http://users.ev1.net/~shinglin/cars/oil/oilrpt.html

After 8,600 miles, the oil was still in *great* shape. Have a looksie...

I will say this: if you use Mobile 1 synthetic and OEM Nissan oil filter, there is absolutely zero, none, no, nada reason to change your oil at 3,000 miles.

-Shing

 

Even consumer reports says 3k oil changes are a waste of money. Actually CR when a step further, they had taxi cab drivers change their oil at 3k and 6k intervals. But before that CR had took the engines apart and measured all the specs/clearances. Then they did it after the 50k miles were put on. Its a very informative article.

 

My mom's car and my gf's car are all using mobil one. I change the oil on both of these cars. I tell them it's good for 10K.

 

cool cool, good to know.
cuz last time the oil change on my GS4 was 13k miles ago, and i was getting a lil worried.
muhahaha

 

Question man. Since you drive alot of highway that would matter compared to if you drove alot of city stop n go and short distances right?

I do alot of the 2nd part, so I am wondering how long I can wait for my oil changes..

 

I've been saying this for the last year! I wonder if people will start listening...

I go 12K miles on Amsoil, stock oil filters every 6 months

 

yes and no. Yes highway miles are nicer to the car, no I don't only do highway miles. it's probably 60/40 for me.

-Shing

 

Hey you went away before I could reply.

BTW, most engine wear is at cold start up... so even stop and go is not that bad.

-Shing

 

darn...then winter weather is sucky...because the car stays cold a loooottttt longer after you start...umm..am I wrong?...
well...I have not changed my oil since end of august...doh...I will do it after finals...
MOBIL1 and OEM Nissan Filter...
hope she is not mad at me..
hehehe..
and I will do STP engine flush
yummy
=D

 

I'd stay away from the engine flushes. There's been cases reported where after a flushing, things started to leak and all. When you flush, you can remove some of the "stratigically" placed carbon deposits... you know the things that had kept xyz seal from leaking... but now it's gone, you will get leaks.

-Shing

 

what do the universal numbers mean? are they taken from cars using regular oil (with the same engine, same mileage as you did)? if so, this will be the post on mobil one thatll finally convince my cheap azz to switch to this stuff.

 

Universal average from what I understand are the averages for this type of engines, ie 3 liter V6s. and I think that's the test value for all oil types that have been used. I think if you consider the fact that you could change oil much less and the fact that mobile one does protect better than the regular stuff, you will see that it's a better investment, interms of cost and comfort.

-Shing

 

Yeah sorry, got tired and decided to hit the sack! Got a long week at work with alot of people I have to move and get hooked up to the network. Anyways, so would you still recommend me pushing it to 7500 or should I just do 5000 when my work is 2 miles from my house :P and I don't drive much else. 4000 miles in 6 months sucks! I use to drive that in 1-2 months before with my old jobs...lol

Anyways, thanks man!

(Holding $10 bucks for Shing)

 

thanks for that test. I will definetely hold off on the oil changes even more now with this new info. btw, when you took that oil sample from your car--how is the oil? is it dark and gunky yet--or is it still pretty smooth?

I was just wondering--since my oil seems to be getting dark very quickly--and I know that the visual inspection of the color and etc of the oil isn't a good indicator...I have only about 1500 miles on the oil but it seems quite dark...

thanks SHing--

Brian

 

Has anyone done similar tests with redline or amsoil?

Are they better? because they sure cost more?

Also I use fram oil filters, are they not as good as nissan? they do cost less.

 

 

good job!



I'm placing my second Amsoil order for the Maxes.....$133!

Ouch, that hurt. $#@$ 8.75% TN sales tax......Of course, thats for 10 quarts oil, 4 of their oil filters, lab kits, couple of engine flushes, etc.

In addition, I'm purchasing some oil lab kits for our current oil/filter combo which is ULX-110 (dino oil) and Mobile 1. Those were $14/ea.

Also, I previously purchased the Trigard I plan for Dad's 99 TL, but didn't use it, but I am going to on the 99. Basically, it has 2 kits for you to send your Amsoil oil in at 1k miles for the 'initial' reading, and then another kit to send in at the last interval (25k) or the oil filter change interval (12.5k) for the next/final reading.

