Hey everyone just a heads up to 02 and up 3.5L owners. I just went through one of the biggest headaches any nissan owner should avoid. My wife's 02 Max started to knock one morning sounding like a bad rod bearing. After taking the car apart some what and doing some research online, I found that the 3.5 has a secondary intake throttle plate inside the intake manifold. Located on the passenger side of the engine it has a vacuum operated plunger that opens when you are on the gas pretty hard. After taking the secondary intake throttle out of the intake I noticed that one of the small screws holding the plate to the shaft was gone. You guessed it inside the engine. Not sure what nissan was thinking but they should have used thread lock or peaned the screw so it would not back out. Lucky for me the screw passed through the intake and went out the exhaust, but not before it made some ugly marks inside the combustion chamber.

 

It's a known, but rare problem on maximas. Sentras really had this problem on the TB butterfly.

Why did you not have a BOP installed anyway

 

Bop

 

that 'secondary' throttle is actually your "VIAS" or "variable intake".

 

Get rid of that VIAS garbage and get a BOP.

 

You guys and your BOP's. Placebo effect in full effect.

 

Can one of you guys Elaborate what a BOP is ?
First time in ever hearing of this ..

 

Block off plate. VIAS delete. Same thing.

Doesn't apply to the 00/01

 

No placebo when you lose your bottom end grunt. Still not sure about the top end gain. Phenolic spacers are a big plus in regaining mid range though.

 

This happened to me years ago and the Nissan stealership wanted $1,600 to replace the throttle body. Had to fight it out with the extended warranty but I ended up winning. Stoopid stealership tech told me "I revved the engine, noise gone. Here's what I think is the screw"..