Long story short I got the same infamous codes everyone got. I read tons and tons of threads regarding this issue prior to making this post and they all lead to the gallery gasket. I’ve since replaced the gallery gasket and have ran into the same three codes and I’m just lost out of my mind. I replaced the gallery gasket with Z1’s kit, I replaced both VVT solenoids, oil levels are good.
i notice the car has a nasty rattling/pinging sound that only happens when accelerating from a stop. The car will be boggy as well until it picks up rpm’s and then it will gain power but will give me the P0300. The pinging/rattling will go away once the car goes into limp mode after the P0021 and P0524 codes come up.

Car details: 2008 G37S coupe. 217k on dash, engine replaced under warranty @ 117k miles.
trans replaced 3 weeks ago at 217k.

issues I’ve had with the car:
—August 2022, the car was driven through a flooded road and managed to get some water in the intakes. Driver side air filter was shredded and the MAF was covered with the air filter. Apparently the dude I bought it off of cleaned it and the car was good “allegedly” no codes or issues regarding that.
—P0420 was a big issue, I replaced it with BERKS high flow cats and replaced all four 02 sensors. The issue went away, also had a crazy 02 reading hence the new 02 sensors.
— possible exhaust manifold leakage.
—The serpentine belt snagged the Driver side VVT solenoid harness and ripped it off the solenoid which caused p0021 issue. both cables were stripped of its insulation and were touching. I replaced the VVT solenoid but didn’t noticed the severity of the cable until AFTER I had replaced it and plugged the bad cable in. I replaced the cable with a pigtail. I’m thinking maybe the new solenoid went bad from the old cable being bad???


Things I’ve replaced;
transmission from Nissan
clutch with flywheel
Berk high flow cats
all four 02 sensors
both VVT solenoids
galley gaskets (both)
AC compressor (heard pinging could be that, wasn’t it)
All idler pulley’s
Power steering pump
Driver side VVT solenoid plug


My last option I see left is replacing the intake sprockets as I’ve heard that can also cause issues somehow. They don’t seem out of time but who knows
I already did the gallery and I tore the entire front end off and I really don’t want to do that again as I have nowhere to work on my car (living in NY)

I’m really at a halt with this car and I’ve invested probably over 7k now in parts to just sell it anymore, I’m too invested and I need to see it through lol I might just buy a new engine at this point

This was where the belt had snagged the cable, and was touching.

This is the end of the plug with the exposed red wire and the green cable held on by two copper strands.


Anyone have any recommendations?


Edit: swapped out the solenoid and no dice, I’m lost

 

I am about to replace my new cheap VVT sol. with an OEM...

 

Well, the new Hitachi solenoid WORKED! For now. Runs like it did before this cluster F. Let me drive it for a few days and I'll check back. The old/cheap $40 one was from Parts Geek. Maybe ill keep it and test it.

 

Well a little update for you guys,


I ended up pulling the motor out since I had a cracked upper oil pan and removing the upper cam tensioner would mean removing the VVEL ladder. I swapped the upper oil pan, both cam phasers, water pump, crank sprocket, timing chain, main tensioner, and bank 2 upper tensioner. Taking apart the VVEL to get to the tensioner has somewhat scared me though as it can be a pain in the *** for the actuator and the sensor and synchronizing and all that. I was planning on starting the car today but unfortunately, when dropping the engine/trans back into the car, it hit the rack and pinion’s oil line and broke it and I can’t seem to find a line to save my life so looks like ima have to buy a cheap rack from a junkyard or something and swap out that line. I ALSO ended up snapping a bolt on the pulley bracket. I would’ve still started the car at least for 4-5 minutes but to finish off the bad luck, my battery is completely dead
LOL no start today.

Hopefully this nightmare comes to an end soon.
Ill swap a charged battery in tomorrow morning and crank it and see how it goes

 

Hey there, anytime a sensor/switch/solenoid grounds with wires in its own connectors possibility of internal damage of the ECM should be considered.
Though we share commonalities in the noise and issues I only get this and p0011. It's quite possible that you might be overdoing all of this work only to be suffering from the solenoid valve not operating correctly from a dead driver in the ecm from the shorting.

