Maxholdem

Here's a video of the sound my engine is making:
http://s262.photobucket.com/albums/i...aatstartup.flv
It is a 98 Maxima, 5spd, with 180,000 miles that I have had for 4 years. I have kept up with the preventative maintenance and have had no major issues. However, while cruising at about 60 mph my tire ran over a small object on the road and then within minutes the car started making this sound. I had it towed ~200 miles back to my home as I was coming back from a trip.

I have had the car looked at by two shops. One shop said it either a 'collapsed lifter' or a 'flat cam.' The other shop said it was either a loose timing chain or a bad rod bearing and recommended replacing the engine for a total of $2600. So, I had it towed back to my place.

In case it mattes, about two years ago when replacing spark plugs I lost one of the two retaining screws that hold the coil pack down somewhere within the exposed portion of the intake manifold in a crevice right next to the hole for the spark plug. I don't see how this screw could have made its way into the valvetrain however pmohr, in a thread in the noobies section, said that "Doesn't sound to me like timing chain slap, sounds like a foreign or loose object rattling around in there somewhere. Then again, without being there in person, can't really tell for sure."

Before tearing into the engine I would like to get people's opinions about what could be causing this rattle. When I pulled codes I got 0608 - Cylinder No. 1 misfires (many possible causes listed but I wouldn't be surprised if one of my injectors went bad as 1 or more of them have been making more and more noise over time) and 0304 - Knock Sensor; an excessively low or high voltage from knock sensor is entered to ECM; possible causes include short in Harness or Connectors or a bad Knock Sensor. I got these by using the self-diagnosis and then entering them into pmohr's CEL decoder: http://boredmder.com/ecucodes/index.php

Or, is the engine fried? If that's the case I'll get an engine from car-part.com and have someone put it in for me at a more reasonable price than the $1500 I was quoted for in labor. I am currently without a car so the sooner I can get it back on the road the better. I could drive it but I'm sure I'd be risking more serious damage. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

tcaughey

iTrader: (6)

Oh man, thats nasty. Can you tell where exactly the sound may be coming from?

Quickywd01

iTrader: (16)

Remove the valve cover where you dropped the screw and look around. I've seen used engines in the classifieds for as low as $100.

96max3189

wtf man thas your pistons or the timing chain one of those to are bad soo to make it short for you you need a neew engine and dont pay $1500 man i got my motor for $400 whit 110,xxx miles on it out of a 97 automatic max and pay 300 to put it in

modenaf1

iTrader: (3)

It almost sounds to me like a spun rod bearing that is intermittently getting enough oil.

If the screw you dropped went down the lower intake manifold, I am sure you would have noticed before. There is no place in the 98 lower intake manifold where I can imagine a screw getting stuck and not causing problems, but you never know, it may have gotten wedged somewhere and after the pothole you hit it could be bouncing around on top of one of your intake valves.

f550maranello2

iTrader: (2)

timing chain tensioner? i agree with modenaf1 does sound just like rod knock.. looks like its probably gonna be new motor time for you..

www.car-part.com

Maxholdem

Thank you for all of your replies; it does seem that the general consensus is that I should replace the engine.

I just got a quote from a shop:
-$650 - VQ30DE with 94,000 miles, good compression, sourced from a wrecking yard
-$450 - Labor

Total: $1100 Plus miscellaneous shop supply charges. Much better than the $2600 I was quoted by another shop. Also, for an extra $190 he will install a new clutch kit with no extra labor cost. The old clutch has 180,000 miles on it but I haven't really noticed any slippage. The engine would have a 90 day warranty from the wrecking yard but that wouldn't cover the labor cost to have it replaced if there was a problem with the motor however this guy says he hasn't had any problems with this particular wrecking yard. He also indicated that he recently did a 1997 Nissan Maxima engine replacement. In case anyone is curious, here is the Craigslist ad I found his shop on:
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/aos/1139947701.html

I'm thinking of proceeding with this option unless I get a bunch of replies to this by people saying don't do it. The only other thing would be for me to start dismantling the engine to locate the source of the noise but it seems like that would be pointless if it will need to be replaced anyway. Any final thoughts before I bite the bullet and fork over ~$1350 to have the engine and clutch replaced?

