I recently completed a thorough overhaul of the VQ40DE timing chains in my sister-in-law’s 2005 Xterra. Her truck suffered from the infamous whine which is the trademark of defective secondary timing chain tensioners. I did some research and found a lot of videos and forum discussions. I sourced the parts list from a Frontier forum, but it proved to be lacking. There were part numbers that had been superseded as well as parts that were left out of the list for some reason.

I’ve had several people ask me for my parts list, so I’ve put together what is likely the most comprehensive list of parts and supplies needed to do this job the right way. As of the posting of this thread, these are the most current part numbers available. I would suggest to future readers that you follow up with your preferred vendor to confirm that you are getting the latest editions. You can save yourself a lot of money if you shop around at different OEM part sites, Amazon, and eBay.

Before you begin, make sure you have access to the factory service manual and read through the timing chain replacement procedures in the EM section.
http://www.nicoclub.com/nissan-service-manuals

If you’re not confident in your abilities, seek help. If you’ve rebuilt engines or replaced timing components this shouldn’t be too difficult. It is a time consuming job, but I think the hardest part is getting all of your parts together before beginning. It was very frustrating for me to have to stop working a couple times to order more parts and wait for them to arrive. Save yourself the hassle and get everything right away. There are no short cuts and this is everything you need.

13085-EA200 – Internal Chain Guide (top) – 1 required
13085-EA210 – Tension Chain Guide (left side) – 1 required
13091-ZK00A – Slack Chain Guide (right side) – 1 required
13028-ZS00A – Primary Timing Chain – 1 required
13028-ZK01C – Secondary Timing Chain – 2 required
13070-9BM0A – Primary Chain Tensioner – 1 required
13070-ZK01A – Secondary Chain Tensioner (left) – 1 required
13070-ZK01B – Secondary Chain Tensioner (right) – 1 required
15066-ZL80E – Secondary Chain Tensioner O-ring – 2 required
15066-ZL80A – Small Front Cover O-ring – 6 required
15066-ZL80C – Medium Front Cover O-ring – 1 required
15066-ZL80D – Large Front Cover O-ring – 1 required
13510-7Y000 – Front Crank Seal – 1 required
13270-EA20B – Valve Cover Gasket (right) – 1 required
13270-EA21B – Valve Cover Gasket (left) – 1 required
23797-ZA000 – VTC Solenoid Gasket – 2 required
15066-5E510 – VTC Cover Collared O-ring – 2 required
13042-3HD0A – VTC Cover Cam Gear O-ring – 2 required
14032-EA200 – Plenum Gasket – 3 required
22401-5M015 – Spark Plugs – 6 required
21010-7Y00A – Water Pump – 1 required
21049-ZL80B – Water Pump O-ring (rear) – 1 required
21049-ZL80C – Water Pump O-ring (front) – 1 required
21049-AE000 – Water Pipe O-ring – 1 required
21200-21U1B – Thermostat – 1 required
13050-ZA000 – Thermostat Gasket – 1 required
11720-EA200 – Serpentine Belt – 1 required
11955-EA20B – Belt Tensioner – 1 required
Permatex 82195 – Ultra Grey Liquid Gasket – 1 required
Fel-Pro 3046 – Gasket Material – 1 required
Tapered Machine Screws – These can be sourced from EPS if you ask nicely – 18 required
Oil Filter – 1 required
Synthetic Oil – 5 quarts
Coolant – 3 gallons
Brake Cleaner – 5 cans
Paper Towels – 2 rolls

Here’s some of the rational behind this extremely thorough list of parts. This replaces all of the timing chain components except the gears. If you’re going to be this deep into the engine, you might as well spend the time and money to ensure you don’t need to get back into it in the future. The serpentine belt and tensioner need to come out anyway; so if you haven’t replaced them recently, now is a good time. Since the radiator is coming out and while you have the chain off, it makes sense to replace the water pump and thermostat now. In order to access the secondary tensioners, the intake manifold and valve covers need to be removed. Having the intake out of the way gives easy access to the spark plugs – so change them now. Removing the water pipe makes working on the right bank much easier. Be aware that there is a bolt on the underside that keeps it attached. Look at the diagram in the CO section of the FSM. You will need to unbolt the sway bar brackets and the steering rack in order to get at the lower bolts for the front and rear timing covers.

