Surprise In Oil Pan

[Hefitz]

I decided to drop the lower oil pan on my 2005 Maxima just to take a look. She's at 75,000 so I thought it was time. I was releived to see that there was no sludge or dirt in the pan. Looked really good except for the 3 pieces of broken plastic I found(pictured below). Almost looks like some type electrical connection socket peices.

Anyone have any ideas as to what the heck this is? Is my Max about to crap the bed??





Thanks
Fitz

[si2ki30]

To me, it looks like part of the timing chain guide. Sometimes they are plastic/nylon. Maybe it was slightly damaged during assembly.

For pieces that size, they'll never get through the oil pickup screen, so nothing to worry about probably.

[Hefitz]

Looks like I might have found the problem. After searching the internet, found some postings on another forum about timing chain slack guide problem that are common with the maxima. Seems that over time, the plastic part of the guide starts to fall apart. The detached piece on the far left looks like what I found in my oil pan.Not happy at all about this.

[the converted]

You should probably pop the cover off the tensioner and make sure that that plastic nub is still where the tensioner is resting. I've been meaning to do this on my car but keep putting it off.