After owning my 89 for close to 9 years, I've never changed the oil myself. I always paid some a mechanic to do it. The last oil change, I chose to do it myself. What an event that was. Draining the oil was easy! The problem began with removing the old filter! It was an almost impossible task! In fact, idiot me ended up buying three different oil filter removing tools, one of them completely cut into the oil filter and shreading the aluminum cast off the filter. It took me a day and a half to completely remove the old filter. I was so shocked and baffled by what happened. The old filter was a purolator PL24457... the model recommended by the book. I don't know what could've gone wrong?

Ok fine, I finally removed the old oil filter. plugged the oil pan, used 20/50 oil, and then proceeded to screew in a brand new oil filter... as recommended by Purolator L24457. To my disappointing shock it refused to screw-in! How could this be??? I went to Pep Boys and got another brand of filter... and still!!! The filter refused to fit!

I ended up reshaping the grooves on the filter itself to match the grooves on the car. Is the procedure/sequence of events incorrect? Did I do anything wrong? Is the filter I used the correct one?

One thing is certain, after that experience - I will never try to change my oil ever again... help the economy, keep a mechanic employed

 

Righty tighty lefty loosey

 

Uhh, wow. OK first, why did you decide to put 20W50 in? That is usually for old, leaky, about-to-go engines. Hopefully yours isn't one of them. Every time I have bought an oil filter the size has been 3682. Try a different store or brand of filter next time. If I were you I would attempt to get a correct fitting filter asap since there is the chance it didn't seal right and the oil is leaking out. For the love of Nismo, don't let your engine die because it ran out of oil, double-check it. And not to get cocky, but although most Jiffy-lube techs know SOMETHING about cars, most of them are hardly mechanics.

 

thanks for the thought. I've always used 20/50... since I got the car with 66ks on it, and never a problem. Today I have 160k miles on the engine... I notice it runs much quietter with 20/50. It leaks on occassion, a stain here and there, but nothing out of the norm.

 

5W30 is the recommended oil for our engines, as stated in the owner's manual.

 

20w50?

 

That's the exact filter I've been using in my VE 5spd for years

However, I'm not sure if VG's use the same filter or not

If you had that much trouble getting the filter off (assuming you were turning it the proper way) then whoever was doing your oil changes put that shiz on there WAY too tight

 

the threads on the oil filter screw might be stripped... look closely at the threads to see if they are messed up... since the mechanic tightened it up so tightly it might have messed up the threads

 

uh wow.... 20-50? damn, even the oil used in the SUV in my family is only 15-40. To comment on your filter problem: L24457 is the correct filter, the 3682 might be the equivalent, but under the Fram brand. The reason your oil filter won't budge is maybe the rubber gasket on the filter had fused with the surface of the oil filter mount, and will take a little persuasion(i.e. filter wrench), remember to grab it at the top, and not on the cylindrical part of the filter, or the wrench will literally eat itself through the filter. To put the filter back on, first put a thin layer of oil on the rubber gasket/ring that are on the filter, also put some oil on the thread of the filter as well, then first turn the filter to left (open) to make sure that it is aligned, then lightly turn it to the right, making sure it spins freely until slightly tightened, then use your hand to tighten it, do not utilize any tools, or it will be too tight. Good luck.

 

wow... Thanks guys for the replies. I remember looking at the car's thread and it looks intact. In fact, I remember it being a very fine thread as opposed to the filter's thread. The new filter couldn't screw on smoothly all the way through. Just before reaching the bottom of the slot, the filter would just spin and spin and spin as I twist and twist and twist... Basically just stuck at the very beginning of the thread... like the filter's opening was just too small for the car's thread. At any rate, I like I said before, I ended up reshaping the filter's thread to make it fit... and by the sounds of it - I'm the lone unlucky shlubb.

... About the 20w 50... no problem there... but upon reading all seemingly shocked replies, I'll try the 5w 30.

 

PS - FYI, I got this from google search.

Use 10-30 in the summer.... put an additive once every oil change also... they are inexpensive and really add protection and noisey engine quieting.
you should switch your oil... thinner oil in the winter (ITS COLDER AND EASIER ON YOUR ENGINE, THE OIL IS LIKE MOLASIS) and thicker in the summer (IT IS WARMER WEATHER, THUS YOUR OIL VICOSITY IS THINNER BECAUSE OF THE ADDED ENGINE HEAT)

 

Exactly my point. 20W50 is like syrup in the first place. How do you think it is in the winter? As far as additives go...just don't add fuel injector cleaner to any Nissan engine.

 

I see you got a VG also...I dont know about yours but mine says 10w30 summer and 5w30 winter..not 5w30 all the time.



Also I use Mobile1 M1-208 oil filter and I use a RiteFit cap size A, I believe...its 10.99 for the filter and like 2.59 for the ritefit...works like a charm

 

personally I recommend 5w30 for most cars
most of them recommend it for all year round use.

 

Actually, I do run 10W30 during the hotter months.

 

Question for the smart guys..is my car more vulnerable to leaks with 5w30 than 10w30 or even synthetic? dont know if it makes sense but hope someone knows what I mean

 

If it leaks, it leaks. Does not matter what oil, as they go thinner as the temp rises and inside the working engine it is always the same temp thanks to the thermostat and the fans.

