you know, the timing chain rattle at start up problem. mine goes away after a few minutes and i have 192,785 on her. short of doing the whole tensioner, guide, water pump seal thing, how long can you let it go??? in winter it gets real loud and i dont want to drive her another winter like this. suggestions, other orgers with same problem chime in.

 

the chain is tensioned by an oil pressurized tensioner. if it goes away its just the oil pressure building up. i takes 78 seconds for oil to go through the entire motor after oil has settled. (which is why you cant check oil until about 10-15 minutes after its been run) so if it goes away you should be fine, but if it continues, change it or it can jump time and destroy the internals of the motor

 

mine does it too. Goes away though.

 

You could potentially just let it go until the engine dies.

When it fails, and the timing chain starts skipping around, you'll be shopping for a new engine anyway.

But real world, it'd probably run fine like that until the chassis of the car rusted away around you.

 

thread hijack, i have a similar problem but only after the car has been sitting for more than a week. When i start it, i get a terrible timing chain rattle but if i let it run for 10 sec, turn it off, then turn it back on, its gone. If i let it run when i organically start it up, the rattle does not go away, even after a min. Just curious if anything is going bad that i should aware of (btw the car has 124,xxx miles)

 

I just recently started hearing it in my Maxima...that is until my most recent problems(ECU, Fuel/ignition problems).

 

I have the same rattle especially in cold winter mornings. It goes away in seconds. I am kinda thinking to do a 5w20 this winter and see if it helps. Or should I try a 0w20/30?

 

For the longest time, I thought I had that problem, changed my idler pulley and the noise went away.

 

you would be able to tell the difference betwwen a timing chain and an idler pulley, as for oil goes, use mobil 1 5w30, with a mobil 1 filter, and sustitute a quart of oil with lucus oil stabilizer. most likely that will prevent the slap at start up, it did in mine before i replaced the motor

 

Could you? Especially when the rattle is being sent right into the timing chain cover? You can't tell the difference.

The sound was a rattle just like what was described. After the car was warm, the noise went away. For a while I thought it was my timing chain but noticed that I needed to replace the idler pulley because of a bad bearing and the noise was gone.

Max ride, check your idler pulley and make sure the bearing is in good shape. If it's good, I can sell you a an old style tensioner for the VQ30DE.

 

lucas makes the oil way too thick. I used it when I first got the car and it was a mistake. the VQ (mine at least) likes thin oil.

 

I agree .... it's not likley to let the chain slip, just don't hot rod her till she's warm! That job isn't 'that' bad, there are worse things you could need to do. It will likely get worse with time and cold weather, if it's gonna slip the chain, that's when it would do it. However, I've never heard of a VQ slipping a chain. When you think about it, it would have to slip over - 2 cams, water pump, and crank .... could happen, I guess.

 

I ended up using the piston and seal out of a tenstioner i pulled from my DEK block and i guess rebuilt the one i had...when you pull out the tensioner piston there is a little rubber o ring inside the casing that holds the pisont in place..

I replaced it with the newer O-ring and its been almost 40k miles no noise....of course it does come back....unfortunatly its a problem on these vq30de motors..

there is an updated part from nissan but you have to use the updated timing chain giude...and there is no way to replace it through the viewing hole on the outer timing chain cover...so you have to take that off....as well as the upper oil pan, bla bla....its a big PITA...i should have dont mine while i was changing my oil pump but its not that big of a deal...

Unless its making the noise ALL the time....just wait for your car to warm up and ur good....

 

I would deffently check into this myself. Ive had a bad idler before and it did make similar sounds.


Like doing the whole timing cover while its still inside the bay.



Just from redoing my timing i think it would be very difficult to skip a tooth. all the brackets and guides keep that chain pretty tight with out the tensioner even being primed........ just my opinion though

 

I never had the noise until I had to get my water pump replaced as well as a new tensioner (since the original was frozen) during winter 07/08. All was good until this past winter and I had horrible chain rattle on cold mornings all the way til March when it wasnt that bad. I'm assuming since it was a shop that uses AC Delco parts, it was the inferior new tensioner. So since my oil pan seals are shot I'm doing it all, and doing it right. TC cover is coming off in the coming week for NISSAN tensioner and water pump.

 

if your a good mechanic you can tell the differnece

 

from the way things sound i dont think this is what im hearin in my car. I now know the sound hes talking about, my buddy jans car did it once

 

there's no way a pulley sounds like a timing chain. the chain noise goes away, i dont think the pulley would. and, if its a bearing noise i would know it as it would get louder when i turn on the a/c.

 

^ amen