Engine knock on cold start or over night

[Great White]

I have a definite engine knock on cold start up or when engine sits overnight. It has gotten worse so I took it into my local dealer. Had a long talk with the line tech and service manager. They haven't herd this before in the NV's. They made digital sensor recordings and ECM info and sent it ti Nissan America's engineering department. They will get back to me with the results. Looks like a new engine is in order. They have to have Nissan's blessing. Since This is a new style vehicle little is known about the long term life of these vehicles in real world use. Has anyone else had issues like this? It runs as good as always, but the noise is more pronounced. The dealer I bought it from recommended full synthetic so that what I have been using. Seems to have helped with gas mileage, about 1 mpg. The knock is not changed though.

 

I have found that finding  a dealership that works on them to be a problem. I had a talk with the service manager where I bought it and found out that the NV was kinda forced on the dealers. They had to have Techs certified to work on them,  in order for the dealers to be allowed to sell them. This also meant refitting stalls to accommodate the NV. They also made it mandatory for all dealers to stock certain replacement parts for the NVs. This meant one dealership may have to stock suspension parts, another, may have drive train parts, and another may have body parts, ETC. This means when you need to have your NV serviced they have to order parts from some other dealer and this takes time. They had to hunt down brake parts for mine and it took almost a week. This seems kinda slick on Nissan's part. They can force the new vehicle on the market and make the dealers foot the bill and carry the responsibility for part inventory. If the NV fails then Nissan doesn't have to stock any parts. Crafty!

 

I hope the NV makes a good foot hold in the market and we can enjoy having them for years, but I will be more reserve in my decision to keep mine depending on the outcome of this engine issue. I have questions about the 5.6. It is the engine that has been in the Titian for many years, isn't it? They have had millions of mile racked up on them from years of service, right? I'm sure the knocking issue has come up several times before. You have to expect severe issue within a certain percentage of engines manufactured don't you? Since this is not a new engine platform than this should be an expected cost of business. We shall see. If anyone else is dealing with these issues, please  let me know. Maybe we could contact Nissan as a group. This could be isolated incident or there maybe more. Thanks for your feedback. 

[Great White]

I just researched the Armada and Titian forums. Seems the 5.6 has had knock issues for many years and it is said to be contributed to; cracked exhaust manifolds, oil filters with no check valves bleeding oil down, Timing belt tensioners, piston slap. Nissan seems very aware of these issues and have some service bulletins out about it, but see it as either no problem, normal engine noise, or owners negligence. Ouch! If this is normal then if I try to sell it to an individual then I should just tell them that it is just normal and they have Nissan's assurance that it is a non issue. Right. Sorry if this seems negative but, Damn, Really?  

[ASD Dad]

All motors have issues.  There are NV commercial vehicles out there with 100's of thousands of miles that run great.  There are brand new NV's that are lemons.  The big dealership in Charlotte took in a trade with I think 300K miles on it and it still ran well.

 

This motor has been around almost a decade now with very little change.  Any motor that has been around 10 years will have lots of issues reported, there are tons of motors on the road.  Foreign or domestic, doesnt matter.  People go online to vent about problems, they dont go online much when they have no issues.  Not sure how many 5.6 motors are out there with the Titan, Armada and Infiniti lines combined but after that many years I am sure it is a lot regardless of how bad sales are vs. others.

 

You are correct it could be a lot of things.  I would let Nissan sort this out, that is what the 5yr, 100K warranty is for.  I didnt see in your post where they said exactly what the problem was.  There is a huge difference between fixing a cracked manifold vs. rod knock or piston slap.  You have it on file that it is an issue and they are working on the fix, just stay on top of it.  

 

If you need a major fix they'll most likely swap out the short block.  It is cheaper and faster vs. a rebuild.  It will likely be a re-manufactured short block but it should carry a full warranty.  You can always ask that they extend the warranty on the engine and vehicle as a "good will" gesture.  Most companies will do that when it is a major fix like that on a relatively new vehicle.  

