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Burning oil, LOUD Rattlesnake noise only when accelerating... Forums > > Burning oil, LOUD Rattlesnake noise only when accelerating... Burning oil, LOUD Rattlesnake noise only when accelerating...
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  #1  
Old 07-20-2013, 12:56 PM
blazie151 blazie151 is offline
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2003 Sentra
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
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Default Burning oil, LOUD Rattlesnake noise only when accelerating...

Ok, so I have a 2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R. I was stuck in a scenario where I had to move and drive the car a little over a 1000 miles. Before the trip, I got an oil change at Jiffy Lube; I know, I know, don't flame me, I only used them for it cause I had a free oil change gift card. Immediately (within 50 miles) after the oil change while I was on the freeway, the car revved up to 6500 RPMs without speeding up (felt like the tranny slipped), the car shut off, and dumped a huge amount of oil out of some breather tube near the air filter all over the place. I immediately towed the car back to them and proceeded to flip out, they had some senior tech check everything out and end up telling me the car was fine and nothing was wrong except for a couple codes they cleared out. I checked the fluid levels and previously the tranny fluid was high and the oil fluid was low, after it was all correct so I know they messed with something, but they refused to admit fault and basically stiffed me with the car. I checked the check engine light codes at Advance, and it threw 3; catalytic converter under efficiency, PCV valve, and something to do with the engine idle speed, I don't have the exact codes ATM but remember the gist of it. So I had my friend that was a mechanic once over the car and said everything was fine and it was good for the trip, the codes it threw were no big deal, the car was running great and sounding fine so I was good to go. I replaced my belt and flushed the tranny cause it was overdue. Now here's where the fun starts...

After about 350 miles of continuous driving, the oil pressure light started blinking on an off and I started hearing a knock, so I got to the closest place that sold oil and was shocked to find the oil dipstick dry. I filled it back up and talked to the mechanic there, who looked for leaks and couldn't find any. He concluded I burned off all the oil, said it was fine, and sent me on my way telling me to check the oil frequently during the trip. So after making it another 200 miles, I checked the oil and it was low about a quart and a half. I kept filling it up every time it was low and kept progressing until about 300 miles away from my destination. By then I'd burnt through a lot of of oil, and all of a sudden, while climbing a hill, the car started making this weird sound that could best be described as a baby rattle or a pissed off rattlesnake. I took it to another mechanic (#3 so far) who told me my catalytic converter was probably clogged because of all the burnt oil, and he thought the sound was coming from a blown gasket around it. The sound only happens when accelerating, and will not present itself unless accelerating; it's also loudest under load like when climbing a hill or accelerating rapidly. He ended up saying that since the exhaust was at least venting, to go ahead and make the rest of my trip unless I could afford to stay there a few days while everything got fixed. I got another oil change while I was there because the oil that was on the dipstick was the blackest I'd ever seen. My oil filter was filled with sludge and the guy there replaced my oil with synthetic 5w10, saying it should help my issue, and cleared the codes again. The last 300 miles the car had a little of the power it had lost back, the drive went smooth, except for the noise, and I only burnt about another 1/2 quart of oil whereas before that I'd have gone through another full quart at least.

Well, the car is now resting, and I'm trying to figure out all of what needs to be done to get it working properly again. I've taken off the PCV valve and there seems to be fresh oil through the tube and into the intake manifold, and I've taken off the exhaust manifold and catalytic converter in preparation to soak it in lacquer thinner in an attempt to clean it out. Unfortunately, the mount the O2 sensor screws into broke off during removal due to a weak weld and metal fatigue, so I'll need to find a local machine shop that can re-weld the mount back or patch it up and tap a new O2 sensor mount. There's no obvious blown gasket, and I still don't know exactly what could be making that rattlesnake sound during acceleration. I also have no idea what's causing the massive oil consumption out of nowhere. Last several oil changes I was only 1/2 qt low at max after 3k-5k miles, now all of a sudden I'm burning a quart every 200 miles. Any ideas people?

Sorry for the long post, figured too much info was better than not enough.
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  #2  
Old 08-03-2013, 02:51 PM
blazie151 blazie151 is offline
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2003 Sentra
 
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Well, I hollowed out the cat, and I'm going to get some anti-foulers to get rid of CEL from the rear sensor. I aso cleaned out the throttle body and intake manifold. There was a row of butterfly valves in between the upper and lower intake manifold with 1 of the valves missing, which is weird cause that hasn't been removed in the 7 years I've owned this car. It was still running crappy, and the CEL started blinking. Checked the code and got a p0300. Cleared it and got a P0304. Checked the ignition coils and found one that was bad and another that's iffy, it only works when you press down on it. So that's probably the majority of the problem, I was running on 2 cylinders instead of 4. I stretched the spring on the loose one and I'm replacing the other. I also already replaced the PCV valve. Still can't figure out where the air sound was coming from, but it got better after I replaced the spark plugs.

Last edited by blazie151; 08-03-2013 at 02:54 PM.
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  #3  
Old 08-05-2013, 07:42 PM
blazie151 blazie151 is offline
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2003 Sentra
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 3
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Well, replaced one ignition coil, the other one won't seem to stay working for very long and is intermittent, so I'm replacing that one too. When both are working though that sound is ALMOST gone completely. Parts (including a new upstream O2 sensor as well) will be here tomorrow, so I'll update again after I get it all together.

Update on the butterfly valve with the missing plate: it's a common issue on these cars. The plate was bent and jammed against the cylinder head, so I loosened it by pulling at the edge with a bent coat hanger and pulled it out with a magnet. I flattened it back out between some boards with a hammer, and found that PC motherboard screws are the same size and I had some of those lying around. Loctite'd it all down and did the other ones while I was in there since they were loose. The 2 screws are MIA though. I suspect the plug I thought detonated 5 years ago was one of the screws. The other one probably melted in the cat on the trip. There's no knock or rattle, so I won't know if there's any extensive damage without compression and leak down tests done.
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