wow this thread is back again too? 02 VQ, 178k... 2qts down every 8 weeks... I change the oil around every 10 weeks... gets costly, but I have no performance issues and I've been doing this for the last 100k miles...

I have a rattle on decelleration near the rear of the motor, assuming it is the rear pre-cat. Def sounds exhaust related.

 

No oil burning on my Max... and took care of the rattle by changing pre-cat.

 

Just changed my excellent 97 max which I drove for 9 years with zero noise and zero issues except the stupid 02 sensor. Got this 02 junk with a rattling engine and a beat out tranny...they will be replaced.

 

02 SE 78,000 miles. Just started burning oil (about 1/2 qt. per 3wks). I don't know anything about cars, so if you have any advice please dumb it down. It's been to 2 mechanics that I trust. One thinks it's the beginning of the end, the other thinks I should just roll with it and feed it the extra oil. I have no weird noises, it starts/runs fine, & I know about the "Pre-cat" issue affecting some maximas. Advice please!

 

30 thousand and have not had any burning oil issues, its a 2003 se

 

'01 SE with 121K. Always changed at 3500-4000 with basic dino and many a Fram filter. Doesn't burn a drop, level doesn't go down on the dipstick between changes.

 

72,000 miles. Change oil every 3k and is down about 1/4 from full in the normal range on the stick. I would consider this to be quite acceptable. As long as I don't have to add any oil between changes, I'll be happy.

 

You don't have a VQ35 either.

 

Lol.

As for my oil eating VQ. It's still on it's 1 quart per 1k miles regiment as far as I can tell. At least I'm saving money by not running synthetic and only doing oil changes every 5k miles. Performance and fuel economy (22-23 city) is excellent so I'm not worried about the engine at all.

 

I'm not having any plug fouling issues and mines burns a quart every 1500-1800 miles. Oddly enough, since I changed the precats (mine were starting to come apart and the bank 1 precat was giving me a P0420 code), at 2200 miles since my last oil change, I haven't yet added a full quart.

 

Its actually a surprise to me the results of perfectly fine vq35's... I have to wonder if there is some bluffinginvolved... lucky to most none the less

 

Precats and/or rings final consensus?

 

That sounds like me but every 3000 miles switch it and toss some Lucas Oil it slows it down a little when I put it in!!

 

so what is the final result? i seafoamed the engine for a P0300 and didnt fix it, then changed the plugs (none of them were soaked in oil, although had a lot of build up crap), rear valve cover and IM gasket on my 02 and it fixed the P0300 but it's still burning oil, wife put a quart 5w-30 about 3 weeks ago before a 450+ mile trip and some driving around the buffalo area and then a couple of days ago i had to put another quart to bring the oil level to 1/4 below the "H" on the dipstick, but i dont have any rattles or oil light in the dash. wife rarely goes over 2k rpm and never over 2.5k rpm and drives it most of the time; i drive a little more spirited going to 3.5k or 4k rpm occasional, not all the time. i just hate to be putting oil every so often, my previous matrix xr, 94 max SE and current MSMX-5 dont burn a single drop of oil, its just annoying and would like to get it fixed.

Offtopic: i'll post pix of the plugs before seafoam, after seafoam and new plugs for reference.

 

When I finally replaced my engine at 160k the precats were hollow. We never tore it down but I believe it's a pre-cat failure (like the sentra) that causes it.

I was burning a quart every fill up. You do the math. it sucked.

 

forgive my ignorance but i dont see how that is related to the oil burning issue

 

How is it not? 1 quart ever fill up seems like an oil burning issue to me.

 

On the sentras the precats fail, pieces get sucked back into the engines and cause the cylinders to score.

 

ohh crap! i see now, so how do i know if this is my issue? (is there any way other than taking it apart?)

 

You blowing oil? If so you have to take it apart to know for sure what's doing it.

 

take apart the engine? lol way out of my scope, right now im monitoring how much oil is going, if its a quart every 1000 miles like everyone else, i'll live with it, if not...well i'd have to take action (hope not!!)

 

77,000 mile no oil burning or rattles lucky me i guess

 

I switched to expensive Mobil1 0w-40 "European Formula" after doing one oil change with generic Valvoline dino oil that devoured almost THREE QUARTS before I realized my engine was using oil at a rate of more than 1 qt every 500 miles. Ever since switching to the synthetic, I've been slowly watching my oil consumption drop.

