I am sure you 3.0 guys would gladly trade adding oil every now and then for the extra 30 horses




ghostrider, you may see a decrease of oil consumption with different oil, but it will not completely go away - IMO, it's not worth messing with different oils if you are going to burn oil anyways.

 

I still think I would keep my 3.0 even though there is a lot of things you can do with the 3.5. I have found just the same amount of things to do with my 3.0. Look at my mod list if you don't understand, now if the maxima could shed about 1,000 lbs we will all be in good shape. I am going to buy an engine build kit like sooner, but thats not till I go supercharged

What about running AMSOIL? I don't think it will make a difference but I thought I would throw it out there. I run AMSOIL in my engine and tranny.

 

I put in redline MTL/MT90 (cold weather mixture) the day I drove it home. It helped but didn't cure it and it's not even cold yet.

 

I'm purchasing a 2002 max soon.. given that my credit union doesnt screw me over and delivers my check on time.. ahhhhh! but yeah.. this will soon be an issue that hits home for me, so im officially subscribed to this thread (even though nobody's said anything in over 2 weeks, but that's ok.. lol) i'm thinking about running 10w30 synthetic in the motor to try to combat this oil burning enemy.. maybe i'll go a little thicker like 10w40

to the OP: i know, it sucks you didnt get a real definitive answer, and i guess people are still messing around with this issue.. the problem apparently was proven to be the piston rings, and since those are expensive as hell to change, most of us will just keep adding oil and meanwhile try to figure out which is the best way to at least SLOW DOWN oil consumption since it can't be eliminated without a piston ring replacement.. so which is the best way to slow it down (synthetic vs. dino.. regular vs. high mileage.. thicker vs. thinner)? well, not to fear because you now have 1 more brain (and a very big one, might i add) working on the case!

 

If anything, synthetic would pass through the rings easier. I would stick with dino.

 

awww.... muah


thank you <3

---


Oh btw... i dont know... maybe my dipstick was giving me a faulty reading but here it goes...


when i did my first check (when i made the thread).... i changed the oil 1000 miles ago... and filled it up to the H mark (did a first thing in the morning check) and the results were... exactly at the L mark.... and it took half a quart to fill it back up.... (which is why i made this thread... 0.5Q/1000 miles consumption)


NOW....

its been 1300 miles.... and the dipstick shows the oil only went down to RIGHT IN BETWEEN THE H AND L so its making it alot less consumption from before... and i didnt change my oil or anything...


as far as i can tell... the only thing i have done different since i did that oil change was probably my driving habit.... before i was learning how to drive manual.... and i did alot of stuttering and stalling out....and shifting at 2k RPM.. sometimes putting a load on certain gears...

but now i shift at higher... 3k... 4k RPMS everyday.... none of the gears are under load... no stuttering...

would this make any difference in oil consumptions?

It has also turned maybe 10 degrees colder...

 

well I have a few concerns regarding that:

1- I always thought the distance between the L and H marks was 1 quart. Now you are saying its 1/2 a quart. So that means my old engine was actually fine b/c instead of burning 1qt every 4k miles it burned 1/2 a qt every 4k miles which is totally acceptable for me.
Can anyone confirm this about the distance between L to H?

2- Wouldnt shifting at lower rpms decrease blowby compared to higher rpms? Normal shifting for me is around 2300 although it sees 4000 once a day. The manual also suggests to shift at certain speeds that correlate with 2k rpm shifting

 

I wish i knew the answer to #1.... all im saying is what i experianced... and alot of posts on this forum say to never trust that dipstick either....

#2... i dont know what any of that means... all i knew was that i was shifting at a max of 2k rpm... because when i try to go higher... the jerk forward alot... because i was still learning how to let go of the clutch and everything... at times ... the car would bog down.... because i was in the wrong gear... like 30mph in 6th..

but now i dont do any of that... i can shift at higher rpms with out getting jerked forward... i never said there was any corralation between the oil and my driving habbit... i was just pointing out the things i was doing differnt.

 

Bad oil consumption would be like the '74 Z/28 I used to have. It was burning a quart of Valvoline Racing 60w every 40-60 miles! I even had to use the spark plug anti-fouling extensions to keep from changing plugs every week. It was pretty funny blowing the doors off C4 Corvettes and leaving them in a huge cloud of blue smoke!

Unfortunately, I was still married to my ex, aka the bounced check queen of Texas and couldn't afford a rebuild. Sold the car to a friend who was making payments. He forgot to check the oil and put the cam through the back of the block when he blew the engine up. Left the car on the side of the freeway and said I could have it back. Ended up parting it out.

 

u guys still friends?... did he hitch a ride?.... does he like pickles with his burgers?... oh the cliffhanger.

 

yes.
this problem is most prevalent on cars with 6MT since autos shift at low RPMs.

that being said...shifting at high RPMs doesnt cause the problem. i had the dealership say, "if you shift at lower RPMs, it wont be a problem." my reply, "dont try and blame me for the engine having bad rings. if the engine cant handle it, you need to lower the redline"

 

I knew him through my ex, haven't seen him in 15 years.

 

I think the problem is high rpm driving with low throttle....believe it or not I searched on google for oil burning associated with other cars as well and this was the general consensus.

And can someone else confirm the amount of oil between L and H?

 

on the 3.0's and most other engines, im pretty sure its a quart... dont know what that means for VQ35s but.. just my .04

 

even if it's a thicker synthetic.. like 10w30 or 10w40?

