I know I know, there's a million and one threads open about this issue but there's a million and one suggestions as well. I finally found a video of what my rattle is cause when you say rattle, 10 people can be hearing 10 different noises and call it a rattle, so now that I've found exactly what I'm hearing wanted to ask who else had the exact same noise and what they did to remedy it. Now he mentions carbon buildup as the issue but then there are people who run fuel cleaners jack their stuff up as in spark plugs and other things so I wanna know what people did to really remedy this. I know heat shields could be another issue but I've had mine all ripped out cause it was driving me insane bit it's still there so that isn't the issue.

Here's the video, it's starts about midway and you have to turn the volume up all the way to hear it

 

serpentine belt idler pulley

 

Haven't heard that as one of the solutions but this is under load, not idle, not sure if that makes a difference, sounds like an empty can being thrown around lol
Did you have this issue as well? WHat makes you think its that?

 

can't really tell. but my Max once had a noise close to this, it was from alternator bearing worn out.

 

Can't really hear it as there's ton engine/road noise, but it's the tapping sound, correct? If it's tinny, then a heat shield can cause it, but this sounds like the precat rattling, eh?

Notice how there's no 3.5 altimas on the road anymore... lol

 

Can't tell from the video but I have a tinny rattle around that RPM range as well. I used 87 gas a few times and it happened a lot. With 93, it's a lot less but still there. Using Techron cleaner multiple times didn't improve anything. Neither did tearing off the heat shields. I just live with it now.

 

That is the exact rpms, but just can't hear it in the vid.

 

So once you got in a new bearing, it was fine?
Ive had my precats gutted, noise is still there. Well its the same 3.5 as the maximas so behaviour is the same for both cars
Yea its very faint in the video cause of all the road noise but in person it can get fairly loud and annoying. Ive had all my heat shields ripped off but its still there. Ive always used 91 which is premium here
Yea tough to hear it but the last 4-5 secs if you really listen to it you can hear the rattle get louder

 

the serpentine belt idler pulley only rattles under load in the baby rpm range from the video.

1700-2000 rpm

 

i had this rattle, and have used premium for years, it wasnt octane or pinging

 

So you don't have it anymore?

 

I too have the sound and its getting worse. I have owned many maximas and I have the feeling its the timing chain

 

 

Everyone who works on cars should have one of these. Works great for tracking down rattles, squeaks, vibrations and all sorts of strange sounds.
https://www.harborfreight.com/mechan...ope-63691.html

 

is the check engine light on? prob the stuff inside the rear precat is rattling around in the ceramic housing. From my experience its usually the first one to go bad.

 

its the serpentine belt idler pulley, i still have the rattle in the exact rpm range, been that way for years now, i was listening to it this am, and figuring it out if its worse in warm mild weather vs cold.

rochester tracked this down in a thread, and his mechanic figured it out being the pulley, but i tried the same thing and my mechanic couldn't figure it out with a simple replacement, it sounded like his mechanic had to to some finagling because there is no technical adjustments for that thing.