maximizer

I have a '97 SE with 58K miles on it, it's still on the nissan power train warranty. My question is this.
From time to time I hear my valves knocking (or at least that's what I think it is). I can only hear it after I drive for about 30 mins then leave the car idling. It comes and goes. It knocks for 5 sec then goes away... then after a while again. The sound resambles diesel engine knock.
I opened the hood and it comes from the top of the engine. Are these the valves? Are they covered under the power train warranty?

mrloyd

sounds like it could be the valves knocking, but i'm pretty sure we have hydraulic valves that don't need adjusting. It is possible that if you use cheap oil they are gummed up or something. An old trick is to take some hose and stick it up to your ear and use it like a stethoscope to try to find where the noise is coming from. As far as the warranty is concerned, nissan's position is that if it is not a mechanical failure, it aint covered. This should mean that if it hasn't broken on you, adjustment and such won't be covered. I would still take it in. They can't charge you for what you won't pay for. At least have it looked at (asap due to your miles) and raise some hell. Try calling 1800nissan1 if you can't get results. A little advice on talking to them, if they make you an offer to pay for a part of the service, keeping *****ing! These people are just like salesmen, only they are trying to reduce their losses! The one time i talked to them the offered to give me a $50 cupon to my next service, then $50 cash, then half of my bill ($92), then all of my bill ($184)! This was over brakes which weren't even covered by the warrenty! in my situation i had purchaced the car certified nissan used and the brakes were the wrong kind for the car and screwed up bad! Good luck!

Eric L.

It might be a warranty issue, but the problem with warranty problems is that you have to be able to reproduce it to the dealer before they commit to fixing it.

While a Lexus dealer might take your word that the engine is malfunctioning, I don't think a cheapo Nissan dealer would ever just take their customer's word for it. They'll make every excuse under the sun to not fix your car.

maximizer

hmmm I've been using regular oil up tp 53k then i flushed the engine and started using mobil 1 synthetic. It has only 4k on it. Do you think it might be the problem?

maximizer

yeah in my case it's gonna be a pain to reproduce it, becasue it only happens for a short period of time, and if you don't know how the car sounds most of the time you won't hear it. I might wait until it gets worse before 60k is reached then take it to the dealer.