 

I think the biggest issue is giving you something to drive while it is being fixed.  It wont be quick and I dont them having a high roof cargo as a loaner but I could be wrong.  If that is outfitted for work it will be an even larger issue.  In that case you can go after lost wages/company income if you are out for an extended period of time.  

 

As for selling it, if I heard engine knock I would just politely walk away even if the seller had a signed letter from the company saying it was "normal".  Unless it was dirt cheap and I felt like I could repair it on my own dime and come out ahead...

 

Keep us updated on the outcome.  It definitely is a problem, I'd like to hear how Nissan fixes it.

 

EDIT: Never heard that about the dealer network.  I have 1 dealer in the area, period.  That is where I bought mine.  The next two closest dealers are 2 hours and 2.5 hours away.  

[andy_george]

Good luck getting to the bottom of this, and please keep us posted. If I was buying a used van and noticed a knocking sound I would probably walk, having no idea what the previous owner may know but not be telling. If it was my van and I planned to keep it, I'd be willing to bet that if you wear ear plugs it will run another 200,000 miles ;)

 

Now I'm not saying you shouldn't check into the issue, but phantom sounds are often much more annoying than actual mechanical issues. I'll be interested in how this gets resolved. Good luck!

[Great White]

Thanks for the input. I have been a mechanic for years. It just gets frustrating to have engine issues with new vehicles for anybody. This has been the second in a row and it gets old. The knock only last a few minutes then it is gone all day until it sits overnight. Any aluminum engine makes a lot of noise. Piston slap is common. Irritating but common and will not hurt the engine. The problem I have is down low like a rod knock but more like a torque converter bolt. The Techs could not pin point it. It just gets old having a vehicle with less than 10,000 miles on it with a major issue. I just wanted to get it out there to give you guys a heads up in case you start having the same thing. There is a lot of Titian and Armada owners with the same problem going back about 10 years. Just wanted some feedback. Sorry to come off as Bitching, 

[ASD Dad]

You have every right to be upset! It's a new van with low miles making bad sounds. Just don't beat youself up over it. I'm guilty of it and it gets you nowhere other than higher stress and blood pressure. Just keep after Nissan and if it stalls call Commercial direct or ask for the Regional Rep to get involved. Now if the dealer starts blowing you off then you can get upset and more demanding!

 

Keep written records with dates and copies of any dealer emails or paperwork. If it does get stalled and ugly dowm the road you'll need all of it especially if gets to arbitration for a Lemon claim.

[Great White]

The Dealership has  contacted Nissan America and sent all the computer recordings of the knock to the engineering department there. They have a R O File on it. Basically a open file that supposedly I will be contacted by them and they will send an engineer to do further test on it. We shall see. I'm sure it will be one of those, drive it till it breaks things but who knows, they may actually be  wanting to be preemptive on this. Would be nice not to be broke down somewhere having to get a rental to get back and have my vehicle sit in a shop for weeks. I have hope Nissan will do the right thing here. I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks for the feedback.

[aabel]

I have had two Yukon Denali's with the 6.2 liter motors that I moved! Each one had cold start piston slap that was noisy on start up. It's super common on those and posed no issue for me. As long as it goes away upon warm up, then you're fine. Are you sure it's not a cracked manifold? I work in the equipment business and we deal with a ton of fleet issues of all kinds, and cracked manifolds are common, especially in larger service body chassis where the exhaust is hung differently.... kind of similar to our NV's. Sometimes a synthetic 10/40 oil can help if it is in fact piston slap. I went through a phase some years ago and went crazy on oil analysis going on bobistheoilguy.com and learned a lot there too

[LOFT]

Just pulled this from the Titan forum. Credit to 2108TitanXD. I’m in the market for a new/used NVP and I am frustrated with the dealership in that they can’t or won’t tell me the date of engine manufacture and when the fix was implemented at the factory. 

