I am the owner of a 2006.5 Base 350Z - which I picked February 07, making this car a little over a year old. I've got 22K miles on the car.

This past weekend I was driving my Z and then came to a stop when all of a sudden the car started shaking - I checked the RPM and it was significantly lower than normal idle speed RPM. So I thought perhaps I got some bad gas somewhere (all i use is premium, don't worry). I feathered the throttle a little to see if I could get past the hiccup, but to no avail. I shut off the engine and went on my merry way, continuing with the day's routines. Got back into my car, started her up and began to drive. What happened next was not pretty. There was the shaking and then a tapping sound coming from my engine compartment - almost like the sound of a spark, a very light tap which would increase in repetitions according to how high my RMP were. Then when I came to a stop, the car stalled out. When I started her back up again, things got worse - the service engine soon light came on and began to flash. The car drove like crap - and the engine sounded horrible....

Took her to the dealership the next business day (they were closed on Sunday) and explained the problem to the service manager. He was kind enough to have someone drive me to work 20 minutes out of the way. I did not hear anything until early afternoon and the call was to discuss getting me a rental because they still have no idea what's wrong with the car. I was told that the technicians are running various tests to see what the problem is and that one of the cylinders isn't firing (which I could tell myself - a friend and I diagnosed it as a failing injector from the sound of it). But nothing has been confirmed yet - and the service manager seemed puzzled. I got the same answer at the end of the day as well which could mean 2 things:

1) They did not even look at my car yet because I was a walk-in
2) It's something very serious and they really are not sure what it is yet


Has anyone seen this happen before or heard of it? Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated! Did not realize how much I loved my car until i got into this POS rental!

Thanks all!
Steve

 

hmm can't say i have ever had that ahppen to me, but hearing tapping from the engine bay is never healthy. Keep us posted on what the stealership says about it.

 

A little over two years ago my Z had the same issue right after a month of installing my TT kit and it was the result of a bad injector which had come with the TT kit. Same symptoms you are describing. The only item of your description which I don't remember having is the knocking, but I do remember all this weird noises coming from the engine.

Hope your issues are fixed soon and you get back on the road having fun.

 

Update - I brought the car in on Monday 4/7 and they are still running tests. They are thinking timing belt now or faulty computer causing a mis-fire. GRRRRREAT....

Where is everybody? I thought maybe someone may have had this problem before? I guess I am the lucky first or I mis-worded the title of this thread so no one has really seen it.

Thanks for the replies you guys, regardless - much appreciated!

 

the more stuff they replace the better.

 

Our cars dont have a timing belt... they have a timing chain... which rarely fails under normal driving conditions.

Sounds like they are guessing.... FTL.

 

**UPDATE**

Just got a call from the dealership and the service guy said it was a faulty tensioner. The chain apparently skipped a tooth as a result thus causing the computer to send a false signal - resulting in a misfire.

Parts are on order and I will have a more accurate ETA by Monday, 4/14

Strange considering the low miles on the car? And I have not beaten on it. Luck of the draw I guess? It's not like it's the the space shuttle!

 

that sucks...hopefully that fixes it

 

sorry to hear that bro,
keep us post more.

should be cover under warranty no?

 

Yes, thankfully!

 

I had a simlar problem and Ed at Precision Z advised to dump 2 bottles of HEET (yellow) into the gas tank. It worked, atleast so far.

Good luck.

 

"Best motor in the automotive industry, 13 years running"...
...scary. Any way to prevent tensioner(s) from going bad?!
Guess it's just a "lightning bolt" kinda thing--you get hit by
it at random. Let's just keep trusting the good Lord!

 

**UPDATE**

Just called for a status and some of the parts are on back order! UGH! So now it's a waiting game I guess until the freggin parts come in. So for now, that's about it until I get the car back. I want to thank everyone for their comments and support!!!

Drive safe everyone - and when I get her back I will post a final update!

 

oops - disregard

 

**UPDATE**

It's 4/29 and my car has been at the dealership since 4/7!!! It seems that when they finally got the parts and replaced them that an audible tapping noise from inside the engine persisted. They narrowed it down to a cracked valve spring. So it's one problem after the other!

I finally got a call today. As it turns out, they are going to replace my engine with a new one! Not sure what the ETA but hopefully will know by tomorrow. I guess that will rule everything out! As it turns out - they are going to ship my engine back to Nissan for further investigation to figure out what the eff happened!

And that's the latest!!!!

 

damn...that's a long time. hopefully you have better luck with this new engine.

 

i believe it. my motor got replaced for oil consumption which was eventually due to 50% leak in 3 cylinders on a leakdown test.

it was at the dealer for 8 weeks I hope you have better (read: faster) luck.

 

op, r u getting the rev-up v2? i heard great things about it...hopefully everything works out in ur favor....

 

dang if they still have problems lemon it or tell em to get u another car cuz wow

 

I am not sure - that would be cool if I ended up with that. I am thinking they are going to go with what matches the year of my car (2006) otherwise they would have to replace the hood with one that has a "hump", no? LOL! Not sure how it's going to end up - but either way, a new engine is nice - I know any previous problems will be eliminated and I will not have to worry about it crapping out on me further down the line