rawbutt

Noticed a tapping sound from the engine at cold start this morning that went away after about 10 seconds. I run Mobile 1 full synthetic 5W-30 and verified that it was full of oil after I heard it. Just wondering if anyone else had experienced this? It's an 09' with 48K on it. It's hard to imagine that I'd need to get the valved adjusted but who knows.

Thanks in advance!

12SLIMITED

Hmmm...low miles, full of good oil...did you drive it in a fashion to do any damage before shutting it off? How long was it off for? What was the temp outside? I have owned multiple VQ's and have never had a valve tap on start up...see what happens tomorrow morning and report back

GSB Maxima

it's an 09...aren't you supposed to use the Ester oil? BTW I'm new to maximas and i myself an trying to find out if that oil is a MUST?

Serpent

I'll save you some time reading these forums and tell you that if you've got money to spare, go ahead and buy your oil from Nissan. But if you want to just pick up your oil from a local auto parts store, just buy synthetic 5w30. Mobil1 happens to have an ester additive as well. From what I've gathered, Mobil1 is the most popular oil around here. But seriously, if you start reading, you'll spend hours and get nowhere because there are a MILLION opinions on here about what is best.

However, if your car is still under 15K miles, use conventional. It's better for the break-in period.

Sorry OP, didn't mean to thread jack. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable can weigh in on your issue.

Rafik Jabbour

48K that's too low for valve adjustment :S My previous BMW M3 had 200,000 kms and didn't need valve adjustment..

Use Nissan oils, they're tested and verified obviously.

As for Oil debates, as Serpent said, you'll get no where, its a never ending debate and discussion. Same thing happened to me when I had my M3, the topic about two different oils had more than 3000 posts, and each one had a different opinion lol!

A good tip, before switching the car off, let it cool down for 30 seconds then do so. Also, when you start it up, wait for 30 seconds before you rev or take off.

Good luck

rawbutt

Here's an update.....

This morning, the tapping noise did not happen on a cold start. Both mornings, the car was in a closed garage. The morning that it happened was colder, but probably only around 35 in the garage compared to around 48 this morning. Both mornings, the car had only been off since around 5:00pm the night before and in both cases, I did not drive the car aggressively or in a way that could feasibly cause any damage before shutting it down. So the only difference seems to be that it was colder, but I've left my car outside the garage on 25 degree nights last winter and never had that tapping noise. It's a mystery for sure I guess I will see how the coming days go.

As for the oil discussion, I think folks summed it up pretty well. I'm quite meticulous and over-analytical so I got caught up in the countless hours of reading the various posts on here about it. At the end of the day, after breaking in with traditional oil, I went with M1 5W-30.

12SLIMITED

See how it goes in the coming days...if it doesn't happen again then I would dismiss the worry...

Eddie 70

I will be following your updates. I am curious about what you find out. Do these motors require valve adjustment? I would have thought they were self adjusting.

12SLIMITED

I have been around VQ's for a long time and have never heard of a valve adjustment...

rawbutt

Another cold start morning with no noise....very strange to me how it could happen just that one morning. I won't bore you with daily updates but will certainly update this thread if it happens again.

12SLIMITED

Glad to hear another good cold start. Remember at the end of the day it is a machine and can/will have a little quirk every once in a while...

rawbutt

good point

STARR

iTrader: (1)

Its odd but I had a one time thing where I was home in NY, started my car up and my engine sounded like the valves where tapping, it might also have been it was freezing out, I had the radio off and the heat did not kick on yet so ever sound in the car was magnified, I just figured it was an odd combination of things, cause the following days my car was fine on start up.