ah yes. i finally got around to grounding my vtcs today after about a good 6 months. I must say i was pretty darn stupid not to of just grounded em right after I had bought the parts considering it only took me 5 minutes to do. If you have a VE and have that faithful old vtc clicking, I strongly suggest you ground yours cause its a cheap fix that ACTUALLY works. Thanks to craig's site for the directions. Well thats my high point of my day. I'll be on my way.

 

sorry I didn't reply to your email, I just got it a few minutes ago
I've been pretty busy and will be throughout the holidays

glad everything went ok

VE POWER

 

no problem at all craig. your site is great. thanks again for the directions.

VE FOR LIFE

 

I am going to bee grounding mine soon cause i cant bear that noise. Did you notice your car running any different just out of curiousity? Thanx

 

personally i didn't notice any difference. the only thing i might have felt was like the car when i would first start it would kind of stutter/shake but it was a second and my idle jumped. i think thats just something else though or could just me a mental thing.

 

i must be the only one on this board that fixed the vtc problem the correct way. I put in another computer!

the output on the ecu to ground the vtc's wasnt putting out a signal, which according to my nissan mechanic, is a common problem with the ve powered max's.

It used to tick, not hard but it would tick, after the new (used) ecu, the ticking went away, and ive got more power at low rpms.(this was found after about 7hrs of troubleshooting for hp loss, and ticking noise.

My poooor VTCs werent being triggered.

By grounding out the VTC, you re loosing top end, cause youre not allowing the motor/ecu to adjust timing accordingly.

My ecu cost me 250$ canadian from a junk yard.

but it cost me almost 500bucks in labour for troubleshooting time.

Its too bad an ecu cants scan itself, or too bad a scanner cant scan an ecu.

Plus, ive been using synthetic since, MOBIL 1 5w30, I am a believer in the synthetic oil.

 

So how do i determine if i have a bad ecu or a bad vtc? Id rather ground them then pay 500 to troubleshoot!

 

get a good mechanic to check the vtc output on the ecu, there is one pin, i forget which number it is, and with a multimeter, checck the output for ground when you blip the gas.

anytime you accelerate hard, the ecu should make continuity to ground on that particular output.

The pin number should be found in the shop manual. It cost me large for troubleshooting cause these junk cars(maximas) are too sensitive.
The problem i had could of been various things, which it was.

If you look through the fsm, it proves that, There are troubleshooting pages in there, and lists certain symptoms, and the possible cause.

well, the main symptom listed is lack of power, or hesitation of power. and then lists just about all of the sensors and valves on the damn car.

It wont cost you 500 bucks in other words, itll cost you nothing, the mechanic shouldnt charge you a thing, all he has to do is pick up a shop manual, figure out the correct pin number, and manually test it.

Basically, you can ground out the vtc to get rid of the noise, but youre not correcting the problem, you will still be lacking power, which makes owning a maxima pointless.

Im not saying your vtc are not the problem, im just saying to check the output on the ecu as well.

 

Good JOb man, I knew you would figure it out. I didnt for that matter

 

remember i said, i might be the vtc, it is common for them to failure, but b4 jumping to that conclusion, check the ecu.

 

we realy need to know the pin for the vtc ground around here does anyone know the pin number please?

 

you ground them by the VTC solenoid itself.

 

yea i know but i was going to put a switch in so it would still work when i want it

 

relay and wires.

 

true but isnt it more simplified if you would just find the wire at the ecu, slpice into it, and put a switch that is connected to a ground? simply because you wouldnt have to wire in a relay and its just as simple as grounding it at the solinoid but you can switch it and not have the minute power loss yet no ticking?

 

All you need to do is do the normal grounding procedure at the wiring close to the solenoids, then just route the ground wire into the cabin area, hook up a toggle switch, then ground the other end of the switch to a body ground inside the cabin area..I used one of the ecm mounting screws for my ground point.

pics of my vtc switch..

 

Found this in FSM:
ECM terminal for VE's VTC

 

see wayne's reply.
Personally I like relays as it can shorten an otherwise unnecessarily long run of wire.

 

thanks whattingh. and your idea does work i just like the simple stuff and in my point of view my way is simple but others have there own ideas and more power to you.

:EDIT: so im just going to shut up about this and put my money where my mouth is for now. i just grounded my vtcs to where it says to on the writeup for now and i must say after one loud clack there was no more ticking at all. just a quick question about the vtcs though... if you ground them does that mean they are locked in the high rpm setting? or the low rpm setting?

 

AFAIK it's _engaging_ the VTC solonoids (this was in another post somewhere). Per the FSM this means that they're in low RPM mode (and you should, therefore, lose some high RPM performance). Thus, enabling a switch in the cabin allows you to get the advanced timing you would otherwise lose from disabling the electronic toggle.

Hope that helps.

 

Looking at trbo's post- an interesting potential issue to be aware of. However, I think the first easy test is if the VTCs are clattering at idle or easy acceleration and you- like- half throttle in second gear at 20 MPH and the noise goes away- maybe comes back if you just do it for a second- I'd say the ECU is doing what it is supposed to.

And, YES to synthetic oil. When I first got my SE, I used conventional oil for a few changes. About when it was time to change the oil, the VTCs would start making lots more noise and i'd look at the milage and say "yep, time to change the oil". Synthetic lengthens the changes, keeps things clean, and can clean some of the crap out of passages. It's not a fix, but it can help.