Hey guys. I think my max is burning oil, especially after having the timing chain guides and tensioners replaced. My oil was changed when the work was done. A month ago and 4K miles later, I checked the oil and found it wasn't registering on the dip stick! I thought maybe the mecahnic hadn't changed the oil so I got an oil change. Three weeks later the oil registers 1/4 below the L line. I checked it in the morning after letting it sit overnight. I was going to do the SSM and spacer mod later. Should I get the oil seals changed at that time? I'm running Royal Purple 5w30 motor oil. Should I switch to a 10w30 or even thicker oil? Any recs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

How many miles on your Maxima? Either way, I would defenitely bump it up to the 10W30.

I used to run 10W30 and was burning a little bit (1 qt every 3k miles). I am now running 10W40 and no longer burning oil. I live in chicago-land and cold starts have never been affected by the increase in viscosity of the oil.

 

I bought it at 88K miles. I now have 103K on it. Thanks for the advice. 10w40 it is. I live down south in New Orleans, Louisiana so I think it would be okay.

 

Same issue with my corolla used to run a 5w30 and then went onto a thicker oil and problem solved.

 

wow I just started a post on this a few days ago. good to see I am not alone. I also decided to go with 10W30. I am in Hawaii so definitely ok. I was actually thinking about 15W50 I saw the other day but I think that might be a little too much. LOL, anyways this gives me a lot of confidence.

 

The bottom number is the weight when cold so 15w should not be any big deal in Hawaii where it is never cold (was there a few weeks ago for work)

And the guys above that switched from 10w30 to 10w40 should see no difference at startup since the bottom number is the same. When the car is warm the upper number is a little higher.

What this affects most is your mileage. Heavier oil means harder to move around. Mileage may drop a small amount, but a small price to pay to cut down on the burning.

 

I used to run mobil 1 15w50 in my Mazda Millenia S, between the florida heat and the poor engine cooling it was great.

 

thanx I might give that a try if the 10w30 doesn't do what I am wanting.

 

Are you leaking any oil out ? that seems a lot to just burn off.

 

have the same problem... had a timing chain, tentioners, and timing chain guides done at 96K due to chain noise from the tentioners loosening up and going bad. It was covered so i didnt pay anything, 2 weeks after the service started burning oil and has been since. Its not leaking from anywhere. Looked everywhere multiple times. Also a cause of this happened ins the EGR ports getting clogged, cleaning these out will help also instead of just increasing oil weights. Oh and by the way the w means winter grade not weight.

 

So I have been doing a lot of reading on the net and found that as stated above the W means "winter" not "weight". So since our cars are told to run 5w30, and I am burning oil quite a bit I will be switching to 5w40. Currently I have 10w30 in the car and even though I would not be affected by the weather I still want to change the thickness of the oil from 30 weight to 40 weight. I read on a couple forums and found a guy with a honda with 408k miles on the original engine who uses slick 50 engine treatment every 20-30k miles and was burning 1 quart every 500miles. He used CD2 engine treatment from autozone and has not lost any oil and car is running smooth. His problem could be different from ours but also could be the same. Either way it could be a last shot alternative to overhauling our engines. I am thinking about researching the 350z forums to find what they have had to replace inside the engines to fix this issue.

 

Mine might be due in part to the EGR as jreilly04 mentioned. I replaced the cat with a used one off of car-prts.com, but still kept getting the EGR code and pre-cat code. I was saving up for headers to take care of the problem since a new pre-cat would set me back $750. Not sure how much unclogging the EGR ports would cost.

 

Update. The problem seems to be getting worse. l plan on having the mechanic check for an oil leak. I noticed there's oil on the boot sleeve and control arm on the passenger side. I also plan on getting an engine compression test to see if substrate from the precat hasn't affected the cylinders, eroding them and causing them to burn excess oil. Brian at Cattman recommended I do this before wasting money on headers when I might need a new engine. This really bites if the engine has to be replaced as I bought the car with 88K miles on it.

 

My 03 has lost 2 quarts after 2,000 mi. Just bought it from a family member and got the LOF as soon as I got it. THAT'S NOT THE WORST OF IT!!! It has also developed a rattle on deceleration. (Its a MT and what goes up, must come down...REV'S I mean) It sounds like its in the right bank. I hope its tensioners and not worse. Anyone had the tensioner issue? Were the symtoms (noise) the same?

 

Oh yeah...I forgot to mention, my oil change was with 10 W30 Pennzoil and it still burned that much oil.

 

The funny thing is that I had the tensioner issue with that rattling noise on start up as well. Initially, it would go away after driving but then got louder and louder. The tensioners were changed. Come to think of it, the leak maybe coming from that area. I'm not sure if the mechanic changed the seal after he replaced the tensioners. I noticed the oil consumption about 2500 miles after the timing chain tensioner repair. The oil level was so low it was hardly on the dipstick. I even called back the mechanic and asked if he changed the oil and he said he did. I got an oil change thinking it would help along with the thicker oil but the issue is still there. Now I'm noticing oil on the driveway. Hopefully, I'll get my answer tomorrow if I get off work early enough to take it to the mechanic.