OK last night I noticed my engine making a rattling (diesel like) sound on my '00 I30t when accelerating. If I accelerate normally you hear nothing but anything more aggressive than normal you hear it and then dies off. Could low octane gas cause a diesel rattling like sound? I just changed oil and used 10-30 castrol edge. I did happen to put in about 3 gallons of regular gas, but idk if its just a coincidence that i heard it after or if low octane gas will cause a that kind of sound.

Also, when idling the car runs smooth and perfect with no noise. If I rev it in park or neutral you hear nothing. when driving the car accelerates perfectly, no hesitation or anything.

 

Low octane will cause the engine to ping, if the sound you hear sounds some what like a metal to metal chain type of sound then I would say engine ping and low octane caused. You can fill up with super 91 or better 94 and add a can of seafoam to the gas tank to clean up the injectors and fuel delivery system.

I would have also suggested low oil, but you said you just changed that so I will assume it is full, and if you are in one of the colder states you will find that 10w 30 is a little heavy better to run 5w 30

 

Not to take the spotlight or anything, butI also have the same problem as dna as I also made the mistake of using regular gas instead of the 91 and up. However, mine now has the same noise going on even when I rev it when idle. And not only that, but when I floor it, it refuses to go past 4.5k rpms but if I go half throttle, I can redline it. Any ideas as to why this might be happening?

Here's a vid I made of it:
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I had the pinging problem too, my car would do it from idle if you cracked the throttle open fast or during hard acceleration. A new MAF fixed my problem.

 

I would first suspect the MAF sensor, as a simple quick test if you have a fellow Max owner near by try swapping in his MAF to see if the same issue is present. Or you could also try cleaning your MAF sensor and see if the problem is still present

 

Yeah, that's what I was thinking it would be. When I start it up, it wont rev past 2.5/3k but after it's a lil warm, it starts going higher and higher. When it's really warm, on occasions, it redlines. I don't feel the same torque I used to feel when it was normal. And another thing is, I tried seafoaming it tonight and I got very little smoke. I mixed half with the oil and the rest with the gas. I revved at ~3k for a couple mins and got little smoke. Then I took it out for a 80mph+ run and it felt pretty much the same.

And I'll see if I can get my boy to let me borrow his MAF off his 02. Thanks for the reply.

 

If you have put seafoam in the oils crank case then you will have to do an oil change straight away as the seafoam will thin down your oil very quickly, so be sure to change it up right away. As for not getting a lot of smoke you won't see alot of smoke from just putting seafoam in the crank case and fuel tank, it is when you suck it up through the master brake hose or the small VIAS air hose as most of the smoke is the contaminants that are up in the upper portion of the IM. What year is your Max as for swapping the MAF's you would need to use the same model (.ie 00-01 with an 00-01 or 02-03 with a 02-03) as the MAF sensors are different in that one has a thermistor and the other does not.

Key point to do is get that oil changed and get the seafoam out of the crank case. It is meant to be in there to thin the oil and clean the internal passageways of debris which then is caught in the filter and should only be in there for NO MORE than 50 km
So this is very important to change right away.

 

I very much appreciate your help. Ill make sure to get the oil change done today. And my Max is an 01 and I've been looking into getting an ebay MAF specific to my year. I've been reading up a lot on it and found out about the 00-01 difference between 02-03. Until I receive the eBay MAF, ill just go to the junk yard and see what I can find out there.

 

Good to see you check back on the thread as I was very concerned you would over do it with the seafoam in the crank case, Hopefully the replacement MAF you ordered will resolve your issue.

 

Or vT you can buy a cheap ebay one, which has lasted so far. It's been a year and a little over a half.

 

Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on the thread in case of any thing that I needed to change. I just want the damn thing to arrive alreadyyyy!
Wadduppp shotz. Yeah that's what I was thinking. I got some tool in order to get just the maf itself out and clean it a bit and see what happens. I'll let you know bout the details when I get home

 

This is a very good thread on the cleaning of the MAF
http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...10-w-pics.html

 

Oh yeah, that was actually my reference. Thanks again

 

Have you changed oil recently? Check all your fluids like trans and what not. They could be running low

 

Yeah, I changed the oil yesterday after I read Ghost's response and I'm planning on taking the current MAF out and cleaning it with the cleaner I bought. I'll check the tranny levels when I get down there. Thanks for the heads up.

