Just purchased 08 Maxima. Has 53.5K miles on it. I have been thinking about changing to a synthetic. Spoke to a mechanic yesterday and he says considering the motor oils today, he doesn't think it's necessary. Just on a whim I checked the oil. It's dark, not low, just dark. Now, I have service records on the car and the oil was changed pretty close to 3K on a regular basis. AND the oil was just changed at 51,800 miles. I'm thinking the at this point, with only 1500 miles after the oil should be almost clear. Am I correct in this assumption?

 

Depending on the detergent pack it could just be aggressively cleaning out varnish and carbon from the engine. Just being dark is not necessarily a bad thing. Send in a sample of your used oil for analysis and see how it is holding up.

 

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...e-contest.html

 

You cannot judge the condition of your oil by it's color.
If you plan on changing your oil every 3-4 thousand miles, synthetics is a waste of $$$

 

Synthetic oil is good for about 7500-10k miles with a filter change mid-interval. Conventional oil needs to be changed every 3000-5000 miles. A lot of people change synthetic oil too frequently and it ends up being a waste of hard-earned money. If you're looking to research more into oil, here's a site with good information I recommend: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/

 

I agree, I usually go about 7500 miles on synthetic.

 

Something that has not been touched on yet in the answers above is that in general it is not recommended to go from conventional to synthetic after too many miles. It is a bit of a gamble, from what I recall. It can go one of two ways, either all will be fine and you just extend the intervals, or you can slowly start to develop leaks in places where the seals are cracke/worn and the conventional oil created a sort of "plug" already. Seeing as though your maxima has 53.5K, it is possible everything will be fine if you switch

 

Synthetic oil last longer. Done!