2013 Nissan Altima timing chain iszue

General discussion area for the L33-chassis Altima.
Kazyem
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2021 4:38 pm
Car: 2013 Nissan Altima 2.5 SV

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Hello there,

I’m pretty desperate for advice and didn’t know where else to go so here it is,

Long story short, a spark plug broke off inside my engine head. I was told my two places that my head would have to be replaced/resurfaced and this would cost upwards of $4,000 because in the process they would have to replace head gasket etc. so instead I decided to take it on myself with a friend who’s a mechanic. We replaced the head after a few days of work and got everything put back together, well when we started the car it was idling pretty rough. We stuck a code reader in there and we had multiple cylinder misfires indicating we may have accidentally let the car get out of time, so we take it back apart and attempt to realign the sprockets with the timing marks and when trying to get the tensioner back in the metal piece shot out into the timing chain cover and is unretrievable. According to the manual the only way to get the timing chain cover off is to absolutely tear the car apart with equipment I do not have to lift the engine out. My question is if there is any way around this or if I should just try to take it to a professional to fix? The only thing I’m worried about is that there is a different problem and I will dump a bunch of money into it and still have a broken car if that’s not what was wrong with it. Any advice is appreciated, thanks.


User avatar
VStar650CL
Technical Expert
Posts: 8294
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 1:25 pm
Car: 2013 Nissan Altima 2.5 SL
2004 Nissan Altima 2.5 S

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The timing cover can be gotten off without removing the engine, but it will be a nightmare job without a lift. The cover fits into the upper pan and there's insufficient clearance from the body to "tilt" it out without dropping the pan. That means an awful lot of jacking up and down. So the short answer is, you're probably best off leaving it to a pro.


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