I got a 02 maxima GLE, their is a leak in the oil gasket and its leaking oil. I need to keep putting oil in it untill i get it fixed next week. What kind of oil should i use!

 

synthetic 5w-30 of your choice. I like castrol syntec, but most sythetics will be good

 

If you are near an Advance Auto store, wait until they have their Mobil 1 sale.

5 Quarts and a Mobil 1 filter for $29.99

 

I recommend mobile 1 synthetic also. It's what I have always used in all of my cars.

 

or u can always go to walmart and get the big mobil 1 5qt container for $25 and fram filter for $5

10w-30 or 5w-30

 

If the car consumes a fair bit, don't waste your money.

If it doesn't, 5 or 10w30 syn, whatever brand.

 

You sure the leak is from the oil pan gasket? Whats the mileage on your max? I had this same problem last month I thought it was my oil pan gasket but it was actually leaking from the o-ring (common problem) My mechanic told me that its actually pretty rare for oil pan gaskets to leak but it still happens.

 

From the reading i have done, pennzoil platinum had been out performing Mobil 1 for quite some time now, and its a bit less expensive. I also think my car runs smoother on PP.

PP is definitely better bang for the buck.

 

FWIW, my Engineering Clinic professor used to work for Mobil before it became Exxon Mobil, and I was talking to him about synthetic oils.

He said when they were developing Mobil 1, they gave it to some taxi cars in NYC and did a comparison. They ran some on conventional oil and some on the, at the time, experimental Mobil 1. After 100,000 miles, they tore down the motors of the cars.

The ones that were running synthetic still has the cross hatching? on the cylinder walls, while the ones running conventional had more signs of wear.

Now, this was in the 70's, so I'm sure conventional oils have gotten much better, but this just made me feel a little more confident in my use of a synthetic oil.

 

To the OP, if you are going through a lot of oil now due to the leak, I would grab some Castrol GTX (conventional) 5W-30 to keep refilling until you get the leak fixed. Then switch to a synthetic after you get it fixed, Pennzoil Platinum, Mobil 1 Extended Performance, or plain Mobil 1.

To address the leak, as someone said before its pretty rare that the oil pan gasket fails. It may the lower oil pan itself rusted, and its leaking through. That happened to mine a few months ago. Also, as others have said, the o-ring on the oil cooler can leak as well.

Good luck with the fix.

 

Well i got 91,000 on my max. The CEL came on and i took it to autozone and found out the code that set off the light. I checked my oil and found i was super low after only 3000 miles. I got my oil changed any the light went away but he said i had multiple problems. But only the cracked gasket was causing the leak. My alternator belt is almost done and my tires need rotation. I am having it fixed in about 5 days but i need some oil to last me the weekend. Its coming out gradually, after the oil change i got about 1000 or close to it before my oil was low again. Thanks for the comments and help!

 

For a filler, until you resolve the leak, just get a generic 5W30 from Wallyworld, Advance Auto or Autozone (house brands).

 

yea that's what i was planning