Hi guys, I am not very very new here but I am still a baby compared to most on this forum, but I wanted to ask you all a quick question. I have a 2011 Nissan Altima 2.5 SL Sedan QR25DE CVT with a couple low level mods on it and I wanted some input. The car has about 155k miles on it and ever since about ~72k miles I notice when I start the engine from a cold start, upon turnover, the engine will rattle almost like a chain saw spooling up and then disappear after about 1-2 secs. I have had different opinions on this. One of my mechanic friends said that the lifters were starting up and that's what your hearing. My other friend said that he had seen the same thing on several other Altimas from different years and that it is part of the timing chain tensioner / chain itself. He recommended getting the tensioner along with the chain, water pump, and power steering pump all changed out at the same time. He said they all fit together and that it would help as these have about the same lifespan as the chain. Given the age of the car, mileage, and that it is og CVT, would it be a good idea to change out these things? I did some research and doing these things would be about $1500-$2000 or more for the repair given the age of the car and labor plus parts. There is no engine codes being thrown and the car is mechanically sound, nothing wrong with it. I just don't wanna end up having damage done to the car because this preventative maintenance was not done. Also, the car does have a lot of miles on it and the CVT could be the next thing to go. I don't wanna spend money on these repairs only for the CVT to go out the next day if you know what I mean. Any and all input is appreciated and, if you're wondering, I did do a ton of research already on this so I did scour the forums to see if a similar question had been posted. Thank you!

P.S. I don't wanna have to spend money on a new car, I wanna make this car last as long as possible, if I have to change out the CVT in the future, even if the repair and replacement would cost more than the car's worth, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Bad timing chains on QR engines are just about unheard of, and so are bad lifters. Chances are the noise you're hearing is piston slap.

Thank you VStar! Appreciate the quick reply!

I had an Oldsmobile with piston slap , went 235kmi !! Just let it warm up - go easy first 10 minutes