JohnnysG

iTrader: (14)

How does one know if your rear timing gasket is bad? Sorry for nub question

Victory

Usually presents as it does above. Car goes into limp mode and you get a check engine code for low oil pressure and a malfunction with variable camshaft timing.

rsingerG37

Ah ok. It looks to be the metal one. Don't the paper ones have like an brownish/orange color?

antirice

iTrader: (2)

How many miles were on the car when you purchased it?

Victory

~33k miles

TheLocNar

iTrader: (5)

Ugh. Just reached 65k on my 2010...

Victory

Saw it today. Sludge was a factor. Looks like my regular changes with synthetic started to break it up and it threw a clot, which caused the gallery gasket to get pushed out. New assembly, new timing chain and guides, pan dropped and cleaned out.

Dealership was awesome, didn't report the earlier neglect to infiniti.

Ape Factory

iTrader: (3)

Well that's good and bad news. Good that it might be caused by owner neglect and not a systemic failure due to design. Bad that you even had to deal with all of this on such a low mileage car. Glad it's gotten sorted.

Did they say anything about possibly flushing the rest of the oil passages so this doesn't happen again?

Victory

He said he opened up and cleaned out everything that was accessible while doing the job. I'm going to run a few thousand mile oil changes as I'm sure any gunk elsewhere in the engine is, likewise, starting to break loose

Boomer-Bob

iTrader: (1)

My memory is cr@p, but, isn't there an additive or something to wash out deposits like these?

Selym

I haven't ever done this, but some suggest adding Sea Foam to the oil before an oil change.

If I were to do this, I'd probably just idle the engine with Sea Foam in the oil. I'm not keen on putting a load on the engine with diluted oil in the crank case.

Victory

Using strong solvents to dissolve sludge is a dangerous game and usually a last ditch effort. If you break loose a chunk and it causes a blockage, you can destroy the engine. A good oil with a strong detergent package will slowly dissolve the deposits, which is safer. As you can see in the pictures, using predominantly mobil 1 the last 25-30k miles has already started to clean things up, but this didn't happen overnight and wont be fixed overnight.

The car still runs great, so I'm not inclined to rush things. There are some slower-acting additives that are supposed to add to the oil's detergency, but, in the end, oil additives are like health supplements. Most are of dubious value.

Ape Factory

iTrader: (3)

Have to agree with Victory on that one...and at the very least any attempt to unclog passages of sludge should be done by the dealer at this point.

Victory

Well, with a new timing chain cover, cam sprockets, cleaned up oil pan and pickup, the most important and smallest passages in this engine are either clear or brand new. Just gonna let the detergents in the oil do their work and keep oil change intervals short.

rsingerG37

Where you able to get a look at the gaskets in the old cover?