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Timing Belt and Knock Sensor - Common Labor?


piste
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Original owner of '97 SE here....So I am due for a timing belt job and am getting sporadic knock sensor codes. Have a local garage I have used for years who always do right by me. I believe the knock sensor job is pricey and am hoping to hold off on it....doesn't really hurt much except maybe fuel efficiency AFAIK. However, if there is significant common labor that I can save some $$$ on to have knock senseor done along with the timing belt I would like to do that. I do a lot of work myself but not jobs like those...and am figuring there is little if any common labor as timing belt is in front and knock sensor come in from the top. Figured I'd check with the experts. Thoughts anyone? Measure-able savings by combining these jobs? Or no?

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try this,

or this one

 

and there is a good write up on one of the Nissan Frontier forums as well

 

all nissan 3.3 vg-30 engines suffer this problem.

 

I paid someone to do the timing belt as it is a PITA to do without more than basic mechanical know how, and a place to do it. but I did the KS relocation myself on the front street.

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Not really much "common labor" for these two jobs. If you're having the timing belt done, be sure high quality or oem parts are used (belt, guides, tensioner, water pump, thermostat, seals). As far as the knock sensor goes, if you have leaky valve cover gaskets then may as well replace the sensor and vcg's at the same time (upper plenum must come off to replace driver side vcg). If not, save a buttload of time and money by doing a knock sensor relocation (plenty of info can be found by searching here).

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Not really much "common labor" for these two jobs. If you're having the timing belt done, be sure high quality or oem parts are used (belt, guides, tensioner, water pump, thermostat, seals). As far as the knock sensor goes, if you have leaky valve cover gaskets then may as well replace the sensor and vcg's at the same time (upper plenum must come off to replace driver side vcg). If not, save a buttload of time and money by doing a knock sensor relocation (plenty of info can be found by searching here).

 

Two great replies. Thank you.

 

Regarding the timing belt job....yeah I'm pretty much a straight OEM parts kinda guy. Below is my shopping list for the timing belt job. Mind letting me know if anything I missed....or could/should drop anything? Is the crankshaft pulley necessary?? Did it in 2006 with last t-belt job...but dropping it would save some decent $$$$

thx again.

 

 

21010-0W028 water pump

21014-0W028 water pump gasket

13028-0B785 timing belt

13070-42L00 timing belt tensioner

13042-0B001 camshaft seals 2

13510-10Y10 crankshaft seal

21200-V7206 thermostat

21082-0w000 coupling (aka fan clutch...new #21082-0W00A)

21503-0W001 radiator hose lower

14055-0w010 hose-water

14055-0W000 coolant bypass hose? Is this same as one above? Redundant?

14055-0W??? small hose to thermostat

11720-R50001 Belt - Fan and Alternator

11920-R50001 Belt Compressor

02117-R50001 Belt - Power steering

21501-0W501 radiator hose uppper

12303-0W001 CRANKSHAFT PULLEY - Is this needed??

Edited by piste
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Two great replies. Thank you.

 

Regarding the timing belt job....yeah I'm pretty much a straight OEM parts kinda guy. Below is my shopping list for the timing belt job. Mind letting me know if anything I missed....or could/should drop anything? Is the crankshaft pulley necessary?? Did it in 2006 with last t-belt job...but dropping it would save some decent $$$$

thx again.

 

 

21010-0W028 water pump

21014-0W028 water pump gasket

13028-0B785 timing belt

13070-42L00 timing belt tensioner

13042-0B001 camshaft seals 2

13510-10Y10 crankshaft seal

21200-V7206 thermostat

21082-0w000 coupling (aka fan clutch...new #21082-0W00A)

21503-0W001 radiator hose lower

14055-0w010 hose-water

14055-0W000 coolant bypass hose? Is this same as one above? Redundant?

14055-0W??? small hose to thermostat

11720-R50001 Belt - Fan and Alternator

11920-R50001 Belt Compressor

02117-R50001 Belt - Power steering

21501-0W501 radiator hose upper

12303-0W001 CRANKSHAFT PULLEY - Is this needed??