 

Ive heard for years that syn will cause leaks or reveal them much easier..Then I lived that fact..I had another vehicle that I used synthetic on, after a few years one of the seals began leaking like a siv. I changed to dino and no more leaks. If synthetic can pass through the smallest microscopic gaps that dino can't, I think synthetic would be more likely to pass through the rings easier than dino for this reason. I'm going to stick to the correct wieght oil 5w-30 with Castrol Gtx forever. I don't think these cars don't need synthetic.

 

What is the end result of burning oil like this?

I was considering buying an 02-03 max, but this worries me a bit.

Will the engine be fine as long as I keep putting in more oil, or does it eventually cause problems?

What % of 3.5's are showing this problem?

 

Has nothing to do with the engine being able to "handle it" or not. High RPM/low load can cause the rings to flutter and not control the oil properly. This is true of most OE engines though. That particular driving condition is just not conducive to good oil control.

 

z28dreams, those are good questions. This is what I learned from my own personal experience. I never regularly monitored my oil level; until recently that is. I found that my car goes thru about a 1/2 qt every 3k miles, (I use Castrol or Pennzoil 5w-30). I had the leak in the #6 cylinder but fixed that issue last weekend.

Conversely, I'm in the market to buy my son a car for college and today I went to my Nissan dealer and was surprised to see no less than 12 350Z's on their used car lot. I swiped the tail pipes on about 5 of them and they all had symptoms of oil in the exhaust, for the most part according to the sales sticker the mileage ranged from 25k to 51k. I don't know about you, but I consider that low especially for a Nissan.

I intend on keeping this car for a while, but if Nissan doesn't fix their engines this will definitely be the last one I buy.

 

blaming synthetic for oil consumption is complete BS!!!

 

No No No, I wasn't blaming, I just said I thought it could make it worse.

 

how much oil does VQ35 need? my oil level on the dipstick is about 1/4 to 1/5 of H to L length above H line in cold.
my car has 68000miles on it and I don't notice any oil burning...

 

Good info. I was pretty hard-set on a maxima, but may change my mind now. A few more questions:

(1) If I buy a used 2002 (no longer under factory warranty), is Nissan still offering to replace the engines, or would I just be out of luck?

(2) Do you VQ30 engines (particularly 2000 and 2001) show this problem, or no?

(3) What other vehicles should I consider in the $8-$15k price range that might be torquey and a little more reliable? I'm kicking around the idea of A4's (nice, but not much power) and not sure what else.

 

My dad just bought a fully loaded BMW 540i 6speed for 14.9 OTD the thing is a beast... after driving it... i was scheming up ways of getting rid of a max and aquiring one myself.


before the max... my initial purchase was gonna be a Honda accord coupe V6 6speed... u can try those.... and hondas are bullet proof... like literly.

not as much torque as the max 3.5.... but has good HP ... and the V-tec i heard is nice to have n the highway.

 

So what did you do to fix that?

 

I bought the 04 rear valve cover and gasket.

 

Apparently you haven't read about the automatic transmission problems in the accords/TL's/CL's.... ridiculously bad quality control.

Every auto trans for honda 6cyl's have the problem up until (and sometimes including) 2004.

 

1. you'll probably be out of luck, unless you purchase an extended warranty of some sort

2. i use synthetic in my VQ30, and i just noticed a LITTLE bit of burning.. like maybe a half quart between oil changes (every 3,000)

 

i think i'm gonna do that as preventative maintenence when/if i get that kinetix IM... still waiting for a good dyno with results! how much are those valve covers and gaskets anyway?

 

what are thjose symptoms again? like a black soot on the inside of the tailpipe?

 

VQ30's are solid man no oil problems at all.

 

There have been some incidences here and there of VQ30 oil burning as well. All you can say is that it's not nearly as common as with VQ35's.

 

im pretty well aware of the tranny problem in the auto V6 hondas.... but i did say i was going to get a 6 speed in my post.


and even on the auto.... the company is aware of it... and you have a 100,000 mile warrenty on the tranny... and 40k mile warrenty on the replacement....


u should be covered cost wise.... its not an excuse for the ****ty tranny... i know.... but atleast they are doing something about it.... Nissan hasnt done anything about their rings.

 

My problem was that I needed a 4 door car and didn't want to spend more than $12,000 or so for a car, so an '06 V6 6 speed Accord sedan was way out of my price range.

If you find a Maxima you like, ask to have a leakdown test done on the cylinders or request that your mechanic be allowed to do it as a condition of sale. Plus, when you test drive a car with poor oil control, you can really smell it when you get on it.

I am willing to bet the oil consumption problem is similar to the 6-7% transmission failure rate of the V6 Accords, TLs and CLs (one of my customers had 3 transmissions put in his CL Type S in the 80k miles he owned it!). Sucks for the 6-7% and that is enough of a problem to cause quite a stir on internet forums but most people aren't having problems that I know of.

Either way, you can't go wrong overall with a 5.5 gen Maxima or a V6 Accord. Both still have much better reliability that most cars with similar power.

 

that's a really good idea... what does that smell like?

 

i burn a quart ever 1000 miles and have never been able to smell anything.

 

No, you can't smell anything, unless you're behind the car.

 

If you are burning more than a quart every 500 miles, you can smell it inside the car too. Been in enough oil burning cars in my day...sadly.

wyche89-ever been behind a Mitsubitshi Galant or Diamonte that has blue smoke coming out of the tail pipe? Sure you have, everyone has. I think "mitsubitshi" is Japanese for "burns oil".

That's the smell.

 

I could smell unburnt oil in my cab

 

great suggestions