One of the biggest time consumers on this project is dealing with the old liquid gasket. The front cover is sealed to the rear cover and the rear cover is sealed to the block and heads. The VTC, primary tensioner, and water pump covers are all sealed to the front cover with it. I’d suggest finding some cheap child labor or something and delegate cleaning out all the grooves and surfaces. That’s the second worst part of the job behind sourcing all the parts. Since you’ll be reapplying all of that liquid gasket, I’ve given the part number for a tube of RTV – you’ll need a caulk gun for it. Thank me later after you never buy a toothpaste tube of RTV again.

Now let’s discuss the oil galleries. Chances are that if you have low oil pressure issues, you may be suffering from a blown oil gallery gasket. You would think that because you can get OEM and aftermarket gasket kits for the VQ35 variants as well as the VQ37 and VR38 you would be able to find some for the VQ40. You’d be wrong. There is no OEM part numbers and currently no one is making them either. The shapes of the galleries are different as well so you cannot use gaskets from a different VQ. That’s why I called for a sheet of Fel-Pro gasket material. Cutting your own gaskets is better than ignoring the old, brittle gallery gasket that will fail and starve your bearings of oil. You can trace the gaskets and cut them out with scissors. Get a punch kit for making the holes. Lastly, contact the folks at Engineered Parts Solutions and Tuning LLC and beg them for a set of 18 gallery screws. I’m going to warn you now – you’ll likely break a couple screws off when removing them. A1/4" impact will help reduce the risk of breaking them, but it’s a good idea to have a welder on standby.

If you’ve got an automatic transmission and you haven’t bypassed the transmission cooler in the radiator, now is a great time to do that. In all of the screwing you’ve taken up to this point with your defective timing chain guides and faulty transmission cooler, at least Nissan was nice enough to leave you enough hose to do the bypass without needing anything except a knife.

Once you’ve completed this endeavor, take the time to recalibrate the Throttle Valve, Accelerator, and Idle Air Volume according to the procedures in the FSM (or google them).

Good luck!

Really, it's not that bad. However, if I ever need to do this on my Xterra, I'm just going to VK swap it.

13042-3HD0A – VTC Cover Cam Gear O-ring – 2 required

For this part that you list, I don't see it on the Nissan parts website on the diagram. I replaced the rings with the metal border, but I think these are the other seals that are under the VTC cover. I want to put them on my 2006 Nissan Xterra. I get a low pressure warning after doing a timing chain guide and tensioner replace. Can you tell me where to find this part on the nissan parts website? I think the fact that I did not replace this part is causing the issue. Thank you.

That's part of the reason I put this list together. There are parts in the engine (and displayed in the FSM) that aren't displayed on the parts diagrams. This is common with many models. Just search for the part numbers.

I read your post a little earlier. Replacing those may help. It's certainly going to be the easiest thing to get to. You could have dislodged or lost one of the many o-rings for the covers during reassembly. You could have disturbed an oil gallery gasket during the procedure that may have been on the verge of failure. Did you replace the tensioners or just the guides on them? There's o-rings on the secondary tensioners as well.

Basically, any imternal oil leak is going to kill your oil pressure and starve your engine.

I wish you luck and you have my condolences. I would not want to have to do that again.

Thank you for the reply. Sorry for the wordy replies, but I am really happy to speak with someone knowledgeable about the repair.

I replaced all three chains, water pump, the main tensioner, all of the guides and the secondary guides. When I opened up the timing case the main guide was broken with the main tensioner fully extended. I replaced the broken parts, and the o ring seals for the secondary timing chains and the one metal border seal on the vtc. Part of my reason for replacing the chains was to see the markings to match it up with the cams and the crank. I wasn't sure whether I had jumped a tooth with the broken guide part and tensioner.

I assume I would know if the timing was off on the car. With the exception of the low pressure issue, the car seems to run fine. You agree that the timing is probably fine, right?