For me, if money isn't critical and I plan to keep the vehicle for a long time, I rely on it, there is nothing else major suspected to be wrong with it, I would change what is in bold. The reason being, is that if I do all this, it should last another 105k miles without me touching it. That is worth $500 and a weekend in my world...

The fan clutch doesn't have to be changed, but if it fails and is replaced, there is a possibility that the change in balance could prematurely wear the water pump bushing, causing it to fail before the next timing belt interval. I do recommend changing it, but some might argue the point.

 

Hose water, small hose are some weird parts misnomers and the crank shaft pulley doesn not need replacing unless it is damaged somehow (would be obvious)

 

I don't know where you are, but check out Alkorahil in the Services section, he may be able to ship it all to your door for cheaper than you think...

 

B

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Pretty much what I would have said has been said above, but I'll just ad mine for the heck of it. Lol

 

If you have the mechanical inclination, it's something that is fairly "easy". I say that however after I had some dumb driveway, Craigslist, mechanic help me with my timing belt, and after the third time of trying to get it done and still not having it run right, I said screw him. I went over to a friends house where I basically said, "just watch and male sure I don't do anything crazy". This was very early on in my DIY "career" so this was a serious job for him and I. But I used the FSM to the full extent, read the walk throughs and watched the videos several times over. And I'm pleased to report that after using all of those, I got my timing belt done. This forum was a huge, HUGE help with that. If you look at some of my first posts, you can see how much of a desperate good I was to try and get it fixed.

 

As for your jobs, there are several things I would along the way, most of which have been mentioned. The usual timing belt stuff is an excellent way to go. If you change the knock sensor and put it in its proper location (which isn't that hard after doing a timing belt). You should change your intake gaskets out, and since you'll have the intake off, change your valve cover gaskets as they are very common cause for leakage.

 

The biggest issued you'll run into on the timing belt are these.

 

-trying to squeeze the upper timing cover out from behind the A/C line, my idiot mechanic suggested that I pull the line from the pump and drain it. Don't do that is its not nessecary. With enough patience you can slightly bend the A/C like and wiggle the cover free.

 

The other is getting the timing correct. The car has timing marks on the cams and crank sprockets, the issue is the cams marks don't exactly like up, you have to count the number of teeth on the timing belt between the cam marks, and then between the cam (I think it was the driver side) and the crank to insure those will be in time. That was the key for getting my timing set on the fourth try. Happily this is all laid out in the FSM, which can be downloaded in the garage section I believe.

 

Hope that helps.

 

-Kyle

 

-sent from my phone, so please forgive the errors, which there are sure to be a few.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thank you again for the informative replies. Just had both jobs done this weekend. A few things that might help others....

 

turns out water pump pulley had some play in it...so folks might want to consider adding that in when doing T-belt job. Not a ton of money. Ordering mine now and replacing after the fact...not hard to do....and don't want the current wobbly one to premature wear the water pump.

 

There are THREE water hoses..theres the upper...and.the lower one goes into a metal tube which then connects to another hose going into the engine. I missed that one and will just roll the dice with keeping existing one in place....which doesn't look in TOO bad shape.

 

Overall....garage charged me about $600 for t-belt....I provided all parts....and about $600 for the knock sensor....also I provided the OEM sensor...along with gaskets etc. Money well spent for me. Water pump housing bolts were frozen and had to be drilled out...I let them have that sort of fun.

 

 

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I had the timing belt replaced last week and the garage charged me $600 as well for labor, and the last three items: belts and hoses.

 

Timing belt

Water pump and water pump gasket

Thermostat

Tensioner and tensioner spring

Fan clutch

Camshaft and crankshaft seals

A/C belt, power steering belt,

Radiator hoses

 

The guy said its a good idea to replace the air intake hoses, there are four of them, since the rubber was hardened. But I didn't have it at the time. Its my believe that all nissan vehicles have knock sensor code, and there's no need to fix it?

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