02nissmax

Hey all,

My car has 116,780, and I've had it since it had 55,000. I always took care of changing the oil on time. The car always burned oil but not as much. I don't remember the interval at which I had to fill it again but I believe from about 80K or so it used to burn thru a guart at 600-700 using Castrol Synthetic 5W 30. So at about 100,000 I stopped using synthetic and went with Regular castrol GTX 5W 30 and it would go to about 900-1000 until a refill was needed. Just noticed today that after 275 miles I went thru a quart. I mean consumption can't be all that bad now, can it? I'm suspecting a leak, however I've let it idle for over 10 min and I don't see drips on the ground. And yes I've installed new valve cover gaskets and grummets in the past so can't be from there.

Any tips here as far as what you guys are doing for oil consumption? oil weight? What gaskets are common to leak?

Thanks

colt149

iTrader: (1)

VQ35DE has a tapered piston, in high mileage vehicle the secondary piston ring releases oil in high rpm. Blowby oil>PCV valve>PCV tubing>intake manifold. Blowby oil contaminate the intake manifold.

To prevent this Install a PCV oil catch can

PCV valve>PCV tubing>IN of oil can>OUT of oil catch can>PCV tubing>Intake Manifold. Buy the ADD W1 oil catch can in Ebay, do not use fuel or transmission tubing, use a PCV tubing with 30R7 Specification (will not collapse in high vaccum)

You need to gut both precat (near the radiator, near the firewall) or replace it.
The cheapest way is to gut it and install 02 nonfouler to the two secondary 02 sensor. The precat near the radiator, usually desintegrate, releasing a loose sharp sandy material that destroy the piston and valve.
http://s1308.photobucket.com/user/co...tml?sort=3&o=5 I gutted both my precat, picture above is my precat near the radiator that start to desintegrate. My vehicle has 114,000 miles.

02nissmax

I guess you mean secondary ring not piston?

So the catch can is really to stop contamination to the intake manifold intake charge, but it won't minimize oil consumption...?

Now, how does the precat near radiator release sandy material that travel back up to the piston and valve if this is part of the exhaust? Exhaust goes out and not in....?

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

Catch can just keeps your intake clean and will not decrease oil consumption other than it not being sucked into your intake and burned.
You still dump out the catch can so you're not saving anything.

Blow back does happen, either gut the cats or get headers.

02nissmax

Yeah, the catch can won't help my original question then.

So there have been instances of blown engines because of pieces of cat blowing back to the chambers??

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

Toasted rings eventually due to precat breakdown can happen.

02nissmax

Ugh, this really stinks. at How many miles has this happened?

If I take the cat off every piece of exhaust is coming off in chunks. It's all rotted

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

Varies greatly from car to car.

Sorry about the exhaust.

02nissmax

Thanks, and thanks for the info.

4th gen maxi

iTrader: (1)

Are you guys referring to the egr setup bringing in catalytic dirt?
There is no way the cats can disintegrate unless super heated past 1800 degreess specially at 120k Ive never heard that nonsense from two+ different minds.

Your problem definitely will get worse pretty much oil control in the rings is non existent now. I can only think of valve seals or the 20-30degrees of hatch in yhe cylinder is just gone

02nissmax

Good point, I believe the cats are ceramic too so would take a lot of heat.
Otherwise on the oil thing, can't believe it would start consuming oil only at 116K since I took care of this car so well, always changing the oil.

4th gen maxi

iTrader: (1)

Yeah man from what I know the rings Nissan used on all 35s were reallly weak. They wear down really bad not sealing the power.
I would run it that way until you find yourself another daily or max. Swapping blocks is possible but I can see more money spent over the value.
Starting with the blown o2 sensors sh*t gets expensive real quick man.
Good luck

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

This is a VERY well known issue.
Sorry that you didn't already know.

4th gen maxi

iTrader: (1)

Nope never heard such horse crap at 120k
If you showed me a tsb on this issue I would understand.
I work on these tin cans 36 hours of the week boss.

