every once in a while, especially in the morning, when i start the car, and it revs up to about 2k rpm, sounds like ther is a rattle at about 1700 rmps. i dont know what timing chain rattle sounds like, but i imagine this may be it. this happens maybe 1 out of every 10 starts, and most often on a cold morning.
are these the simptoms you guys experience with the oil consumption/timing chain rattle?
any thing i can check to put me on the right path of fixing, or at least troublshooting this? or is this pretty normal?
i have around 43k miles on my car.

 

Mine has been doing this since I first got the car new. I've been told it's normal because of the timing chain.

 

Yeppers, thats it. Most prevalent on cold mornings. Get used to it or dare to let the
mechanics at Nissan tear apart half the engine to fix it.

 

ok, thanks for the replies. what are the ABNORMAL symptmos of timing chain rattle, associated with oil burning issues?
i think there was a thread on this a few weeks ago.

 

There are no abnormal symptoms of timing chain rattle, but timing chain rattle can be a symptom of oil consumption. If the engine is burning oil, the timing chain might not be lubricated properly causing it to rattle. So check your oil level to make sure you are not burning excessive amounts of oil and if you are thats probably the reason it started rattling all of a sudden. If its not burning oil its probably the timing chain torsioner which isnt worth the risk of getting fixed at the dealer.

 

Yeah normal. My 02 did it a little more than my 03 but it's nothing to be worried about. Like everyone said either live with it or let nissan tear your engine apart

 

I have this exact problem on my 2K2. It only happens about 1 out of 10 times and mostly on cold mornings after my car sits for an extended period of time (> 24 hours).

I have about 60K miles on my car and zero oil consumption. And I have read on here and was told by Nissan that this noise is an annoyance more than it is an actual serious mechanical problem on the car.

As far as oil consumption, the timing chain rattle "could" be an indication of low oil levels, but is not necessarily so.

 

**Watch out you guys, this could be more trouble, I just sent my car in to the Dealer Monday because of this problem**

Can anybody help!? About a year ago I told Nissan that my '02 Maxima was making a rattling sound at start up (when cold) and at low RPMs when accelerating. the guy at the dealer said he didn't know what it could be but that he heard it (he did mention it could just be the fact that my car has a chain instead of a belt). Well a few days ago I started my car up and it sounded like the engine had a box of rocks dumped in it (needless to say I had to have it towed to the dealer)! the dealer speculates its the tensioner and plans to change the chain out as well. as luck should have it, my extended warranty (aftermarket) is having some sort of trouble and I'm not guaranteed they'll pay for this repair, so I need to decide whether I'm:

a) willing to foot the $1,400+ to have Nissan do the work (and hope they don't find more damage after all this time of hearing that sound, they tell me that perhaps there could be more work required once they get in there but I need to approve the first part first)

b) take it elsewhere and have them do the work, or

c) get rid of the car and consider my headache over with.

You guys always have great input/ideas, any thoughts? My car has 77K highway miles, and I like it a lot, but this is the most disappointed I've been with a Nissan. I've taken great care of it, but starting with the sound system (Bose system always skipping), this car has been a series of headaches for me since I bought it brand new in 2002. Thanks for all the help!

 

Well the big difference I see here is that you were still hearing a rattle after putting the car in drive and slightly accelerating. The rattle on my car only happens at startup and has always gone away right after that.

 

My 2k2 w/ 88k miles rattles about 1 out of 10 startups as well. It rattles for a quarter second and then disappears. No noise while driving or anything else.

 

Same issue here. What I've been doing lately is "blip" the starter a couple of times but don't start the engine... then start the engine as normal. This seems to keep that initial high rev, when starting a cold soaked engine, to a reasonable rev. So far there has been to rattle at start up. I could be crazy, but give it a try and report back....

 

The cold start rattle is okay.... more importantly does it rattle under load at 2-3k rpms and are you draining the same amount of oil you are putting in, those are the questions to ask I think.

 

At 77k, your car does not need a new timing chain. The dealer is just trying to soak you. Tell him to just replace the main tensioner (part should be around $50-70, about an hour of labor), and see if that makes any difference. This is an occasional problem with the 4th gens (including mine at about 100k), and just replacing the main tensioner almost always solves the problem. I have read that using cheap oil filters that do not have anti-drain back valves can also cause this problem, because the pump has to completely refill all the oil galleries every time you start the car, so the tensioner remains unpressurized until that happens.

By the way, as long as there is enough oil for the pickup tube to be submerged, it doesn't matter how low the oil level is. The oil pump will still pump oil to the tensioner and every where else the oil needs to go, and a properly working tensioner will become pressurized pretty quickly.

 

I had the same problem. The nissan service person told me I need to use the nissan oil filter ( forgot why) instead of OEM brands. I thought she was full of it, but I bought a couple and have not had any more rattles since then.

 

The other morning my friend said my car was "rattling". It is an 00 GLE. This was early in the morning, colder weather, but the car had been driven about a mile to pick him up. I can't remember if it was in park or drive. Should I be concerned?

 

apparently cold morning start-up rattle is ok. but if it rattles under load at 2-3k rpm, that's a sign of something wrong with the timing belt. i think people's opinon here is that the timing belt tensioner needs to be replaced in this case.