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 Cure for VQ35 Timing Chain Rattle in 05 Quest Forums > >  Cure for VQ35 Timing Chain Rattle in 05 Quest $67 Cure for VQ35 Timing Chain Rattle in 05 Quest
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  #16  
Old 02-28-2012, 01:43 PM
Quest driver Quest driver is offline
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Default Does timing chain problem affect oil?

I have a 2006 Quest with the VQ35 engine experiencing the same noises described in this thread. It's got 79,000 miles, but I've noticed the noise for around 5000 miles now. The dealer said we need new tensioner and timing chain, but they also said the our engine was a quart and a half low on oil after less than 3000 miles since our last oil change. There are no signs of leaks, so my guess is that it's burning oil somehow. Does anyone know if these problems could be related and has anyone considered a class action lawsuit given that every Nissan with this tensioner will eventually develop the problem?
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  #17  
Old 03-11-2012, 01:09 PM
sdyccyb sdyccyb is offline
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There are some videos on youtube. Maybe by scotjjhicks1. He did the repair without lifting the engine. I was planning to do that repair in a few weeks, but now I prefer to do this simple replacement to save some time.

It's certainly better to replace the guide and the repair would last longer until the plastic part on the guide falls off again. But it looks like even if we just leave the broken guide there, we can still at least get ten thousand miles, right? By then we can spend another $67 to replace the tensioner itself.

I just don't want to spend too much time or money on a used car which I'm going to sell within two years. Hope I can get 17K miles after the repair, just as Scott (here).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Orlando Nissan Victi View Post
I got too happy ahead of time...there is a huge problem Huston! Even though there is no rattle now...I did discover that the piston is resting on the metal behind the plastc chain guide. The plunger is almost fully extended at 75 percent I'd say. I checked it with a dental mirror and a flash light and it's confirmed. The new tensioner is doing a miraculous job pushing on the metal backing of the chain guide, but if you look really good...the top part is missing and the whole plastic peice slid down . In conclusion, the piston is suppose to push on a plastic square not on the metal...This gad damn fuking chain cover has to be pulled reguardless.

Last edited by sdyccyb; 03-11-2012 at 03:21 PM.
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  #18  
Old 04-09-2012, 06:11 AM
shampooguy shampooguy is offline
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Well, unfortunately my tensioner isn't the problem. Just like some on this thread, my guide broke off and slid down, so the tensioner isn't pushing at the proper point on the guide. I visited my local Nissan dealer (Holland, MI) and asked if they had seen alot of this...their response..."Nissan sold 12 million of these engines, so you see 100 of these complaints online. That's not bad. It sounds like yours is getting up there in mileage (100k), so it doesn't seem out of the question. What we find is people start stretching out their oil change intervals to 5000 or 6000 miles, and that's when they start seeing problems." Total denial was what I got out of it. I won't be going back there.

Anyways, since I'm a backyard mechanic, I thought of an idea to hold up the guide. Using a very small Black and Decker drill, I drilled a hole in the square spot on the guide and fed some 20 gauge solid steel wire thru it, tied it to the top bolt on the tensioner, and snugged up the bolts with some locktite. We'll see if it holds up.
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  #19  
Old 04-16-2012, 09:37 AM
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Starless Starless is offline
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This post has great pictures that help to visualize and understand the problem:

VQ35DE Timing Chain - Nissan Forums : Nissan Forum

My quest has 90K and I do not have this problem, hopefully I won't for a long time. But if it develops at least I know what I'm dealing with.

I'm curious if there is any info on how common this problem is and how many VQ35DE engines actually have this defect.
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  #20  
Old 07-09-2012, 08:58 AM
altimanut altimanut is offline
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I am performing the fix mentioned above by shampooguy, all is going well so far but I can't get the bolts started into the new tensioner.
It appears like I need to get some slack in the timing chain in order to push the tensioner toward the chain.
So the question is: Does anyone know the best way to get slack in the chain? I am thinking to spin the crankshaft pulley a little bit, but what direction, clockwise or counterclockwise?
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  #21  
Old 07-09-2012, 09:14 AM
shampooguy shampooguy is offline
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You'll need to rotate the crank pulley with a wrench, but I would wait for someone else to chime in on the right way to do it. When I did it with the tensioner off, I started skipping teeth on my cams (unknowing at the time)...put it all back together, and the thing was not running, cranking over real funny. It was a major PITA to get it right.
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  #22  
Old 07-09-2012, 03:22 PM
altimanut altimanut is offline
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Thanks but I think what happened to you has already happened to me. I did do some research and didn't think it would hurt to turn the crank a bit but now it won't start and appears to have jumped time. I did get the wire and tensioner in place and thought it would work out but when I went to start it, turning over funny, has to be out of time. I really don't see why turning the crank it would jump time but it must have. I don't think I ever would have got the tensioner in there without getting some slack. I'm happy that I tried though, it would have worked if the chain would have stayed in place.

I only had that small cover off so not a ton of time wasted but will be paying someone to fix and may as well put new chain and all related componts in there since the cover will be off so not looking forward to the bill.

So you got yours going ok now? Did they improve the guide that caused all the problems?
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  #23  
Old 07-09-2012, 05:39 PM
shampooguy shampooguy is offline
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Bummer...I was able to get it timed right by taking off the cam access covers, and continued rotating the crank pulley, all the while skipping teeth until I got it back in sync. I think the back cam was skipping, not sure though. I used these templates to time it without taking the whole front cover off the engine...http://www.jimwolftechnology.com/wol...c_template.pdf

These templates were a huge time and money saver for me.

