i have a 97 maxima with 168xxx miles and just recently the engine has been making a noticably loud knocking or ticking sound.. louder at idle, and seems to knock at a higher frequency when i give it gas.. about 3 weeks ago i randomly checked my oil, and it was 3 quarts low.. so i dont know if damage was done driving it with low oil for idk how long, any help would be great.

 

New knock sensor maybe? It could just be timing chain rattle but from the description it does not sound like that. Look around for a new/lightly used KS to see if it works. Its cheap and could solve your problem with little or no effort. Check for codes and especially if you get 0304 or 0325....change the KS as it will not trip the CEL

 

3 quarts low

 

3 quarts low, as in you had about 1 quart in it? If you drove that for more than 100 miles you have more than engine knock to worry about.

 

Could go either way, you could get lucky. So the knock stayed after you added the oil?

 

thats very very low oil -- im sorry man, but i think u MAY have caused engine damage. It sounds like it scraped some parts metal to metal

after u added oil and ran for a bit what happened ?

how low did the dipstick show ?

 

yep, sorry man but sounds like you mighta hurt your engine big time

 

The VQ is strong but not invincible

 

after i added oil, it stopped knocking.. then i changed the oil the next day at work.. few days later its knocking again, and the knock sensor has maybe 2000 miles on it.. just replaced.

 

i changed the oil at around 166xxx miles, my oil was a little low at the time, and pretty black. i didnt drive it for a week or so.. then drove it and it felt weird, so i checked the oil and it didnt show on the dip stick.. so i added 3 quarts and it was still a bit low.. then got the oil changed again..i never noticed oil leaks anywhere.. youd think id notice 3quarts somewhere.

 

burned away thru the rings possibly u see smoke from exhaust when the car is warm ?

i say ad a thick oil based additive such as bardhall stop leak / smoke and sell the car as soon as u can

 

cmon people, engine damage probably, fixable yes. look, pull codes and see if anything comes up, knock sensor is a ghost code. never replaced mine, never will. put some bg oil treattment in block if you just replaced oil, and fuel injector treament in with gas. i was 2 quarts low one time, it just depends on how you drive the car, if you beat it it will burn more oil. so, you check your oil every 1,000 miles and add iff necessary, thats what i do. i have a 95 with 163,000 and it burns oil all the time, i drive it fast on the highway and reg. speeds on backroads. stop beatin on her, she'll last alot longer.

 

Was you oil light on? If no ,does your oil light come on when you turn the key to the on position/or crank? If it was on , how far did you drive with it on?

 

oil light was not on, yes it goes on when key is turned, i added a whole bottle of lucas, it quieted it down, but did not stop it.. should i do an engine flush and another oil change and throw in some bg and more lucas?

 

i have the same problem, I added a bottle of lucas as well and that quited the noise down but is still there, took it to a mechanic and said it could be one of the pistons or valve that is damage. Good luck man, I hope anybody can help us on this.

 

omg fellas..... look if its ticking yea i can be low on oil.. if its low on oil and uv been running it for some time u caused damage...

why on earth are u telling him to check the knock sensor?? that has completely noting to do with the knocking hes hearing.....

 

lol the mis information in this thread is unbelieable...if its ticking/knocking and you ran very low on oil..maxima only holds about 4qts(4L), so you drove 100 miles with 1qt of oil..what you are most likely hearing is your rod bearings..this noise is commonly called rod knock. to some it up...basically your gunna need to tear your engine apart and replace the effected bearings..or find a low mileage engine and swap it in.

3qts of oil...its been burned then, your rings are probably shot..do a leak down test and see what it shows.

knock sensor has absolutely nothing to do with this knocking...the knock sensor detects pinging, which occurs when there is a carbon build up on the face of hte piston which stays heated during the combustion process therefore, igniting the air/fuel mixture prematurely..

 

^^^ listen to 96Blk. It looks like you may need to swap the engine.

 

no need to swap engines unless the thing dies.

he said his oil light never came on. so long as he had oil pressure it's unlikely the noise is due to low oil level -- unless he had been running it >5k miles that way. the engine only needs ~1qt in the sump to maintain flow/pressure. total capacity is a bit over 5qt, and the rest is only there to dilute the contaminants and allow for extended change intervals -- so running only 1qt for 5k miles would be bad, but a couple hundred miles wouldn't hurt anything.

back when I was working 90hrs/wk and had no time, I would routinely run my old camry until the oil light came on, then would add ~3qts and ran it until the light came on again. I did this for about 30k miles (3yrs) without ever changing the oil. car ran perfectly when I sold it years later w/ 235k on it, but it did burn 0.5qt every 1k miles.

as for the OP -- the real question is where did the oil go?

some things need to be clarified.
1) did you change the oil yourself at 166k? are you sure 4qts was added? it is not unheard of for shops to short fill, or simply forget to add any oil at all. Acura dealer forgot to add oil to my friend's brand new MDX -- motor fried 3 blocks from the shop, they replaced it.
2) is the oil level staying up now? if yes, then someone forgot to add oil at 166k.
3) are you sure you're not hearing TC clatter or injector tick? these are normal noises for the VQ. TC clatter can occur with certain types of oil (I had it with Castrol 0W30, which is a very thick 30wt).
4) can you post an audio clip of the noise?

to confirm what others have said -- the KS has nothing to do with this.

I also highly doubt it is rod knock. rock knock is unmistakable, and could not be described as "ticking", as the OP described it. lifter noise maybe.

 

thats what i mean... if it was a rod what **** would sound like if you put a stick hitting a fan blade, and it would increase with RPM's..... rod knock is loud!!

ticking is probably just a lifter or a bad shim making the lifter sound like that...

 

He might not like the idea of burning oil. And if its burning oil like that its not worth it to tear down the block to replace parts. Its more cost efficient to replace the engine.

 

^^^ its ALWAYS easier to replace the motor then to replace rings....



at least on the VQ

 

switch to 10-40 trust me on this. that little ticking sound you hear will go away and you will notice a difference in the way the car drives. do a seafoam treatment while your at it before you change the oil.

 

^^^ no u should put in SAE 80W-90....

that will make all the knock go away.... lol

 

i mean 5-40 duh!