I little while ago I happened to notice a ticking coming from the motor. I talked with a mechanic friend of mine (350 miles away) and emailed audio clips of the sound to him. He said it sounds like the lifters or valves sticking and that I need to get a new motor. Well, indeed, I just got back from the dealer inspection and they confirmed the same. Worse, though, is that while I am only at 52K miles, I am 6 months outside the 5 year warranty and I am being told I'm screwed. About a year or two ago I took it in regarding the quart of oil I am having to add every thousand miles and while it is on the books that I brought it in for a fluid change, it does not mention the oil consumption or that when I returned for the level check I was told it isn't bad enough. So the deck is stacking against me. I do my own oil changes and regularly add oil since I've known about the consumption issue but the damage is done. The guy at the dealer called up the person who would be the one to come down to the dealer to authorize the engine swap under warranty and he said he couldn't help. So basically I think I'm screwed. I will have to get a new/used motor or sell a car that I KNOW has major issues. And I'm certain that if Nissan did relent and agree to look at the car they would not agree with the dyno flash, plenum spacer, and Borla exhaust.

I could remove most of that stuff but what real options do I have? Would they know about the uprev ecu flash if I didn't tell them? Are there extended warranty/insurance programs out there I can still purchase without prior inspection? Could I even sell the car?

 

well, mine has been ticking for about 20k now and no probs, how loud is it? any performance lost? Just a little odd that under 100k, hell, under 60k that an engine would need replacing. Do you run the **** out of that thing? Run it with no oil? My car has a tick too, all of my cars have had ticks after 30,000 miles. Could be belt noise, timing chain noise. If it in fact does need an engine replacement you could always buy a used one on ebay for under 1500 some dealers even finance stuff like that too. Or you could call nissan and try to get some deal worked out, half price, or half labor, ever seen white chicks? you could write a letter.

 

just had mine fixed ,got aloud ticking noise .. lifter on number 5. out of warranty but wasnt a replace the motor job , i got a shop to just change the lifters which arent that expensive its just the PITA amount of labour .

 

...it's not an '06?? Is it an '03, '04?! Sorry, dude. Maybe a local mechanic can do it for less. Kinda shop around for a reliable mechanic; ask friends, relatives, etc., to find out if anyone knows an honest mechanic--hard to find, but not impossible. Maybe you'll get lucky like y0k0m0 and you won't have to replace the engine. Oh, before I forget, with the 03/06 Zeds, you have to do much more frequent oil level checks. Good luck.

 

Yeah, it's an 04. I drive it hard but I don't race or anything like that. The sound just appeared rather quickly. It's hard to tell when because normally the stereo is on and the windows up. It wasn't until it got warmer when I was parked I noticed. It is definitely annoying when sitting in a drive-thru.

I picked the car up used at about 17k miles. Somewhere after that I saw the oil pressure light pop on when the revs would drop at a stop light and the gauge would hit zero. Needless to say, this is when I discovered that the car was consuming oil and was the last time it ever hit such extremely low levels. Since then, I check it every 1000 miles and usually add a quart at that time (level would be at the low tick mark). The sound doesn't seem like belt noise and I don't think it is the timing chain. I don't trust the dealer but their inspector said lifters. I have some audio/video of the noise (so you have an idea of location of the sound) that I'll have to shoot up to YouTube later.

As far as power, the car is awesome. It makes me smile every freeway on ramp and mountain road. If it weren't for the noise, I'd say the car is running great! The oil consumption is steady and not voracious as I've heard of other Z cars with the problem.