I hear a rattle whenever I'm not on the gas hard!! It might be going on at higher speeds but I don't hear it then. But say I'm pulling off from a light ..if I'm light on the gas pedal, I can hear the rattling ... but if I let off the gas or press down harder the noise goes away. My cousin said it sounds like the Cam shaft position sensor. Is it that or the actual cam thats rattling around? Can anyone help? and at 127K miles, obviously I have no warranty.

 

Most maximas do it, there is a thread on here somewhere talking about. I dont kno wut it is but Ive had my 03 since 04 and it hasnt caused a problem its just annoying.

 

same here .... I've had it going on for a while now .... doesn't seem to bother me but it's annoying at that point. I try to look for something but if anyone else wants to chime in .. please do!!!

 

I have the same rattle. I believe the consensus on here is that it's the precats rattling around, but I haven't been able to get under the car to confirm yet.

 

Thanks for the replies ....after a ****-ton of reading through threads. I'm assuming it's like BWa1k said ...it's the pre-cats. But some believe it's the catalytic converter ...... I guess I need to spend some money and find out.

 

How expensive is it to do to the pre-cats? And can I do it myself? I've tried changing the cat to Catman's fastcat, and no help, so I'm assuming its the precats now.

 

have you checked the exhaust hangers?

 

Dealer precat is like $600-700 cdn. I saw some Eastern catalytic ones on ebay for like $270cdn shipped.
U could do it yourself if u have the tools, I hear it's a ***** though

 

for that dealer price u might as well and go an get some new headers

 

I just noticed the same rattling in my car..around 2100-2500 rpms light load..I have an extended warranty so I'm going to take it in hopefully this weekend..I'm pretty sure the catalyst has broken down and that's the noise..I've heard several cars at work that have a louder rattle and it was the cats..anywho hopefully ill get around to bringing it in..I only have a few thousand miles left haha..maybe they can fix my intermittent blower fan rattle too ..

 

mine does it...seems to be an exhaust heat shield-cats were inspected and in good shape. just another possibility (mine does it at about 1800rpm)

 

Those weak a$$ exhaust hangar mounts!

 

Are you sure its not pre-ignition? My car just went through that. Rattle at 2000 rpms but nowhere else. No rattle at idle, no rattle at 2000 rpms in park or neutral ... just in drive, under a load. Try TECHRON gas cleaner and check your air filter. That's what fixed it for me. HTH.