My 02 max I bought a few months back, died on me on my way to work the other morning. it had no acceleration, idled really rough and sputtered. short story, got it towed to a Nissan dealer I used to work at, Tech I know worked on it, bank 1 and bank 2 cats failed. honey comb stuffed my resonator (view pic). The Tech I know at Nissan cleaned it out and made it straight pipe, it idles a little rough when you first start it up and SES light will flash, but once you start driving it smooths out and SES light just goes solid. I didn't wanna pay $2,000 for new oem cats, Plan on getting headers and exhaust so what better time then now. I've driven the car maybe 50 miles or so since the incident. But now I noticed something really odd this morning. I haven't driven the car since last night (about 10 hours or so) I popped the hood and checked the oil (cold engine, hadn't started it yet) I noticed the level was good but it seamed very black. I just changed the oil about week ago (300 miles or so ago), I started it up and checked it again and the dip stick is almost full of oil now and its black and sooty and runny, it dripped off the dip stick like water. Is this because of the cat issue? or do I have bigger probelms? I'm second guessing buying the headers and exhaust now. Worried something has gone seriously wrong.

2002 Maxima 6MT 135k miles

 

Sounds like low compression and tons of blowby. I was thinking it couldn't be runny that fast, but if there's tons of fuel dilution, I guess it could be. It's always too late once they've disintegrated even a fair amount. The precats destroy the cylinders/rings and causes a lot of oil burning.

It should have been super black when you changed it and almost no oil left.

HR swap time.

 

Not a maxima but sen the same black oil syndrome on An accord.

 

Sounds like low compression and tons of blowby.

 

Yeah I think I'll just do some aftermarket cats for cheap and do a compression test, see what's what, if it's all bad I'll probably just sell the car or maybe keep it around for a HR swap one day but by that time a HR swap probably won't even be doable anymore thanks for the replies all. I really like the 02 03 Maximas, but they're dying out this late in the game it seems

 

There's not much point to anything, it's shot. You can compression test for fun to see how bad it is (100 psi?), but with the oil going to **** that fast you can't drive it much. Eventually it'll spin a bearing once the oil goes thin enough.