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

Do a search on here, 5th gen forum, for increased oil consumption. Look at colt149's pics. He caught his early.

This issue is not necessarily a Nissan thing. I was watching an episode of 5th gear and they were advising about a used (2007 or so) Toyota MR2. Be careful of the pre-cats they said, symptom being increased oil consumption. An engine rebuild is in order if you don't. In other words, the same exact issue.

Interestingly, both Toyota and Nissan did not do a recall on those cars. My guess would be that the issue shows up on cars past the 100K mile mark and the issue is not deadly to a human, just the car itself.

colt149

iTrader: (1)

http://s1308.photobucket.com/user/co...tml?sort=3&o=5

The picture speak for itself. Check the org, a lot of member posted picture of the precat near the radiator, most of them are desintegrated due to poor quality material combined with horsecrap workmanship. One OEM Genuine Nissan Precat cost $599.00 parts only, Bosal and Walker OE aftermarket precat cost $299.00. Nissan stealership unfortunately does not want to shoulder the replacement.

4th gen maxi

iTrader: (1)

I see. Thanks guys.
No doubt low quality materials used.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

Ha, that pic is almost cute. Mine literally DISINTEGRATED into pieces and completely clogged the rear cat...at 75k miles.

Low quality is an understatement. You can find pics of them cracking apart when people went to delete them.

02nissmax

I'm going to reset my tripometer again and see how much another quart lasts again. Funny thing is the car picks up and goes strong. I would think if the pieces act as sandpaper scraping the cylinder walls making the oil rings not seal as good, then the compression rings should fail too.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

You would think, but that's not the case (saw it 1st hand).

maxipower

try using heavier weight oil like 10w/40 or straight 40w,,it may help lessen the consumption by more miles...not worth you money spent for doing excessive engine work,,maybe time to get another car,,all good things come to an end..

imaking133

Stop with the quick fixes and swap in a 05+ motor. People don't realize that quick fixes and adding oil all the time add up to a lot of $. You can just get another engine and have that piece of mind and be done with it.

Decoy036SPD

iTrader: (1)

FULLY AGREE with Colt149 on this subject. Catch can will help you to NOT BURN the oil ... however you will STILL LOSE oil past the rings. Only way to permanently fix this issue is with a complete engine rebuild or as imaking133 stated swap in the newer year motor which is not known to have oil consumption issues.

This whole topic is going back to the fact that NMAC is a bunch of **** suckers and do not want to own up for having built an engine that has poor pistons, rings, and cylinders. Do you know what any Nissan dealer would of told you as they told me? It is normal for the engine to lose a quart of oil every 1,000 miles. So you mean to tell me that if I change my oil every 3,000 miles I will already be short 3 quarts, and only have 1 and a half quart in the engine?

My other suggestion is buy an oil pan spacer, which will add a full quart of oil to the engine. Thus taking the capacity up to 5 and a half quarts. This will be done when I get some extra cash in the next month or so. I change my oil with full synthetic and lucas oil every 3,000 miles. I have the money to do it and I also write off everything done to me car because of my job.

02nissmax

Thanks all for the advice.
Not even sure what to do at this point.
The car is in great condition. The rear wheel wells have some rust, but the rest of the car is mint inside out. Engine is responsive, no smoke at startup or idling. I just don't feel like dumping 1500 into an exhaust for a car that's 12 years old. I do have a 2014 maxima which is a lease. But do need my old baby to run so I don't go over the mileage on the lease, so it can't die yet.

maximase86

iTrader: (24)

If it were me, I would just keep topping off oil and keep driving it. The motor will keep going as long as you keep it topped off. So don't fret. You can keep miles off the newer max no problem.

However you will need to make a judgement call at some point. You will either just have to deal with the consumption. If you do that, then I'd say just do basic needs on the car and nothing more. Drive it to the ground. No oil changes, maybe a filter change every 8-12 months, and simple maintenance items...if something big goes wrong, cut the car loose.

