Glad to hear you ended up with a new engine before your warranty expired!

This is just my opinion, but I think most of the praise here belongs to the dealer. Once the dealer identified the issue, Infiniti had no choice but to cover it. From my previous experience with a Toyota, I've come across one dealer who would refuse to diagnose an issue I had and continue sending me off with various theories and explanations which I knew were false and later ended up getting repaired on my first visit to another dealer.

My grudge with Infiniti/Nissan will continue to be that they aren't addressing known quality/defect issues such as the leaking valve covers.

 

Man, I'm having the same noise. When I let the car warm up for about 7-10 min I start driving and here the clacking noise lightly and when I press the clutch in to change to 2nd, I hear it clearly "clack,clack,clack,clack,clack..." Then when I'm in second it will start doing it again all the way up to 3rd. Usually happens around 2k-3k. My car has 52,589 miles on it and sometimes when I am in 3rd and decided to accelerate hard I can hear clanking noises..like having a damn CocaCola can under the hood bouncing off everything. Tried to call the dealer today and no answer. What do you guys think???

Oh, the last time i heard this same noise (clack) was before i was due for an oil change. When i was rushing to the dealer I had pressed the brakes kinda hard cause some dick decided to slow down for nothing and saw my Oil Light blink on and then it dissappeared. This was unusual. So, I get to the dealer and tell them what happened and they said "yeah, we'll check it out" After the oil change I asked them so was my oil low and they said "no, it was still a good amount in there" I asked why my oil light would come on and off like that and they had no answers. I think something is fishy. I've taken the car to a shop so they can determine the noise and they were stumped. They couldnt pinpoint the spot. My Infiniti dealer is 2 hours away so i take it to either a local Nissan or another reg car shop. Too bad Nissan cant do warranty work.

 

Forgot to ask one thing...when i take it to the dealer should I take off my Pop Charger and put the stock airbox back in??? or just leave it? Will they see the PC and say "oh, that voided your warranty"

 

No doubt, Riverside Infiniti performed on my behalf like champions. I owe this new engine to them. I self service my car and the service consultant mentioned that Infiniti was trying to deny the new engine because of a lack of receipts proving proper upkeep, but the consultant had the tech take pictures of the inside of the oil pan showing no sludge present, proving that there wasn't any abuse.

They also made sure I got an additional 12,800mi / 1 year warranty on my new engine.

The dealership stepped up to the plate, and as a result I'll likely buy my next car from them.

 

The legal answer is that they couldn't do that without proving that the pop charger caused the failure. This is under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

Now the common sense answer is that if you can swap out the after market parts before bringing the car to the dealership, you should. It is bound to save you any headache that could be caused by that part, and the intake should take no more then 45 minutes to an hour to swap. Personally, I'd put back in the oem one before going to the dealership.

 

Holy crap, I just stumbled upon this thread. I've been getting that same noise too on start ups once in a while. I thought it was normal. I should get my spark plugs checked too. The only problem is dont know if my dealership would be as helpful as riverside.

forgot to mention i have a 2004 G35 coupe 5AT with 45,000 miles.

 

One thing I think I really need to point out to everyone is that according to the service consultant that noise is common on G35's. It may actually be normal. In my particular case there was engine damage that may or may have not correlated with the start-up noise. I happen to believe it did in my case, but some of these cases may be caused by the timing chain tensioner problem.

So if you happen to be out of warranty, don't stress yourself out too much. Also the service consultant said that if I had not replaced my engine it would not have exploded into a scattered bunch of metal on the freeway. Eventually it would have gotten a rougher and rougher idle, lost power, and started to ping. Of course it would have failed a lot sooner as well, but its apparent that the metal was already in my engine for 20k+ miles and there were no immediate adverse consequences. It was cumulative.

But of course if you have warranty the smart thing to do would be to have the dealership look at it and see if there is an issue that needs to be fixed. No one wants a bad engine.

 

Started my girlfriend's car this morning and the camshaft is clanking away. I let it idle for a minute or so and it is still clanking away. We always change the oil with Mobile 1 synthetic. Car has 37,000 miles. It's being flatbedded to dealer now. It's an 06 G35 sedan automatic. It was down slightly on the dip stick after 5,000 miles since last change. Any ideas?

 

Infiniti/Nissan needs to own up and issue a recall for those who are out of warranty.

It's a known problem with these motors and they need to face the facts. Same goes with the tread wear issue. Everything I don't care. (squeaking, window motor, door locks).

But engine and tires. Those are safety concerns.

 

Didn't they see any of the metal shavings when they drain out the oil? Or the only way to see is if they took the engine apart.

Also was your car burning any oil at all?

I suggest everyone to get a magnetic oil drain plug. Maybe we can get an early detection by seeing if any metal shavings are attracted to the magnetic plug.

 

UOA (used oil analysis) are good to do too. Those can prove internal issues very early in the game.

I already know my valvetrain is failing on my VQ replacement. Just a matter of time until it becomes more obvious for dealer to see and/or hear.

Get ready Infiniti, you haven't thrown me under the bus yet with the powertrain warranty I still have left!!

 

I was wondering what that damn noise was!!It happens when i reach the 1.5 rpm. I thought it some 1st gear tranny thing but ruled it out because i popped it into 2nd with the manual option at a higher rpm and it still did it. This explains alot..

 

Called Infiniti today and they told me it sounds like an oil consumption issue. Gotta take it in on Monday or Tuesday so they can take a look at it but now i have to take off that damn pop charger and put my oem air box back in...ugh.

Hey V35, where can i get a UOA done and about how much does it run? Thanks.

 

I just wanted to confirm that this was also the solution for me. I had the EXACT same noise upon morning startup. After the long block replacement, due to oil consumption, the noise is gone. Luckily for me, the car was within the powertrain warranty. (2005 Coupe 6mt)

 

Yeah cause this crap is getting ridiculus. I'm tired of hearing that noise. I'm driving past people and they look at me when the car goes "clak clak clak clak clak clak"
And this car has to go a long way for me cause Im not getting another one.