hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

i did an oil change 2 days ago with pennzoil 5w30, and a day later i have what sounds like a lifter noise. If i gently rev the car up to 900 rpm i can hear it. any clue? i normally use quaker state or castrol could switching the oil cause this? any other ideas?

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

btw i used oem filter.

Drockb418

iTrader: (10)

how loud is it? and did you check the level of the oil?

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

not very loud, but i can hear it. Oil is on level.

BronxSleeperMax187

try adding a little lucas oil maybe it might help.....me personally would never put that in my car (pennzoil) I use royal purple only....whats the mileage?

KRRZ350

iTrader: (29)

What's your consumption and mileage? There's a good thread around here where I put up pics of some toasted lifters and explained the diagnosis, stethescope on rear valve cover then pull plenum & rear valve cover & check clearance's.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

Does it sound like this :

Turbonut

Add a can of STP to the warm running engine. It won't harm anything as we used it when we rebuilt engines. Good Stuff!

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

STP what?

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

ninemax its not as aggressive as that video, i hear more of it when i am driving at around the 900 rpm range, and its a little tick tick tick, never had it before, just started yesterday (2nd day after oil change)

mileage is 100k, oil change every 3k miles

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

But, imagine if you were lying in the engine bay with your ear on the strut tower.. Sort of what my video represents.

Properly check the oil level.

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

oil id good i drained out the pennzoil and dropped in castrol. lets see if it goes away

Turbonut

Same weight?

joeltender

Castrol+lucas synthetic oil stabilizer=

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

yup same wieght. are the lifters adjustable on the 5.5 gen? how easy/hard is it to do this?

P. Samson

Are you comparing the lifter noise at the same engine temps. The lifter sounds/noise may be more obvious with a warmed up engine compared to that of a cold engine. Most of these engines will/should go through their service life without ever needing any valve clearance adjustments. Which is just as well because "adjusting" the valve clearances on the VQ35 is accomplished by changing the cam followers (buckets) and the whole procedure is not for the faint of heart. If even one valve clearance is out of limits the associated camshaft has to be removed to replace/exchange the bucket/s. I find it hard to believe that any recommended oil brand switch/change would result in more lifter noise. Wear caused by lack of lubrication.......yes, or if the valve isn't seating fully because it's sticking in it's guide (unlikely here), you can get an increase in lifter noise. I would put some mileage on this car and see if this "noise" gets any worse before I would panic. Be aware that the injectors also make a "click" sound.

jasonmax

iTrader: (2)

my engine sounds like that. nothing wrong with it.

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

I am honestly hoping its an injector sound, but the ticking increases with rpm. at idle you cant hear it at all, but once you rev it up a couple hundred rpm (900ish) you can hear the tick tick tick sound. Never had that before prior to the oil change. Oil has been always on mark with my car. I am good with maintaince and always make sure my scheduled maintaince is done on time. I'll try swapping the filter (even though i am using a genuine nissan oilfilter) I made a nissan tech listen to the noise, he said it sound like lifter noise and that it might simply be out of adjustment but from what ive read here doesnt seem like we have "lifters"per say.

Know of a good mechanic in the lower mainland?

P. Samson

Is this "tick, tick, tick" sound one or maybe a couple of lifters only or are you convinced it's all or most of them? With valve clearances that are within limits the frequency of the audible ticking will follow the RPM but the "volume" should not really increase. Any audible injector clicking will follow the RPM as well. The valve clearances normally should not just suddenly "go out of adjustment". Your engine has direct acting "solid" (non hydraulic) cam followers whereby the camshaft lobes directly contact the face of the cam follower (the cam follower IS the lifter and is also commonly called the bucket) and the follower directly contacts the end face of the valve stem. There are no rocker arms (adjustable or otherwise) like some D/OHC engines still have. On the VQ35 the cam followers are classified.....meaning that they come in different effective thicknesses to allow for the obtaining of (or adjusting) the valve clearance/s during initial new head assembly or during repair/overhaul. The required valve clearances are in the range of .010" -.016" and you can expect to hear some light ticking and it may vary a bit. However a sudden increase in lifter noise is never good because it may be an indication of abnormal wear of cam lobes/bucket faces or valve stem faces. As you only noticed the noise after an oil change and as you apparently have maintained the car well and as long as it's never been run low on oil and starved of oil then I'm still wondering what you actually are hearing here. The checking of the valve clearances is not really a big deal, but replacing parts will be and it will get expensive.

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

Honestly I have no idea how it happened. I do maintaince very diligently on the car wondering if they did something wrong with the oil change? dropped something in the engine? i dont know. Ill try replacing the oil filter see if that does any good. if not ill take it to my tech in richmond.

Mu_036sp

iTrader: (2)

i say since you have higher mileage. Run thicker. 10w 30. or put some lucas first to see if it does the magic.

P. Samson

Damn.......unfortunately this might explain what has happened. I had assumed that you'd done your own oil change. Was the car out of your sight during the oil change? It would not be a first time that due to a screw up during a simple oil change at a garage/dealer/service centre where someone started the engine when there was no oil in the crankcase or the oil filter was not installed. But of course they'll never admit to it. It doesn't take running long without oil pressure to cause damage/wear particularly with the valve train on our cars. It might still be worthwhile to "ask" them if this is a possibility. Where was it? Please don't tell me......CT!

