Oil filter noise....

[Johnny248]

So I had this guy bring his Pathfinder in last week, complaining of a whining noise from the engine. I'm thinking to myself cool, another secondary timing chain job.... Then I listen to it, and it seems like it would happen on decel of the engine. For instance, rev the engine and left off, and the rpm comes back down to idle there was a noise that best way I could describe would sound something like some sort of vacuum actuator that could actuate and release. squeaking/whine/whipple noise. So it turns out the noise was coming from the oil filter. He had a Mighty filter install that I'm sure came from some quicklube. My guess would be that the filter was going in and out of bypass and the noise is coming from the valve?

Anyone ever seen/heard something like this before

 

[cronk]

Did a new filter get rid of the noise?
When I worked at a Nissan dealership, we saw a few 3.5s that would have bad start up noise with quick lube filters, replace with a Nissan filter and it would be fine. I had a customer that did his own oil changes, but he still came in and bought Nissan filters. He said he had start up noise with aftermarket filters he tried.
Haven't heard one make a noise like you describe.
My wife has an older Quest with a 3.3 that doesn't seem picky on its filter, I usually run Purolator Pure1.

 

[Johnny248]

Yes, installed a Nissan filter and the noise went away. I also see that some filters make more start up noise than others on a lot of these cars that come in with ching chang wong Chinese filters that don't have a brand name. I've also noticed that these aftermarket filters come in all different sizes, some pretty close to the Nissan filters, some longer, some much shorter also. So who knows. I'm not really impressed my the OEM filters, they don't seem like anything really great to me. Not saying they are bad, I have no proof, it just seems that I've seen a lot higher quality filters.

One of my techs has a Titan 5.6 with about 70k on it. He had been using the more expensive Fram filters (can't remember what the name is, but the one that is a grey can) along with DuraBlend 5w30 and he was complaining about the start up noise. Asked me what I thought and I told him our engines use the same filter,and I've been using the PureOne 14610 and from what Ive read it is a very good filter. He started using them, along with Maxlife 5w30 and says he now gets the noise maybe 1 out of 10 starts only when the engine has been off sitting overnight or for a long time. Before it was almost any start after the truck had sat for a couple hours. Not sure what that all means, but maybe the oil filters really do make a difference.

 

[SuperBusa]

Did you save the old filter? ... if so, cut it open and inspect it for abnormalities.

My 2004 Altima with the VQ35 is pretty quiet on cold start up. Might hear 1/2 of cam-chain (?) noise on first start up. I've used NAPA Gold, Motorcraft and PureONE and none of them made the engine noisy on cold start ups.

I don't use the Nissan OEM because they have non-metal end caps (ie, FRAM clone). They are made in China these days.

 

[Johnny248]

I do still have it, just have not cut it open. Looking in it I don't see anything really obvious.

 

[mrsilv04]

Cut it open, and post some pictures.

Make some folks happy!!!

 

[cronk]

I think you would probably get less start up noise with Pure 1 and Wix/napa gold. They have a silicone anti drain back valve which is high quality and should help keep more oil in the filter after sitting.
I agree the Nissan oem filters are not the highest quality filter out there, cardboard endcaps and made in China, but they must have a good adb valve or bypass valve.