View Poll Results: Are you burning more than 1 qt / 1,000 miles?
under 50k and not burning
32
43.84%
under 50k and burning more than 1 qt/1000 miles
3
4.11%
50-60k and not burning
7
9.59%
50-60k and burning more than 1 qt/1000 miles
2
2.74%
60-75k and not burning
15
20.55%
60-75k and burning more than 1 qt/1000 miles
2
2.74%
75k+ and not burning
6
8.22%
75k+ and burning more than 1 qt/ 1,000 miles
6
8.22%
Voters: 73. You may not vote on this poll
3.5 Oil Consumption Poll
07-31-2005, 03:59 PM
#41
Originally Posted by steven88
are you talking about? I've been changing my **** for over 20k miles now...i already KNOW how much oil is in my engine...why? cuz i check my DIPSTICK....my oil is on the full side of the criss cross spectrum...what does that mean? it means I have 4.25 qts of oil as what the owners manual says....and it stays that way for 3.5k miles until I change my oil...but u know wut? I dont get that whole 4.25 quarts back when I drain it out....I only get about 3.75-4.0 ish.... but my dipstick reads full everytime I check it...and I do moniter it VERY frequently...so what gives? my dipstick reads full EVERYTIME but I only get 3.75qts back? that means some of the oil is still in the engine... 
Scenario: You drain the oil, only 3.5qts comes, but it takes 4qts to get it back to the full mark. This means you've actually lost 1/2 a quart somewhere along the way. If your argument is that only 3.5 quarts came out because the other 1/2 quart is stuck to the engine and in spots that don't drain, then shouldn't it only take 3.5 quarts to get back to the full mark?
Let's take an example of a brand new engine:
Assumptions: Full implies 4.25qts in the engine.
Factory fills: 4.25 qts
1st oil change: 3.5qts drains (so we are .75 quarts short at this point)
1st oil change: 4.0qts added to get back to full. Which means we filled 1/2 quart more than we drained - which implies we burnt 1/2 quart of oil.
2nd oil change: 3.5qts drains (so again we are .75qts short)
2nd oil change: 4.0qts added to get back to full (again we must have burnt 1/2 a quart).
And so on... the best way to tell if you are burning/leaking oil, is the day of your oil change, check the level on the dipstick - if it shows full, then you still have the full 4.25 qts in there. If you ever have to "add" more oil then what drains out (to get the full mark on the dipstick) then you have to be burning oil - or you have overfilled.
Hope that clears things up.
08-01-2005, 11:36 AM
#44
Originally Posted by GBAUER
Bump. Lets keep it 3.5's only. I'm serious about trying to get a rough estimate of the ammount of people having problems and where at.
08-01-2005, 11:42 AM
#45
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by njmodi
FYI GBAUER - Nismo3112 - has put a 3.5 into his 4th Gen - so his comments are valid here.
08-01-2005, 12:00 PM
#46
Custom User Title
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 238
Originally Posted by GBAUER
Time will tell. At this point in the poll, 12% of the 3.5's are burning excessive ammounts of oil. If it was only a fluke or result of poor maintenance, I'd expect around 1% or less. I guess we'll have to see in a few years.
BTW my 2k2 has 78k and burns very little to no oil.
08-01-2005, 12:39 PM
#49
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by E55AMG2
Gbauer: this poll is too small to consider scientific. Especially since the samples are all from the same group.
In fact, does anyone know if when Nissan replaces someones "long-block" are they also replacing the heads?
08-01-2005, 06:26 PM
#50
Senior Member
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Manhattan Beach, Ca / Dallas, Tx
Posts: 3,751
Originally Posted by GBAUER
I realize that, but A) I don't have access to the other 400,000 5.5 gen maximas in the US, and b) there's been talks about this same problem in the G35, 350Z, and alti forums. Even though we're talking about a lot of guys who probably drive their cars a little rough, it still seems to be a little odd that that many 3.5 owners are burning oil. Ya, there's a lot of 3.5 owners that keep saying,"but this is an award-winning engine. It can't have a flaw!", but there really aren't that many with a LOT of miles on it like the 3.0. Yes, I know the 3.5 is basically a bored out 3.0, but there are other differences. I'm kind of wondering more and more if the leak isn't in the valve seals.
In fact, does anyone know if when Nissan replaces someones "long-block" are they also replacing the heads?
In fact, does anyone know if when Nissan replaces someones "long-block" are they also replacing the heads?
08-01-2005, 06:42 PM
#51
Banned
Thread Starter
iTrader: (2)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Wash. DC
Posts: 132,420
Originally Posted by MONTE 01&97 SE
They did not make 400K 3.5's......02 production was 92,000 and 03's was 83,000 so thats about 175k units, way down from previous years which was planned!
08-03-2005, 08:02 AM
#52
aside from this being a thread for some to 
and question (or support) the reliability/design of the 3.5 engine, this poll will probably not produce any relevant info for the majority of people other than to check your oil regularly.
imo the oil burning issue has been trumped up by a few people and i bet a similar poll on virtually any other enthusiast forum, or even for the seemingly bullet proof 3.0 engine would yield similar results.
:gasp:....you mean every batch has a few bad apples. can't be!
and question (or support) the reliability/design of the 3.5 engine, this poll will probably not produce any relevant info for the majority of people other than to check your oil regularly. imo the oil burning issue has been trumped up by a few people and i bet a similar poll on virtually any other enthusiast forum, or even for the seemingly bullet proof 3.0 engine would yield similar results.
:gasp:....you mean every batch has a few bad apples. can't be!
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
My Coffee
New Member Introductions
15
06-06-2017 02:01 PM