anyone got a really good description of how it should sound, today i started my car and noticed one hell of a ticking sound, opened my hood and the first reaction i got from my dad was "were going to the mechanic , that sounds like bad lifters/rockers" , my mechanic agreed with my dad, he said to try checking the oil pump to see if the oil is being pumped properly into the engine,

1. how can i check the pressure that my oilpump is pumping the oil into my engine at?
2. how much should an oil pump cost?
3. is changing the oil pump a time consuming job, can it be done on the driveway?

4. if all else fails, how much are lifters / rockers for the max? might do a top of the engine rebuild when summer comes around.

 

90% chance it's vtcs. It sounds just like a lifter tick.

 

any way to tell the differance? sounds like it's comming stright from the engine, i know there was a pic of where the VTC was located a while ago, i wonder where that went.

 

mine sounds like a truck at times. i just change the oil very quickly and add the lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer and dont hear it any more.

 

ground them and see if there is any difference if it just started then grounding should quiet them down. heres a pic of them sorry for the crappy angle its a old pic. [img]http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~jtdubach/orgpics/vtcs[img]

 

#5 You need to bookmark this autozone link and refer to it frequently.

http://www1.autozone.com/servlet/UiB...3d801f49f3.jsp

 

There's a bulletin on diagnosing this top end noise, NTB93-189. I've just rebuild my VTC's but I think my original problem was a bad timing chain tensioner. There's a procedure for inspecting this in the bulletin.

You can locate this bulletin in the general maintanance stickies.

 

does it always clack or just sometimes?

 

almost always, just not as loud sometimes, when i first turn the car on it idles around 1400 rpms , then drops after warm to about 600-700 rmp;s thats when the sound kinda dies down. gets softer,

 

You have the vtc clack mang...

 

actually that sounds more like lifters.
my VTCs only clack on occasion. temperature doesn't appear to affect them.
lifters get affected by engine tempin my experience (actually it's really oil temp but meh)

 

If it turns out to be VTC clacking(which I think it is) try a Toyota oil filter on your next oil change. Preferably a D3 V8 one...

 

my vtc's clacked at low rpm and when i would rev it up ,they would die down until the motor went to idle again. I grounded my vtc's and now I dont have the tick anymore. easy cheap fix for me. d.w.

 

VTC clacking is one thing that drove me to a 4th gen. I still have two 3rd gens that don't clack. One stopped after a motor flush and the Toyo filter.

 

How ya liken your new 4th gen?

 

he needs to change his sig

 

why the toyota filter, im using the ones made for maximas :-/

 

You didn't say if you have a 5-speed or an AT.

If you have a 5-speed, sometimes lugging it alittle (like putting it in 4th gear going 25 mph) will quiet it down.

Just ground them out to see if that is the problem.

I think it is highly probable that your VTCs are going.

 

Just try it and you'll see what Im talkin about

 

I just replaced my vtc's with new ones from nissan and I once in a while get ticking at startup, especially when its cold out. When I did my vtc's I also bled my lifters so i don't know which one of the two is causing the noise. Once the car warms up the ticking goes away. Any ideas why it does this?

 

well what toyota filter fits the maxima, yes it's 5spd. Anyone have instructions to ground these things, im not super tool handy but i can figure it out, i just need to know what to do with the end of the wire, from judging by craig b's site, find a wire , one end with a metal ring put that under a nut on the side of the engine and with the other end do what....

 

Stickies and Stickies.

 

I love it. People talk about how 4th gens don't handle that well, but this one has already been lowered 1.4" and new struts plus a FSTB and 17" rims and handles absolutely great!

 

I was asking how to ground-out the VTC's, but nevermind, found a writeup here:

http://www.geocities.com/bracecraig/maxima/vtc/vtc.html

Thanks

 

VTC trouble will make your car sound like a diesel basicly

 

oh, and it does! When I checked this car out, I was afraid something was really wrong with it. But once I revved it up and it got quiet, I figured it was something (relatively) easy to fix.

Scored this 93 SE with noisy VTC and a bad clutch. Not bad. Hopefully won't tempt me to lose the 35 mpg Sentra. Alright, it has already tempted me, but I think I can stay strong. I just scored some really sweet rims for the b13 for super-cheap, that should help.

 

Very nice find and a great color, too.

Replacing the VTCs are a very labor intensive job. Rebuilding them isn't that expensive, but buying totally new ones is. You can see if grounding them helps any. Sometimes, the VE will have trouble idling with grounding the VTCs. My first engine had that problem.

As for gas mileage, you aren't going to beat a b13, but if you put on a warpspeed y-pipe, tune it up well and drive carefully, you can get 30 mpg on the freeway in a VE 5-speed. I have routinely gotten 28-30 mpg on long trips. I don't do so well around town, but I tend to have a bit of a heavy foot. I think low to mid 20s is doable, though.

 

I don't mean to sound like a sheister, but if grouding the VTC's quiets the engine and it runs just fine, I'm going to sell it like that. Sounds like plenty of people run that setup with no problem. Hopefully I do too.

Not that it's as much fun as romping on a Maxima, but if I pound the crap out of my b13 (has a GA16DE) I still get at least 29 mpg. My drive isn't exactly highway, it's back farm roads with a few stop signs, so it could be considered "highway." Problem is, with more power on tap, I'd definitely get my foot into it more often. My 4th gen got about 20-22 mpg during my commute. 30-35 has been a lot nicer.

 

dont you need a special tool to rebuild them?

 

I'd take that $350 clacking red 5 speed over my $300 clacking light blue auto any day. Bad clutch and all, but being an IL car, it probably has teh rust..

 

amazingly, the rust is very minimal. Tiny bit in the bottom corner of the back doors, and a bit where the previous owner scraped the edge of the wheel well. Also on the trunk where the spoiler is attached, which is typical. I feared it would be rotted out, since the person selling it put no pics online.

Road salt sure does suck, but I guess you can take your pick around here... salt causing rust on your car, or no salt and you end up sliding around on the ice and wreck it. I guess salt is the lesser of 2 evils.

 

That is a nice car. If you're going to ground the VTC's just put them on a switch because you will definatly notice a power difference. If I'm in a situation where the clacking is embarassing me then I'll flip them off, otherwise I really dislike the power drop so I leave them on.

 

I think he wants to ground the VTCs to quiet the engine down and sell the car.

 

That is true. But only if it runs good when I do so. If it idles like crap after I ground the VTC's, then I'll dive into rebuilding them.

 

So I grounded the yellow wire... no difference in sound. Car still gets quiet over 2500 RPM's. I checked the voltage at the yellow wire, it has a constant +12V if the car is being noisy or quiet. Should the voltage change (or go to ground) when the VTC's are activated and the engine gets quiet? Or do I just have an oiling problem and revving it gets oil to the top of the engine? Unplugging the VTC solenoids made no difference either, still noisy under 2500, quiet over 2500.

Thanks for any quick tips, I'll search some other threads to get more info.