A little background. I have a 2006 Altima 3.5SE with about 85k miles. Car has been running fine but for the last two years we've had the dreaded timing chain tensioner failure noise. We were concerned about chain failure so we decided to go ahead and do the whole job, basically the complete Evergreen kit. And while we were in there, thought doing the plugs, PCV valve, and belts would be a good idea. I have a good deal of experience wrenching on VW's and some Toyota's but never done anything like this on a Nissan.
Started breakdown last week Thursday. Had my sister helping me so things moved smoothly. We took our time and made sure to track parts, screws, nuts, bolts, etc. The timing cover was probably the hardest part of the whole thing being that you have to remove so many things to get to it, slide it out through a narrow space, clean all of the gasket material off (now for the second time), re-apply RTV, and then slide it back in without messing up the gasket bead.
Got to the chains. Made sure I was at TDC of compression by using a compression gauge on cyl. 1, verifying the camshafts on bank 1 (rear) are pointing up and slightly inward toward each other, making sure all of the lines on the camshafts were pointing up and dots on left outer sprocket facing back with dashes on right cam sprocket facing front and the line on the crankshaft matched up with the one on the block as per the manual. Compared the new chains to the old ones before removing and took old parts off (I stupidly did not mark any of the old pieces and I know better, and I should have counted the number of links between the camshafts and the crankshaft before taking off. If anyone knows this number, that would be appreciated.). All of the new parts went on easily and everything appeared to line up. The secondary and main chains all had colored links that matched the appropriate markings on the camshafts and crank. I triple-checked all of the markings, hand tightened the bolts, and then spun the crank to make sure it moved smoothly. I did not see the chain jump and checked the mark locations again with TDC on compression. No issues.
Finally finished on Monday morning. Re-installed everything and no start. Will crank but almost never even feels like it's going to catch. I went through all connectors and hoses and could not find any loose ends. Checked spark. Almost non-existent. Could smell fuel on plugs and spraying carb cleaner into the intake made it sputter a little better but not much. Getting good compression. So the only possibility left is the timing jump, the kit is defective somehow, or I messed up and didn't do it correctly. I'll eliminate the kit since every other part was a match.
If the timing jumped, would that prevent the plugs from showing good spark?
I read the service manual, watched just about every youtube video on this job, and read several forums before even ordering the parts. I am pretty sure I did it correctly the first time but it wouldn't be my first mistake.
Going to start re-do tomorrow. Just want to know if there are some things people can recommend that will make the process easier and help prevent any more issues. What can I do to make sure the chain doesn't jump after I release the tensioners? How can I make sure the chain is as taut as it's going to need to be? Does anyone have a good diagram specifically for the 2006 showing the layout of the timing chain setup with marks? The ones in my manual are for a different version of the 3.5 so it looks similar but slightly different. Does anyone know what the count should be between the links on the camshafts and between camshafts and crank using the timing marks?
I don't think I could do this a third time and not going to pay the dealer to do it. All of this because of a $30 part that (based on my research of how common the problem is) should have been covered by a recall.
Thanks for any help provided!:smile
Started breakdown last week Thursday. Had my sister helping me so things moved smoothly. We took our time and made sure to track parts, screws, nuts, bolts, etc. The timing cover was probably the hardest part of the whole thing being that you have to remove so many things to get to it, slide it out through a narrow space, clean all of the gasket material off (now for the second time), re-apply RTV, and then slide it back in without messing up the gasket bead.
Got to the chains. Made sure I was at TDC of compression by using a compression gauge on cyl. 1, verifying the camshafts on bank 1 (rear) are pointing up and slightly inward toward each other, making sure all of the lines on the camshafts were pointing up and dots on left outer sprocket facing back with dashes on right cam sprocket facing front and the line on the crankshaft matched up with the one on the block as per the manual. Compared the new chains to the old ones before removing and took old parts off (I stupidly did not mark any of the old pieces and I know better, and I should have counted the number of links between the camshafts and the crankshaft before taking off. If anyone knows this number, that would be appreciated.). All of the new parts went on easily and everything appeared to line up. The secondary and main chains all had colored links that matched the appropriate markings on the camshafts and crank. I triple-checked all of the markings, hand tightened the bolts, and then spun the crank to make sure it moved smoothly. I did not see the chain jump and checked the mark locations again with TDC on compression. No issues.
Finally finished on Monday morning. Re-installed everything and no start. Will crank but almost never even feels like it's going to catch. I went through all connectors and hoses and could not find any loose ends. Checked spark. Almost non-existent. Could smell fuel on plugs and spraying carb cleaner into the intake made it sputter a little better but not much. Getting good compression. So the only possibility left is the timing jump, the kit is defective somehow, or I messed up and didn't do it correctly. I'll eliminate the kit since every other part was a match.
If the timing jumped, would that prevent the plugs from showing good spark?
I read the service manual, watched just about every youtube video on this job, and read several forums before even ordering the parts. I am pretty sure I did it correctly the first time but it wouldn't be my first mistake.
Going to start re-do tomorrow. Just want to know if there are some things people can recommend that will make the process easier and help prevent any more issues. What can I do to make sure the chain doesn't jump after I release the tensioners? How can I make sure the chain is as taut as it's going to need to be? Does anyone have a good diagram specifically for the 2006 showing the layout of the timing chain setup with marks? The ones in my manual are for a different version of the 3.5 so it looks similar but slightly different. Does anyone know what the count should be between the links on the camshafts and between camshafts and crank using the timing marks?
I don't think I could do this a third time and not going to pay the dealer to do it. All of this because of a $30 part that (based on my research of how common the problem is) should have been covered by a recall.
Thanks for any help provided!:smile