I always use a 5' piece of outdoor extension cord to unscrew the filter, twsting 2-3 loops around it and pulling on one end. The filter comes off effortlessly.
But I see no advantage of doing an oil change yourself if you are not getting good oil and Nissan OEM filter. If you are buying cheap oil and cheap filter for your own oil changes, you are much better off going to a garage that does a $10 oil change - there'll be no difference from your engine's point of view and much less hassle from your's.

 

I've never seen a $10 oil change...the cheapest I've seen is $15.99 and they used the cheapest oil along with filter.

Let me ask you, what kind of oil is good? cuz I use Pennzoil still thinkin on switching to Mobile 1...as for oil filter I use Mobile 1 which is most expensive where I shop. Would I be able to buy OEM oil filter at dealer because If I'm not wrong I read somewhere in a sticky that for VG it doesnt matter if you use that Toyota oil filter or not.

 

i like castrol gtx 10w30. i used it in the maxima all of the time. for the MR2 i use castrol syntec 10w30.

 

I only said $10 because the cheapest oil change I could get was $10 Canadian, which as for some time used to be 1.5 for 1 $US and now it is about 1.2 for 1 $US. If this is an unheard price than sorry, my bad.

I used to put in Valvoline 5w30 for quite a while, but these days I go to COSTCO and get their box of 12 Castrol 10w30, which lasts me thru the year. With my driving style synth would have been a waste of money.

 

I've seen $10 oil changes. no mention of the filter though

 

You can get a $10 oil change with decent oil and filter, but it's DIY. And why not? It's pretty simple.

 

For people who don't like to get dirty or have any doubts about changing their own oil, take it into the shop. Problem with DIY oil changes is you don't save all that much more, and disposing of the oil means another trip to the toxic collection station. The only good thing about DIY - and the reason I do it myself (aside from no warranty to maintain), is because you can take your time and allow the oil to drain longer. This means more of the dirty oil can be voided from the pan. At shops, they guarantee 15 minutes, and don't even let the oil drain enough before they put everything back. I know some places, if they can pull it off, don't change the oil filter, and only sparay some white sealant on it (terrible people).

 

Amsoil works well 0-30w I change the oil once a year and change the fileter 2x per year.
My engine has 300k on it and running well

 

you only change the oil once a year???? how many miles you put on the car???????.... so you are telling me that you have over 300k miles on your car and you still use 0-30W?????? and you have no oil leaking from your car????? sound weird....

 

Just got off the phone with the Auto Socail Services. They're on their way to take your maxima to a better enviroment.

 

never heard of 0w30 and I work at an autopart store..


oh by the way you dont have to go to the toxic collection agency for your used oil, just go to idiotzone or murrays. We accept up to 5 quarts of used oil without charge.. it might be closer than your toxic collection place which I also never heard of lol

 

*ahem*Chicago river*ahem* not really, i've always taken mine to advanced autoparts and its a 30 sec task for them to take it no hassle at all.

 

excuse me the river is clean, the canal is another story

 

Never heard of 0w30? It's around, harder to find but its definately around.

 

hey guys i know this is sort of irrelevant but it has a little to do with my oil. i accidently added a whole can of Seafoam into my crankcase and i did some research and it says thats bad. im worried now. i cant get an oil change until 1500 miles. what should i do? should i get it changed right away or will it be ok until the oil change

 

i would say get it changed ASAP.. you could probably hydrolock the motor (lockign it up so it wont run AT ALL)

 

hydrolock? not from putting it in the oil. it will probably just make the oil too thin or something and not properly lubricate the engine, which is just as bad. if that's not recommended then you probably should get the oil changed as soon as you can. i've never messed with the stuff so i'm not possitive myself.

 

hey guys, what if i put in some STP Oil Treatment to get the thickness up. would this be a good or bad idea? And if i dont get an oil change within the next 1500 miles, will my engine start to go bad because of the seafoam?

 

instead of wasting ur money with oil treatments, just change the oil urself now. its not that hard....u could drain the oil with nothing more than a shifter

 

yea i would get an oil change, but i can't right now. so would adding something to get higher viscosity in the oil help until the oil change?

 

Why can't you get an oil change? If you take the car some place their not going to say no.

 

ok, but im just wondering if my car will last 1500 miles without an oil change without messing up the engine?

 

Dude, if you don't get an oil change, you will have a very shiny, clean, and BROKEN engine in about a couple hundred miles, forget the 1500 miles figure. The seafoam stuff is primarily used to "flush" the engine free of grime and contaminants that had build up over the years, and have a very low lubrication property (think kerosene based engine flush,) plus, it was designed to BREAK DOWN oil grime, so think what that will do to your motor oil. So basically your engine will kill itself during cold start up, and will definitely kill itself during regular run. Also, I think vansskater is referring to heat lock, which happens to engine with no lubrication, and the heat generated from a running engine will evantually cause the metal surfaces to super heat so that it will literally melt and catches the piston in place, which in final means there will be a connecting rod going straight through the top of the piston, along with other goodies.

 

Moral of the Story: CHANGE YOUR DAM OIL!!!