Hey guys,

I have a high RPM whine (associated with some other noises that hopefully are all related). It sounds to me like a bad timing chain tensioner, similar to the problem plaguing the VQ35 and VQ40s in Nissan vehicles. Let me know what you think it might be.


Any ideas?

 

Can't tell by that vid, but it could be a lot of things... Flywheel, your belts r 2 tight, tensioner pully on it's way out, throw out bearing worn out, possible timimg chain, ect. What mods r u running????

 

Had Z-Tube + Popcharger in that video but it has since been taken off and the noise is still there. Would the flywheel really make that noise? I know the flywheel needs replacement but I can't figure why it would make a whine. I have replaced all of the belts and it was doing it before + after the belt change. I shouldn't say for sure, but it definitely doesn't sound like it's coming from the front of the engine where the belts are anyway. This is happening with clutch in or out, in gear or out of gear, so would throw out bearing really be the culprit?

 

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Sounds kinda the same as that one

 

Yea, and timing chain tensioner was his problem. Also sounds like this:

Which was also the timing chain.

 

Thats a hard thing to pin point without actually getting dirty... Thow out bearing noise is usualy only heard at idle to low rpms with the clutch released not necessarily high rpms... I mean honestly it could be anything your best bet it to take it to a trusted mechanic... Because if it is your timing chain and it breaks thats gona cost ya.... good luck and lets us know how it turned out....

 

I'm still within warranty so if it's the timing chain I'm fine, but the only thing is that I took it to the dealer and he said he heard nothing abormal (WTF, right?). This was the service manager, so there's nobody higher that I could have discussed it with. I have already contacted two other SoCal Infiniti dealers and sent them links to the video (my closest dealer is 30-45 minutes away, then the rest are over an hour, so I don't want to drive just to find out they can't hear anything). I just don't know what to do to convince them that they need to figure this out.

 

They must be death if they can't hear that. Honestly from reading around it could be a number of things. Its so hard to tell exactly what in order to isolate the issue.

 

You're right, hard to hear anything if you're dead.

 

Well, I sent the videos to two other dealers and we'll see what they say. I'll keep you guys updated, but it definitely sounds like a timing chain to me.

 

Well my dealer swears that there is no abnormal noise. Here's where I'm at with this:

This is unrelated to the problem here, but when I first brought my car in to a dealer I was told my compression rod bushings were torn but I had no time to let them be replaced, fine, ok. When I brought the car in to the other Infiniti dealer (closer to my home) I was told everything checked out fine. I brought it in again and told them specifically to look for torn compression rod bushings and they said everything checked out ok. I had my car back at the other dealer up north (which you'll read about later in this post) and again they told me my compression rod bushings are torn.

I had a ton of spark knock, dealer recommended fuel injection and throttle body cleaning for $280. They had my car already so I said whatever, just do it. They did that, got the car back and as I was leaving the dealership it was knocking just as it was before. Brought it back, they checked my ignition timing, everything checked out OK (according to Consult-II). Eventually the spark knock was bad enough for me to bring it back again, so I brought it back and also mentioned I had a whine (the whole point of this post) that sounded to be coming from the timing chain. They looked at it, adjusted my timing, and the whine seemed to go away a little (which makes no sense to me).

Well, on the drive home from the dealer the whine started again. I shrugged it off as I was going to drive up north for spring break. On my drive up north (about 400 miles) on the freeway if I would let off the gas the car almost felt like it was going to die, pressing the gas pedal brought it back. Sounds like they adjusted my timing or idle back too far? I brought it to a dealership up north who essentially told me my dealer down here was wrong, stupid in fact, and should never have adjusted the timing in the first place. The dealer up north heard the noise and after keeping my car for 2 full days, told me they just thought it was electrical noise. I ran new grounds to everything in my car (because I do have a stereo and amp - although the noise occurred before these went in). Unfortunately at this point it was time to drive back south and I brought the car to my original dealer again, who again, couldn't hear anything.

At this point I have contacted Infiniti Consumer Affairs and am going to run over the whole issue with them and see what they say to do. My dealership experience has been horrible, and I will make sure that Infiniti CA knows this.