I have recently discovered that my 98 5-speed is consuming about 1 quart every 4,000 miles. My 98 I30 uses neglible oil in the same mileage. How unusual is the Maxima's usage? Is there any maintenance item that might be suspect as causing inordinate oil usage? Any suggestions, experience or comments? Thanks in advance...

 

1/4 quart per 1000 miles.......yeah, that's not right......It really shouldn't use any, and I'm assuming that you have more than 10k on the Max......

You could change viscosities (go from 5W-30 to 10W-30 synthetic) or oil brands (Mobile 1 since its more convenient to get than Royal Purple, Amsoil, etc.) or both and see if it improves. At a minimum, I would change the oil, take a sample, and send to Blackstone Labs for analysis. Then I would stick 10W-30 synthetic and see if that "slows" the consumption down. I'm not familiar with any typical maintenance item that would help in this case. I doubt that there's *really* anything wrong......

Give that a shot and see if it helps.....

 

I have a 98 Maxima SE and have a similar problem.
I was lossing about the same amount and it was attributed to a bad oil pressure sensor/sending unit, something like that. Got that replaced under warrenty and that slowed the problem quite a bit.
I just got it fixed, and am waiting to see the final result.

 

The industry standard for acceptable oil consumption is one quart per thousand miles. Your Maxima is using only 25% of that amount. Stop worrying. There's nothing wrong with your engine.

 

SE, I complained about the same problem of oil consumption in a previous post. I own a '97 Max and noted my oil down a quart after 3000 miles. The engine exterior looked clean. I wasn't blowing oil out of the top. There were no signs of oil smear under the engine when I got my next oil change. I use Castrol 10-30 oil and have been happy with this oil. It seems that, with my engine, oil is used to lube the engine and excess gases from the crankcase are sucked into the carb and burned. I open the valve cover oil cap from time to time and I see bright metal on the header. I then know that oil is not being burned in the engine to create shellac-type burns inside the engine. My recommend is that you change oil every 3K miles and not worry about oil consumption. I prefer Castrol at this point, but may look at synthetics down the road.

 

My Maxima seems to use very little ooil over an 9,000 mile interval. I pour the used oil back into the oil quarts to displace the amount used (it's not much at all). On my 89 Mazda 626, I noticed I lose a lot of oil. I got to the bottom of the problem. Park in the same spot when you go home. Perhaps you are leaking. The bolt and washer of your oil pan should be changed when you change the oil. That was just the case with my Mazda.

 

Sorry I had to fire off a quick message before I left last night (comsumption?!), and I omitted a few key details.
First, there is no leakage of any kind, happily, from either my Max or I30. Both cars have about 50K miles. Second, I am currently using 10W30 Royal Purple synthetic in both cars. I would be willing to try something else, but if it were the oil per se then I would think both cars would do the same. Thirdly, when I had my car "MARTA'd" or emissions tested last time, it failed the test, until the idle speed was increased by foot by about 200 RPM. Not sure if this is related problem, or independent problem. I feel better after DBM's comments, as I highly respect his opinion; guess I can scrap the plans to trade for a M5. LOL. bill99gxe, are you in the Nashville area? If so, what shop do you have confidence in, and where do you source the Amsoil? I've been having trouble finding a shop that I have confidence in; maybe I should fly DBM in to do any work. Thanks guys for any additional input.

 

Originally posted by SE-Raider


Well, that throws that theory out the window. I can't really recommend a higher weight oil in comfort. You *could* change brands (I would go with Mobile 1). Or, you could go with a dino oil (Pennzoil or whatever), since dino oils tend to be *slightly* thicker than synthetics.....



I had such a bad day around here yesterday, I neglected to think of the Oil Pressure Switch, which is known to be defective and could be letting out enough oil to cause this "phantom consumption".



Hmmmm.....I think that's a separate issue, maybe Daniel can offer something better. Could you give us those readings that they got at "normal" idle and idle + 200rpm?



Yeah, you probably shouldn't be concerned.....but get the M5 anyway



Yeah, I live in Franklin, and I believe you do as well IIRC....



Crawford's Z Car Service
1622 State Street
Nashville, TN 37203

(615) 327-4159



I'm a preferred customer and I order direct from them. But I would just get Mobile 1 and see how that "behaves" for a couple of thousand miles. I'm not really familiar with anyone locally that carries it, but I don't have a lot of faith in many local shops anyway......



No kidding.....there's another good place in Hendersonville, but I can't recall the name. It does have "Import" in the title. A forum search for "Crawford's" would most likely reveal that thread location, as this has come up before (believe it or not).

I'll see if I can dig that up as well as Daniel's Oil Pressure Switch instructions.

Good luck!