I know you wanted to go forward with the cam tensioner replacement. Just letting you know the plungers alone in the old tensioner body would have saved you having to take the VVEL assembly off. Just required the rear timing cover to come off again.

 

Wow, that IS cracked. @Nandosan You should make this it's own thread and link it here.

 

I checked the voltage output on my VVT solenoid vía a multimeter and plungers connected at the solenoid. I was able to track real time voltage while driving. I did both solenoids and both voltages at different speeds and RPMs and they correlated together. Hence why I continued to a mechanical failure.

I decided to go forward with the tensioner as my car has 214k original miles and had a long block replaced at 117k miles by Nissan. I’m almost certain they tried to salvage a majority of items from the old block to this one. I opened the phaser and there didn’t seem to be signs of any failure, didn’t see any debris, I blew out all the oil lines on the block and didn’t see any debris. If you look at my vid and the vid about those specific designs on the plunger, it gives all the signs of failure and correlates with the rattle, and causes a 6.3 degree delay between the intake sprocket and exhaust sprocket. I went ahead and replaced the tensioner, took off the new cam phaser and threw on my old one out of the sake of proving my theory correct and being able to possibly help others in the future. I believe I do have the worse case scenario compared to others because man I’ve replaced just about everything lol whether I’m right or wrong, it’ll be a good post for anyone who comes across this issue.

i just got my vvel system to sync with the sensor. I started the car and the throttle response was drastically better than before. I couldn’t take it for a spin as I have the entire serpentine system off and a broken rack line but I’m finishing up the diff bearing right now, about to install all the pulleys and take it for a spin.

 

Unfortunately I still have the same issues LOL I’m coming to an end with this car man. The only difference I notice now is that I get p0300 more often. P0021 and p0524 would happen almost instantly when driving the car but now it happens rarely, but still happens. I honestly don’t know what route to take. I’m leaning towards the ECU like you stated but it only does it when the engine temp is cold.

im debating just buying a long block from a 2018 6MT 370z I found with 30k miles for like $1700.

 

Buying a Q50 AWD motor can save you $800 but needs your upper oil pan.
I would suggest to reach out to someone in your area that has a NATS deleted ECM and try that first.
It would really suck you spend all of that time and money and it was the ECM all this time.

Congrats on being able to put all of this together.

 

Thanks for the advice I think the AWD engine is def the route ima take, they’re way cheaper. I hit up Eugene from Enthusiast Auto Care for a 09 ECU pre-programmed and bigger rom for the eventual UpRev tune. Worst comes to worst, it’s not the ECU and I got a updated ECU on my car.

i feel like I’ve hard the worst case scenario for the p0021/p0524/p0300. But hopefully it’ll serve as a guide for anyone else who deals w similar issues as I have

 

Depending on how you do the ECM. You should go with a Separate ECM, upgraded and flashed. If you do start the new engine on the old ecm.
This will let you know if engine or ECM was the issue. Replacing both will never let you know if it was the Egg or the Chicken that was the issue.

Good luck!

 

Thats my plan, I believe he clones the old ecu’s configs onto a new one and programs it to my vin. I’ll do a new ecu with the old engine, throw that in first and if that solves it, then I’ll know it’s that. If it doesn’t, then I’ll do new engine with old ecu to see if the ecu was fine all along and perhaps was an irreversible failure on the engine. Thanks for the help and advice you’ve given me, I’ll keep my post updated

 

You're welcome. This helps the community as well as myself to see how intricate this problem can become other than just gaskets

 

i know it’s been a while but i took a break from the car and cleared my mind and the solution was in my face the whole time (which you had also mentioned). The cable that had shorted fried the ECU. I replaced EVERYTHING VVT related and after reaching out to Eugene over at enthusiast auto care, I got an ECU sent out and as soon as I plugged it up, car ran like a charm. Looking back, I feel kind of smooth-brain for not prioritizing the burn marks on the Vvt solenoid cable.
I appreciate your help @BULL . At least now, I’ll have a phenomenal working G for years to come with all the parts I swapped out, to include the 6MT.