I am new here and just found this site Just purchased a 2004 Frontier XE 3.3L V6 and I am noticing a valve tapping noise at engine idle and it kinda gets worse after it has reached operating temperature (Is this normal??) oh and by the way it only has 498 miles on it and I am running 5W30 Mobil Synthetic ..but now since I have noticed that tapping noise at idle if I give it just a slight bit of gas from idle I hear a bearing in the bottom end on the crank knocking ...trust me I know what that sounds like ..I spun a bearing in my old 92 Buick Reagal..However I am noticing this noise ....This can't be normal I am going to the dealer in the morning ..will let you know what I find out ..oh and to top it off I got off work and was walking out to my truck and saw a few drips coming out of my rear differential ... now I am really ticked, I traded in a 2003 Mustang GT with 14480 miles for this ??
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Aaron Ford
95 2WD Nissan PU E
2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue GX
"The hard part about playing chicken is knowing when to flinch" Scott Glenn in The Hunt for Red October
Well I went to the dealer today to get the differential fixed found out it was a bad cover gasket and was leaking at he bottom .... OK I can deal with that, I also told them about the engine knocking noise I heard, so they offered me to drive another new pick-up ...same model as mine exactly with only 9 miles on it ..and guess what....I heard the same exact noise in the new one as my truck has I guess I kinda feel better...But I am going to keep a close ear on it ..thought you guys might find this interesting....
Laterz All,
Todd
Last edited by t.sirbaugh : Oct 15th, 2004 at 02:53 PM.
Todd, do a search on this board for "valve noise" or "valvetrain noise" or "engine noise" and I think you'll find that every Nissan engine just makes noise. I've never heard a quiet Nissan engine, but I guess it doesn't hurt reliability. This is the only foreign vehicle I've owned, and the only one that would make a heckuva lot of valvetrain noise depending on the brand of oil I put in it. I've found that Pennzoil keeps it pretty quiet. You might try filling yours with Pennzoil next time around and see if that quiets it down. Who knows what the factory filled it with...it might be a cheap blend.
I hope you get as many miles out of your Frontier that most of us have gotten out of our pickups. I don't pick sides on the domestic/foreign issue because I've had good service from every vehicle I've owned, and this is the first foreign-branded one. I've been very impressed so far. I've just done regular maintenance on it for the past two years and it's treated me well. Just turned 187,000 miles the other day. It's due for some brake work and possibly u-joints or a carrier bearing, but none of that would fall under the "repair" category...just regular maintenance.
my 03 makes a little bit of top end racket when I first start it in the morning but it's pretty quiet the rest of the time. The lower end noise would worry me. That's wierd because mine has been bulletproof for the most part!
Later,
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Black Knight - 2004 Crew Cab XE-V6 4x4
"...God made men the way they are because we desperately need them to be the way they are. Yes, a man is a dangerous thing, but so is a scalpel. You don't make it safe by making it dull, but instead you put it in the hands of someone who knows what he's doing." - John Eldridge
Diagnosing noises through a forum is awfully difficult. Heck, it can be difficult if you are actually HEARING the noise in person.
Mobil 1 is also a fairly noisy oil. It is formulated thin and other factors may contribute to it being VERY noisy, especially in the cold. Oils with a heavy barrier additive package (like Chevron and Pennzoil) tend to be more quiet.
My relatively new 2.5L QR25DE is quite noisy as well. Can't tell if it is piston slap or valvetrain noise ... and I use Schaeffer oil which has more moly than either Chevron and Pennzoil.
It may just be the way Nissan likes to spec valvetrains ... with a little play in them to deal with heat, expansion, etc ...
My 01 XE 3.3L 5-sp is also very load in the valve train, I was worried about it at first and then relized that they all do that just some worse than others I guess I run castrol 5w30 with a 1/2 quart of Lucas Oil treatment every 3,000 miles and i run the piss out of it. Truck performs well,just tends to be noisy!
Tsirbaugh is yours a manual or auto? I also have a 04 and i though i heard a bad bearing to until one day i started pushing the clutch in and out and it tuned out to be the throw out bearing making that noise. I was going to take it in until i heard my friends 03 g35 coupe making the same noise so i let it go and its fine. Seems to have gotten quieter now that its at the 10k mark.
One more thing T.sirbaugh, it happens often but i think the techs at the dealer may have misdiagnosed your rear dif needing a cover gasket. I think that when they fill these things they just dont wipe them down enough if any of the fluid drips out and it just seems to cling well to the diff. At 2000 miles i was under my truck just looking at things i noticed quite a bit of fluid restiing on the diff. I was kinda upset so i preceded to make sure the bolts were snug and they were so i poped the fill plug off and it appeard to be full. I just kept an eye on it and at 8k checked it again and it was still full. At that time i changed it to mobil 1 gear oil and so far seems to be fine. Ive heard a few mention leaky diffs and most of the time this has been the problem.
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