wtf? Piston Slapping? crap... so now what?
 

Last night, while helping my girls best friend, with her car.. we turned on mine in order to jump start her Concord, my boy is a mechanic at Ford, and he noted that the motor was making a noise... "similar to piston slapping" he said it was not a good thing... at first he said if its cold... its ok if the engines starts like that... but if warms up and it still sounds the same, i have some issues... is there anything can do to fix this.. what could be the problem? Is it time to swap to a 3.5? Thanks

raul

My **** makes all type of noise when it starts up, and I still take it to 6k rpms daily, and nothing happens, maximas will go on forever I think, and when it breaks, I'm going to have to walk :(

I dont know what your sound is, but if its like a ticking/clicking noise, my car does it to, even my aunts 98 GLE does it and she does not whip her car around like i do.

Our maximas have a slight tick sound that you can hear when under the hood.

the tick could just be the injectors. nissans's injectors seem to tick slightly louder then most out there.

I bet it was timing chain rattle.

x2...tensioner probably needs to be replaced.

I'm gonna double check.. my boy is a domestic car kinda of guy and he's been working as a mechanic for about a yr now.. soo he still needs some time and experience..... that and i'm the only dude in the crew who rides in a import... so I guess... he's applying what he knows about domestic to the import... I kinda want him to help me.. cause its free help... but he doenst know much about the car.. the way I know.. so......

Raul

Yeah mine definitely has a faint ticking sound you can hear with the hood popped, always has.

As TurTLe said Maxima injectors make a soft clicking as they cycle open/closed - very fast tempo, (6 per revolution),. Easy to distinguish from a knock which is usually 1 per revolution. A knock is usually cam/valve related though it can be connecting rod big end failure. An automotive s***hoscope or a wood dowel can usually help determine if the noise is coming from one of the heads or lower in the block or the timing chain area. Someone tell me was piston slap is. Is it wrist pin failure?

mine ticks as well while its running...im guessing its a maxima thing...otherwise we're all screwed haha:lol:

its either injectors or timing chain rattle, nothing to worry about :)

u either hear injector tick....cam bearing.....timing chain tensioner or belt tensioner pulley

yep ..............................

piston slap occurs when a cylinder is just slightly too much larger than the piston, causing the piston to move both up and down and side to side, "slapping" the walls of the combustion chamber, leading to oil consumption, premature wear on the cylinder walls, and a loud noise.

i've only heard a couple sound clips online, but imo it sounds totally different than the faint ticking noise we all get from our injectors.

Even if it is, and it only occurs during startup it is harmless. For years and years, like from 85 - 98, GM made J-body cars and they ALL had severe piston slap when cold starting even when nearly new. Its something you can safely ignore unless it doesnt go away.