[radin2son]

Good luck on this. I looked up engine serial number decoders. It seems to basically default to the vin number and the “complete” vehicle build date. Perhaps the “pay” sites will offer more...

 

If you buy new, this isn’t an issue. If you buy used,  2017-19 NVs  should have plenty of warranty left.

 

Or, you could look for a 2016 or older NV. 

[aztec]

Affected vehicles:

 

NV built before: 5BZAF0(***)KN 851114 // January 15, 2019

[LOFT]

1 hour ago, aztec said:

Affected vehicles:

 

NV built before: 5BZAF0(***)KN 851114 // January 15, 2019

aztec, 

 

Thanks for the info. I assume that is a VIN number?  Also, where did the info come from?

 

Many thanks!

 

LOFT

[radin2son]

Loft, I thought you wanted the engine build date even though the vin gets you close enough with just in time supply lines. 

 

Go to carcomplaints.com or Nissan Titan tsb ntb19-057a. This will give you access to a pdf file, 9 page tsb. If the cylinder wall is scuffed in a certain way, the fix is to replace the short engine  assembly. 

 

If you buy a used NV (new V8) built prior to 1/15/19, the cylinder wall will need to be checked. 

[LOFT]

A sincere thank you to everyone on this post for the help. I was looking for the TSB and couldn’t find a good one until you pointed out carcomplaints.com. 

[Jakerh22]

I have a 2017 NV passanger van that has been at my local dealership for 4 weeks this Tuesday. After being told it was normal for some NV’s to sound the way mine did, I discovered the TSB. I took the info to Nissan and the decided to replace the short block under warranty. After getting it back together, they’ve been having issues with codes.  An was running lean and not accelerating properly. They ended up replacing the fuel pump. Still did not fix it. I was told it is running fine but still throwing codes. Something clearly wasn’t put back together properly and my poor wife has been without a vehicle for almost a month. Frustration after frustration. Now I’m worried about what other problems will arise after I finally get it back. It only has 64k miles.  

[radin2son]

Nissan is into this warranty work until it is fixed and beyond, even after the original warranty expires. You, however, may need to motivate Nissan to do this. 

 

What’s left of the 5 year warranty? In total, there have been few terminal issues with NVs, but you could have the dealer check out your NV, at your expense, or have an independent Nissan shop do the same. If anything is found, have the dealer fix it under warranty. Probably not needed...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[crusty]

17 hours ago, Jakerh22 said:

I have a 2017 NV passanger van that has been at my local dealership for 4 weeks this Tuesday. After being told it was normal for some NV’s to sound the way mine did, I discovered the TSB. I took the info to Nissan and the decided to replace the short block under warranty. After getting it back together, they’ve been having issues with codes.  An was running lean and not accelerating properly. They ended up replacing the fuel pump. Still did not fix it. I was told it is running fine but still throwing codes. Something clearly wasn’t put back together properly and my poor wife has been without a vehicle for almost a month. Frustration after frustration. Now I’m worried about what other problems will arise after I finally get it back. It only has 64k miles.  

Time to call Nissan corporate, not the local dealer.  Be nice to them.  You have to remember that the dealers are not part of Nissan.  The corporate side will know nothing of your history with the dealer. 

You are dealing with a bad repair.  Probably one tiny thing, just don't know what it is.  There are field reps that exist just for such issues.

[radin2son]

The emphasis is on call, if Nissan Commercial still functions. When you call, you will need to document your call and who you spoke to. You aren’t likely to get the same person if you call back. They will take your info and contact the dealer for your van’s and dealer’s records. A rep may or may not be brought in. The system does work. 

 

When you call see if you can get a rental. You may have to lean on the dealer service manger to get this. A good eval rides on this and it may speed up the process. 

 

Laf Since this thread started with the older 5.6, all posts after 2016 should move to the 2017+ 5.6.