Ward's 10 best engine awards for 2007
 

http://wardsauto.com/home/best_engines_winners/

and yup, look who's still inside since 95:D

good cause I just bought one.

Welcome Art!

You'll love it!

I'm bout to get me a 98se. bt is there really any difference in reliability between the 95-99 models. cause I know they all share the same engine bt come in diff trims

Not sure, maybe ask the 4th gen fellows?

NO surprise. Our VQ gems are ever running and reliable.

Are the new VQ engines really that good & reliable?
With all the VQ35 oil consumptioon problems discussed here, i wonder, how bad should the other engines be when they never make it to the Ward's Top 10 list.

If I remember correctly, the VQ35's that had consumption issues, had a batch of bad rings.

As for the 6th generation Maxes, I have only heard of one guy on here with this problem.

These new VQ's are the bomb. The are rock solid. Like any good owner, you'll check your fluids once in a while and make sure she is still purring under the hood.

Swee

AFAIK, the cause of the oil-consumption on the 5.5 gen VQ35's has not been definitively determined yet. There are lots of theories, but no real answers. And since it seems to occur on both the 02s and 03s, there is no way it could be a bad "batch" of rings.

Please correct me if I am mistaken.

My 2002 sometimes on a cold start would rap so loud that it sounded like someone was inside with a hammer hitting it from the inside, trying to escape!
Yeah I did get rid of that car, traded it in!!! No consumption troubles however!

hey i have one of those...........WOOT!!!!

Ok, maybe I am confusing Nissan's 2.5 with this issue. I know those had some (according to the dealership here, not terribly reliable......).

If it hasn't been figured out yet, how was the problem corrected? I assume it was corrected because there doesn't seem to be an abundance of these issues with the 6th gens.

Nissan fixed the problem in the 04's but I follow the posts on this subject in the 5th gen forum pretty closely and as far as I know nobody outside of some secret group at Nissan HQ has confirmed what the issue or the "fix" is for the 5.5 gen oil burners.

No Kidding? Isn't that sweet to let the folks that own those cars in on their 'little secret'?

I feel bad for the oil burners. Especially if they are out of warranty. Not cool! Has anyone of them had the problem corrected under warranty? Just curious.

Nissan's "correction" for the problem for those under warranty usually ends up being a new engine. The stealerships will usually try a few bogus fixes at first (e.g. changing the PCV valve) but from what I have read, none of the cheap fixes have really worked. It seems that most under warranty have not had to fight too hard for a new engine, so this tells me that Nissan is acknowledging the problem quietly, if not publicly. I have even read a few cases where those out-of-warranty have had their engine replaced out of "goodwill."

The unfortunate part is that it seems the oil consumption problem doesn't typically show up until well after powertrain warranty has expired, so even though there are a few exceptions as I have stated above, the onus of dealing with and paying to correct this problem usually ends of falling on the owner.

As a 2K2 owner with 125K kms (80,000 miles) I am watching my oil level pretty closely these days. So far so good but I'd be lying if I said that all these cases I read about don't make me nervous.

same engine and drive train, correct me if im wrong. the only difference you'll find is the millage.