My car is producing this rattling noise when the car is in 2nd or 3rd gear during city driving. Like if i am going at 30mph (possibly in 2nd or 3rd gear) and press on the pedal a little, i hear faint rattling noise coming from the engine compartment.

I recorded the noise coming from the engine compartment by putting my audio recorder under the hood and taking the car out for a drive. From inside the car, the noise is preety faint but still noticeable. The noise is not constant and occurs only for a little while and goes away as the speed of the car increases.

please go here to listen to the audio file

http://cid-9efed2569306ccdb.skydrive...ompilation.wav

copy and paste the above address in IE and click the big 'music note' icon to download the file.

the audio is about 47 seconds long.
notice the rattling from 8 to 14 seconds of the elapsed time and again from 28 to 40 seconds.

i have an appointment with the stealership on Monday morning. I want to get an idea before i go to them.

Thanks
Faisal

 

sounds like some thing is loose in the wheel.

 

I dont think its from the wheel.
the noise comes in response to when i give the car more gas. Like if i am going at 30mph (possibly in 2nd or 3rd gear) and press on the gas pedal a little such that the car doesnt downshift, i hear this faint rattling noise coming from the engine compartment.

 

This is pinging. Does it usually occur in 1500 - 2500(3000) rev range? Alot of maxs have it. The first what you should do - try another gas station (assuming you always use premium). If you lucky, it works...

 

I think u r right about the rpm range. I always use shell v power but just yesterday filled up on Texaco 93 grade. noticed the rattle today too.


lets c what the dealship tells me. i am gonna ask them to listen to that audio recording also.

 

Well i took the car to the stealership and drove around with the technician. I heard the rattle noise but the technician said he didnt hear anything specific. He said he doesnt hear anything that suggest something major wrong with the car. in other words he didnt(didnt want to) hear that rattle noise. i also played the audio recording and still the same answer. They told me if i want they can check under the car and look around for anything, he mentioned checking the heat shields (i have know clue where that is) but i would have to pay $95 for that. At that point i was sure that even if they do that, they r not going to find anything and i will be throwing away the $95 dollars.

I am gonna wait on this and see how it noise progresses. if it becomes more prominent, then i will have to do something about it.

 

I have a 2003 maxima se, and my car does the same thing... I was told by the nissan dealership that it was b/c I wasn't using premium gas but I do use premium so if you figure out what is going on please let me know, valovich13@yahoo.com, also watch your oil level b/c I have noticed that it is burning oil somehow and im not sure. When it pings I change my oil and it goes away until around 3000 miles later, so like I said if you hear anything let me know also and I will do the same for you

 

well if your oil is low, it has nothing to due with the gas....its the timing chain

 

I have 161,000 on the car and took it in and had a "100" point inspection on it and they didn't mention anything about the timing chain needing to be replaced, is there a way I could check it myself and see a noticable discretion on the chain, like what should I look for, also is it a hard do-it-yourself job?

 

HIGH TEST

 

the timing chain doesnt go bad...thats why they didnt mention it.

if there is a rattle it is caused by -
bad tensioner
low oil

 

I have an 03 6 speed and I notice a similar noise at 40 mph as well. I've tried different oils Castrol 10w40 and use 20w50 currently but its still there. I monitored my oil closely after my last change and found that I burn 3/4th of a qt after 3750 miles, my car still pulls hard when I punch it so I will just keep a close eye on my oil level and just live with it. Btw my car just went over 59k miles this week.

 

I have a rattling noise much worse that the audio file that is attached in the original post. When I get to about 30 or 40 MPH, a very loud rattling noise occurs. If I keep going at a constant speed, rattling will keep going, but if I accelerate more or slow down, it stops.

 

timing chain hitting cover...caused by tensioner not doing its job due to low oil pressure (low oil)

 

Wow that was a fast reply! You sound like this is a common problem. is it?

 

it is a common problem....i have been dealing with it for 2 years...i have a 10+ page thread about it

 

2 years? Does that mean there is no "quick fix"?

 

here you go http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....diagnosis+loss

 

Thanks alot. This thing has been bothering me for 4 years.

 

God... almost, if not same sound on my 02 max.... every time I accelerate. it comes from the right side on the wheel area, usually. So new piston rings should do it?

 

No, it is not pinging

No, that will not do it


Can we lock up all these rattling threads and just make a sticky??

 

TSB on rattling noise when starting up: http://x.nissanhelp.com/forums/Knowl.../jump/1560/212
(You probably should be logged in). If doesn't work at all, start from here: http://x.nissanhelp.com/forums/Knowl...d&pp=10&page=2 and register; the TSB # is NTB03-060a

 

I am driving a 2002 Nissan Maxima SE with a v6...