 

Replacing the Oil Pressure Switch is a job which can be done by the home mechanic. Raise the front of the vehicle and support it on sturdy jackstands. Slide under. The OPS is easy to see and reach. It is "just around the corner" from the oil filter, in the rear face of the block. Peel back the protective rubber boot. Press and wiggle to disconnect the electrical connector from the OPS. You may use an ordinary 12-point 1-inch deep socket to unscrew the OPS. A few ounces of engine oil will dribble out, not much of a problem. You can do the whole job in half an hour, including cleanup time.

 

Oil Pressure Switch how to posts:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....tch#post271399

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....tch#post265888

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....tch#post226142

Torque Spec for the switch:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....tch#post262938

I think I'll add these to the "sticky" for maintenance....

 

SE-Raider:

Here's the post for the other shop:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ight=crawfords

 

Great info on the Oil Pressure sending unit. However, I don't understand how this would affect oil consumption. This sounds more like a slow leak to me, and I have no evidence of any leak on my concrete drive, not a drop. how could the unit effect combustion of oil? Or maybe the oil has to be at sustained pressure for a time (i.e. street speeds rather than just idle)to leak, and I don't notice it driving down the street, drop by drop? Anyway I'll check at lunch or when I get home and let you know. bill99gxe, thanks for the info on the OPS and on Crawford's. I'll give them a call, check them out. I've also considered a new garage in Brentwood, Christian Brothers, who employs a technician I used to use when he was at Infiniti of Nashville. Have you heard of this shop? Over near Cool Springs. E-mail me if you'd like to meet some time, or maybe there might be enough interest to have a small local meet sometime.

Info like this on Maxima.Org was key in why I decided to buy two Nissan products last year. Great site. Great folks.

 

Great info on the Oil Pressure sending unit. However, I don't understand how this would affect oil consumption. This sounds more like a slow leak to me, and I have no evidence of any leak on my concrete drive, not a drop. how could the unit effect combustion of oil? Or maybe the oil has to be at sustained pressure for a time (i.e. street speeds rather than just idle)to leak, and I don't notice it driving down the street, drop by drop? Anyway I'll check at lunch or when I get home and let you know. bill99gxe, thanks for the info on the OPS and on Crawford's. I'll give them a call, check them out. I've also considered a new garage in Brentwood, Christian Brothers, who employs a technician I used to use when he was at Infiniti of Nashville. Have you heard of this shop? Over near Cool Springs. E-mail me if you'd like to meet some time, or maybe there might be enough interest to have a small local meet sometime.

Info like this on Maxima.Org was key in why I decided to buy two Nissan products last year. Great site. Great folks.

 

Driving habits also affect oil consumption. If you drive aggressively, keep using the upper part of your rev band (3500 rpm and beyond), your oil consumption will increase.

Keep cruisng at 65 with light feather touches on the accelerator, keeping your revs going to 3500 rpm maximum, and your oil consumption decreases.

DW

 

If the car is a daily driver and it is driven at high speeds (freeway), the wind can blow the drops back and/or off the car. This spreads it out and or blows it of of the car so it doesn't drip as readily (but creating a mess under the car, sometimes all the way to the back of the vehicle) Sometimes drops can form after a day or two in the garage from the oil finally running down and settling enough.

I use about 1 to 1.5 quarts between oil changes (5,000 mile oil changes Mobil 1 15w50) on my 1997 Maxima 5sp with 136,000+ miles.

I use about .5 quarts between oil changes (3,000 miles regular dino oil 5w-30) on my 1990 Maxima auto with 217,000+ miles.

You car doesn't look too excessive. The advice on this thread about the oil pressure sending unit is new info to me and good to know. I've noticed a slight amount of buildup on the forward facing nut of the passenger side lower control arm, while the drive side was clean. So I guess I'll need to investigate further to see if I might be seeping some oil from the sending unit. Thanks everyone!

-V

 

Originally posted by SE-Raider



Well, it's small enough to allow a slow enough of a leak as you've described. It's a long shot, but it'll cost ya $10 and 30 min. of your time to replace. On my 99, it's been leaking a while, as I have oil residue all over the underside of the oil pan and around the area where the stupid OPS is.......

I had no idea it was doing this either until I was replacing my ATF drain plug and just "looking around" underneath when I noticed it.



Drive by it almost daily. I have sarcastically laughed at the name......but I'm always wanting to find other good places to go. Let me know if/when you have a positive experience there. Infiniti of Nashville is one place I neglected to mention earlier as I've heard good things about them.....Franklin Nissan falls on the other end of the spectrum, though...from personal experience.....



OK.

Posts like yours are why I bother sticking around. I cling to the hope that all members can construct questions and responses that emulate yours and are relevant to a discussion of Maxima stuff......

 

I had a similar problem with my 98 SE.
I was loosing about a quart every 2K miles.
The dealer put a dye in the oil and found a leak at the oil pressure sending unit. They replaced it and the leak has slowed down considerably. I am not convinced that it is gone, but at least I don't have to top off the oil every other weekend!