Hey guys, changed my oil about 1100 miles ago and its already low. About a half -quart or so. Not to happy with this car right now....what are my options?

 

Perhaps it will be some consolation to say that your oil consumption is not nearly as serious as what some other members are experiencing. How many mile on the car? Do you experience the infamous timing chain rattle? What kind of oil do you use?

 

It seems you cant beat the 3.0 in terms of shear reliability. I take that over power any day.

 

take it to the dealer if you are still under warranty.. fight for anew engine.....

 

The car has 94k highway miles. I have all maitenence records from the one previous owner. I am using 10w-30 Quaker State full synthetic, not sure what type of oil the other owner used. It does have a warrenty still, but its through a private company, not Nissan. Im going to give it until the next oil change and see what happens from there.

 

If it has a private company warrenty you'd be better off reading the fine print and then contacting them. MOST of the time they want to see receipts,receipts,receipts... Some companies say that they won't pay for oil consumtion,blah,blah,blah. But every company wants proof that you maintained the car. I just brought a higher mile 5.5 gen and I have my fingers crossed...

 

Yeah. I mean, I ran the other oil in the car for about 1000 miles before I changed it. And I was checking it probaly every other day. And it wasnt burning it then. I guess its possible that the car can start doing it at any time, correct?

 

Im still new at this but I would think that the car might burn oil at different times. I would think maybe during hard acceleration it would burn more.

 

Well of course more higher RPM driving will cause the breakdown of the oil more quickly. And I dont beat on my car but there is a healthy amount of higher rpm driving. Perhaps thats why it happened so quickly....

 

Would it be possible to get a poll started on oil consumption in the 3.5L motor and see if it links to the use of Synthetic oil. It seems to me that most of the posts I have read that talk about oil consumption, the owners are running the thinner synthetic motor oil.

I have a 3.5L with 43K and I have not noticed any oil comsumption, but I run conventiional motor oil in my vehicle. If you check the web, synthetic oil has been link to countless number of seal leaks, especially in higher mileage vehicles. I wonder if the synthetic oil is thinner so it passes by the rings in the cylinders much more easily, leading to oil consumption?

 

Hmm good point bvenert. But, not all of the 3.5's burn oil. But I think next time I will try conventional oil. Might as well...

 

I know not all the 3.5L motors burn oil, but I wonder if oil consumption is more likely if you are using synthetic? So far, the owners that have oil consumption issues seem to all be using synthetic oil in their vehicles, unless someone can show otherwise, I would suspect a link between the two.

Nissan has never required Synthetic oil in their motors, at least not back in 03, so is it possible that the synthetic oil thins out more when it gets hot and therefore allows the oil to pass by the rings and into the cylinders? This would certainly seem possible to me. I have never had oil consumption issues in any of the three Maximas I have owned, but I always use conventional oil.

 

Particles inside of synthetic oils are much much much more tiny than particles inside of conventional oil. The main reason for this is because synthetic is all man made with no contaminents unlike conventional oil which is based off of crude oil. If you do have a car that already burns oil or has an oil leak it is highly unrecommended to begin the use of synthetic oils. as far as causing burning oil you could not be more wrong when talking about synthetics. with no contaminents there is almost nothing that can burn unlike conventional. i have an 03 gle with 40k miles on it and just bought at 35k miles. i use synthetic in it and change every 3k miles. i also use the mobil 1 extended performance oil filter. I dont burn one drop of oil. and not that its bad for it but the maximas do take 5w30 oil not 10w30. The advantages of synthetic oil is well known and does do the best job for protecting an engine.

 

2200 miles/quart will not get you a new engine.

 

is there any kind of recall for this prob?

 

I was wondering...I know a LITTLE consumption is normal...but about half a quart after 1100 miles? I do some spirited driving which includes redline shifts. Could this just be normal? Related to my driving?

 

I burn a little, deal with it.

 

I guess your right lol. As long as its only this little bit. Damn I love this car too much