96max3189

how many miles those your motor as right now

Carrera

I think you have found your screw you dropped. I work at a dealership. I knew this guy who put a reman engine in a car. With remans you have to swap over IM, exhaust manifold everything. The reman is just a long block... well I remember the guy saying he was missing a small bolt. So anyway he put it all back together and it was fine... ONE year later the car came in for a service, and a different tech was test driving it and all the sudden... that noise you are hearing now is what we heard. so we pulled the cylinder head off and we couldnt figure out what it was because it was in soo many small peices and stuck in the piston the head.. we tore that whole motor apart trying to find out what it was.. then i remember "he lost a bolt" i called him and he said he thinks he dropped it in the intake. anyway. ONE year after he dropped that bolt it freed up and slipped past that open valve and into the CC. Anything is possible. (This was a ford focus)

Replace the engine. When you have the engine out pull your heads off and look at the carnage. Let us know! Good luck

Maxholdem

Well, that was an expensive mistake on my part. Where I lost the screw it was unreachable and I would have had to remove the intake manifold and I was most certainly not prepared to do that at that time. Including the clutch replacement, $708 tow, $45 tow, $116 tow, and soon to be $75 tow, this whole event will cost me approximately $2300

On the bright side I did my own spark plugs at 120K miles and 150K miles and considering that some people pay upwards of $600 for installing new spark plugs at the dealership that means that the money I saved doing my own plugs made up for the cost of the engine replacement

I'll let everyone know how this turns out and I'll try to get pics of the source of the rattle. Thanks again.

Maxholdem

180,xxx miles. Want to buy it?

klemenz

that's when you try and find one of those retractable magnet things lol

96max3189

is not soo i mean there no need to spend 1500 2000 to fix it or for other motor soo ill say ill check it the motor out open it up and see be for you do anything alse truest me

Product_Of_Korea

iTrader: (8)

IMO that is way to much for a vq. These things come dime a dozen. You should be able find one with 100,000 for no more than 350

Ive bought two vq's in the past couple of years. Ive bought a vq30de-k for 250 w\130k and ive bought a 3.5 w\77k for 300

Try car-part.com thats where i have bought all my engines. ive bought both of them locally to

f550maranello2

iTrader: (2)

yep that is right i just looked up his area there are a bunch with like 40k on them

http://www.car-part.com/cgi-bin/sear...erPage=1&iKey=

Maxholdem

Currently, my car has the swapped engine in it and is running great. The shop got my car on a Friday two weeks ago and had it done in three days, ready for pick up that Monday afternoon.

They did the following:
-Replacement Engine (94,000 miles, 90 day warranty, $650 from a local wrecking yard)
-Engine swap labor ($450 - This was the only item I paid labor for)
-Installed new clutch ($170 for the kit)
-Resurfaced the flywheel ($20)
-New knock sensor ($35)
-New front main seal
-New rear main seal
-New serpentine belt
-New upper and lower radiator hoses
-New front brake rotors ($70)
-New front brake pads ($40)
-New front passenger side CV boot (old one was cracked)
-A few other miscellaneous parts and of course new fluids

So, the total came to $1740 which is way better than the $2600 the first shop quoted for just swapping the engine. The downside was that there were a few issues that had to be sorted out after they were done:

-The alternator plug was not attached and caused the battery to drain when operating the car. They fixed this on a return visit.
-There was an EVAP Canister solenoid error code that I figured out was due to one of the plugs not being pushed in all the way.
-The knock sensor error code was still showing up even after clearing codes. So, I disconnected the battery, re-did the KS ground after cleaning the contact surfaces, and the KS code went away.

So, no more Service Engine Soon lights and the only remaining thing to do are the y-pipe crush gaskets which I'll have the shop take care of, for basically free, on Saturday after I pick up the OE gaskets from Nissan for $10 each.

Getting my Maxima fixed and troubleshooting the resulting error codes was made so much easier by all of the support from the Maxima.org members, the stickies, and pmohr's error decoder. While considering the $2600 estimate to replace the engine I seriously considered saying screw it and just getting a new car at 0% interest or buying a ~10 year old decent car but nothing jumped out at me as being a better deal than fixing my Maxima. Thank you for helping me get my car back on the road.

p.s. - I didn't ask the shop to tear into the old engine to locate the problem and let me take photos. They were 25 miles away from me and I had no vehicle so the first time I met anybody face to face was when I picked up my car. But, they agreed that it was likely a rod bearing failure.