Posted: May 06 2005 at 9:06am | IP Logged

Hey guys I have been reading through these forums and I first want to say this is a great site.  Seconldy I just purchased my first Titan this week and it is a pretty wesome truck.  I have to admit, it seems there are a few little quirks in these trucks that I was surprsied to find. I mean all the vehilce reviews are really good.  Anyway, I have a question...I am experienceing clicking noise ONLY under acceleration (goes away) when I let off the gas on the passenger side of the truck.  It seems to come from the fender area.  I was wondering is this the mysterious "tick" experieced with the groudning of the engine block?? Or could this be another issue. I have 16,000 miles on mine.  Second quesiton, what were consider the early produced Titans with a lot of problems, verus the later produced 04 Titans.  My question deals with Dana rear ends.  Do most of the Titans exception of 05 have shady rear ends? Since I purchased how many TSB's are out there to get performed on my truck?? Is there a website I could check with my VIN? thanks guys sorry its so long.

04 Titan 4x4 Tow, LE, King Cab

Posted: May 06 2005 at 11:37am | IP Logged

Passenger side ticking has been traced to several different causes. Grounding, #8 spark plug seating and leaky/cracked exhaust manifold. I have a slight ticking at IDLE but not loud and can only be heard outside the truck.

The ground strap I added - was easy to do. I'll retorque the plugs - easy to do and call it done.

Posted: May 06 2005 at 11:43am | IP Logged

Forgot about your Dana question. Yes some of these rears blew up,some overheated,some were low on fluid, but most had no problems. This was a new unit but based on the existing 44 design.

Probably a new production line @ Dana, new parts,new workers,new procedures etc. and some got hozed due to whatever. 

Posted: May 06 2005 at 1:15pm | IP Logged

Is the retorqing of the plugs as simple as unbotling them and the retightening them?? Also I see the groud from the battery negative to the ground on the frame next to it.  Where do you add the ground strap, do you just increase extra wire to the orgional ground point?? Thanks!

Posted: May 06 2005 at 4:05pm | IP Logged

Plugs - I haven't done it yet but from what I can see you just unbolt the 2 10MM bolts and pop off the coil pack. Should be pretty straightforward from there. I would suggest taking out the plug completely (just to look) and then retorque. Be careful with rethreading and torque - heads are AL not iron.

Ground strap- about 2/3 of the way back on the side of the head (passenger side) you'll see a 9(14MM? )bolt holding down a thin black wire. I used a black 32-34" 4ga cable. Unbolt at the head,leave the current small wire on there and just put the new cable behind it. Bolt head,small wire,large wire, head - in that order. Route cable back along the other harnesses back to where the existing (-) cable is tied to the frame/fender below the battery. Remove that bolt. Bolt head, existing wire tab,new cable, frame - in that order.

Unless you're 9 feet tall you'll have to climb up and lay over the engine compartment to reach the head side bolt and plugs. Take your time .

The reason for the order is depending on the new cable design-  the ends have pretty big holes. The existing wires/tabs on top act as washers.

Posted: May 25 2005 at 10:42am | IP Logged

I am glad I found this post - have been searching for an answer to this problem for 6 months.  Truck's been to the dealer twice and they are clueless.  Originally thought it was pinging, so tried premium to no avail.

Last night I did the ground wire fix and the noise has disappeared.  Didn't do the spark plugs because the added ground wire appears to have fixed the problem.  Will let you know if it comes back.

In addition to the brake problem that everyone has been having, this noise has been driving me crazy

Posted: May 27 2005 at 9:55am | IP Logged

For the tick at idle you may be looking at another problem - there was a Field Service Bulletin (FSB) issued that you may want to look at.  Goto the following web site and look at bulletin #04124.  

http://www.nissanhelp.com/