YObed, car maintenence.net quershins

Mar 25, 2024, 12:25 PM

Q60 has had a couple instances in the past, say, 2 months, where driving first thing in the morning (school dropoffs) it felt like it was running on 3 cylinders instead of 6. Sluggish, not shifting correctly, very underpowered and unresponsive. Weird. Make it home, and the next time the car starts 30 minutes later, it's like it never happened. The couple times it happened, never got a dash light/warning, and code reader didn't show anything.

However, this past week, the Check Engine light came on when it did this half-power thing, so I put the reader on it, cleared the codes, and pulled P0011: “A” Camshaft Timing Over Advanced (Bank 1). Googling indicates:

-It can be triggered by a faulty camshaft actuator, failed VVT solenoid, damaged timing components, and circuit issues.
-Low engine oil levels, oil contamination, and issues with the PCM can also trigger the code.

Decided since I needed an oil change anyway to have Infiniti look at it and tell me what the issue is. Naturally, they couldn't get it to duplicate on Thursday when I took it in. Guy texts me on Friday and says he still can't get it to kick, nor can they pull historic codes (tell me that's accurate because it sounds like bullshit--clearing codes on a reader shouldn't delete everything that's ever happened in the onboard CPU). No more updates. I texted on Saturday asking for an update, no answer. So they're keeping my car for the whole weekend without telling me? Nah, fam.

I went in this morning to pick my car up, prepared to pay the $300 diagnostic fee for attaching a code reader and not reading anything, and driving the car around the block a few times, and then never ever talking to Baker Infiniti again. Technician comes out and was like "I didn't expect to see you here". Bro, you had my car for 4 days and didn't tell me you were doing that.

He asked if I'd take a loaner and let them try it for another day or two, so like a sucker, I caved.

The main question I have is, how hard is it to work on or replace a camshaft? I know nothing about these parts and functionality, and my mechanical capabilities land roughly around brakes and alternators, and not much deeper. Without knowing actual prices, this feels like something that Infiniti would quote $1,200 for, a decent non-Infiniti mechanic would quote $600 for, and probably something I could do myself for $150 in parts (or less) if it's manageable given my skillset.

And....GO.

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so it's probably something more like the solenoid than an actual mechanical timing components of the camshaft assembly or the camshaft itself. Similarly, if it were something with the timing itself (chain stretched or jumped, or loose tensioner) I'd expect the problem would not go away.

I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of that engine, but in my experience on other cars it could be as perfectly simple as two bolts and a connector and pop the solenoid/actuator off the outside of the timing cover, or it could be as difficult as removing the valve cover and timing cover to access the component. If it's the same engine as this video, the answer is somewhere in the middle. If I had to guess, you wouldn't be getting any change from a $1000 bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xuq2_EOb-Sg

YObed, car maintenence.net quershins

I know nothing about camshafts

You forgot to tag him

I'm here. and it depends on how big the trees are in your yard.

The first step is ALWAYS

You just gotta burn the gunk out of it.***

I can't help with this but in my experience, it is best to let the dealership

The fact that it's intermittent suggests electrical more than mechanical,

What year is it?***

Currently 2024.

'17***

Legit question and not me being snarky.

No, less than 10K.

Gotcha, so it's possible the prior owners

Dear sir

My last Hemi ate the cam shaft at around 140k miles and it was a

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