I didn't get to recalibrating things. I don't think that would have a drastic affect on the low oil pressure, do you?

When I look up the second VTC seal that you used, 13042-3HD0A for a 2006 xterra online, it says not compatible on a few websites. I'm so confused.

To troubleshoot this I'm going to:
1. Try a different oil filter.
2. Remove the VTC to see if there is a groove for a seal
(was there a groove on yours?)
3. Drop the oil pan to make sure that nothing is blocking the screen like debris or rtv from the repair (might see pieces of a paper gasket to confirm an oil gallery issue).
4. Take off the timing chain cover and inspect and possibly replace the gallery gasket.

Let me know if you think that is the way to go or if I should skip or add a step or reorder my steps.

Seems like the timing case was really dirty with caked oil and dried oil on the inside (aside from the broken parts, this was a clue that something wasn't right when I opened it up). This truck has been well maintained car w/ oil changes and all. It seems that mine looks a bit different. Other photos online seem to show timing cases that are much much cleaner. I'm not sure what to make of that in my diagnosis, perhaps oil flow that is not flowing in a controlled manner (failing seal or gasket??).


Thank again, any help that you can give is extremely appreciated.

i don't think I mentioned above…

I get codes p0011 and p0021

Sorry for the delayed response. I've been very busy. See replies.

Surfschnauzie wrote:
I assume I would know if the timing was off on the car. With the exception of the low pressure issue, the car seems to run fine. You agree that the timing is probably fine, right?

I couldn't tell you without seeing/hearing. As long as it was properly assembled, it should be fine. It didn't seem difficult to me to get everything aligned.

I didn't get to recalibrating things. I don't think that would have a drastic affect on the low oil pressure, do you?

No. It's either loss of suction (clogged intake, low oil level) or loss of discharge (missing/leaking o-ring or gallery gasket), or a broken oil pump. It's a gear pump so if it's spinning, it's pumping if everything else is in order.

When I look up the second VTC seal that you used, 13042-3HD0A for a 2006 xterra online, it says not compatible on a few websites. I'm so confused.

It's a part number I found for a VQ35DE. It was the only way I could find it. The VTC cam gears are the same, the covers are the same, so that cam seal ring must also be the same. That's the part number I used and it's the part I installed. It fits.

To troubleshoot this I'm going to:
1. Try a different oil filter.
2. Remove the VTC to see if there is a groove for a seal
(was there a groove on yours?)
3. Drop the oil pan to make sure that nothing is blocking the screen like debris or rtv from the repair (might see pieces of a paper gasket to confirm an oil gallery issue).
4. Take off the timing chain cover and inspect and possibly replace the gallery gasket.

Let me know if you think that is the way to go or if I should skip or add a step or reorder my steps.

Seems like the timing case was really dirty with caked oil and dried oil on the inside (aside from the broken parts, this was a clue that something wasn't right when I opened it up). This truck has been well maintained car w/ oil changes and all. It seems that mine looks a bit different. Other photos online seem to show timing cases that are much much cleaner. I'm not sure what to make of that in my diagnosis, perhaps oil flow that is not flowing in a controlled manner (failing seal or gasket??).

Thank again, any help that you can give is extremely appreciated.[/quote]

Sounds to me like a good plan of attack. Unless you used the absolutely wrong filter, I don't think that'll be an issue. I've used all kinds of different brands and sizes and never had an issue.

There most certainly is a groove for a seal on the inside of the cover where it goes into the intake cam gear. Any one of the O-rings failing to seal or the gallery gasket blowing out will cause low oil pressure and likely make your VTC fail which causes those codes you have. I can't speak to the dirty - it's usually a sign of poor maintenance - too long intervals between changes.

Good luck!

Maybe VK swap it.

Update: it has't been the greatest weather here since it is winter, so i haven't done much.

I swapped out the oil filter (wasn't that).

I thought perhaps because the oil pressure dropped after warmup that somehow I had a head gasket failure w/ coolant potentially pressurizing/heating the system. But a coolant pressure test showed that the system was not leaking (see below). 2 questions about the pressure test when the car was off:
1. Do i need to have the thermostat switched to heat ( i didn't)
2. Does the thermostat need to be open to properly test?
3. I didn't have an attachment for the radiator, but I was able to attach to the expansion tank, is that good enough?

