Hi,

I am about to buy a 2003 Nissan 350z with 50k miles. The guy has not changed water pump/timing belt yet. Is this something I need to worry about, and how often do the belts on the 350z last?

Please let me know as soon as possible

Thanks
Tom

 

Please help me out

 

Its a timing chain... not a belt and it doesnt need to be changed until 100k-125k

 

Rightwinger ---dont be afraid to ask questions --Thats what we are all here for ,,,although searches do come in handy

 

You Will Break The Gears Before The Chain Busts

 

Timing chains do not require maintenance on the newer nissans. Well at least in the eyes of nissan when you take their tests.

 

Its a chain...

 

That is not true.. I had 10 stress cracks on my chain when my car had only 30K miles. I ordered a new one from performancenissan while I was rebuilding. But who knows why that is .. I also had a cracked tensioner to.

 

Timing belt / waterpump on my porsche had to be changed every 30k miles to be safe. bad things would happen if it broke. You dont want to know the rebuild costs on a porsche v8.

 

Let's get the facts straight: the 350Z VQ35DE has a timing chain that should last the life of the engine (or until you rebuild it). There are two engine drive belts (one for the PS/ancillary drives and the other for A/C) and they should be replaced at 60K, if not sooner.

 

^

Yep what he said Chains usually run the life of the car the other belts
need to be checked once in a while for cracks and stuff. Read the owners manual and it should tell you when to check what

 

Chains last a long time but they do stretch (Actually, wear, so they become longer) and gears wear also. Its a given to replace on a rebuild and Id say, Just cuz at around 100,000 +. What happens is it knocks the Crank/Cam timeing out of sync.

 

Does anybody know if our engines are interference engines or non-interference engines? If in some rare instance the timing chain does break, it would be helpful to know if our valves will get bent.

 

I havent a clue, But I would say they were interference

 

Why would you say that? There are much higher compression vehicles that aren't interference engines like all the older B-series honda engines.

I'm just curious I guess.

 

Im saying that because i dont know weather a valve may stay open if the chain breaks and hit a piston on its way to TDC

 

interference engine

I still have as built chains on my 311,000 mile Q engine [new metal guides at 100k] the chains have stretched < 4 degrees relative to crank......nice upper rpm boost above 6,000 thru 7300 rpm and the VVT retard stops the lope one would expect at idle from a domestic with such high mileage.

Unfortunately on the newer 3.5 and 4.5 there is no way to adjust initial to compensate for stretch so maybe replace chains every 150k........whenever the idle gets a little shakey.

With a seperate crank and cam sensor the ecu might throw a code when things get too far out of whack. We'll have to wait a few more years to find out.