I look forward to sending the ULX-110 oil in for a reading.

 

If you only do 4000 miles every six months, I'd say to make it easy, change your oil every six months. No reason why you should do it any sooner.

-Shing

 

I think inorder to compare, it's very important to send it to the same lab. Otherwise the results I think will be different.

-Shing

 

As you've said judging by the color means nothing. You and I can tell by looking and/or touch the oil. The oil is always golden brown on the dipstick. Oil's always dark when I change it. But feeling it, the oil is smooth... like there's not much contamintaion in it.

-Shing

 

that any serious differences would arise.

That, and I'm assuming that they measure the same substances...it's just HOW they measure that can be different.

hehe....since you put 10k on a car in no time you should use 2 labs and send a sample to each lab. That would be interesting....

 

Stay away from Fram....

 

NO WAY! You must change your oil every 3k because that's what I've read for 10 years man!! There are contaminants like unobtainium that screws up the oil and you can't detect this by normal equipment. I don't know man, even after all this DATA, I'm still gonna change my oil every 3k, no wait, in liew of this DATA, I'm now gonna change it every 2k now. Hey better safe than sorry right?? My max gets only the best treatment dude. Did you know I also change my tires when they are only 1/3 worn out? Why, beucase I only do the best thing for my maxima.

 

There are different methods of performing the same test. That right there will almost make the results hard to compare.

I want to try another oil, but then... I like the mobile one stuff.

-Shing

 

You should be changing your oil every week with Amsoil no matter what!

You wait 2k between changes?!?

Are you insane?

 

Honestly, I would rather you be the Mobile 1 test guy and, myself or someone else be the Amsoil/etc. test guy.

In addition, I will go ahead and get a 'free' sample kit from the lab you used and take samples of ULX110 from the 99 and send them to the different labs.

Is that good enough for ya?

 

Yes sir.

BTW I am thinknig 9500 miles... for the next test. But I may just do 9,000. The thing that I don't know is whether or not the oil fails slowly or very quickly. This is fairly close to the end of my comfort zone with 10k being the extreme limit, that's until i prove it's safe beyond that.

BTW, for those that are asking about other filters. I donno... there is no reason to me to not use nissan OEM. After all, nissan said that it's good enough to use and they will honor warranty if it every failed. Plus if you buy from courtsey, it's something like $4 a piece? Yeah it's not $1... but really, do you want a $1 filter on your car?

-Shing

 

..I mean...severely COLD in the minus range..Is 5W30 Mobil 1 synthetic OK in really cold winter climates??

 

I read that taxi driver test article also. Most wear occurs at start up and especially in winter time. The problem is that a taxi starts once a day and runs all day long with hundreds of miles each day per start up. Now, if you only drive 10 miles or so per start up, much more potential wear and tear on your engine and oil which would cause more frequent changes than 10K regardless of whether it's synthetic or not. In factthe consumer reports article stated that they only used taxis b/c those vehicles put on lots of miles in a hurry. I've also noticed that synthetic seems to leave the engine uncoated at winter start ups where normal oil clings to the engine longer (less valve noise at start up). Just me 2 cents

 

A few observations:

1) it's true that most wear occur during start up. I suspect there are two reason for using taxis, one as you've stated, lots of mailes fast, and two, lots of stop and go. Stop and go tend to wear on the engine as well.

2) The observation you've made about synthetic in winter is both true and false. Fact is synthetics flow better at cold temps. Since they flow better, they will drain faster to the pan if you let the car sit. The fact that there may be dino oil still sitting around proves that they are thicker in the winter. Which means at start up, there's less and slower flow of the oil. Valve noise is probably not always the best judge of where the oil is. My maxima has always used mobile 1 5W-30 and OEM filtersince about 1000 miles(I know have 60k+ in two years). There will be days(exact same temp and time of start up and car set for the same amount of time) where one day will be noiser than the next day.

Regarding the 5W30 in the winter, yes it's fine. Ofcourse you could use the 0W30 if it's REALLY cold.

-Shing