Good afternoon,
my 02 maxima is making timing chain rattling sound, (I think). Not co formed by mechanic yet, but I think it is, which timing chain 1,2,or 3? Noise is only when engine is warm, Not when cold.
fuel consumption is huge, I drive about 35 km reach way to work,
and work five days a week, 30 bucks a day in fuel? Yikes……..
my friend added two quarts of oil two weeks ago, And 4 days ago I added another quart and half! Cardboard under car catches no oil leaking, no smoke out of tailpipe on start up or on heavy acceleration, Can’t smell blow by, and can’t see smoke of any kind, At any time
to me that is huge oil consumption,
Sitting at a red light my car idles at 100 rpm, and when I bought it in aug 2021, it would be700 rpm, Runs smooth, no rough idle., no smoke can’t see or smell anything.
Do I replace all 3 chains,? So I junk it? Or put a used low Milage engine in the vehicle?
Thoughts on any and all of these issues please ? Advice would be appreciated, I love my car. Just sayin😀

 

Time for a 7th or 8th gen swap. it may be hard to find a decent low mileage 3.5DE to put in, they are all burning up oil by now.

 

Are there any engine codes? Check for clogged catalytic convertor.

Engine swap with another VQ35DE would be the most economical solution, but finding one that does not burn oil could be difficult. Other option is a 2nd/3rd Gen engine.

 

2nd gen cheaper than any 1st gen lol

 

hi there, yes two engine codes both camshaft sensors .

 

ok so if the engines are burning up oil, Why has Nissan not fixed that problem, and why does this engine but. So much oil? That irritates me because I really do love my car .

 

they did fix it with the 2nd/3rd gen.

 

hello, please advise me where I would look for a reman or used engine for my maxima
02 3.5 se. VQ35DE

THANK YOU DOR ALL YOUR HELP

 

www.car-part.com

 

When checking oil level, let the car sit overnight and check the next day. If you are checking shortly after driving, it will give a low reading

 

​​​​​​​Where is that article and how-to for this swap? I remember you had to grind off part of the timing cover and something else to make it fit. I need to save that to a PDF if I ever need it.

 

the Nisformance site has the guide ( https://www.nisformance.com/Articles.asp?ID=252 ) and they sell all the stuff needed for the swap.

the only thing the guide doesn't mention is spacing out the alternator. I used 3 M10 washers stuck together with RTV on the lower front portion of the alternator mounting location to align the belt..

location where I put the spacer...






spacer made with 3 m10 washers and stuck together with ultra gray

​​​​​​​

 

Thanks. Saved it. Sucks they have suck low-resolution photos.

 

The reason why i didn't want to get a 2002 or newer Maxima


The piston ring failure


VQ30DE FTW

 

The rings are fine. The cats eat the cylinders/rings.
And if you delete the cats before damage, then it'll still burn some from valve stem seals leaking. Every 1st gen DE (rwd too) I've looked in/owned has had soaking wet valves. But burning isn't too crazy from that.
California/EPA can go **** themselves. Criminals.

 

I mainly went with a 2002 for the bigger engine and 6 speed. when I swapped to a 7th gen engine at 330,XXX miles it still ran great but consumed a lot of oil.

 

I just wanted to state this in case nobody else did that this sensor loves to pop on when the oil is low. I bought a 2003 maxima a few years back and was having an issue with it because my Dipstick will never ever give me an accurate reading and because the engine itself loves to burn oil and seems to burn off the first quart almost immediately. The engine code for that camshaft sensor saved my bacon quite a few times because it generally comes on when there is only about 1 and a half quarts of oil left in the pan while the check oil light itself doesn't come on until there is less than a quart. and the lack of lubrication is already audibly noticeable via both while driving and idle. When driving it's a weird rattling sound somewhere around cylinder 5 (sounds like its right behind the steering wheel and what I assume is Rod knocking as it sound more like a tapping noise located somewhere around the timing chain area. and when idle it sounds more like their is a compression leak or a dead sparkplug.