I'm doing my first oil change...
 

Is it to soon to switch over to mobile 1? I have heard conflicting stories and was wanting your opinion. Thanks

Well, that depends on who you ask. I think most people agree that its a good idea to wait until you have about 6000 miles on the car so that the valves are seated/sealed properly. I think it has to do with the molecules in synthetic oil being either too small or too slippery (or both) to allow this to happen. I waited until 10000 miles to switch on mine, but I don't know that its necessary to wait that long... I guess if it was really a bad thing for the car then Nissan would say not to switch until x number of miles. However, I doubt that it hurts anything. Enjoy the switch -- I think you'll like it:D

no


http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....threadid=59048

Re: I'm doing my first oil change...
 

I disagree with all who say it is safer to wait x000 miles. I switched to Mobil with my first change at 1500 miles and from there to Amsoil at 4500 miles. I would suggest you chat with bill the famous General moderator about getting hooked up with Amsoil synthetics. I'm using their 1 yr/25K mile interval oil and it is barely $.25 more expensive than Mobil one through the proper channels and MUCH better oil by far.....Plus their SDF filter is tops of em all 2! My $.02 worth....Ask Bill, he's da man....

Thanks for the help,
 

I'll go on and make the switch now. After reading the owners manual it said the was a option for for like 3750 and 7000 miles. I figured I would split the difference and do it every 4500 miles. I'm sure the mobile 1 will hold out with no problem.

Bill, I am getting ready to do my first oil change also...... but dont seem to understand the difference between Mobil 1 and Amsoil?? Why are some people talking about using AMSOIL for a good 25000 miles before oil change? Where do I get it and do I need to use a special oil filter?

Dixit

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diff strokes.. diff folkes.. But I can tell you my car was not fully broken in til 10K. Now, Hondas and Toyota are pretty much broken in at 250 miles.. This just isnt the case with Nissan engines (this includes my 2K Pathfinder). I dont think you will hurt your car by switching early, but as reported by many magazines and owners, the car makes more horsepower after 6K miles. And gas mileage improves ever so slightly. Mine kept getting stronger and smoother up to 10K (switched at next change after 10k). I would say, if you are completely satifisfied that your engine is as smooth as its going to get, then switch. the worst case is that it will take another 35K to break the car in :)

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I'll defer to your experience on that one Tim....my only history is with my 95 Escort....I changed to Mobil 1 at 500 miles and its still spinning like a top at 150k ...the bastard might blow up tomorrow but who knows! Slow break in means...very slow breakdown right?!
By the way, I've had about 15 posts today between various lists, does that make me a post whore?!! :D ....The things a guy will do to remove this newbie tag!;)

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what I'm saying is this... changing to syn will reduce engine wear significantly. Some wear is beneficial. The Nissan engine is a 200K engine with regular oil anyway...

given that you can switch back and forth now with syn and dino (so Mobile says), if you experience a rough engine (or the starting problems some of us had), you could probably run 2 intervals of dino at anytime and allow the engine to break in alittle more.

again.. this doesnt apply to any other cars but Nissan. If I had a Honda, I'd go syn at the first change.

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Where can you get amsoil? Does it cost more than mobil 1?

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PM Bill the moderator and he'll reply with the info you need, I've lost it somewhere along the way....Anyway there are 3 basic synthetic versions of Amsoil, #1 is standard 7500 mile/6 month interval; #2 is 25K/1 year interval and the best is 35K/1 yr interval....I use the 2nd option and it is about 30 cents more per quart than Mobil 1...definitely worth it in my book....

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I would worry that going 25K between oil changes might invalidate the warranty on a new Max. If you have to take the car in for warranty work and the dealer suspects lubrication as the problem, showing that your last oil change was 25K miles ago may present a problem.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? I notice that Mobil recommends that users of their Mobil 1 synthetic still adhere to the auto manufacturers oil change schedule.

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ok.. a 25K oil change still requires many filter changes along the way. so its not a set it and forget it thing. its really more for fleet cars/trucks. I do believe they use a different kind of filter in those setups.

hey btw I din't get a chance to tell you guys but I made the switch at 20k even and switched to Mobil 1 10W-30 everything is super at the current 20,350 miles!!!

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ok, then how do you use the 25k amsoil oil? do you still change the oil at 7500 miles? or say a little further at 15000miles? Cause the stock oem filter is to be changed every 7500 according to the manual

I got only 3000miles on my car now, and feel like switching to synthetic or proabably just regular oil. Just dont know about all this stuff too well.

Dixit

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as my oil report showed, even tho the oil is good to 25K, that doesnt mean its safe to use it that long. unless you have *perfect* filtration, its still not good to go over 7500 even with syn. You *can*, but you would really need to watch your insoluables and such.

What you can see is that my wear is below average for a mostly short trip car (which is usually pretty hard on a car). That alone is worth the cost of syn to me. Extended drain just isnt worth the risk me. I might go to 5K, but that would be the most. again, not because of the oil, but rather particles that get past the air filter and oil filter.

how much of a difference does it really make to switch anyway? is it really noticable? i'll be doing my own changes from now on and i want to know if it's worth switching to synthetics. i'm at 38k mi.

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well, my car *seems* alittle smoother and I've seen a 1-2 mpg increase. Thats nice, but it was the very low wear that I really like. look at my oil chart.. and thats city driving...
http://www.adpub.com/tim/oil-max1.jpg

how do you change the filter without changing the oil? doesn't it leak all over? i know you can leave the filler cap on, but it'll still be messy.

Re: Re: ...
 

My current plan is to change oil and filter every 6 months for now but perform an oil analysis each time to determine if it is necessary or not. Amsoil says that if you use their oil and their filter (which I am) then the oil will last 1 yr. or 25k miles with filter changes every 6 months and top off oil lost in filter change. Should the oil analyses indicate that the oil is still good at 6 months then I'll extend it the next time a bit longer until I reach the happy medium. Either way though, for the price and protection its worth getting the 25K oil even if you change it @ 5K miles or something. I should qualify that by saying its worth it if you would be using another synthetic oil anyway. If cost is an issue, you probably won't be using any synthetics in the first place.

I bought a 2k SE and switched to Mobil 1 around
2,000 miles. I contated the Mobil people both on the phone and my e-mail and got the same answers.
I was concerned I switched too soon.

They pointed out that Mobil 1 comes from the factory in cars like, Corvette, Porshe, Ferrari,
BMW, etc. They said with the new engines, using Mobil 1 from new is not an issue. This made me feel better, however one still has to heed what Nissan says as they know the engine better than Mobil.

A good independent mechanic might offer some insight if he has lots of experience with synthetics.

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after the recommended breakin, I dont think you can change too soon. I mean, I dont think you can hurt anything. at worst, it will just take alittle longer for the engine to 'loosen up' (again, this only applies to vq30 as I know it.. the 3.5 might even be different but I doubt it).


srbarnes4ever is right.. dont extend out your interval without oil analysis. there are more potential problems than just the oil holding up (which it will). Filtration and contamination must be watched carefully on extended drain intervals.