i went with my cousin to test drive a 92 Max SE 5spd pearl white.
the car has 114K miles on it and the interior is very clean. the exterior has its usuall dings and stuff. the car needs new shocks. but that is ok because he plans to change them anyways along with the springs.
the question is that the car has the vtc tick. how is this going to effect it? should he buy it knowing that it has the vtc problem?
thanks for the help. how much would you guys pay for it.
Laly

 

VTCs being in dissarray sucks majorly, take it from someone who bout a max with messed up VTCs back in 2000 and still has it. It will create some problems with idleling, and will cause problems to your engine, unless repaired as the sprocket if rusty will break apart in the engine, not pretty! Mine luckily has not done that yet, but keep in mind they just upped the price of VTCs however you can get them, from COurtesy for a decent price around $750 or something for the two, but the repair labor will be for around 4-5 hours and at $60 an hour that is nearly if not over $1000.00. If you are getting one hell of a great deal on the car and the rest of the car is ok includign exhaust manifold studs, Lifters, exhaust, etc. then go for it if you want to have to replace VTCs sooner then later for nearly $1000.

Jared

 

Personally i disagree with you because i have a 93' SE and my VTC's have been bad for about 2yrs and I have yet to replace them all I did was ground them and now you cant hear them anymore and I grounded them back in July 01'. You would never guess that my VTC's were bad by hearing my car now (Purrs like a kitten). So my advice is if you really want the car then get it and ground the VTC's thats all i can tell you. Oh and also I havent had any problem since I grounded them!!!!! You should try it to!

 

thanks for the replies. my cousin is gonna offer the guy about 2900.00 for the car i think. if he has to put another 1000.00 into it, so be it. it will be a pretty max for about 4000.00 add a paint job and the max will look brand new.
Joshua

 

That isn't bad at all, and as for grounding the VTCs the problem is your idling will be very ruff, I did that myself and my engine ran like S.hit!

Jared

 

Well my engine has had no problem. Every now and then it will idle rough but id rather idle rough every now and then than pay $2,000 on an almost 10yr old car for the VTC. As long as my ticking has stopped thats all that matters and no problems from the grounding!

 

My ticking didn't stop when I properly grounded the VTCs and I have talked to many a high up nissan service person about grounding and they highly do not recommned it, and not because they want to simply sells VTCs either.

Jared

 

Well I dont care what you say because they are just trying to make a sell, wouldnt you if it involved over $1,000 i know i would. Also like i said, i grounded my vtc's about a year ago and NO problems and i didnt spend anything, so go ahead and pay the $2,000 for the VTC's, also the VTC's have been known to go bad even after beign replaced after so many miles! Its your car do what you want! I was just saying that I spent NOTHING while you spend $2,000 when you dont have to!

 

I have a 92 SE and grounded the VTC solenoids 1.5 years ago. Here's my prognosis so far: It absolutely cured the ticking problem - the engine only makes noise for 1-2 seconds at startup when cold. The engine idles rough when cold, but runs fine when warm. In fact, it idles perfectly when warm. In terms of performance, it is not as responsive at lower RPM's but is the same at higher RPM's (my opinion anyway as this is a highly subjective observation, unlike the first two observations). Overall the performance hit is fairly minimal, but if you are wanting max performance from your max then you will likely not be satisfied with this solution. Overall, for the savings of $1500 (I called an excellent nissan mechanic in Fort Worth and this is the cost, pay less and you'll likely be getting a rebuilt spring kit, not new VTC's - pay more and you are wasting your money) on a $3000 car I'd call it an excellent solution, but depending on your situation you may feel differently. BTW, if anyone wants more info on grounding the solenoids, here's the link (http://www.geocities.com/bracecraig/maxima/vtc/vtc.html
). If you need any help with that, i'd be happy to tell you what I know. Also, if you need a good mechanic in the Fort Worth Texas area, try Rocky's Automotive. If you need the number let me know. I've known Rocky for over 10 years and although he won't recommend the VTC grounding either (he says it might affect the computer, which is probably right) he knows maxima's inside and out and always charges a very fair price.

 

It will not take $2000 to fix! Try $730 for parts from Courtesy Nissan, then 5 hours max at my beloved and trustworthy mechanic at $60 per hour max = $1050.

Thanks please drive on through! I know about the grounding page, and have done it myself and the lag in performance when you ground them sucks tremendously!

Just my opinion and I am very opinionated if you haven't already noticed!

Jared

 

You grounded just one set right? I did both and the ticking came back. Switched back to one ground and my ticking was/still is gone..

 

You can say all you want that grounding the VTC's didnt work but everyone i talked to that did it PROPERLY had no more ticking including me. And I was quoted $2,000 to have mine fixed, but you do know that they will eventually come back because i also talked to people who had them replaced and they said it came back in time. See im also very opinionated because i know it work because i did it!!!

 

Maybe it can be done for a grand, maybe it costs a little more. Again, if you can't stand the performance hit, you pay to have it fixed and keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't happen again. I'm not a performance junkie on my max (I was on my 86 Z which I miss dearly - should have never sold it, but it's tough to fit 3 kids in it!) so the hit is fine with me. I prefer to be $1000 richer than put $1000+ into a $3000 car. That grand buys a lot of diapers you know.

 

take it easy guys

apparantly some cars are more effected by the rewire than others, myself and Killermove (the only 2 rewired ones I've seen in person) were both successful, only maybe 1-2 sec of noise at startup and that's it
I haven't noticed a severe power loss but a few people have said that they have. I currently have my VTCs on a switch to see if I could tell any difference with the ground on/off and I really can't. Maybe I'm a really crappy dyno, but I can tell you that in my car, it's not very noticable.

anyway, it's something to consider - it takes maybe 30 minutes if you're going slow, get lost, take a break to eat, read maxima.org, and then finish and it's completely reversible

 

Nice wrap-up CB, and thanks again for the instructions. I'm still smiling about the money saved on the repair .

 

Craig what kind of switch do you have on the ground wire? Do you have it mounted to the dash so you can switch it while you are driving? Is that even possible or a smart thing to do? Other option I guess is that you have to open the hood to switch...

I have a recently purchased 92SE 5spd and I've started to notice the ticks for about the first 2 minutes of idling. I'm considering grounding because all the talk of broken pieces of VTCs flying into my engine and tearing s$(# up gives me nightmares

Any tips about the grounding I should consider? I'm trying to read up on all the info about it.

Thanks

 

I actually have it wired up to a power/comfort auto tranny switch that fits stock in the little blank spot next to the coin holder
I do occasionally switch it while driving but I can't tell you whether or not that's a good idea I just leave it grounded usually as I can't really tell a difference in performance either way

as for grounding, just search aruond; there are plenty of threads on this forum
some people will say it gives rough idle, power loss but others have had better luck
it's easy and reversible too