Hey guys,
Wednesday on my way to work i started hearing this noise, coming from the engine bay. The noise is kind of like a flapping/tapping or fluttering noise, the best way to describe the sound is imagine if a sheet of paper was stuck somewhere and with the wind it 's flapping against something.
I had never heard this before so I got a bit worried. It only came on after I hit 2.5k or 3k rpms, anything below that there's no noise and if i continued past 3.5k rpm the noise doesn't get louder but the 'tapping ' gets faster. Does it in all gears.
I initially though there was something really stuck somewhere and was just flapping away, I looked under the car, popped the hood...nothing there.
To verify if it was something that was being moved around or flapping around due to the wind/air, I revved the engine while stopped in the parking lot in neutral, does the same thing so its not something outside that's loose and being knocked around by the wind.
I did a search here and someone mentioned in a similar post that perhaps revving the car to redline to clear it up might unclog some carbon which may be causing the noise. I didn't think it would do much, but i tried it anyways, and after redlining the car (while moving) a few times it seemed to get better...for that moment, now its back on although its doing it more around 3.5k rpms rather than 2.5 or 3 like before. Basically as long as I drive conservatively (switching below 3.5k) I hear no noise at all.
There's no engine service light on, and the engine itself does not sound bad, forced or unusual..sounds normal, other than the tapping at medium/gigh rpms

The car is an 07 with 22,000 miles, never had any issues, I don't race it, although I do push it once in a while, its not very often.
I'm thinking of taking it to Nissan this weekend but wanted to check here first, in case anyone has any ideas, or has experienced this.

Thanks for any clues! I am far form a hand's on guy, and also since the car is technically still under warranty I'll most likely have them look at it, but of course if it was something simple and I could avoid spending the whole day at the dealer I'll do it.

 

hmmmm....
drawing a blank on a paper flapping noise... Have you checked your intake/filter? maybe you sucked something up?

 

Yeah, checked both filters, nothing in there. The sound is weird, 'flapping' is the best way i could describe it since it gets faster (though not louder) as the revs climb up, I guess you could say its like a ticking and the ticking gets faster as you move up from 3k but it has a rhythm to it.., again like it was a piece of paper or a flap that was loose and it was opening and closing.
I checked again today for anything that may be caught in the engine bay but see nothing.

 

have you inspected all of your belts?

 

Check both your front wheel wells to make sure your inner fender liner didn't pop out.

 

Yes checked the belts, from where I can see they seem OK. I don't have a good jack so i haven't gone underneath and troughly checked, but from the top, belts look good, not frayed at all.. again this is just a superficial look. There's no squealing or knocking sound like the kind when a belt tears (I had my share of belt tears in my old car unfortunately)
Haven't checked the fender liner, I'll do that once i step out for lunch, although it does the sound while parked as well so don't think its something rubbing against the tires or the liner moving because of wind. I'll check regardless, I'll try anything (within my non mechanical reach) before taking it to the dealer..
Thanks for the tips!

 

I have similar problem but only when the engine is cold it goes away after driving it for 10 to 20 minutes, it's more noticeable in the winter time. This problem started after the recall on the transmission for a slave cylinder.

 

This one does it when the engine is warm, can't tell about when its cold since I try not to rev it over 3k when I first start it.
I haven't had any recalls or work done to the car, just oil changes and replacing tires and none of them too recent so I can't say it started happening after a specific event or work done to it....just started Wednesday out of the blue

 

if it's something that you can reproduce at will, take it to the dealer. I assume you've checked all your fluid levels? Oil in particular.

I thought this only happened at speed- misunderstood you. If it increases with rpm and not speed it's definitely an engine sound, don't think it would be a belt. Almost reminds me of valve tap caused by low oil.

It's hard to diagnose sounds over the internet.

 

Yes, checked all fluids, they're all ok. Engine oil is halfway between the L and H level. The only fluid I see a bit lower is the coolant but its still within the min and max levels, and the engine temp gauge has been stable.
I guess I'll be taking it to the dealer tomorrow and see what they say..and yes to confirm the noise gets 'faster' with higher rpm's not speed.

 

That's good at least. Let us know what the problem ends up being. Best of luck.

 

Thanks! I'll definitely post back how things go, good thing im still under warranty whatever it is, hopefully something simple.

 

Took it to the dealer, they checked and say they think the sound is actually coming from somewhere in the dash....so they'll have t take it apart and check. I'll be dropping it off on Wednesday morning and while at it they'll do the clutch recall which I never got around to do. We'll see what happens....
At least they're getting me a rental for that day

 

Just updating this in case anyone's following this or they have a similar issue in the future. I dropped the car off at the dealer today to get the noise looked at and while at it to get the clutch recall done.
I got a call form the dealer and they say the noise actually is coming from the gauge cluster panel, more specifically from the tachometer (hence why it would happen only after 3000 rpm), now Nissan says that the car cannot move until this panel is replaced, they have to send the exact amount of mileage on the car to Nissan so they can add it to the new cluster panel they will be sending. Because they ordered the panel after the cutoff time it wont be here until Friday so that's the earliest I'll have my car.

 

well that's a first. the gauge cluster panel making a noise at 3k rpm.

whatever, if it fixes it, there you go.

 

Yup, that was the last thing I would have thought...also I re-read my post and it might sound confusing, when i mean the gauge custer panel I meant the panel with the tachometer/speedometer, not the small one on top with the oil/battery/multi gauges.
I guess they believe the tachometer itself has something loose inside and its what making the noise as the rpms go up. We'll see if this was right...i should find out tomorrow (hopefully)

 

Interesting, thanks for the update.

 

Got the car back yesterday. Guess thats what it was, got a new cluster and no more noise!

 

Lo and behold noise was back again this morning...took it to the dealer this morning again and left it there....now this is weird....can't be 2 tachometers going bad now....or can it?....this is getting frustrating now

 

there are several threads about the these "dash noises/dash rattles" pretty sure thats all you have, mine happens under hard acceleration and braking i've pinpointed mine to the farthest ends of the dash on driver and passenger sides. good luck