My car had been burning a quite good amount of oil lately. After the last oil change, I was told by my service advisor to go back within 1000 miles. Went back this morning and the car was already at 3 1/2 quarts after 1050 miles. He told me I need a new engine.

I don't know if I should happy that I am getting a new engine or concerned for issues that may arise from having a new engine installed.

 

Is this being replaced under warranty?

 

If it is under warranty.. why worry about? take it and be happy

 

to bad you can't keep the old motor

 

sounds like the same thing with my engine.

read my long post towards the end http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=412905

 

eh...just swap the VQ30 into that puppy

 

thats what im gonna do... it will reduce wheel hop

 

Har-har.

 

hey, I'm not the one 3 quarts of oil low

 

Wow that doesn't sound good at all..... first trannies and now engines...that's why I love my 3.0... as for the wheel hop.. nothing that a set of springs will not fix....

 

got 'em

back to the issue...ive driven a few hundred miles since being at the dealership. oil level seem fine and no sound...we will see

 

so what's the deal with burning all that oil? bad rings?

 

my max was burning oil, dealer thought i needed a new engine under warranty but the problem was PCV valve. They replaced it and no more oil burn.

 

yes...the piston rings keep the oil from entering the combustion chamber and burning.
if you read my thread...they are trying to say its cause i had synthetic in there :

 

that's bull cause Nissan change your oil and gives the option of sync.... definetly Nissan mech know s$it....

 

I have put 67xxx very hard miles on my VQ35 with no oil leaks to speak of. Sometimes, they just build them wrong. Plain and simple. It sounds like he has excessive amounts of blowby and poor cylinder wall sealing. Best bet, get nissan to give you a new engine and be done with it. Also, break the new engine in gently...no revving over 4k for the first 1000 miles, and switch to synthetic (5w-30 or 10w-30, 5w-30 preffered) after the first oil change and never look back. Also, when you get the oil changed, make sure they give you the 9E000 filter and not the 65F00. Do this, and you shouldnt have any more issues with your motor. Also, following the schedule 2 mainenance (oil changes every 3750) is a good idea. Yes the oil can go further, however there is only 4.5 quarts of it....so why chance it.

 

You might want to get an oil analysis done. It will tell you the amount of blowby in the oil and give you a better idea if the problem is the rings or not.

 

Just got back from getting the car after having the engine swapped. I guess it wasn't the entire engine, it was the long block. I didn't have a chance to talk to the service advisor because I picked it up too late. Here are the new parts I got:

1 999MP-AF000P LONG LIFE
1 10102-CB6A0 ENGINE
2 14035-7Y000 GASKET-MAN
1 14032-8J105 GASKET-ADA
2 14036-4W015 GASKET EXH
1 15208-65F00 FLTR ASY-O

I remember when I dropped it off weds morning, while the service advisor was getting the rental papers he left the parts request paper in front of me and I checked it out, it was something like 72-7400, boy am I glad I was still under powertrain warranty. Also needed an engine mount, had to pay out of pocket for that. Car feels brand new.

Question is, since I haven't spoken to my advisor yet, do I have to break it in?

 

yes... take it easy.....

 

don't be alarmed by the $72-7400 figure. Those are std. dealer list prices. I've seen low mileage (<10k miles) VQ's for under $1000 at junkyards.

 

LONG BLOCK ENGINES HAVE THE FOLLOWING INCLUDED.

BLOCK, CRANKSHAFT, PISTONS, RINGS, MAIN BEARINGS, ROD BEARINGS, CAM BEARINGS, CAMSHAFT, TIMING CHAIN,, CYLINDER HEADS, OIL PUMP, OIL SCREEN, AND GASKET SET

sorry for the caps, I copied and pasted from somewhere. It basically is a new engine with no accessories (water pump, a/c, alternator, power steering).

 

Can I buy someones bad block? Did anyone ask for old one back?

 

I suspect people under warranty can't ask for it, Nissan probably gets it back after replacing them, maybe even has them rebuilt or sells them for rebuilding.

 

65F00 is now a discontiuned filter, Nissan switched to a new filter. 9E000 shouldn't be used on 01+up VQs. Nissan for the 1st time ever has switched to a different oil filter supplier in the last 10 years. The new VQ filters are made in UK- which doesn't sound too bad as its better than China or Mexico as far as quality is concerned. I don't have the new filter part # with me but I do have it on my car. Its a white filter with a black Nissan logo on it.

 

they supposidely send it back for analysis

 

90% of the time Nissan doesn't call back engines and manual trannies. I have a good relationship with a dealer in my area and they let me have trannies and engines they repleaced. Unless its a rare case scenario like blown rod- then they call back the engine to diagnose whats going on. Nissan is really good on improving their products, they actually build one of the best engines and trannies in the world. When the 1st Murano puked the CVT tranny, little Japanesse dudes in white suites came to the dealer, blocked off the whole area, removed the tranny and diagnosed what caused the failure. Murano is the best Nissan in terms of reliability at this moment, no tranny problems since then. Honda still can't figure out how to fix their AT trannies from blowing apart on TL/CLs since 00, 5 years and still no fix !

 

I don't think so. At my dealer, I'll see some engines in the back next to the dumpster. I used to work at a Mitsu dealer, and they had a big 'ol dumpster specifically for engines and trannys.

I'm sure they send some occasionally, but not everytime. That would be cost-prohibitive.

 

hrmm
maybe i should go look for engines at dealerships then..

 

i actually have both of these in my apt. so what is the filter part # that we should use? the 9E000 is taller, here is a pic

 

Just out of curiosity, I just submitted this to Nissan USA's customer service:

"I have a 2003 Maxima SE with 120,000 miles on it. In fact, I have about 30k more miles on my 5.5 generation maxima than any other member of Maxima.org. At 103,000 miles, I had to have my transmission replaced by Victory Nissan in Gaithersburg, MD (Feb. of this year) and now I'm burning about a quart of oil per fill-up. From speaking with other memebers of Maxima.org, I'm finding out that all the other 3.5 owners with milage from 60k and up are also seeing a drastic loss of oil. This seems to be a universal problem as I have not found one single VQ35 with over 70k miles who isn't burning oil. Has Nissan investigated this problem? If so, have you found a solution short of a total rebuild? Even with 120,000 miles with me in the driver's seat, I still love my Maxima and DO NOT want to get rid of it, but I bought the car believing that the qualitly of it was far superior to that of American cars. I'm now questioning my assumptions. Any help would be appreciated."

...I wonder if they will even read it?

 

I do not have a oil filter laying around at this moment and I am not driving my Max to work today (gotta fix my AC in my Legend)- or I would take a picture of it. If I get some time tomorrow I will try to score a new filter.

 

Is this a common problem? I haven't heard of this being an issue with the 3.5? Have you done a compression test? Replaced the PCV?

 

George my 2k2 has 91 iam not burining any oil but the maf and o2 sensor has failed and the transmission is shifting ****ty

 

Don't tell Nissan until I get a reply.

Oh, and the tranny, flush and fill w/ BG 44k. Talk to Rashabh. He's got a hook-up.

 

Neither yet. No time. PCV will be Saturday.

 

How does the K&N stack up against OEM?

 

http://63.150.115.104/CommerceGatewa...20865F00Ab.jpg

http://63.150.115.104/CommerceGatewa...52089E000A.jpg

 

Bad news: just checked the G35 forums: surprise, surprise! They have the same problem. I'm guessing it's blow-by in the cylinders.

 

Interesting, ive heard quite the opposite about the 9E000.

 

Where from? The smaller filter is pretty lousy. In fact, the Honda CBR600 uses the same size filter.