well, i heard my 1st ticking vtc today (not mine, hehe) and god im so sorry 4 those that have it cause **** thats loud and annoying...anyhoo, i was gettin my tranny flushed and 1 of the dudes came up and talked 2 me cause he has a ve 5speed w/ over 200k on it and he just got the noise, so he let me hear it and said the cause was the oil pump goin bad, he said sumthin about he only has 40psi and youre supposed 2 have 60psi...so maybe the problem is not only the faulty vtc engineering, but also a faulty, or not up 2 par, oil pump...of course changing out the oil pump is a pain i imagine so i guess knowing this doesnt help ne1 2 much...just sharing another theory

 

I ungrounded mine the other day, and started the car... waoh those SOB's are loud. I'm gonna have them don ein the spring. I can't wait.

 

Even if he has low oil press. it still has to do with the return spring not returning the sprokets to their inital position. And actually at idle oil press has nothing to do with the sproket assemblies ticking b/c the vtcs are disengaged (by the ecu) and oil does not flow through them.

I have in the past mentioned that doing an oil flush should help, but it will only help if the vtcs were engaged, so that the flush solution could flow through the gallies and vtc assemblies. So what I now proprose is to ground the vtc, but only during the oil flush!

 

should i do that perhaps as preventative maintenence?

 

If your VTC's recently started to tick or have been ticking there's no PM that could help at that point. Like others I also tried the motor flush that first time I heard the click, and 13k miles later it was still clicking and got louder and longer even after the engine was at operating temp. The oil pump theory could be possible because the oil pressure spec at idle is very low, I "think" somewhere below 10psi at idle. And we all know where most engine wear happens, right at start up. Besides, Nissan designed a bad VTC spring (tension) to begin with, and with the VE being the step-child of the Nissan engine family that doesn't help either. I must say, for those who are seriously thinking about keeping their VE (for various reasons) for many years to come start saving your pennies for a new or rebuild VTC's. Of course the total repair bill might be half of what the car is worth (depending on your repair option and condition of car) but after driving with bad VTC's for 13k miles it's a total night and day when they are replace/rebuild. Good luck

 

Mike, I had a previous post where I checked the oil press. b/c I wanted to change the oil press regulator.

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ight=oil+press


Also since the vtcs are not engaged during idle, I propose doing an oil flush while temporarily grounding them. The fact that the vtc are not active during idle may be a flaw in the programming design of our ecu.

 

but my vtcs do work....so yes on the flush as preventing them goin bad right? what about jus puttin the car in drive during the flush instead of grounding them out (i wont drive of course lol)?

 

nope, wouldnt be good for the bearings. Also the rpm would have to be fairly high for the computer to turn on the vtc's, I notice then turning on at about 2k rpm. Only b/c i notice the warm up tick go away at 2k rpm on my max.

Yes it would be good preventative maintanance for the vtcs, but grounding the proper wire is incredibly important. So I'd reccomend following Craig B's write-up.

 

Nope, not a flaw. According to the FSM, the VTCs turn on when all these conditions are met: except at idle (they are off at idle), engine coolant temp below 230 F, engine speed below 4600rpm, engine load is high, selector level in other than N or P position (including manual).

 

Yeah, but if nissan engineering had the foresight, they would have left the vtcs on during idle. I guess they had their reasons, may even have to do with setting basics, like ignition timming.

 

how about installing a switch to ground the vtcs? ground them during start-up and warm-up. after the engine is warm unground them. i'm wiring my vtcs so that they are grounded 5 minutes after warm-up. my vtcs recently started to tick so i grounded them. i notice that if they are grounded during start up/warm up them ungrounded, they don't tick ever.