Ok let me try to explain what 00Max00 is trying to say:

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.

 

how many qts of oil do everyone put at their oil changes???

 

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.

 

FYI GBAUER - Nismo3112 - has put a 3.5 into his 4th Gen - so his comments are valid here.

 

Already caught that. Props to him for that one! Great 4th gen mod.

 

Considering we are Maxima "Enthusiasts" I don't find that number out of the ordinary. I'm sure all of our engines have seen the redline more than the average John Doe's.

BTW my 2k2 has 78k and burns very little to no oil.

 

Full engine overhaul refill + oil filter = 5.25 qt
Regular oil change w/ filter = 4.25 qt

There is usually ~1qt left in the block after each oil change.


Any more discussion is a 3 week ban.

 

Gbauer: this poll is too small to consider scientific. Especially since the samples are all from the same group.

 

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?

 

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!

 

Honestly, I didn't have any idea how many were sold, nor do I really care, but thanks for the clarification.

 

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!