Joined: Aug 2018

Posts: 3

Ok, I have an 02 Maxima SE with 125k miles. I purchased the car new and have serviced it regularly every 5-6k miles. The car sat for about 1 year without being driven. My daughter started driving the car about 10 months ago. With just some normal repairs so far everything was going great until last week. She said she noticed a funny noise while she was driving. I took it for a test drive and heard a noise coming from the timing chain side of the engine. When the car idles it is quiet but when you rev it to 1,500 rpm it starts making a loud ticking/rattling around the timing cover area. I have pulled the motor mount and tensioner inspection cover and looking in with a borescope everything appears to be correct. I have spent many hours searching causes, I notice a lot of posts for later cars but not much for the 02. I am willing to go forward with pulling the timing cover but wanted to check with the forum to see if anyone else had similar issues. Also, if it the timing chain guides/tensioners should I replace the chains too? Just hate to tear it down if it could be something else.