Hello guys. I have a Nissan Altima 98 with 105k miles on it and wonder if I should go for a new timing chain? Car runs great but...who knows what can happened later?:) Heard different opinions on that subject, now I'm confused:(. Any advise?
I'd wait till it's a problem. Some never develop the problem so it would be a waste of time/money to fix it if there isn't any problem now.
It should outlast the car. Don't worry about it
I don't know about that, I'm replacing the chain on one of these tomorrow that has 116K... It "should" but they sometimes don't!
What does the local Niss dealer's service say? How about the owner's manual?
Let's suppose your cruising down the road at 65 and your motor jumps time. I won't go into detail as to the damage that will cause.
It's not a scheduled maintenance item on this car, and I believe you will find the cost of replacing it to be approaching that of a complete engine overhaul.
The chain is supposed to last the life of the car. Maybe it will, or maybe not, but unless you are having some problem that says it is bad, you should not mess with it.
What would you attribute this seemingly early failure to? Lack of timely oil changes? Is it something the average user could avoid with proper care, or do some just fail for other reasons?
Thank you.
Louis
I think partly has to do with the type of oil filters used. A friend of mine has one of these, always uses nissan filters and has 200K on his with no problems. That and changing the oil regularly.
Are the Nissan filters better than the various name brands available at the Auto Parts Stores? You would think that the American firms could at least equal the quality of the ones Nissan sells?
I have been changing the oil in my vehicles at 3,000 miles. Sooner if the service is severe. Even at that interval the oil seems to get soiled.
Thank you.
Louis
I'm not even going to comment on this subject, everytime I have in the past I get flamed for it. Use what you want but IMHO trying to save a dollar on an oil filter for a $20,000 car seems silly.
You would think that the American firms could at least equal the quality of the cars Nissan sells as well. Their spark plugs suck, why would you assume the oil filters are OK?
Good point.
Thank you.
Louis
OEM filters are the best to use, how ever if your dealer turns into an A__ like the new owner of the one I worked at for eight years LOL I now use Bosh oil filters, No dry noisy start ups they seem to do a good job. As far a your chain go's no noise is good news. i have seen them go for 250k with proper maintenance.
But why assume they are fine? The plugs work OK when you first install them, the problems show up later. I have no interest in being a beta tester using my car for someone else's oil filters...
Just one example of a possible problem. If the filter material is too fine, when the engine is cold, or even warm if the filter is too restrictive, the oiling system goes into bypass mode so you are circulating unfiltered oil. Sure the "micro filtration" sounds great but unfortunatly none of the oil is going through the filter! Fram filters are useless in this regard, all they do is plug up the oil from leaking out of the side of the engine.
And there is no way you'll know this is going on until your chain starts rattling etc and you wonder what caused it. Most people decide to blame the car maker rather than the cheap/wrong oil filters they are using.
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