I haven't done any of the relearn procedures, could that cause the low oil pressure?

Surfschnauzie wrote:Update: it has't been the greatest weather here since it is winter, so i haven't done much.

Where are you from? I did this in December in Michigan. I never even fired up my heater.

I thought perhaps because the oil pressure dropped after warmup that somehow I had a head gasket failure w/ coolant potentially pressurizing/heating the system. But a coolant pressure test showed that the system was not leaking (see below). 2 questions about the pressure test when the car was off:
1. Do i need to have the thermostat switched to heat ( i didn't)
2. Does the thermostat need to be open to properly test?
3. I didn't have an attachment for the radiator, but I was able to attach to the expansion tank, is that good enough?

Seeing how the pressured radiator cap is actually on the expansion tank, you should be fine testing there. The thermostat being closed shouldn't matter since it's a loop.

I haven't done any of the relearn procedures, could that cause the low oil pressure?

Nope, nothing to do with it.

What oil are you using?

Maybe VK swap it.

NY

I was able to bleed most of the air out of the cooling system. Based on my dash gauge, I still get that fluctuating oil pressure and low oil pressure at idle. I switched the oil filter from a Fram to a Purolator. Do you think that I need to use an OEM Nissan oil filter?

I don't know why I haven't suggested this until now... I must have assumed that your oil pressure sensor worked properly before and buried it in the back of my mind. Even if it did work before, coincidental failures like this happen more than you'd think.

Have you verified the oil pressure reading is accurate? This is a common issue. Remove the oil pressure sensor (located near the right side of the bottom of the block) and attach a mechanical gauge. Don't have one? Buy one on ebay/amazon or take it to a mechanic that can test your oil pressure. At warm idle, it should be around 15psi from what I've gathered. If the pressure is good, you likely have a faulty sensor. If it is lower than that...

Maybe VK swap it.

thanks, I think, like you suggested, that verifying the actual oil pressure is the next step. I did purchase an oil pressure gauge. I took the harness off of the truck's gauge today and cleaned the sensor connection with electric cleaner with no luck, so the next step is to test the pressure with the gauge. I see that P011 and p0021 are still coming up, which make me think that there is something up with the pressure. I get the idle relearn code too. From what I read,P0011 and P0021 have to do with the variable timing, which is adjusted by oil pressure. Considering my wife shook me down for another car, this is a project car now. I'll take it step by step, so I don't spend more than I need to in order to solve the issue. I'm getting a good lesson in troubleshooting. I did purchase the cam cover seals mentioned above like you suggested too. I didn't install them yet. I'll keep you up to speed. Thanks for your help.

I'm about to change out those cam seals. I pulled the covers off and the seals look slightly worn. I never changed them with the initial repair. Can it really leak enough from those seals to cause a low pressure situation after warmup?

Ok, I changed out the cam seals. I put an OEM oil filter in the car.

Still the same low oil pressure and noise issue after warmup. When I first start the car there is pressure and no noise upon hitting the gas.

I tested the oil pressure.
When I first start the car at idle of 1,000 rpm it is 40psi and 40-55 psi @ 2,000 rpm.

after warmup

ONLY 3 PSI @ 1,200 RPM and 5 PSI @ 2,000 rpm and noise when I hit the gas and a loss of power.

is this the oil gallery? Is it the oil pump? Is it something else?? How do I tell? What can i test?
it is still running a little hot. I remember there was some oil buildup in the timing case

Please help!! Anyone please!! I need to solve this.

sounds like your rear cover had blown a oil gallery gasket replace rear timing cover

A lot of the caked oil mentioned has likely wadded up to clog the oil pickup tube. Happens often when parts are disturbed like with a repair.

2007 Xterra
I cannot seem to find a part number for these 2 rubber inserts/seals located in the secondary timing cover. They have vertical sides as to opposed to a round-stock o-ring.
Hoping someone may know please?
Many thanks!