A couple weeks ago I've been noticing rattling noises at start-up and shut off, coming from the engine bay. It sounds like clanking metal. Has anyone experienced this before? I was thinking it might be a rusted precat or some part of the exhaust system. I only have a budget b-pipe and I checked that and that's not making the noise.

I'm going to the dealer tomorrow to check it out but I was hoping to get some feedback here first.

Nathan

 

Chain maybe? Probably not though

 

since you from Ontario.. is it still crazy a$$ cold up there... sometimes there are cold rattles when I start my car. If thats the case, its ok, because maximas are girlie girls when it comes to cold whether (no sexist remarks implied) hehe

 

In January when it dipped down to -30 degrees celcius, the front section of the exhaust would rattle like crazy, to the point where I couldnt hear my radio.

Now it's +5-13 degrees in Ontario and the noise has gone away but shows itself at start-up. The salt they dump on the roads must have rusting something.

The '99 I had for 3 winters never had these problems.

 

It could also be this: http://maxima.theowensfamily.com/tsb/NTB03-060.pdf - I've had my car at the dealer five times now and they can't seem to figure it out. They were sure that it was the rear VTC gear but it's still clicking at startup so I'm going to take it back in again. Good luck.

 

How pronounced is this rattle your experiencing? My rattle is very loud and occurs also when I turn off the car. It also feels like it shakes the car a bit. Is this similar to your problem?

 

i feel the rattle during start for about 3 seconds. from the right,,only when it's really cold

 

00-01s its pretty normal- its the valve train noisy, mine does this pretty often- alot of HARD miles...no worries my SR20 did that for around 200K miles. Now on the 3.5L its the VTC sprockets, I had a 3.5L Altima doing that few weeks ago- came in as a trade.

 

mine does it too, sometimes, at startup for a split second...from what i've read in the past, this is normal

 

same here, ,my car does that at cold weather... but not at all in warm temps.

 

I've forgotten who it was, but there was a long post from somone who had to fight to get a new engine. Turned out it was a screw that had come loose from the butterfly in his throttle body. Don't know if this is the same problem, but since you describe the sound all the time, it might be. I'd bring it to the dealer right away and have it checked out. The remembered some discussion of a possible recall down the road if the problem became endemic.

 

It's the Cold start rattle TSB.

 

Well today I took the car in for an oil change but didn't tell them about the rattling because I was more concerned with the low idle i've been having and the stalling at start-up. I told them the stalling and low idle started right after the crank sensor recall was done.

So the car goes in, 1/2 hour later the service guy tells me that my "new battery was the problem because when I installed it, I didn't reset the ecu". I'm like wtf are you talking about, I installed that Optima Yellow 2 years ago and the ecu has been reset before the crank sensor recall several times.

So the guy didn't know what to say so he said he'll reset the ecu and raise the idle to 750rpm for free

Drove the car and everything seems to be back to normal, but the temp got up to 15 degrees celcuis today so I didnt experience any rattling. I also removed the bracket underneath my Budget bpipe and found that it was sitting really close, that must have also contributed to the rattling noise ontop of the VTC Sprocket tsb.