hello hugh in regards to your 100ks service

Hi Rob,

Yes, I found the source of the noise and now is all fixed - no thanks to Nissan. I went back to Nissan three times and got the run around, so elected to fault find myself. I found that the root cause of the problem was an over-tensioned timing belt. However what concerned me more was the following.

The 2.8 T/D has a spring loaded auto tensioner, with locknut that is tightened to ~ 35 Nm. However there is also a locating bolt, with spigot shoulder, that provides sliding location of auto tensioner assy. When I removed the auto tensioner spring and loosened lock nut there was no relaxation of belt tension. I found that the locating bolt was restraining movement of tensioner assy, which it shouldn't. So I went to undo it and found it was really tight (sheared two star bits before getting a high strength one from work) so much tighter than 10 Nm. I found that the shoulder OD was too large (or slot in tensioner too small). Rectified this for unrestricted movement, reinstalled spring and tightened locknut. The end result of all this is no noise (when goosing throttle just off idle) so I assume this to be the cure.

So what I think happened is young apprentice found all the above too hard (no mention of removing locating bolt in manual - well it shouldn't need to be removed unless removing the tensioner assy). Finding tensioner pulley too hard to loosen, the new belt has been stretched over pulley and lock nut tightened. Well that is what I suspect. I checked the belt teeth and there was no sign of damage, and given this all within 2-300 kms from dealer I figured belt should be OK.

You might want to run this past your mechanic and see if he noticed a similar problem. The job is actually quite simple if you want to check yourself. If you email me your fax # I can send you pages out of Nissan service manual for RD28T engine.

Regards,
Hugh

Rob,

My email is carlislefamily@iprimus.com.au

Hugh