Unfortunately my "wire holding up the guide" idea did not work. The tensioner snapped the wire, guide fell down, and my chain rattle was back. I purchased a new chain guide, cut the rubber guide in half, and wedged the top half thru the access cover, snapping it into the spot where the defective guide slid down. So far 5000 miles and no chain rattle.

You do need to rotate the crank to put slack in the chain in order to fit that tensioner back in, it's just you can't do a full turn, otherwise you might skip a tooth. Who knows
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  #24  
Old 07-10-2012, 05:26 AM
altimanut altimanut is offline
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Well that sounds a lot better than having a mechanic take off the front cover but I will talk to him to see how much $ it would be. It mentions in the Haynes manual for that engine the complexity of the timing system and that engine damage can occur if it's not right and the engine starts, definitely don't want to go down that road...

I only rotated the crank about a 1/4 of a turn so not sure why mine jumped time but it must have.......

So I'm assuming you had to remove the tensioner to skip the chains over the cams. So once you lined everything up based on the template, you were able to get the tensioner back in there? I had one heck of a time getting my in place to get the bolts started. Which direction did you rotate the crank, clockwise or counterclockwise?

Also, how did you cut the plastic guide that was in the engine? Or where you able to remove the whole thing and use only the top half from the new guide?
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  #25  
Old 07-10-2012, 08:14 AM
shampooguy shampooguy is offline
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I'm surprised your off with just a quarter turn. Those templates will tell you for sure if you are off a tooth. I did remove the tensioner to get it timed right. Another thing I did was remove the front 3 spark plugs, hoping that it would be easier to rotate while skipping teeth. Once I got the cams lined up, fortunately there was enough slack in the chain for the tensioner (while compressed) to fit. Pure luck I'd say...it was tough. I think I was rotating it counter clockwise.

As far as the plastic guide, I cut the old one down to where the tensioner spot is, then just shoved it down into the engine until it stopped. I couldn't completely remove it because it seemed to hook on the bottom of the metal arm it's attached to.

I cut the new plastic guide so that it somewhat overlayed on the old guide...basically I cut the bottom third off, threw it away. Somehow I was able to bend and twist the new guide thru the access hole and hook it at the top of the metal arm (in theory, no more sliding down, and hopefully the tensioner will hit the right spot). It sort of snaps in place. The key is to get it to hook up top. This would all make sense if I had pictures, especially of the new guide, but unfortunately I don't.

This was and still is a complete gamble, not to mention a bit halfa$$ed. Who knows the long term affects of doing it this way. It should have been completely torn apart, new chain and everything. I'm not capable of it, plus I don't want to spend the $2k+ to have it done. Thankfully, everything "sounds" ok. Someday I might remove the cover, take a look, snap a couple pictures, and update this post to show what I did, but unfortunately my time is consumed by other issues with this van.

Good luck!
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  #26  
Old 07-10-2012, 01:00 PM
altimanut altimanut is offline
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What you are saying makes sense, there are some good pics on here of the related parts so I can visualize pretty well what you did.

Do have a few questions though, did the new plastic piece overlap the old? And did you leave the bump on the old and cut just above that point?

How did you cut it? I can't seem to think of an easy way with where it is located.

Also, did you lift the chain up from the cam sprocket and spin the cam to align it? Or did you hold the camshaft in place and spin the chain over it? Can you actually see the chain with that access cover off?

I really appreciate your replies and if this works will save a lot of money which I can't afford to spend on this car right now.
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  #27  
Old 07-10-2012, 02:05 PM
shampooguy shampooguy is offline
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Do have a few questions though, did the new plastic piece overlap the old? And did you leave the bump on the old and cut just above that point?

-I did overlap the old with the new piece. Try to leave on as much as you can on the new, while still able to fit the new thru the access hole. I cut just above the bump on the old, then shoved it down as much as I could. On mine I could still see the bump thru the access hole, so it won't fall far.

How did you cut it? I can't seem to think of an easy way with where it is located.

-I used a small snippers, but be careful because the old guide is likely brittle. Maybe stuff some rag in there to prevent any pieces from falling into the motor. It won't be a clean cut. The new guide will cut much nicer.

Also, did you lift the chain up from the cam sprocket and spin the cam to align it? Or did you hold the camshaft in place and spin the chain over it? Can you actually see the chain with that access cover off?

-The cam covers don't provide much access, unfortunately. You do not see the chain or sprocket at all. You just need to hope that by rotating the crank you will be skipping teeth. You should hear a clunk sound every time it skips...scary I know. Use the template I posted earlier and you'll know for sure that your timing is off.
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  #28  
Old 07-11-2012, 10:58 AM
altimanut altimanut is offline
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I think I need to just get in there and just play with it, I hope good luck is on my side. I will likely have some more questions in a few days.

Right now I'm cleaning up my garage so I can have lots of space to work on it once it's in the garage. Hopefully we won't have too much trouble pushing it in!

Thanks again for your advice and knowing it worked for you is giving me the motivation to give it a try.
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  #29  
Old 07-12-2012, 10:23 AM
altimanut altimanut is offline
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Well I talked with my mechanic and now worried that I might have bent some valves when it was turning over since it is an interference engine. Sounds like you didn't have a problem with this, how many times did you crank on it, turn it over, when you were trying to start it?
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  #30  
Old 07-12-2012, 11:42 AM
shampooguy shampooguy is offline
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I noticed something wasn't right after about 2 seconds of turning the key. I looked around online and I thought I had read that these are non-interference...not sure I guess. Mine is running fine, and it was off about 6-8 teeth.

Out of curiosity, what did your mechanic quote you to get it fixed?

Last edited by shampooguy; 07-12-2012 at 11:44 AM.
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$67, chain, cure, quest, rattle, slack guide, tensioner, timing, vq35

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