To make a long story short......I have about 46K miles on my 2K2 Maxima 6-speed and for the last 15K+ miles I've been experiencing a continous problem with pinging and knocking but only when it's hot outside driving over 50mph. I've been on the phone quite alot with NNA and a few different dealerships here in So Cal and they are all up in arms about it. One dealer tells me, "This is a normal occurance with the VQ35, it even states it in the Maxima owners manual about it and it actually helps out on your gas mileage". I thought it was a load of crap and looked in my owners manual and saw that it does say this.

By the way, my enging is stock NOW. Before I went from a Frankencar intake to an Injen and lastly a JWT short ram. All had pinging problems because of it (according to the dealer) and told me to put my enging back to stock to correct the problem, well the problem still exsists. Question is, do you guys/gals experience abnormal pinging from your VQ35?

I'm also trying to find out from 350Z, G35, Murano and Altima VQ35 owners if this says "Pinging and knocking is normal and not to worry about it" in your owners manual.

Thanks for your help

Dave

 

Straight from the 2003 350Z owners manual although I personally haven't experienced it:

However, now and then you may notice
light spark knock for a short time while
accelerating or driving up hills. This is no
cause for concern, because you get the
greatest fuel benefit when there is light
spark knock for a short time under heavy
engine load.

 

I have felt some ping on 350Z when using off brand gas or lower octane (87/89) problem appears to be minimal if using 93. Ping goes away after one or two full tanks of 93.

Yes, every now and then I add a couple of gallons of 87/89 octane gas when running low on gas and station only has 87 or 89 fuel. Usually enough to get me to next station with 92/93.

But even these couple of gallons appears to be enough to elicit light knocking.

 

I'm using Chevron 91 Premium religously....dealer tells me my ECU is not storing any codes and I asked him if it was my knock sensor and he said no.

 

Where do you buy your gas? Maybe try another place. If you aren't already using premium, bump up to the next octane level until the weather cools.

 

I've tried several different stations and only use 91 premium. 91 is the highest octane out here in Cali. I've even tried Unocal 76 100 octane mixed in with 91 to get about a 95+- rating.