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

i was there when they were doign it. everything was on properly, just wondering if something "dropped" in the oil when the cahnge was being done. I doubt it, but cant say for sure. oil filter was on, and the oil was put in (infront of me)

lol, and no not cdn tire. it was at adv motorsports in coquitlam by schoolhouse street. i really dont think they messed anything up though.

He turned on the engine with the oil cap off for a brief second, doubt that would cause any harm though.

PhalC1

His sounds more on the agressive side, but I know he's got some **** done to his car, so that will account for that. My car makes that kind of sound to a degree and there's no problems

P. Samson

Well I guess that blows my theory. I don't see how you can have essentially no audible lifter noise and then right after an oil change you've got one or more lifters making noise? All these cars (just take the Lower Mainland) getting regular oil changes with most getting done at various shops, using many different oils, many different brands of filters (without presoaking/prefilling to boot.......the filter is small) and most never having an issue like what apparently has occurred with yours. So the noise is still there and is about the same? Appears to be coming from one bank or both?

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

It may be that thin a** oil you're putting in your engine...that crap is for winter and 10W30 is too thin for me, but that will more than likely cure your problem... with this heat down here in Texas and strip visits...10w40 Royal Purple synthetic is my preference!

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

sounds like one bank. I took in my own oil and filter. Filter was nissan the bigger one. The only thing i changed was that i used pennzoil rather than quaker state whihc i normally use.

Maxgig

iTrader: (5)

Hotstartup,
I know alot of ppl here won't agree with me, but IMO the 5th Gen engines (particularly the 5.5) are the worse of the bunch for the Maximas. I have an 03 with just over 83k miles and I get a ticking noise like you described too. For me its more noticeable when I drive thru the checkpoint barriers going to work or at lower rpms, (900-1000).

I change my own oil at 5k mile intervals and use either Castrol, Valvoline or Pennzoil, (20w50). I too am **** about checking my fluids on a regular basis, (due to the oil consumption problem) so my oil is always full. I get the ticking noise off and on with each that I've used. The only plus is that my noise has not gotten any louder or more frequent over the 2 yrs its been doing it. Based on that I've decided to just live with it. Your mechanic won't be able to find the problem because these are not typical engines and any solution he suggests will only be his best guess.

maxipower

try 10w40 castrol synthenic in hot weather and engine gets hot when you re in bumper to bumper traffic jams,,i use 10w40 in summer and 10w30 in winter,,in phila there s lot of traffic jams,,, always use sythenic oil,,,i have 2001 se with 67k miles,,runs very quiet and smooth,,,knock on wood so far

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

Maxgig, good to know your problem hasnt increased. Mine hasnt gotten any worse either but still im curious as to how it suddenly happened. any particular reason for using 20w50?

P. Samson

Common guys.......you're missing the point. He didn't do anything but the have the oil and filter changed. The lifter noises should not have changed no matter what oil or filter is used. I've never had sudden changes in lifter sounds from ANY car due to changing oil brands/oil viscosity/conv./synthetic (and back again) which includes the three (including my present Maxi) that have direct acting cam followers. 5W-30 is recommended and probably used by most people in this area anyway. (hotstartup.......both filters are small in comparison to others used on a lot of other cars, which is an advantage in respect to the fill time.) And......20W-50 may lower oil consumption, but I would stick to 5W or 10W-30 where we are.

maximalxl

iTrader: (1)

ill take a jab at this....i was told when u change from one oil to a different brand...the engine will behave differently and its not recommended........

the engine buildup thats buildsup from previous oil gets removed by the new oil chemistry....

P. Samson

What I would do for now is to just monitor it. If it's still idling smoothly and the "noises" don't increase I would just carry on and drive it. This is just another one of these kinds of stories that makes me glad that I can still do my own servicing/work on my two cars (plus a friends car) and this kind of thing is never an issue.

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

thanks for all the input guys. I used to do my own oil changes, but i live in a strata where working on cars is not allowed. Pretty hefty fine if they catch you. kinda sucks, something as simple as an oil change should not cause such things!!

P. Samson

By the time I'm forced into a condo (in Victoria) I hope to be driving around in a Tesla S or equivalent to get away from all this crap on these cars. I worked in an industry where reciprocating piston engines essentially disappeared 50 years ago for pete's sake, and it's time to move on from this century old stuff.

Maxgig

iTrader: (5)

I tried the 20w50 to see if it would help my oil consumption problem (currently about 1/2 qt every 1500 miles). So far after 3k miles I've only used slightly more than a 1/2 qt. I'll continue to monitor and see if it helps long term.

CMax03

iTrader: (3)

Maybe the oil change is coincidental! Maybe it was gonna happen regardless!

hotstartup

iTrader: (3)

*update. I have isolated the noise to the rear bank. now i gotta figure out what to do to see where the noise is from? what would be the guess knowing its coming from the rear bank?

P. Samson

My fellow Canuck.......what has happened with this? If it's excessive valve clearance/"lifter" noise, it can of course, originate from either bank. If you want to deal with it, the rear bank just makes access more difficult and it's a bigger can of worms as I'm sure you realize. Is the "noise" just the same or worse?

BRETT65

Its never a good idea to switch brands unless you're switching from pennzoil. Pennzoil sucks. Did you fill your filter halfway before putting it on? If you didn't, the car ran dry until the oil could be pumped all the way through the system and its possible to hurt them or cause them to lose their prime especially on a high mileage car.