Car is 2004 Infiniti I35, VQ35de with around 111k miles. I noticed week ago I’m getting a pinging noise at light throttle around 1800-2500 rpm. No CEL, runs smooth. Under heavier load there’s no noise. I get gas at same place that owns there own gas company, so I don’t believe it’s quality of gas. Only time I’ve expirenced this was in a Chevy 350 during hot hot summer months. Any ideas what might be causing this?
Not exactly the same, but my vq40 is fairly sensitive to octane levels, even when we go up into higher altitude where gas is sold as 85-86, I’ll get knocks/pings, so I have to run the higher grade up there even though it’s not “supposed” to be required.
Other options for you are A) an Italian tune up, or B) seafoam it
Are you making sure to put 93 in it? VQ needs that premium stuff
Winter gas blend changes can cause issues.
Light throttle 1800-2500 rpm sounds like some of the most advanced timing the engine ever experiences. Good thing is at light throttle there's not enough fuel improperly combusting to break anything in there, if that's actually what's happening. I second the idea of either trying a higher octane or just waiting until the next tank of gas to see if anything changes. If it DOES change based on that then i would probably run some Seafoam et al through it and start wondering why your knock sensor isn't causing the engine to retard timing enough so that you wouldn't notice the audible noise.
How many miles are on it?
In reply to _ :
Little over 111k, I’ve ran nothing but 93 in it
The wiring for the knock sensor on those engines is known to be pretty fragile. You may eventually get a P0327 code to go with the knocking.
Possibly a timing chain guide that sounds just like a ping. I have a feeling my Mazda is doing that right now.
red_stapler said:The wiring for the knock sensor on those engines is known to be pretty fragile. You may eventually get a P0327 code to go with the knocking.
Not that I know the vq engines very well, but if the wiring harness was failing on the knock sensor wouldn’t there not to be any knock and just the code? It seems like he if he is getting ping without the code then maybe the knock sensor is not doing its job?
What gets me it’s doesn’t happen all the time, and I’m not having any driveability issues and mpg has stayed the same
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