Wow that is loud in the second video. Yup thats what it sounds like if you spun a bearing. If you damage a bearing it is the same noise just way less loud.

Its hard to explain without pictures but I will try. Each piston has a rod that connects it to the crank. Where the rod connects to the crank is your connecting rod bearing. The bearing consists of two semi circle pieces of metal that go between the crank and the rod. The bearings are like two "C" pieces when you combine the "C" pieces you get a circle or it looks like an "O" with the crank being in the center of the "O" . there is a thin layer of oil between the crank and the bearing. When you spin a bearing one of the "C" pieces spins (hence"spun") and the "O" shaped bearing becomes a "C" shape that is double wide.

I'll get a link to a picture its hard to explain.

 

crank/rod/bearing

#9 is bearing(crank), #16 is connecting rod, #8 is crank, #7 bearing (rod)

 

I got the idea of what it is, thanks. Would the best bet be to replace the bearing if no damage was done to anything else?

I don't think it's possible but worth asking, could this be done without tearing the entire motor down?

:edit:
ItalianBucwheat
I just read the other post and saw what you said there. It can be done on the car hoping there is no other major damage.

 

You can access it by removing the oil pan. Its alot of work. Checking the rod bearings is not to hard. But I would also check the Crank bearings. The crank sits in a cradle that is heavy and you have to remove the crank pully and I believe the transmission and the starter. Then on the cradle or the crank is the numbers for the correct bearings that where installed from the factory. You have to cross reference them to the Helms book to get the correct color bearings. If you spun a bearing most likely you have crank shaft damage. Bearings are not expensive like 200 for a full rod/crank set. The crank if damaged needs to be replaced and that is expensive like 800 dollars. It takes several days to order the bearings. When I ordered mine they where scattered all over the country (took 7 days from order to delivery). If you just damaged bearings and did not spin them then the crank might be fine.

Take off your valve cover. Look at the underside in the sun. If you see bronze/copper/brass metal flakes in the oil(very tiny) but the sun brings them right out then you know you have bearing damage.

 

I know there is another guy who just made a post similar to this one.

My question is............ why did this happen to this guy if his oil was at the L mark? How can that be oil starvation? Making me nervous to even rev my car to 9k now.

 

All it takes is one time to be low on oil. Your oil pump will blow air instead of oil onto the bearings. Once the damage is done it can take awhile to show up via a noise. Dirt can also cause bearing damage. Dirt in the oil is actually the number one cause of bearing damage!

 

I feel ur pain! same noise mine is making but not as loud after i topped it off with oil.

 

Thanks for the concern. Seems like at least a rebuild is in my near future. This is when I wish I also had a beater so I could still get around... maybe it's time for a scooter.

 

I know that you've all ready established that it sounds like a spun rod, and like italianbucwheat said you can check for bearing damage. Most likely you'll need a new engine though. Once your rod is "loose" your piston is no longer on track and most likely (experienced this twice in my sentra) scores the cylinder head. Between a new crank and head, there aren't many options on what to do.

You could bore out the head and go with a built engine...that would be nice.

 

I had my car taken to 2nrwerks in Tampa and as soon as it was turned on he said 100% spun bearing. He said that it wasn't a main bearing but a rod bearing.

My car seems to be on the strange side of things because after talking to him I have a feeling that I had this problem for a long long time. I've had a rattle for ~40k miles that I figured was the Tranny. Since I had a questionable shop do the install of the toda flywheel and upgraded PP with stock disk I figured no problem. But then I also had an injen intake, Toda header, 2.5" exhaust w/ no cat and AEM EMS on the dyno and only put down 204. The the story gets stranger after I went on a group drive and was falling behind stock S's with all of my mods.

All of this was happening when I had this strange noise and once I got this visible rod knock the other "rattle" went away. I'm not saying that this is the deffinite case at all but it's an idea that I've been playing with. I will have some hard facts after everything gets fixed and I get it on the dyno and re tune it.

2nrwerks will be working on it and as it sounds right now I might be lucky and not have crank/ cylinder wall damage (crossing fingers) but will find out in the near future. If the case is I need more serious work I might just throw in an OEM 03' short block.

I find it very interesting how the 03' MY seem to be having seriously less problems than the 00' 01's but this might just be from what I hear. With all of the theories out there with the oil bolts and all it would be nice to fix this problem in my rebuild.

In the end we will see how things work out and I will keep everyone updated on what's going on.