UPDATE: I cleaned my MAF according to that thread and have noticed a huge difference. When I revved it in idle, it still wouldn't go past 3/4k, however, on the way down, it didn't drop to or below 500rpm, catch itself and start rattling. It would just drop down to normal idle at ~750rpm. So I decided to take it out and change the air filter while i was at it and again, noticed another difference in the sound and in the torque to a small degree. Let's see what happens when the new MAF arrives.

 

Just as a final update for future onlookers: I replaced my MAF with an eBay one and it made a hell of a difference. The moment I swapped the MAF, I immediately ran into the car to turn it on. When I did, I floored it, and the engine redlined. All my performance was back and the car no longer had any type of rattling going on. No more problems as of now. Lets see how long this MAF lasts me.

Thanks to everyone for all the help. I really appreciate it.

 

And I suspect you didn't even throw a code with the bad MAF, right? Thats the problem with the MAFs when they go bad, they cause all sorts of performance issue, sometimes even making it seem like the transmission is having problems, without a code.

Glad you got to corrected. I know when I changed mine a few years ago it was like a new car and the pinging that I had from day one went away and never came back, even when I sometimes use regular gas!

 

Good to hear that all levels have been restored, amazing that replacing that sensors is like giving the car a heart transplant and a new lease on life.

 

Well at first, when the engine and trans weren't responding as they were supposed to and the car wouldn't switch gears, and that's when I got an engine check light. Before it appeared, I was noticing a lot of different things happening. When I would floor it and the tranny changed gears, it would jerk really badly. I thought it was my trans until I went to my mechanic and he said they were both in great condition. So I kept driving it and noticed that I kept losing power as the days went on. I wasn't getting as much torque as I was supposed to be getting. Another big giveaway was when I tried doing a speed run with some 3000gt, I would get to ~95mph and the further the pedal went down, the slower I got. When I released the pedal, it would then begin to speed up again. I was barely able to hit 100mph slightly downhill. Today, after replacing the MAF, I hit the highway and immediately hit 100 without even noticing it, while going up a hill. That's a pretty damn dramatic change.

So I mean, there are a lot of warning signs that you get when it is going wrong, but you have to make sure they correspond with one another. In short the ones I had were: poor higher speed acceleration response, rattling after accelerating (whether idle or in gear), popping on a hard acceleration, transmission jerk when changing gears, and obviously little to no response upon acceleration.

This car, when I put that new MAF in, had acceleration that I hadn't even felt before. It was so quick and had so much torque in the wheels. Completely mind****ed me when I drove it.

 

Can anyone provide a seller recommendation for the replacement ebay MAF's.. My car has been making the rattling noise as of late, and i've cleaned my MAF less than 10,000 ago.. Hoping a swap will help. Chevron 91 used for the last 30k. Thanks!

 

This will solve all of your pinging issues. My dad used it in his old 5th gen and it worked like a charm

 

My recommendation with eBay MAF's are these:

For some cheap aftermarket replacement:
For an OEM MAF, this would be a good one:
I personally bought the cheap aftermarket one just to try it out. For some cheap $40 part, it performs pretty damn well. It is, however, a little buggy here and there cause on a cold start, the RPM's stutter. I'm not sure how to explain it, but when I get a chance, I'll record what's going on and show you guys. Personally, I wish I had just shelled out the extra $40 and got the $80 OEM one. It coulda saved me $40 and more problems, but whatever. It's an unfortunate learning experience.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Since I've posted the thread I have tried alot of things. I remember to always put in premium, tried lucas gas additive and marvel mystery oil, checked my heat shield and still have the rattling on only hard acceleration. Glad to see you changed the MAF and its gone. When I have the extra money I will try changing mine.