Just wondering if anyone else here hears a slight engine rattle around 2700-2950 RPM in 1st - 2nd - sometimes 3rd gear? I have an automatic.

 

my engine ralltles big time. i have been told that it is my timing chain. its loose and on the down rev it rattles rather noticably of coarse nissan says it is normal valve trane noise.

will

 

I gotta go get mine checked out..There should be no rattles!!! especially any rattles that are to be considered normal?!?!? If I got the music blastin...I can't even hear it...but it gets annoying when you just want to drive wit no music!

 

I have exact same problem (1997 AT, 63,000 miles). It occurs on a slight hill or while on cruise control. I thought is was a ping from bad gas. But that turned out NOT to be the cause.

If anyone knows exactly what this noise is, please let us know. I have not seen any TSR's on it on our model motors. Does Nissan know, but does not want to admit it on paper?
I have noticed that it is not always present, even under identical driving conditions. This lead me to believe that it is not neccessarily a mechanical problem, but instead, maybe an intermittant tuning, sensor, or computer system feedback problem. Even an bad plug or injector could cause it. Maybe a dirty EGR valve??



Help!

 

dunno, but mine started this after 39K (about 3 weeks ago). Not really happy about it.

 

Did your noise start when the outside air temp dropped?? Mine did. Maybe because cold air is more dense, it is leaning out the engine, and the sensors are weak or dirty, and not picking uo the denser air?

I'm going to reset the computer, and drive around when it is very
cold out. Maybe it will "learn" to run proper with cold dense air? Just a hunch.

Also, some states don't begin using oxygenated gas till Jan 01. Maybe that is a possible cause?

Crap. I'm confused.

 

I always put regular in ... and ive tried put it premium a few times same story...
i dunno n e more somethin u learn to live with.
Btw im at 55000 km ...

 

Dont think milage has anything to do with it... I had only 7k when mine started which was about a month ago...

 

Check it out if you use the search you will see that their are others myself included who have already talked about this problem with the rattling in the engine.

Mines started at about 60k and hasn't stopped since, I took it to Nissan and they couldn't hear it, so I took them for a drive in it and pointed it out to them.

They said that they wasn't sure what was wrong and that they'd have to bring in an engine tech to tear the engine down and find out what it is.

I'm not allowing them to tear my engine apart especially when they did all kinds of engine diagnosis on it and didn't seem to find any problems.

I think most of the members here feel that unanimously they are just going to live with the rattling especially since the engine and car seems to perform the same as without the rattling.

 

Still, its irritating.... i mean... think if your car started to make farting noises.. i mean, comon, its not that serious still, its just weird.. i am always scared its gonna stall even though I have an auto.. I just wish someone knew what it was... And nissan is BSing if they dont know what it is.. seems to me a lot of people are having this problem.. they know, they just want your money..

 

I agree: This whole engine rattle situation is F,,,ed up. Nissan must know what the deal is. If they dicslose it, they will sink their car sales, since this "One of 10 best" motor sells a lot of cars for them.
There are too many of us with this problem for Nissan not to know about it. This reminds me of the Ford SHO motor problem.


I've tried everthing I can think of to no avail. The problem is still intermittent. Sometimes it is there, other times it is not. I put fuel system cleaner in it this week, and that did not stop the noise ( car unds a lot better though).

The rattle does not occur when the car is not under a load, so it is impossible to check unless the car is moving. I've locked up the brakes and revved up the motor, but it breaks loose before I can hear any noise.
I can deal with the noise, but my big concern is that the engine will scatter some day.

Does it happen with all transmissions?? Mine is auto, and the noise started at 63K. Since I cannot tell exactly where rattle is coming from. It could be from the tranny area.

Can anyone with this noise put their car on a dyno-type machine so they can listen under the hood at 2500-3000 RPM while under a load?? That's the only way we are going to locate the source of the noise.

 

A cross-posting: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....hreadid=190143

My 2002 Maxima SE is a manual. Same thing. Third and fourth gears are the most noticable. It is the most noticable under a low to moderate acceleration on an incline.

 

The noise you mention is different than the one were are experiencing.

The rattle we are getting is while under a slight load, like up a minor to moderate incline, at 2500-3000 RPM, with half throttle or so. The rattle cannot be reproduced when engine is raced while car is not under load or parked. It does not seem to be rattling at exact same rpm as engine, and when less or more throttle is applied, the rattling noise dissapears.
It reminds me of something resonating, and it has a metallic tone to it, somewhere between a knock and a ping.

 

I did what manual said not to: I added injection cleaner to gas tank.
Car ran like crap for about 20-30 miles, then slowly ran smoother and smoother. After about 1/2 tank, the 2500 rpm rattle went away, car runs great, and has more power (and smooth) all the way thru to redline. The stuff I used was Slick 50 injection cleaner. I only used it because I had bought it on clearance for my truck last year, and it was still sitting in my garage.

If anyone else trys this, and it works, let us know.

The rattle seems to show up at higher mileage, and can be intermittent.
One theory: It may be due to gunked-up fuel system including injectors, which would lean out fuel mixture and cause detonation rattle. The engine computer may not be able to compensate for leaned out condition at all RPMs and loads.

Or,,, lean condition only occurs at certain RPMS and loads due to vacuum drop at EGR valve. I have to check out EGR circuit to see if possible on this car.

EGR valve on Max is supposed to be checked by hand to make sure rod moves all the way per maintenance schedule at 60K miles, which is just about when my car started acting up. EGR can get clogged up with carbon. I'llcheck mine out this week.

My 67 Cougar used to drop vacuum at about 2200 rpm under load to the point where the vacuum-actuated headlight covers would drop closed. Kind of scary at night.

Still thinking.......

 

I get it too at low rpms or when I engine brake.

I popped the hood and found to my dismay that my frankencar/stillen combo had broken the bracket and was rattling against my strut tower and wearing a dent in one of my fuel lines! I zipped tied it to my strut bar temporarily and the sound went away. Unfortunately the torqing of the engine and the heat stretched the zip tie and the sound is now back. I'm considering something drastic. like ripping out my intake!

 

i took my frankencar out, and i still hear that rattle, kindalike a chain dangling, its annoying around 2200 -2800 rpm, i started hearing it around 25k miles

 

Correct me if I'm wrong...

I get the same engine rattle, but unlike some of you guys I DO get a loss in performance. I might not have heard him right though but I was told by my mechanic that both are related to faulty coil packs. Mine also started making these noises after 60K

 

Lcukily, you had a different rattle problem than the one we can't figure out. U-modded cars with engine rattle-that is the boggling issue.