Hey guys,

I posted up a thread on g35driver and haven't had much feedback. I have this tapping noise coming from the valve cover area of my engine. One person mentioned I could be low on oil, I checked that and I am at the normal level. Someone else mentioned it could be my timing chain tensioner, that option is still possible. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

-Sean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niWc-BpML8o

 

lifter maybe??

In for information

 

I'll keep that in mind. Gonna go try some things out, see if I can diagnose what it might be. Keep the reponses coming, if you need more info I'll answer any questions the best i can! Thanks guys.

 

it does sound like timing chain tensioner or timing chain it self stretching...somehow someway u manage to stretch that chain...

 

How many miles? Did you run low on oil at any point? Really sounds like valvetrain noise...or maybe a noisy injector... these engines do make alot of noise BTW.

 

There was one point where I stretched my oil change to 5k. Finances were really tight at that time. Since then it's been every 3k, no more than 3.5k mile intervals. Today the noise stopped, but I'm scared the problem is still there. I do drive the car rather hard at times. The car has 63500 miles. I know the engine is noisy, but this isnt a normal sound.

How could I have stretched the chain?

 

Ya that is definitely not just the normal noisy VQ sound. Honestly though I doubt that you streched the chain out that would be really hard to do... The tensioner definitely could be lose though and if thats the case that would be a biotch of a job to do. Almost does sound like a noisy injector, doesnt sound like lifter tick to me but thats just my opinion.

If your mecanically inclined, pull the injectors and take a look, also while your at it and sense your at 63k miles, change your plugs if you havent already. check for oil on the plugs to as you might need to change the valve cover gaskets.

is it just a noise or is the car acting up?

 

I've read that changing a tensioner is a big job. I have installed all my mods and such myself, and done basic maintanence myself. But I wouldn't want to repair something that is near the timing chain. I would leave that to a professional. See the thing is the noise is coming from here (This isnt my engine bay):



If it were injectors it would be coming from the area below the plenum, right?

Actually, a few months ago the car had a horrible misfire. The CEL came on and the car was acting HORRIBLE. Turns out it was due to the coilpack on cylinder 3. So I decided to swap coilpacks on cylinders 3 and 4 to make sure the problem was the coilpack. Well the problem went away, never returned. Long story short, same thing happened a few weeks ago. So i pulled the coilpack on cylinder 4 and it was covered in oil. I then pulled the coil on cylinder 6 and found sh*t tons of oil in there. I had heard of this issue before but never remembered to check. The plug was drenched in oil:



I decided to change the plug. Sorry for the book, just trying to help you get a better idea of what has been going on with the car. The car IMO has been acting funny. I need to change my VCs and the plugs and see what that will do. Hopefully this noise doesnt turn out to cost me an arm and a leg to fix.

 

+1 on changing out the plugs

I do want to mention that sounds from the engine bay can be deceiving and sometimes its hard to pin point exactally where a weird sounds is coming from.

Also from your picture of were you think the sound is coming from, actually the tensioner is on the lower/mid left side of the crank case. Not that it rules out a loose tensioner, just saying that its not located there. I honestly highly doubt its a tensioner or chain problem.

When in doubt always try checking the simple stuff you can do on your own first and when you rule everything else out, I guess then unfortunately its time for a trip to the shop.

 

One of the guys on 'Driver mentioned I should check out these areas with a Automotive Stethoscope:



I plan on doing that come Monday. I want to stay on top of this issue. Just because the sound went away, doesn't mean I'm not worried about it. My buddies mechanic mentioned it could have been something caused by a buildup of sorts. He recommended to go to Nissan and ask them about some product made by BG. Apparently it's designed to reduce noises made by engines due to gunk or build up of sorts. I mean I hope there isn't build up in my engine, but who knows. Thanks for the reply MKZ33