So.. i had a bad valve cover gasket and decided to replace it. I did some reading here about a notorious timing chain knock/rattle caused by a timing chain guard. I noticed my engine making this noise, so I decided to take it off while I had the valve cover off.

Put it all back together, and the noise was louder. I thought I may had dropped something down there, but I checked and I don't see anything. So I put the guide back on just to be safe, and it's back to the same noise it was making before. (minus one cylinder not firing because I ruined one of the plug wires taking it out)

So I read there is three "guides", I removed the "upper" guide (on the top of the engine?) which is supposed to be the right one? could it be one of the lower guides? The lower guides look much tighter against the chain than the upper guide, but are much harder to get to.

also, shouldn't this be a recall? can't I take it to the Nissan dealership and they'll fix it?

They are much harder to get to, from what Ive read you have to pull a motor mount and remove the cover. Its almost not worth it.

no recall as it is not a safety/liability issue. removing the top one should be sufficient.