Possible Catastrophic Problems

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fxswag

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First of all, thank you in advance for any advice.
3 days ago after about 10 minutes of driving my car I noticed a rough idle sitting at a stoplight. Turned down the music and could feel, and see the tachometer dancing around just slightly (no more than a hundred RPMs here and there). From there I noticed a knock under acceleration. Further testing (AND as a couple days have passed) the clunk (or knock, but im going to go with clunk)has been increasing, and also increases under acceleration. Today if I hit 3-4000 rpm it would be "clunk ,clunkclunk" If under light acceleration I do not hear the clunk.

So today I checked out the intake (I have K&N drop in (1 year) and Stillen Z-Tube (5 months), to see if anything had come loose (for rough idle) and all looked good. Checked the oil (while the car was off) and was at the Low marker - all looked good.

THEN I turned the car on and checked the oil 4x, and each time the oil reached to the very top of the dipstick (approx. 1 foot above high marker).
Now I am completely scared that something is catastrophically wrong with the car. I am going to drive it gently about 20 minutes to my buddies (we are both intermediate mechanics, to try and troubleshoot). Am I way out of my league here, do i need to go to mechanic ASAP? Should I have it towed?

Other notes:
No warning lights are on
Idle seems to be fine when car is cold (Socal Mornings), and then begins at operating temperature (unconfirmed)
No oil splatter or dripping that I can see in engine bay, will update when I get to buddies and take off covers.
Leaving in about 2 hours, anyone that has any advice, thank you in advance! Anyone that correctly diagnoses this I will send a 12 pack of their favorite beer to! Thanks
 
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Thanks for the response - I changed it myself (per usual) 1k miles ago, and added the usual amount. have not added or done anything since then. still think i should drain?
 
Let it sit for an hour. Drain it. Water will drain before oil due to weight. Possibly head gasket, cracked head?

Does the oil look like yoohoo?

Smell dipstick. Does it smell like gas?

---------- Post added at 07:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:35 PM ----------

If its that full it has to be water or gas getting in there if oil change was done right. Water won't lubricate anything, maybe why you hear the clunk clunk
 
Ok bro. Gas smell means bad injector or your regulator screwed. Regulator will only let so much in though. I suspect a bad injector that's just constantly dropping gas in since the fuel system is always pressurized. Now to figure out which injector.

---------- Post added at 07:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:55 PM ----------

Suggest pulling fuel rail and lift injectors out. Prime your key and hopefully see which one is dripping. You could actually hydro lock the engine if too much gas gets in the chamber

---------- Post added at 08:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:59 PM ----------

I'd also assume one or more plugs are fouled now.
 
a bad injector would probably explain the rough idle as well? (versus Just checked and injectors are expensive so I just joined AAA and will probably have it towed. Im guessing this is incredibly unsafe and terrible for my engine to drive anywhere. I guess a final note is that I dont feel any other problems when driving it around?
 
Oil level isn't an issue, dipstick will read high when car is on because it's the gravity draining oil from return. Leaking injector could explain rough idle, but I don't know it it would cause clunk. I've had a leaky injector on previous car, and the idle was bad, but it would drive ok. It won't cause a clunk that is rpm's dependent. Any codes thrown? Maybe change your oil to see if there are metal shavings.

If your injector is leaking, you can smell it from your exhaust. And fwiw, oil always smells a little like gas.
 
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I have been pretty religious about doing drain and fills for transmission fluid (have not seen any oil shavings and clunk happens during acceleration, not shifting)

Bc i think i smell gas on dipstick I am having it towed to miller infiniti and paying $140 for a diagnosis. then will probably drive it across the street to fix it myself lol There are no lights on right now, we will see what codes show up tomorrow in AM when car goes through diagnosis. Hopefully I am being paranoid when I smell gas on it (but pretty sure i do)
 
I agee with Shadow.

Fxswag, you said you checked the oil level when car was on? i hope not, check it while off. How many miles you got on the FX? As for rough idle, you just might have a leaky valve cover gasket that flooded your coils and pluggs

---------- Post added at 05:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:53 PM ----------

miller infiniti sucks! take it to a certified nissan/infiniti mechanic on Van Nuys i believe. You sure its gas? might just be burned oil that smells bad, common. When was your last oil change?
 
Checked it 15 minutes after and was a little high (yes agree checking oil when on not correct). Thanks for the tip on Miller infiniti, I am not positive it is gas, i am pretty sure i smelled it though. I am happy to pay $140 and if i know what is wrong i will just fix it myself. I did change oil about 1k-1500 miles ago, didnt notice anything big. I have had it since 54k and it has 71 k on it now. I had some undiagnosed brake issues that bleeding seemed to fix but has been happening again- just a sidenote that I have not had any other problems with the car. Thank you very much for your reply! Almost didnt recognize you without your dracula FX picture.
 
If it's getting worse/louder I would stop driving it. Since it's rpm dependent, I'm not sure it would be bad injector, that's most apparent at idle since it's flooding the motor. It may be something really bad like the crank making contact or something else very serious.
 
stop driving or you may make it more expensive to fix. change the oil and cut out the oil filter with a right tool that doesn't introduce contaminant (you may need a local shop to do it). then see if you have any metal shavings inside the filter. this will basically tell you if you have metal on metal situation in your engine. good luck...
 
If you have any doubts, you could also send an oil sample to Blackstone Labs and they can tell you exactly what all they find in it.
 
Okay so just got a call from Miller Infiniti and NO CODES were thrown by the car.
They said one of my left motor mounts is bad and that is why the clunking comes in under heavier acceleration from the load on the engine - what do you guys think, does that sound right? Pay the $800 to get it replaced? deal with it? do it myself? I can live with the noise if it isnt going to mess with my engine.
The engine tachometer moving and rough idle - they said they could not find anything or replicate the problem. I think i am just very sensitive with the car and can feel it, someone who is just hopping in the car will probably not notice?
However, im skeptical as to why these TWO different problems would appear at the same time?????
In advance, thank you guys for your help! @stulax18, I think I might do that!

I told them to go back and let the car idle and watch the tachometer - and try and figure out whats going on, they did all this bs which I could care less about, just wanted to know about those problems.. stoked at the initial no codes:rotfl:, maybe a bad sparkplug????
 
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