I have a 96 Maxima 5sp with 92K. I am sold on using synthetic oil with changes every 6-7k. I believe Shell Rottella 5w40 (synthetic) is one of the better synthetic oils and is only around 13 bucks in the 5 quart bottle (WalMart). Nissan Recommends using only 5w30 or 10w30 oil with a statement that says major engine damage can occur using the incorrect viscosity. So, am I taking a risk using 5w40?

 

Nope. Since it's a synthetic, it will way outperform the assumed dyno oil that Nissan think you use anyways. Nissan also says not to mix synth and regular dyno oil, and I've done that plenty of times.

DW

 

You actually mean dino oil right? You threw me for a loop for a sec there since I'm really keen to get my Max on the dyno to generate some hp/tq plots.

 

You should have your oil analyzed by Blackstone Labs. I think your the only one I've ever heard of on this forum using that oil. We use Shell Rotella at work and some of my guys sware by it. You contact Bill99GXE and get some info on that oil on the spread sheet he keeps on oil analysis. It would be very interesting to see how this oil holds up. I've heard nothing be great things about the Shell Rotella oils.

 

Shell's Rotella T 5W-40 seems to be a pretty decent Group III "synthetic". Risks of running a 40 wt. oil in a Maxima can include higher overall oil temperature and reduced power output and fuel economy. It's still up for debate whether or not a 40 wt. is "thick" enough to cause any of these to be significant problems in a VQ. As njmaxseltd mentioned, it would be great to see an analysis on this oil to see how well it performs in the Maxima.

 

Ha ha very funny

DW

 

Thanks for the info, but I'm not familiar with "Blackstone Labs". I have not used the oil "as yet". I have no reservations what so ever with using Rotella except for the viscosity (5w40 instead of the recommended 5w30 or 10w30). I guess a similar question could be made for the newer 0w30 oils (Mobil1).

 

My wife's 1995 Maxima GXE has just about 82,000 miles on it and runs fine on synthetic oil. We purchased it brand new in February of 1995 and we have used both Mobil-1 10W-30 and Castrol Syntec 5W-50 since about 20,000 miles or so.

It does not appear to make any difference at all, and we get both very hot and very cold weather in our area of Virginia. The car runs fine and we consistently do better than 25 mpg in mixed driving. I change the oil & filter every 3500 miles, whether it needs it or not. I know I could go longer, but call it peace of mind. Since I change my own oil and filter, it still is cheaper to do it myself with synthetic than to pay Jiffy Lube to do it.

I own a 2002 Sentra (my 'Minima'), and I will switch to a full synthetic oil at my next oil change (around 16,000). Currently, I use a synthetic blend in 5W-30 weight. I will use either Castrol Syntec or Mobil-1, but will still change it about every 4K or so (peace of mind, you know).

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P.S. I never knew Shell made a Rotella oil for cars, let alone anything synthetic. I use Rotella 15W-40 oil (regular oil, not synthetic) in my work truck, which has a medium-duty diesel engine. Since the crankcase holds four gallons, any synthetic would break the bank!

 

I am.



Excellent service - valuable information. Affordable, too.

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Get their free test kit mailed out to you here:

http://www.blackstone-labs.com/free_test_kit.html


Look into it - it's like getting an X-ray of the condition of your engine. Identify and anticipate/correct minor problems before they become $major$ ones.

I highly recommend this company.

 

If you had a bottle of most synthetic 5W-30's in front of you, you could peel the 5W-30 label off of it and throw a 0W-30 label on it and still satisfy the SAE requierements. The products are really similar. The synthetics are so good that easily surpass the minimum requirements the SAE mandates that what the label on the bottle says is more psychological to the user than anything else.

Note: This is only talking about the 0W, 5W or 10W portion of the viscosity. The second number, i.e. the 30, 40 or 50 is an entirely different story.