It does not "rattle" when idling in position but when I am driving and the rpms switch between 1700-2200 RPMS (I think about the time I shift gears) ... it rattles... and if I am staying roughly between those RPMS when driving, it makes that noise. I dont know what it is and I have taken it to 2 mechanics now and they cant find anything wrong.

I just dont know what it is... It only happens when I am in motion and between 1700-2200 RPMS.

 

my car has this low bassy rattle everytime I start it up in the morning when cold. it goes away in 30 second I guess there is a small leak in the exhaust.

 

is it more like pinging than rattling? also if you try it going up hill does it seem worse?

 

My 04 maxima with vq35 engine was doing the exact same thing,and rattling getting louder going up a hill, and going away the instant I took foot foot off accelerator. nissan dealer said it was pinging due to carbon buildup. quoted $200 to clean the carbon out.

Friend recommended I go see a specialist mechanic, he also confirmed it was pinging, either due to using bad fule or just unleaded, which i am guilty of, and/or old spark plugs. He recommended I clean out carbon and replace spark plugs as my car had 115000Km and still had original spark plugs in.

This is where it gets interesting. This mechanic could have charged me an arm and a leg to do the carbon cleaning himself, but he recommended I go to a Subaru dealer,get a can of Subaru upper engine cleaner (costs $17 in Australia), and follow the instructions on the bottle exactly as stated( otherwise damage to catalytic convertor will occur) so strong is the cleaning action of this stuff.

I did the subaru cleaning stuff to my engine, and after starting engine, smoke scared the hell out of my neighbours due to the tremendous smoke coming out of the exaust. this is a good sign as the subaru stuff was doing its job of cleaning all the carbon out of the engine.

Changed the old spark plugs while I was at it too with champion double platinums.

Driving around now for 2 months since using subaru upper engine cleaner. The car runs like new. more power, and best of all the pinging is completely gone.


Cheers

Theo

 

probably just subaru version of seaform. also to the person who bumped this thread, if you rev teh engine in neutral and keep it around 1700-2300rpm and you dotn here the same then it is pinging, try runnign a bottle of chevron. wat gas are you using?

 

I confirmed this today from a very experienced mechanic source from a Nissan dealership. The common engine ping heard between 1700-2000rpm under load will be imminent with the earlier 4th and 5th Gen. Maximas and 2002-2004 Altima 3.5 with the Multi-port fuel injection system(MPFI). This older style fuel injection causes some of the pinging under load because the injectors are fired in batches, instead of individually.That means that some extra gas is spurted onto some valves when they are closed, resulting in gas wastage, and when those flooded valves open on the next intake cycle, they let in that unwanted extra gas and there's pre-detonation in those cylinders. In the newer 6th Gen Maximas and 2005-up Altimas 3.5, they have the newer Sequential Fuel Injection(SFI) system, where each injector has it's own individual control circuit and each only injects the gas into the cylinder when the valves open, resulting in a balanced air/fuel ratio and zero pre-detonation. So the ping cure for the earlier Maximas and Altimas is to covert your MPFI systems to SFI.

 

Iunno about all that dude. Pinging is due to any of the following:

Low octane or ****ty fuel
Ignition timing being too advanced
Engine running too hot/overheating
EGR being open under acceleration (when its not supposed to)
Poor ignition components such as worn out spark plugs or coils
Excessive carbon buildup on the pistons tops causing higher static compression
Faulty Knock Sensor (KS)
ECM not retarding timing properly
Camshaft timing off
Exhaust retriction
Vacuum leaks

And im sure theres a few more i missed but for the OT, what your hearing is pinging and its pretty typical in the VQ30s and VQ35s due to aggressive timing and low octane fuel. As far as i can remember, Nissan hasn't done "batch" style injector firing since the U11 Maxima but i could be wrong. In any case, batch style injection doesn't make sense to lead to pinging. Why some VQ35s don't ping as much as earlier models may be due to other reasons such as software changes or KS changes or injector fuel trims, different cam profiles, cam timing, altitude, humidity, ambient air temps, engine wear etc etc.

FYI Muranos are NOTORIOUS for pinging, all we can tell customers to do is run premium fuel. Some get pissed but oh well what else can we do, its not our fault they wanna go to ARCO and run 87 and expect to haul asz. I actually installed colder spark plugs in my sister's Murano and it seemed to help with the pinging.

Case in point, put 91 or better in it and post back. Don't go to now cheapass offbrand gas station either.

 

The Gen. 5 and Gen. 5.5 use sequential injection except for starting and fail-safe mode. Per the FSMs.