Here's my log since my last oil change this August:
4.5 qts @ 122856 8.9.10
+0.5 qt @ 123225 8.22.10 (1 qt/750 mi)
+0.5 qt @ 124202 9.22.10 (1 qt/1900 mi)
+0.25 qt @ 125282 10.25.10 (1 qt/4000 mi)

Which, of course, averages out to just under 1 quart every 2000 miles. Even though the last three weeks or so consisted of some heavy, hard driving, I still burned less oil than the month before. I SeaFoam'd the engine (just through the intake) and replaced the fuel filter. My driving has become more... exploratory since then, but oil consumption did not rise with the increase in average engine RPM.


And it can't be the pre-cats or, at the least, it is not just the pre-cats... Otherwise, no one would be burning oil at fewer than 60,000, or even 30,000 miles. I'm not sure why this is still a discussion since Nissan admitted they used crappy piston rings.

 

Noob here...thanks for this great and informative sight, and all the great members. Not sure where to start with this because it's gotten me fairly upset. Been doing my due diligence and searching like a good noob is supposed to do...but I just can't get over the quality control issues with this engine. I recently scaled back and sold my audi and bought an '02' I35 w/109k...been having issues since. First oil change I switched to synthetic and it drank it like my son on a sippy cup on a hot summers day. Bad part was I wasn't aware of the rattling issues and burning issues beforehand. I checked the oil once I heard noises but this car has the crappiest designed dipstick I've ever encountered. I've yet to have an accurate reading...the only way I knew the engine was dry was when there wasn't enough oil to bathe the dipstick in. And the silly oil warning light only turned on when taking a hard turn, but by the that time the oil was already severely low. Anyway the car was topped off and noises were gone...until about 1k miles. Seems like I'm at roughly 1qt per 1k miles like most...still can't get an accurate reading because of ****ty dipstick so I just throw oil in till noise disappears. Tragic! Also this pre-cat issue is unreal...how does the car run perfectly and have all this crap going on internally with no warning? I've owned mostly VAG cars (2 vw's and 3 audis) and I can honeslty say that i've never encountered these issues. Bought this car because my neighbors swore by them (4-5 max's, all with vq30) and put 300k on one of them with no issues. Anyone saying that almost 23% of owners on this site that are burning and rattling is normal and should be expected is insane. So how long can I expect to keep this up without having to tear down and rebuild?

 

You need to do more reading. One of the best engines out there, with the exception of a couple years when it burned a qt per 1000 miles, which is acceptable. You may have one that the Previous Owner trashed or the precats blew, did you have it checked out before you bought it?

I should probably say "up to" a qt per thousand. My first one burned 1 qt between oil changes, my currnet one (a 2002) looks like it burns 1/2 qt about every 2000 miles.

 

A quart per 1000 miles is not acceptable.

 

Amen

 

Nope but apparently to Nissan it is if you want the engine replaced under warranty. GM is even worse, you have to burn a quart in less than 700 miles for them.

Mine still burns a quart roughly every 1500 miles and has for the last nearly 80,000 miles I've owned the car. It obviously isn't enough to foul the spark plugs and gas mileage is where is should be. Doesn't seem to be a real problem with engine longevity since I am now just past 192,000 miles on my car.

jviv35-best time to check your oil is in the morning after the car has sat overnight. Otherwise, let the car sit at least an hour.

 

What do you do, shut off the engine and then run to the dipstick to check the oil immediately? Sorry, but I've never had a problem reading the oil on this car. Of course I do let the engine sit for at least an hour like I do with every car I've owned.

As for problems with my Max? In the almost 5 years that I've had it since buying it used at 55k miles, I've replaced a power window motor and a power steering hose. Other than that just normal maint. stuff. That's fine by me after putting over 50k miles on it.

 

So am I correct in thinking that only one of the engines has the precat problem? My main ? is how can you tell which one you have?
I have 120,000 on my '03 SE and it burns about a quart every 3000+
do i have that to look forward.
The vin says it was made in japan even tho i live very close to smerna

 

If you aren't using oil at 120k miles, then you probably won't have any problems, seems the oil burning issues begin very early.

You have two precats and one main cat. The problem with the precats deteriorating is because they are so close to the engine and when you turn it off, it can suck broken pieces of the precats back into the engine. When I changed mine out, the condition of them wasn't great but 95%+ of the material was still there.

