I test drove a new Quest yesterday and noticed the owners manual specifically said that Nissan recommends mineral based oils. There was no mention of using synthetic oil. Checked an owners manual in an Altima on the dealer's lot and saw the same. Couldn't get to a Max. My '01 Altima and Maxima manuals say "mineral based or synthetic" oil is okay.

Anyone know why Nissan made this apparent change in oil recommendations?

 

No idea why, but many people have very high mileage without any problems running synthetic on the VQ35.

 

my service manager said synthetics are a waste. He said to just bring it in every 3k and get it changed, yeahhhh right. I was born at night but not last night.

 

Subaru used to make the same recommendation years ago...I questioned the Subaru regional service rep about it and he said it was because Subaru tested their engines on petroleum oil. Today, most manufacturers say you can use either petroleum or synthetics as long as they carry the API "starburst" logo. There's a big spread in basestock and additive technology used by the companies who formulate synthetics, so perhaps Nissan is taking the simple approach by recommending customers use an API-approved petroleum oil. Based on your quote, Nissan is not saying that you can't use synthetics nor that they recommend against using synthetics...just a thought, but does Nissan sell their own Nissan-branded oil? Honda does, and (no surprise) the owner's manuals recommend you use Honda oils as they are "specially formulated and tested" for/in Honda engines...

 

Here is what 2002 Maxima manual says:
--Mineral based or synthetic type oils maybe used in your Nissan vehicle. These oils must however, meet the API quality and SAE viscosity
ratings specified for your vehicle. Do not
mix mineral based and synthetic type oils in
the engine at the same time.---

FSM does not mention anything about synthetic or regular oil...

My 97 Altima manual says the same thing. Altima/240SX FSM again does not say anything about it....just viscosity.

 

I don't hold much stock in the API cert as the cheapest junk oil you can buy is API approved.

 

Probably they just want you make more frequent visit to the dealer to improve dealer profit.

 

Nissan say you can use synthetic or mineral, but you can not use synthetic blend which is mixing synthetic and mineral oil together.

 

LMAO

I switched to syn on my 00 and 97 maximas when I bought them both used, but even if I was using dino I still wouldn't change more than every 5k.Probably evidence that we all spend way too damn much on our oil I wonder if my spending $4.50 quart on syn would make much of a diff over time as opposed to the $1/quart of garbage you can buy at the dollar store

 

Alot of it is in the additive package. There is good dino oil (ie.. Castrol GTX) but there are crappy dino oils also. Those generic dino oils are most certainly just repackaged oils from the big makers. If Castrol GTX could be found in generic brand, it might be worth it.

I generally wouldn't use the real cheap stuff unless I saw some good dino analysis on it first. Which means someone else is going to have to take a chance with that stuff in their engine before I do.