Ya I've heard about and had Ester oil in my car. Still ticked. I changed the oil personally with Redline at 2500 miles and it went away for about 2 days, now its back with a vengeance.

You can't adjust the valves in the traditional sense.

- Intake side cannot be adjusted. If it is out of specification the cylinder head assembly needs to be replaced.
- If the exhaust side is out of specification, FSM calls for the removal of the VVEL and cam and replacement of the affected valve lifter.

So yes, you are partially correct, so I do stand corrected.

Agreed. Also, it will be an expensive repair should an intake valve get damaged.

Are there any videos or sound files running around about this ticking?

My 2009 6spd w/ SP has never had this issue. I ran factory oil until 1500 miles, Castrol GTX until 5000 miles, and have used Castrol Syntec 0W-30 up until this point with repeated oil analyses that are perfect. With 17,500 miles, the only ticking I've ever hard is the injectors. The injectors on my previous 2007 Altima VQ35DE were very loud, too (louder under load). So...I'm curious if mine does it too and I haven't ever paid attention or if I'm one of the lucky ones.

You all should try changing to Castrol Syntec 0W-30, too. It's a super oil and has really good wear characteristics. I ran it in my Altima for the 40000 miles I had it and had perfect oil analysis results every time and I GAVE THAT CAR HELL!!! Same with the Z. Just sayin...

Late,
Trav

yeah you know i'm not to sure about nissan's "it's non-servicable" remarks for the vvel. I almost want to buy an extra head to play around with it and see because the thing has to put together at the factory somehow, it's just a matter of what fixtures, tools, and processes you need to do it, and being that there is probably an alignment table required for the thing with several indicators, and they aren't going to put one of those in every dealership they probably just labeled it non serviceable. of course replacement parts would be a problem as they don't sell VVEL ladder bar assembly bearings at the dealer.