Your car was built in Japan because it wasn't until the '04 model year that they started building Maximas here.

My oil consumption has increased as of late but it is pretty obvious the front valve cover is the culprit. I can see where the oil is leaking onto the front exhaust heat shield and at times I can smell it as well. Oh well, just passed 194k miles so stuff like that is to be expected.

 

i got a 03 with 72k no issues, just a rare cold rattle start but after it warms upp its straight

 

Since I replaced my passenger side engine mount, I very rarely hear the cold start rattle now...and I am over 194k miles now.

 

I've got a 2003 Auto SE, with 126,000, and no oil leak but a very slight and quiet rattle if you rev it a tiny bit, when the RPM's come back down at like 1900-2100RPM's. I think the oil burning is on the earlier models, because i haven't seen anyone with an '03 having this problem

 

Just updating. Thanks for advice on checking oil BTW. Been experimenting with different weight oils and consumption seemed to go down a bit with M1 10/30 high mileage (1qt/1k to 2/3qt/1k). Just switched again to rotella t6 5/40 synth. We'll see how that works. Took the car to the shop and my mechanic started with a dry/wet compression test before touching anything else. He did front bank and numbers were 160-120-170 (not sure in what order) dry. When wet he got 188-160-210. He stopped there and said you have BAD RINGS. Also said I can either rebuild/replace now, or just keep adding oil until consumption gets really bad or engine quits. So which is better...rebuild or replace? (price difference is marginal) Or ride it till it can't go anymore then decide? I have money to fix it now but don't feel like blowing it on that. But I do fear that if I put it off the engine will go at a not so opportune time. Decisions, Decisions...

 

I don't see the value in a rebuild or replacement for a 10yr old car, when you can spend pennys per day just feeding the oil-burner. Better yet - feed it CHEAP oil....let it burn itself out.
You car is now worth what? $7000? A rebuild/replacement would cost at LEAST $3k (prob more) and that math doesn't add-up.

I had the same experience with M1 HiMileage 10w-30: slowed consumption a bit, but not enuff. I too had a compression test, and it registered fine - but I opted-out of the leak-down test, which apparently is more definitive.
I'm done worrying about my oil consumption, until the engine implodes, or simply doesn't perform/operate to my satisfaction. I'm vigilant about checking the oil level, and I replace when necessary.

I recently (by accident) switched BACK to dino oil, and I have to say....it seems like my consumption rate has slowed by 50%.
I haven't been driving much this winter, so it's hard to tell for sure.

Back to the point: there's no magic trick to his issue, but unless you simply cannot or DO NOT want to buy a newer car -- there's simply no logic to spending alot of money to repair/replace your VQ just because it's eating oil.
ESPECIALLY if (like me) the engine runs just fine, and still performs well.

Drive that VQ into the ground. You might be surprised at how far it goes!

*oh, and btw: REPLACING with another VQ of the same Generation will illicit the EXACT same problems!
I think the 6th gen engines got better Rings -- so, if you Do this....look for one of those.*

gr

 

Monitoring my new (to me) 6 speed '02 for oil consumption. Definitely doesn't leak at the valve covers, engine wasn't cleaned before I bought it so that was easy to check. Oil level was full and was done about 1700 miles ago according to the oil change sticker on the windshield. Be nice if I got one of the 75% who don't have oil consumption issues.

My totaled '02 was the 91st one made according to the VIN and the 06/01 build date so no surprise being such an early build it had the oil consumption issues. However, it never affected the spark plugs, not once did I get a misfire code while I had the car and it made good power. Also made it to 194,595 miles and probably had a lot left. Like ghostrider said, as long as the oil consumption doesn't start causing other problems, it is cheaper to just keep adding oil.

 

To ghostrider and scottwax...you guys are definitely speaking the truth. Been trying to figure out what would be best and it seems like the most financially sound decision would be to keep it as long as the engine runs good. As far as I know only one of the cylinders was a bit low on compression, but it was the disparity between dry and wet which helped my mechanic make his assumption. Be that as it may the car does run pretty strong with no smoking, misfiring, codes, etc., and it idles steady. Not in a position to trade-up at the moment so adding oil seems to be the way to go. Not to mention that if I do sell and look for another used car I'll inherit whatever problems that car has. Gonna hold on to her and try that Auto-Rx stuff and see what happens with consumption and chain rattling...unless of course anyone is selling a bimmer M3 (ANY YEAR) for dirt cheap!