Hello All,
Within the past 300 miles or so I have noticed what I believe to be some valve noise. At highway speeds it cannot be noticed, but at lower speeds it is obvious. I also believe that the noise is getting worse. I have not noticed any loss in power, smoke, fuel economy, etc. I have 111K miles on my 2000 SE and I maintain it extremely well. I have ran Mobil 1 5w30 since I bought it at 68K miles. I also run mainly 89 Octane fuel, and sometimes 93. I had a fuel system flush performed at about 75K miles and this is the time for which my spark plugs were changed as well.

I have heard this noise before on my previous 95 Maxima whenever it had setup for a week or so without being started. At first the valves were very noisy and then they would stop.

Anyone have any suggestions/ideas as to whether or not this is indeed the valves and what is the corrective action?

Thank You,

 

pinging from using cheap gas

 

That thought had crossed my mind, but I wouldn't call 89 cheap....87 maybe.

 

is it below what is recommended for the car?
yes
so...its cheap gas

 

I stand corrected. I had thought that 89 was recommended, not 91, but I re-checked my owners manual and I was obviously wrong.

So assuming it is a fuel issue, should I run some Techron or SeaFoam through it for a couple of tanks with Premium and see what kind of results I get or is there something else I should do?

 

no need to run an injector cleaner...those are fine.

use the correct fuel, and it will fix itself.

 

Thanks for the input soonerfan.

 

89 is too low, always use higher than recommended in the manual

 

Well, I'm now on my 3rd tank of 93 octane, a top-end cleaning has been performed, and a couple bottles of Seafoam have been ran through the tanks. However, none of this has helped and the ticking noise is now getting louder.

The power still seems to be fine. What is going on here?

 

maybe ur lifters...get em checked

 

Timing chain noise? Maybe needs new guides and/or tensioners?

I wouldn't think so, with only 111k miles, but maybe they are starting to get worn....

My old 95gxe made so much noise from worn out timing components, it was ridiculous...louder than the exhaust!

 

Mine did that as well. The noise went away once the tensioners kicked in. Once the chain got too streched, after 170k+, the tensioners were not enough and the noise became constant.

 

when i had my 3.0 5th gen, i'd use the 87. it felt a little slower but other than that it never had a problem. it says 91 recommonded for maximum performance or something. my 5.5 5th gen says 91 required. been using 93 since.

wonder what the discrepancy between recommended and required is.

 

I just heard back from my mechanic and they are stating it is the timing chain and it will take about 20 hours worth of labor and $600 in parts to repair which comes out to about a $2200 repair....wow! Am I getting screwed here?

 

Does this happen mostly when your going up hills under load...? Do you hear some kind of metal clicking noise or so?

 

I think the labor might be a bit steep, 20 hours is alot. But, the parts are a pretty good price. I was going to have to pay at least 600 in parts (and that's with a discount.) For me though, it wouldn't be so bad since I was going to do it myself.

oh yeah and...who called it?

 

My mechanic just called and informed me they found large chunks of metal in the oil pan and they highly suspect that it is from a piston.

So, the question before me now is do I try and find a junkyard motor, have it rebuilt, or just junk the car? The car again is a 2000 SE with 110K miles on it. If I try and find a rebuilt motor, do you have any suggestions?

 

does anyone really sell 91 octane gas?.... other than those seven eleven places with 5 differnt flavors of gas..


all i see are 87 , 89 , 93

 

I would deffinately try to find a low milage used engine. It should deffinately be you cheapest route.

I am surprised you are having that much of and issue with only 110k miles. Maby get a second oppinion. Drive it till it dies and in the meantime keep a lookout for a good deal on a used engine.

 

Frankly I am as well. I really baby the car and this is my third Maxima. I had 274K on my 89 before it gottotaled it and 168K on my 95 before it was totaled and I never did a bit of engine work on either one of them. I wish I was in a position to just drive it by I drive allot and cannot chance being stuck on the side of the road somewhere. I'll start checking the junkyards and see what I can find.

 

Is the mechanic really trust worthy? Did they show you the metal in the oil pan? Have you had a sparkplug change recently? Have you changed the oil and put in a good (non-el cheapo) oil filter?

Ticking is usually oil starvation up top or pinging. Seems wierd that the "pistion" is self destructing.

