Hey guys. Someone else on here has suggested to me a reason for the oil burning 3.5L He suggests that it seems those of us who use full synthetic seem to have the issue, as to opposed those who use conventional, who dont have a problem.

 

Shouldn't matter, Nissan used cheap piston rings and that is the root of your problems(along with cheap precats)

 

Castrol GTX 5w30 - Only lose enough to show between H and L level marker every 1500 miles. Might lose 1 qt every 3.5-4k miles. Seems normal to me.

When I purchased the car, it had full synthetic in it and lost 1 qt in the first 1000 miles. I immediately switched to conventional and after 2 oil changes I lose only 1qt or less every oil change. I have never used synthetics or been a supporter of it. Not that I think it's bad, just never tried it and never want to.

 

GTX 10w-30

I totally agree with the cheap piston rings... All I do is drive my car back and forth to work and do a little spirited driving on the weekends and my motor is completely shot at 81K...

Nissan however did agree to pay 1/2 for a new motor so that's the route I'll probably end up going with. Why would I buy a used motor for almost 2 grand with 30K on it when I can get a new one for 3250.00 without me even breaking a sweat, plus have a little warranty with it (probably 12/12,000)...

I'm still pretty upset about this whole thing since I find it very hard to believe the motor couldn't last 100K miles. Another thing that kills me is seeing all these other people on the road driving their POS cars that probably haven't had an oil change in the past two years that have well over 200K miles on them but yet I pretty much baby my car and the motor is gone at 80k???

 

My last 02 Maxi had almost 150k on the clock when I got rid of her with no oil burning or engine problems to speak of.

 

The new nissans aren't what they use to be. My 95 max has 168,000 and doesn't burn a drop and purrs like a kitten. Before my max I had a 02 se-r ,which burnt oil till no end and nissan refused to fix it saying it was within spec and I was beating on it. Well that car is long gone..........Good luck to all you new nissan owners.

 

im not voting...oil type is not an excuse for losing that much oil

 

I have been running conventional oil through all three of my maxima's and haven't had an oil problem with any of them, consumption or leaks. Sold my 1994 with 132K, Sold my 2000 with 130K and now have an 03 with 43K, none of which have seen a drop of synthetic oil.

I don't think Synthetic oil should be an excuse for poor build quality on the motor from Nissan (bad rings?), but I don't seem to have any problems with my Max and I have always used straight conventional oil!

 

oil type is not an excuse, but however full synthetic oils make for a better lubricant than conventional and in some instances where gaskets or rings are worn, synthetic oil will actualy leak through seals.

 

key words...RINGS ARE WORN.
running sythetic just allows people to realize that the rings are terrible. the oil doesnt CAUSE the problem

 

why did you repeat what I just said?

 

you said "but however..." which made it sound like you were saying the oil caused the problem

 

Mobil.. 10-30... Opppsss.. I have a 3.0 DON"T have this problem...... just kidding...

 

you also dont have the problem of having to deal with all that power

 

haha, its true.

i use mobil 1 5w-30 full synthetic and i dont burn a drop of oil, when i changed my oil after 3 months the dipstick still said full.

 

Renault invested money in Nissan back in 99. This is the company that brought us the Le Car and Alliance.

 

nah man, just thought it was a useful piece of info.

 

I run 10-30 conventional. I agree with the rings and in some instances I have seen some crappy rings in nissans. I am a firm believer in a lucas oil treatment at 75-80k. It really helps on the life of our rings and seals.

And about the motor being bad at 80k you are the first I ahve ever heard of that happening to our years max. You either: ran that crap ridiculously hard, didnt take care of it, or have the only lemon of its kind on here.

 

Anyone happen to do a leak down test yet?

 

who cares about power if you need to add oil every 1000miles.... chuckle

 

Uh... I don't think I've really ever red lined the car in it's 80K mile life, that's why I'm so confused, all fluids changed on a regular basis, genuine nissan parts always installed (oil filters, plugs, egr valve, etc...).

 

do you really trust putting that lucas stuff in there? ive always been nervous to use oil treatments... did this really help the problem. and dont you have to use lucas with every oil change, and at roughly $15 a bottle thats just too expensive

 

Welcome to my world. My old oil burner is still in my possession and will be torn down. Once done, I'll be able to tell you if it was the rings, the cylinder walls, the valve stems or the pre-cats. As of now, I can say that my pre-cats were hollowed out from all the oil, but I don't know what came first. 163k on my original motor, btw.

 

i dont see how precats could cause an oil consumption

 

they say it gets sucked back into the engine...upon deceleration...

 

what does? the precat?

 

Yes, in theory. I'm not 100% convinced, though.

 

I've noticed the last time I changed my oil that the bottome of the oil pan had oil on it. I put card board under the car to see if any oil was leaking and none was. What would cause oil to get on the underside of the oil pan

 

I switched from conventional to Mobile Clean 7500 about 3 changes ago and have not noticed any oil consumption problems. My car has 90k on the odometer and still running great. The only annoying thing is the chatter or rattle when I first start the engine in the morning, but from what I have read on here, mine is not the only one doing that.

 

Are all the oil burners out there 6 speeds?

My VQ30DE was burning oil at a tremendous rate, with no sign as to where it was going...eventually I got a new motor under the 160k KM 6 year Nissan ASP warranty.
All the 4th gens that I have come across that burned significant amounts of oil were 5 manuals. I am trying to draw a relationship between the manual transmission, and an oil burning engine, and I really dont think that it has to do with over driving the engine by keeping it near redline, but the opposite (ie bogging it, with too much intake manifold pressure).

This issue is scary, as i was thinking of picking up a 5.5 gen 6 speed within the next few months. One of the local maxima guys has already had to get his motor replaced at 50k MILES because of oil burning issues...though he drove his car like a fool at times.

 

This is exactly what happened to the 2.5 motors in the spec v's and the altima's. There was a major recall for it.

 

No, its a VQ35 issue, independent of tranny.

 

So then why doesnt Nissan do it for us? Somone should see what they can do, I would but dont have time right now.

 

If we all put our ideas out on the org, especially those with 3.5L oil burners, maybe we can come up with a common denominator. I thought maybe synthetic oil had something to do with excessive oil consumption, but it could be related to the 5/6 speed transmission models. I have an 03 3.5L Auto with low miles and I don't have any problems with oil comsumption, but that doesn't mean I won't as the miles pile up. I hope it continues to serve me well since I plan on keeping my current Max forever...or at least a long time

 

Well I had a auto 5.5 gen before and it didn't burn any oil at all. My 03 6 speed uses some oil but not to excess. It may have something to do with it being mainly a 6sp issue.

 

Are the 6th gen guys having oil burning issues as frequently as you all?

 

Im not sure about the 6th gens, but I have read that the Z's and G's had it really bad.

 

Have any of you using Synthetic and having oil consumption issues tried to switch back to conventional motor oil just to see if you have less of a problem? I would not want to make the assumption that you may not have any oil consumption by moving back to regular oil, but I still think the thinner synthetic oil will pass by the rings more easily escalating the oil consumption issue.

Keep in mind, Nissan did not require or even recommend synthetic oil for use in thier vehicles when they introduced the 3.5L motor, so I just wonder how the use of synthetic might be contributing to oil consumption issues.

 

At the rate I'm going through synthetic and the cost I'm going back to reg oil very soon.

 

Damn, you are burning oil too? I think I may just stay away from a 5.5 gen.