2005 Mercury Villager from North America - Comments

1995 Mercury Villager crankshaft questions.

I just had an interesting thing happen with my 95 Mercury Villager. I changed the spark plugs and when I restarted the engine, a terrible knock appeared in the engine. See the comments below.

1995 Mercury Villager crankshaft questions.

I just had an interesting thing happen with my 95 Mercury Villager. I changed the spark plugs and when I restarted the engine, a terrible knock appeared in the engine. I suspected bad plugs or possibly something dirty fell into the engine, but I feel that these can be ruled out since the compression is good on all the cylinders. The engine has 200,000 kms. (120,000 miles) on it. I have received two different opinions on this. First opinion from the dealer is that a piece of carbon dropped in and has been caught in the valves or something. They put in some engine cleaner and the problem seems to be better. There is still a knocking noise when the engine starts in the cold, but quiets down when the engine is warm. A second opinion given to me is that likely the crankshaft is broken. It was just a coincidence that it happened after the plugs were changed. Does anyone know the symptoms of a bad crankshaft?

My 95' Villager may be making the same noise. For the first 1-2 seconds after startup it is quiet... then this chatter starts. I bought it this way... and have noticed a few others on the road that make the same noise. Not sure what it is? It is kind of mysterious, I have been told everything from a piston wrist pin to a weak valve lifter or a knocking pulley in the accessories. If you find out what it is, please post the reason, for now I figure I am not going to mess with it. Mine has 137,000 miles on it and I figure digging into the engine is not worth it, especially because it runs great! Good luck!

My 95 Villager, 3.0 Nissan engine, bought used at 62000 miles, developed a noticeable heavy rattle at about 95,000 to 100,000 miles. I took it in at 115,000 to replace timing belt (don't neglect this). Dealer mechanic called the racket "piston slap," & said it is result of fewer lube ports in engine than were put into subsequent models. Sounds crappy, but hasn't affected performance; mileage now at 160,000. By the way, when you buy used, always inform the factory how to reach you. There had been a warranty extension on this engine to 100,000 miles. or 7 years because of this problem, but I never heard of it. I could have gotten a free engine!

We have a 95 with 128000 miles. Occasionally the check engine light would come on when cruising down the highway and it started to idle rough. Our local garage guy put it on the check engine machine and concluded the crankshaft bearing or the main bearing, or maybe a piston bearing or sleeve was warped. A week later the light went out, it is running like new again, and we didn't do anything to it! We think something was just plugging something somewhere and it cleared out. The check engine light does not come on at all anymore!

Regarding that engine knocking problem, my 93 Villager had similar issue. After some investigation I figured the noise comes from exhaust manifold. This is a very common Villager/Quest 93-98 problem. One or more exhaust manifold studs (usually from the right side of the engine) breaks, causing to knocking noise and leaking smoke. The noise will increase as the engine ages and the smoke will be annoying when the heat is on.

My crankshaft broke, and the engine simply would not start. I purchased my 93 Villager from my cousin, drove it 1000 miles to get it home, put another 100 miles on it, woke up one morning and it wouldn't start. The starter worked, so I thought the timing belt broke. I popped the distributor cap off and the rotor wasn't turning while cranking the starter. I went to pull off the crankshaft pulley and it just fell off into my hands... completely severed from the crankshaft. I never heard any abnormal sounds prior to the van not starting.