 

I've used this shop for 6 years now and I really do trust them. They did ask me to come look at it as they were going to show me the issue. I just got off the phone with the shop manager who told me they said it was the third piston on the firewall side and you can actually see the crack in the bottom of the piston and the chunk of metal is from the bottom side of the piston. He speculated that it was a manufacturing defect in the actual piston considering the location. He also stated that there was a lob on the shaft (I don't recall if he said crank or drive shaft) that was real shiny and he speculated the portion of the piston that broke off was hitting the lob. I have always used Mobil 1 5-30 oil and I use either WIX, Mobil 1, and sometimes a Purlator Pureone filter. I did however perform a spark plug change once the knocking started.

 

Ugg, no hope then. Unfortunate task to search for an engine or get a rebuild. Neither is good for the pocket book.

 

Perform a compression test, ask to see said metal chunks, snap some pictures, post them on here.

Further Options

1.) Purchase relatively low mileage engine via www.car-part.com, and have said trusted mechanic install.
2.) Same as above skipping mechanic, and installing yourself.
3.) Rebuild engine, but this not a very cost effective option.
4.) Purchase a brand new (reman) engine from Nissan, not very cost effective again.
5.) Get a second opinion, i.e. verify what EXACTLY is in the oil pan.

 

Dam bro that sucks i'd find a local maxima nut and have him look at it first, i know the injectors are loud on the 5th gen vq30dek but a hole in the piston hows the engine still run? Also wouldn't you burn through oil like crazy if there was a hole there and then the engine would seize up have a different mechanic look at it.

 

I just got back from viewing the damage myself and I took some pictures as recommended. I will be posted them in just a few minutes, but I think everyone will find that the mechanics were spot-on in my opinion anyway. The damage is on the bottom side of the piston and the crack apparently has not made it to the top just yet.

 

That sucks bro. Good luck on the fix or finding a new engine. Did the mechanic have a reason for the crack?

 

They could not find anything that would have caused a crack but they haven't fully gone through the whole engine at this time. They have stated that it certainly wasn't oil starvation as the cylinder walls were coated well when the dropped the oil pan and the pickup screen was perfectly clear. They even remarked about how 'clean' the engine was with absoluley no 'sludge' to be found anywhere. They were thinking that on a engine with 110K miles that there would be at least something. I'm a freak about up-keep on the car for the most part and I am a big believer of Auto-RX as well.

I'm hoping I lucked-up today since I found an engine at a junkyard with 56K miles on it, clean VIN history, and I was able to buy it for $400 and they even delivered it to my shop for free. Although I have not seen it yet, my shop called and said it looked exceptionally clean. I've instructed my shop to use my injectors, coil packs, etc since I know the history of maintenance on my engine. They are also going to install a new water pump, thermostat, and check the existing timing chain while they are at it. I'm really hoping the existing time chain is in good shape seeing how the timing chain kit I have already purchased cost $50 more than the actual engine:> I can return it and actually save a few dollars.

Overall, if the replacement engine is in tip-top shape, the entire job will end up costing me less than just replacing the timing chain on the old motor since my shop told me the hours to replace the entire engine would be less or equal to the timing chain job (I really hope that service estimate holds). I find that kinda ironic.

Here are some pics of the piston chunks and the oil pickup screen:

 

From my personal experience, I wouldn't trust any independent shop unless my family owned it (and even then I would be wary). The problem is, nowadays independents cannot compete with dealership trained techs, and therefore the vast majority are learning new ways to trick and sabotage you into spending money and then give you 10% off at the last minute so you think you got a good deal. I don't believe for a minute that your piston blew apart, and thats what was causing a "ticking" noise. First of all a piston does not quietly break apart. The moment the connection between the con rod and crank cracked you would have received a very violent report and you would immediately know, that the proverbial crap had hit the fan. Secondly, those pieces of metal in your pic look like chunks of block, not piston or con rod. Do you realize how easily aluminum breaks? They could have easily broke those pieces off to show you that something serious was wrong all along, because they know you dont have the knowledge to prove them wrong. When I read your initial post just now I immediate thought it was a poor crankcase ventilation issue (which it almost definitely was) but as I scrolled down things became very serious, very quickly. I am surprised that no one here suggested the most obvious, easy thing to check first (PCV valve) before throwing out guesses. Have fun with your new engine, but I would be very skeptical of your trusted mechanic, because he's eating off your business, so to him/them you're just a cash cow. Best of luck in the future.

 

I'm not saying that there is not a PCV issue cause frankly I don't know, but I will say that when I walked under the car and looked up through the block, you could see where there were two pieces of the piston missing. And, you could see a crack in the piston as well. The piston was on the upward stroke so it was up in the cylinder a ways. It is still possible that they someone managed to get something up in the cylinder and break them off, but they had no motive whatsoever in doing so. They are charging me the same to the do the whole engine replacement as they were doing the timing chain job so they have not bettered their service figure in any way.