Valve Ticking noises on 09 370z
 

Hi guys - I purchased a used 09 370z with 25,000 miles a couple of weeks ago, and about a week after the purchase, i noticed a valve ticking sound from the engine area. I went over to my dealership to have them take a look at it, and apparently it had been fixed with the Nissan Ester oil. When i picked up the car, i didnt notice the sound as much; probably because it was loud in the tech area, but when i returned home, i noticed the sound decreased a bit but was still there. Now, 1.5 weeks later, the sound is there and its much louder; definitely noticeable. I am new to this forum, and am hoping for some insight on the valve ticking noises on the Z. I am sure the sound is not "normal" because even my girlfriend asked me what that ticking sound was, and thats kinda embarrassing, especially with a 40k car!

370z2 - YouTube

http://soundcloud.com/jrodrz/370z2/s-JxEc3

http://soundcloud.com/jrodrz/370z3/s-vGHJz

Post a video of it so we can hear if its abnormal.

All i have is 2 m4a sound clips from my iphone.

It's probably just VVEL. Your sound clips might tell if it's really something bad.

Can anyone assist me in uploading the m4a files into a server to link it?

Ruh roh. I remember that sound.

yours was a lil deeper than a valve tick tho lol

LMFAO I was just going to say "I hope it's not 98intrigues 40th"

Unlike 98intrigue's, though, he hasn't thrown a single turbo on it yet...

Previous owner could have....

i dont think the worlds greatest partout woulda slipped by this forum so easily. valve ticking is nothing to be scared of. unless it turns out to be deeper (i.e. rod) then u are fine. a lil valve tick never hurt anyone

Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. This user is new and lots of cars are parted out here like Billy's blue 370Z that had a GTM stage2 TT, he now has a GTR. That Z owner wouldn't have known that car was parted, same with 98intrigues. We did see the part out threads but the OP may not have. I'm just shooting in the air here. Just saying its very possible it could have been highly modded, parted out, and then traded in as "stock" and we probably would have looked at those threads many of times. We don't know who owned the car before him.

Just upload it to YouTube.

G morning ppl - i just wanted to add some additional stuff to this post. So, the other morning on my way to work, i decided to "gun" it getting on the highway; 2nd gear n half of 3rd pull. anyways, when i got to work, i noticed that the sound was just about completely gone which was a bit weird... then a couple of days later, the same thing happened. i floored the car in 3rd gear and when i came to a stop, the sound came back. it does sound to me like an exhaust leak.. Here is a video that i just took this AM - the sound quality is not the greatest. I will take another one in the afternoon and post

370z2 - YouTube

http://soundcloud.com/jrodrz/370z2/s-JxEc3

http://soundcloud.com/jrodrz/370z3/s-vGHJz

Oh yeah take that in and tell em to fix it!

that sounds very similar to valvetrain noise due to low engine oil to me, but it's hard of hard to tell from the video

I hope you're right about it being an exhaust leak, but it doesn't sound that way to my ears.

Any ideas on what it could be? Engine damaged? or exhaust leak? -

On the oil - the sound was there when i took it to the dealership the first time and they replaced the oil with Ester oil and its still there. I will check the oil levels again in a little bit and post.

Does it seem to only come from the drivers side? I have a tick that seems to only come from that side and I hear it the loudest when I'm next to a building. Have had the noise since I can remember and the car seems fine. IDK?

Hey red- its noticable from both sides but more from the drivers side. just like you said, when i pull up next to another car or a building, the ticking sound is definitely more noticeable. - power wise the car seems fine, but its a little embarressing driving around like that. I forgot to add that i did contact nissan consumers affairs since the dealership is giving me the run around - i have yet to hear from nissan.

Well keep us posted. Maybe it would be a good idea to bring mine in to let them look at it.

One more question. Do you have to sound the second you start the car or does it have to warm up?

Yes- the sound is there when i start the car.. the weird thing to me was when i floored it a couple of days ago n it went away, then did the same thing n it returned.

Weird. I normally only here mine once it warms up.

Since my first oil change, I have used Mobil 1 5w30 extended perf.

My car just hit 45,000 miles, 17,000 of them with twin turbos at 550+ rwhp.

since as far back as I can remember, my VVEL system has been noisy as hell. Just sitting at idle, you can **always** hear it ticking away like an old sewing machine.

I am not much of a believer in the magic of one expensive oil versus another, so I never bothered with the Nissan ester oil. But if anyone can say for sure that the Nissan oil makes it quieter, I will swap over to it.

But I have no concerns of it being an issue that is going to cause a failure... because its done it since brand new, and I beat the piss out of this engine daily, and it hasnt changed or gotten any worse, etc. Its just always done it.

Hey Phunk - is your engines sound similar to the clips that i posted? the Ester oil was done for free by Nissan n from what i've been reading, it seems like Redline is the way to go to reduce engine noise. are you still running stock internals on the TT setup?

Its really hard to compare the sound over the computer speakers. My car has a loud exhaust on it and I cannot really hear the valve noise from outside the car because the transmission (very light clutch and flywheel makes these transmissions very loud at idle) and exhaust are much too loud. I hear mine inside the cabin, sounds like its coming from the dashboard. The pitch is pretty low for a TICK, its ALMOST more like a knock... but its not a bottom end knock, I know what those sound like. Its definitely my valvetrain.

Yes I have a bone stock engine in my car. Just turbo kit, injectors, fuel pump, exhaust, clutch, reflash, and a tank full of E85.

I will say that, if my car was otherwise stock, and made this noise... it would bother the hell out of me. My car is very loud and pretty darn fast so it comes with having strange noises and things like that. Nobody questions it as a passenger in my car because its generally expected that fast cars make weird noises. But it used to bother me a bit before I made the car fast... and if I took off all this performance stuff and drove it mostly stock again, I would probably do whatever I could to get rid of the noise, if possible.

Got it man, thx.. and yeah, its bothering the hell out of me. ive had two ppl ask me what that sound is.