Nissan Primera SR18 (DE) noise while accelerating

taggerung, Sep 11, 10:23pm
Hi guys
Just wondering if you have some ideas for me:
Symptoms are: whining, whirring both reasonably loud with a cold engine. It increases with acceleration, decrease with your foot off the accelerator,
and goes away completely once the car is warm, say 2-3km.
It seems to come from near the belts on the left side of the car facing the engine.
Regards,
Simon

seadubya, Sep 11, 10:29pm
Bearing in the power steering pump or air con pump? It's been a while, but if I recall correctly they are both on the front left when facing the engine on an sr18.

tamarillo, Sep 11, 11:16pm
Is my ex in your boot?

franc123, Sep 12, 1:05am
If it will make the noise when standing still I'd be removing both the drive belts and running it briefly and seeing if the noise goes away, this is a bit difficult without getting it on a hoist. If it persists you may have an internal sludge problem which is causing the oil pump to whine while the oil is thicker when cold, and upsetting flow to the chain tensioner and cams, seen this plenty of times on SR's. This is an expensive repair.

kazbanz, Sep 12, 1:10am
What he says ^^^^^^
The other part of the issue is sludged up cam oil bars.Ie the oil spray onto the cams is restricted.

morrisman1, Sep 12, 6:14am
what year is your primera?

ozz1, Sep 12, 10:14pm
camshafts as per kaz.

msigg, Sep 13, 12:13am
Alternator charging heaps, or belts slipping .

taggerung, Sep 13, 3:30am
its a 1998 model. not the cvt thankfully.
Thanks for the info guys. I'll have another look at it.

morrisman1, Jun 30, 2:04pm
Hmm, that could possibly be a roller rocker head, not 100% sure if the SR18 got them at the same time as the SR20. The roller rocker doesnt have cam oiling bars and sprays from below, they dont suffer the same oiling issues like the early ones, but any badly neglected engine could do it.

A quick check of the timing chain & tensioner by removing the rocker cover could answer the question.