig brace's page about this, and it sounds much simpler than you guys are making it sound. Is it just this difficult to rebuild the vtcs, or is it this difficult to ground em too?

 

very easy to ground them. tap into wire...ground wire...youre done.

to rebuild them takes quite a bit more.

 

Are you positive it doesnt have a variable intake too? I know there are a few differences like air valves and such, but I am pretty sure the variable intake manifold is the same. I will be taking the intake off to do the valve cover gaskets, so I guess I will see for myself anyway.

 

What is the procedure for "grounding" it out?

Thanks

 

wow this is a 12 year old thread. to ground them follow this:

https://maxima.org/forums/3rd-genera...ding-vtcs.html

posts #6 & #7 should help. however i have owned many VE cars and this has never, ever worked at all for me. I think I got the cars when they were just too old/too far gone

 

Here a video i made on how to ground vtc

 

Looks like you need some hood struts there Tony

 

Lol ive done so much repairs over the years that i kept leaving the struts last. But i finally found some good pairs at local junkyard. Yesterday

 

Tony, thats like getting used brakes if those hood struts were stock. Splurge a little and just get new. It'll be much less then half the cost of your turbo and save your head and fingers when working under the hood. I went through that and finally just said o.k its time for new

 

True.