Please help!! Loud whine/knock?
 

Been trying to figure this sound out, car made a loud clicking sound on freeway and then stalled. Replaced the battery, no luck, figured maybe the starter was bad, replaced it, it fired up and this is the noise it made. Took to mechanic, thought maybe flywheel came apart, pulled the transmission the flywheel was shot. Replaced clutch and flywheel, and fired it up and same sound. We seem to have traced the sound to the top back left of engine, sound like VVEL area. Here is a video any info would be greatly appreciated!

2009 touring 57k miles 6M/T w Nav


https://youtube.com/shorts/TKXbipfDxAU?feature=share

Could be a rod knock or a VVEL ladder broke.

Sounds like a rod knock.

Not Good!

Sound like a rod knock. To isolate which cylinder, let it idle and keep disconnecting and then connecting each coil one by one. If the knock almost disappears when coil unplugged, that’s the problem cylinder. I have exact same noise and traced it down to cylinder #5. I haven’t gotten to take it apart yet to exactly find the cause.

:iagree:

Rod knock.

Rod knock it is.

And one more thing, find another mechanic. Fvcken flywheel my azz.

We thought rod knock as well, but traced the sound to what seems like a VVEL module on driver side?

How on earth would this happen if that’s the case, don’t drive it hard, only put 5k miles since I bought it, and only drive maybe 5 months out fo the year. Always done maintenance, so that would suck, whole reason bought the car because thought it would last especially not even driving it hard.

Maybe the previous owner drove it hard?

I was second owner, and I literally got it from some old man lol oh well I guess I got to just face the facts haha

To my ear, that is something in the valve train.
Rod knock is typically a lower frequency with a solid "thud" sound, with a rattle when you rev it.

Lowest cost next option: Pop off the valve covers and have a look.

I’m almost certain it’s not rod knock as the sound is coming from but I would say is the VVEL module, sounds like something in there is banging around maybe the lever arm that’s inside there?

Maybe bad gallery gaskets and low oil pressure?

Put an oil pressure gauge on and see what the pressure is.

Had it towed to the dealer, don’t want to mess anything up, oil pressure never seen it up 265, and always ran within the normal limits. I’ll update once the stealership tells me.

That's oil temp, we were talking about oil pressure

Towed to the dealer will give updatez

Ya, at first, i thought it was the sound of cavitation as in oil pump cavitation.

On second listen sound like valve train.

easy thing would be check oil pressure first.

zz

Rod bearing is diagnosis, will never buy Nissan again after this haha. I guess corvette is in my future once I swap the engine and sale this thing. 57k miles and blown engine is just terrible. Never drove it hard, maintain as scheduled, just unreal. Bye VQ; hello LS

You did say you are second owner.

You did say an old man owned it before you, so who's to say he didn't run it dry just one time? Did you check his maintenance records?

Yep, I bought from a dealership owner, they specialize in Nissan and Datsun restorations car fax shows maintenance as required so I continued it. Only put 5000 miles on it. Just sucks, loved the car, other than that it’s in immaculate condition inside and out. Just as you would see on showroom floor.

Fortunately I can work on cars have experience with engine swaps and builds. This was the only car I wanted to leave stock and not touch a thing to prevent this exact situation 😂 so can anyone direct me to a thread of ins and outs of engine removal and installation? Anything I should know before buying a used engine? Thanks for input, you guys are awesome!

I still think gallery gasket failure and it caused low oil pressure. You should do like Rusty mentioned and put an oil pressure gauge on it if you want to try to find out what caused the failure

Yeah that's really the only failure point on the engines, either that or it started to burn oil and was unknowingly ran low.

He isn't the first one to have a rod knock on this forum. He's about number 6 since I've been on this forum. Being an '09, I suspect the galley gaskets.

'09 is what tipped me off too

What are the gulley gaskets?

Behind the front engine cover, behind the timing chain. There is 2 gaskets that seal off the oil galley. On the early models, these have been known to leak / blow out. When this happens. You will lose oil pressure, either slowly or all of a sudden. The engine will lose pressure to the crank, rods and everywhere else. The oil pressure sensor doesn't do a very good job. When the light comes on. It's too late.

The noise seems to be on top back of engine, where we traced it. I dropped oil pan and no shavings or metal even with a magnet. Oil was clean as well. Don’t see any visible damage. I’ll have to look into the gallery gaskets

Pull the front cover off and look at the galley gaskets. You will see the paper gasket pushed out. You can also pull the valve cover and see if you find anything there. I would do all that before I snatched the motor out.

You could also take both bottom oil pans off and spin in some new rod bearings if needed.

So motor might be alright after all? I’ll pop those off and I’ll see if I see anything thanks guys for all your help

Pull the front cover off and look at the gaskets. Then drop the oil pan and look at the bearings. If the gaskets are just leaking. You may get lucky and just change the bearings. If the gaskets are blown out. You might have bigger issues.

Here is a better sound of it to me it sounds like it’s coming from the top back
https://youtube.com/shorts/EXX9lHsIR0I?feature=share

Gonna have to start that teardown if you want to know for sure. Yes, the gaskets are up front, but they aren't going to be making the noise. In very casual observation over the years, Cylinder #5 seems to be the most common one to show symptoms first when things go wrong.

What I can tell you is that it didn't help anything revving it up hard to record the noise :eekdance: :icon17:

Well I’d rather just replace the motor and then I’ll tear down the old motor I just don’t wanna get into a bunch of stuff and regardless I have to replace the motor in the end. Haha

That is the smart move :tup:

My motor failed earlier this year at the track and its cylinder #5. Was actually wondering if it’s common for this cylinder to go first.

Mine failed on cylinder #5 also.