Well I generally hate it when the car starts doing things out of the ordinary... a squeak here, a noise there... today I got in the car and I've noticed more and more that it idles rougher than usual. It's not ridiculously rough -- like teeth chattering or anything like that -- but it's noticeable enough that it got me thinking that the car might be trying to tell me something...

Now I don't know if this usually happens when it's cold (20s around here in the mornings for some time), but I don't remember it being this rough before...

There are a couple of mods in the car... but it's just the intake and y-pipe. It's obviously been well taken care of as far as maintenance (oil changes, tranny flush) and with 40k miles I'm not expecting any engine problems any time soon...

There are no issues with performance, heat not working properly, leaks, anything of the sort... the car runs perfectly, and other than this I have nothing to complain about.

Can someone point me in the direction of what it could be? I'm all out of ideas here... I wouldn't dream of letting the dealership NEAR my car, but it's probably gonna be a couple of weeks before I can take it up to Jeff to take a look.

Thanks

 

i noticed on a few cold starts when i got out, i could actually hear something. I'll listen again next time it's completely warm to listen for a difference.

 

On these cold mornings, I've been warming up for 5 min before driving and I've noticed on my car a belt noise. I just figured the belts were too stiff from being in below 32f temps over night. My noise goes away once the car is nice and warm.

Could this be what you're hearing?

 

Nah, I know my belts...

I had mine replaced when I replaced the UDP... they're still a little noisy, but I can live with it until I see Jeff again. The rough idle is just that... the car feels a little rougher... shakier, for lack of a better word.

Could be just the cold weather though... but I know that it's rough(er) even when the car has warmed up.

 

When my ride started to idle rough (Tach would jump around, and my engine tended to hesitate at lower speeds). The stealership thought it might be a faulty MAF sensor, however the problem turned out to be 2 fried spark plugs in my rear upper bank. And I only had 18K miles on the car! Anyway just a thought.

 

If that's whats happening in his case ^^^, Autozone, Advance Auto has the diagnostic reader and can tell you which plug(s) is bad.

 

If the spark plugs are bad, would the "Check Enginer" diagnostic light go off? I've noticed that sometimes my idle can be a bit rough (nothing like previous Chryslers I've driven before though, sometimes new ones...). Sometimes the tach will go from like 750 to 800 to 700 back to 750, and you can feel little rough 'pulses' once in a while - I know it used to be smoother (at 31K now).

 

My check engine light never went off during my situation...

 

I've had plug problems that didn't set off the check engine light. Might be worth a stop at AZ to have them check and see if there are any codes on their reader.

 

Wouldn't a fried plug be evident though... the car not performing as usual, etc?

No big deal though... I'll check with the closest Autozone to see what they say. Never changed plugs on this car, but I'll be willing to add that to the list of things that I can do myself, as long as it's not terribly complicated -- and knowing Nissan, they'll probably want you to take apart the engine bay and hang from your heels to be able to change them...

 

A fried plug should be evident, but plugs can have problems and you would have a hard time noticing.