Next option is to fix the problem which is either a rebuild, or finding a quality used motor to replace it with...preferably from an 05 FWD VQ35DE...should be easy enough to find. I would only choose this if you intend to keep the car several years longer.

Last option is replace the car. Pretty self explanatory here.


S

02nissmax

Thanks for the advice man. Sounds like a sound advice to me. I think for now I'll just run it out till it doesn't drive anymore.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

I wonder how cheap you can get 50 weight oil?

But how the hell is it even running with that kind of consumption? There should be a solid layer of carbon on top of the cats.

Motor swaps are easy on these cars. If you can source one cheap, that's what I vote for.

02nissmax

My next door neighbor actually said to me to add a bottle of STP oil treatment. He swears by it. And he's been a mechanic for over 40 years professionally. He said it probably won't stop leakage but it will help some. But definitely stop dry startups which I've been getting for quite sometime.

I don't know how its running. There's absolutely no blue smoke at startup. No smoke out the oil cap although the pcv valve is probably sucking most of it if there is. And there's absolutely no puddles on the ground. It's possible that I somehow didn't reset my tripometer. I don't know. Everytime I put a quart which used to be every 900-1000 miles I reset it.
I might buy a leak detector kit because this is killing my curiosity.

Fakie J Farkerton

iTrader: (51)

Lucas>STP IMO.

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

You know with your oil consumption at a quart every 1k miles, this doomsday disintegrating cats may not be definitive. You should really have a shop take your exhaust apart at the pre cats to see how far gone they are. In fact, just plan on gutting them and use your visual inspection to determine the damage done. Your engine has been well taken care of, and if you catch the pre cats early, it may still have a long life ahead of it.

02nissmax

I agree on this one too. Just that I read somewhere that Lucas is a lot thicker.

02nissmax

True, just that the minute you disturb the rust pile, I'm looking at at least 1K in repairs. Although proactiveness is always cheaper than disaster.

a33_ridah

iTrader: (10)

Bumping up as its always relative. Im at 147k in my 6 speed and dealing with oil consumption issues now. One thing at a time...

Just the other day, coasting next to some cars on the street coming to a stop i heard some exhaust rattle (like loose sand in a tin can)...AND i feel as if my cats are clogged. I really need to get onto gutting them

losifanatic

My sentry ser had its precat disintegrate at 20,000 miles. Completely destroyed the motor and clogged up the main cat. It was a very well known problem with the 02 and 03 Ser.

george__

iTrader: (1)

Just keep jugs of engine oil in the trunk and fill it up like clock work...

nismopc

iTrader: (3)

My 2002 SE 6MT made it to 185k miles all while burning oil since approx. 80k miles. I always made sure to keep an eye on it over all those years, but it finally gave in and the engine blew. I swapped in a 2005 Maxima engine with approx. 70k miles and sold to a friend of mine over 2 years ago. He's had no oil burning issues with the '05 engine.

My only suggestion if you plan to do nothing is to just keep an eye on the oil level and let nature take it's course.

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

Not just those, it ran till the cat was replaced for the new gen. Every 02-06 QR25 has blown up or is in its death throes. They're always on CL with blown motors or just billowing blue smoke. Some were killed by the HG before the cat LOL. If it wasn't for the cat, HG and balance shaft, and butterfly screws (almost forgot, thanks george haha) the motor would be reliable LOL. I climb hills in my spec v in 6th gear at 1,500 rpms or less. Even with the short gearing, I'm always impressed.

OPs engine is so far gone that he can drive it till it won't hold any oil or be proactive and 5.7 swap LIKE A MAN!

george__

iTrader: (1)

The famous butterfly valve issue.. Is this even real?

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

That's just another problem. Nissan didn't thread lock them (and apparently under torqued them, too) and many lost screws (yes, some lost more than one lol) into the cylinders. If you were lucky the screw shot out the exhaust before damaging a valve or head. Most weren't lucky, I don't think. People were fishing them out of the exhaust, though.

george__

iTrader: (1)

Interesting...