Last time I had my car at the dealer it was like 59,150 miles and the car was leaking oil. However, the dealer told me you don't have an oil leak, you have a power steering leak. Oil would be covered under warranty, not power steering. I was like WTF the rack is leaking at 59k? Anyway, they said there seems to be not much fluid loss, just leave it the way it is.

At the time I instituted a "no-fill" policy. I don't feel that a 98 Max should need oil between changes, so I don't fill it. Oddly enough, 4300 miles later I checked the level this AM, and the oil level is where it was after the last change. I suspect the dealer corrected the problem, because I had to add oil from about 45k to the last change, in-between changes.

I had spotted grime on the front of the motor, left side of the car closer to the manual tranny. When I asked the mechanic if that's a leak, he said no, it's normal, it's blow-by. Is that true? Or was that a leak that he fixed without telling me? I know blow-off is when you met someone and told them you'd call and then you don't. But what is blow-by?

 

As far as I know, blow-by is when the piston rings are starting to fail and combustion gases from the cyclinder are blowing by the rings into the crankcase (not to mention oil getting into the combustion chamber as well). This can cause failures of the PCV system and result in oil being deposited on your air filter but I can't see it leaving any residue on the outside of the engine block. Blow-by is mostly an internal phenomenom.

 

Maybe that would explain what is happening to my third gen. I have been getting sooty/oily deposits in the shape of a half circle on my air filter. I changed it, and not even 200 miles later, it was starting again. I have since changed to a cone filter. Haven't looked recently.

Does this mean my motor is going?

 

Possibly, or it could be as simple as a bad PCV valve. Try changing the the PCV valve and make sure all the vacuum lines are clear and see if you still get oil on your filter. If you do get oil then yes, your rings are probably starting to go.

 

he's not talking about debris collecting on the engine block from an area where a vacuum develops at speed is he? because my engine has a dirty spot from the road, near the tranny case and the integrity of the gaskets seem to be intact. it just seems to collect because air gets underneath there.

 

I brought my car into nissan with a power steering leak I developed after having my tranny changed... The service guy told me their was a recall on it because of a faulty clamp... Don't know if this was true or not, but I got it fixed for free...