So I recently purchase a 1993 Nissan Maxima SE with 101k miles and noticed a clicking noise coming from the engine sometimes. It is rather loud and so I went to the internet to see what I could find. Found this forum(did some research) and I have some questions.

First off heres a clip of what my engine sounds like sometimes. The sound does eventually go away. And it doesn't always sound like this on start up. Its usually have the car is warm and I come back and turn it on again maybe an hour or so later.

Is that the VTC?
if so is my best bet still to just ground off one of the solenoids?
does it matter which one I do ground?
Also what are some of the negatives? I have heard about the loss of power and some people have a poor idle? are those the only negatives and is there ways to combat the negatives?

Thanks for your time!

 

Sounds like textbook VTC's to me. You only need to ground one solenoid. To confirm it's VTC noise just ground them - it won't hurt anything, and if you do it while it's clacking it'll instantly quiet it if indeed it is the VTC's. Thus your confirmation. You only need to ground one solenoid. I do mine right there at one of the 10 mm bolts on the fuel line "bridge" that goes over the water pump neck. It's a yellow and/or yellow/green wire found on both solenoid harnesses.

 

And as far as the negatives - the only thing I ever noticed was an idle "hunt" for maybe 30 seconds at startup? It goes away very quickly. The loss of performance (IIRC dyno'd at 12hp) should be imperceptible.

But here's the best part - if you don't like it you can easily and instantly undo it. There's literally zero risk here

 

Awesome, thanks for the info!

 

That's a sound a VE owner never forgets

definitely your VTCs

If you have a manual transmission I would recommend picking up the Power/Comfort switch out of an automatic and wiring up the VTC ground to it. I found that in the earlier stages of failure briefly grounding them would help them "snap" out of it.

It's been 12 years for me so I couldn't tell you which wire anymore but I grounded it from the wire harness going to the ECU instead of in the engine bay.

 

I actually saw a post about doing that while I was searching the forums about the VTC issue. May have been one of your posts haha. I really like that idea, just afraid of doing something like that because I don't want to cut the wrong wire going into the ECU and set off a nuclear bomb. I also read somewhere that it was a yellow or a yellow and green wire that needed to be ground.

 

So you didn't do this yet Ylem? It takes 5 minutes. Give it a shot! When you cut the sheath off there is only one yellowy wire in there. You can't mess up. I just can't remember if it's solid yellow or yellow/green.

 

Not yet, I just changed the oil and filter and the sound is basically gone now so I'll hold off while I can.

 

Is your car a manual Ylem? Any other pics of it? From what I could see of the engine bay it looks like a well-kept car

 

I have an automatic. The car is pretty well kept, almost everything works, the exceptions being the seat belt sensor and an odd problem that started today. When I start the car now it seems to be a bit rough idling but normal rpms, the engine light also comes on but this only lasts for the first 15-30 seconds of the car being on then the problem/engine light goes away and off.

 

Very very nice. I dig it. I still am always amazed how many nice condition older cars there are up in the Pacific Northwest. Total opposite down here with all the sun/heat damage

 

WOW!!!! I thought mine was nice but that is way nicer.

 

yeah that is definitely clean for its age. The enemy here in the northeast is the rust from humidity & salt on the roads in the winter

 

Just wondering, but does your clicking sound go away after putting down a certain amount of throttle or does it stay that way even after warming up?

I also found that if the clicking doesn't happen a lot, switching to full synthetic with regular changes lessens the VTC sound.