tware

iTrader: (12)

My advice is not to listen to anyone here. Dont listen to anyone about extending past the recommended 3750. Take a sample of YOUR oil at 3750 and send it to Blackstone. If it looks good, take it out to 5K and Blackstone. Anytime you change your interval, you should make sure your wear is ok. The bottom line is the dealer isnt going to cover your engine based on what you heard on the internet. If youre extending your intervals (with schedule 1 driving), you need to cover your own ****. Blackstones will allow you to deviate safely from 3k/3750 industry recommendation. They set those for a reason. Its the lowest common denominator for all driving. Some conditions do not allow for more than 3000-3500 miles without increased wear. Thats only a small fraction of people, but it applies to some.

When you start pushing past 7500, be able to accept this
http://www.g-owners.com/pic_display.asp?id=333

its the likely result I've seen with the VQ. Regardless of what syn was used. Check out some 10K ODIs on maxima.org (also VQ). I seriously doubt any of you would do that with your cars.

sprmario

I have seen this stated a lot but I don't think the oil tests bear it to be true. I ended up going 3k w/ my first oil, and then went right to synthetic. I read a lot about this on the bobistheoilguy.com and I never saw any good data that running dino oil did a better job of breaking in your vehicle. As many people there noted a LOT of high performance cars come straight from the factory with synthetic and don't require abnormally long break in periods.

PrimeX

iTrader: (22)

I just changed to a synthetic blend over the weekend as my car finally hit the 1000 mile mark in my 5th week of ownership. The dealer tried to talk me into a full synthetic oil change, but PrimeX was not down. As soon as I received my car back (dealer installed aero kit) I noticed much smoother gear shifting in the MT with the synthetic blend. Is this more noticable with a full synthetic change?

tware

iTrader: (12)

I gotta give you props for doing your own research and making your own decision. However, make sure youre only considering data on the VQ. The VQ is one of the last remaining engine that need a lengthy break in. If you look at my oil analysis linked above (or any low mile VQ), you'll see the VQ does not settle down until at least 5K. The VQ reports I have read (sorry dont have time to chase the links, but maybe later) did show that an early switch led to less than satisfactory results. At 10-12K, fuel dilution and break in metals were still high. A few people repeated this on the 2k2+ maxima (VQ35 like us) and also had to wait to 15K or higher for the engine to settle down and smooth out. Why delay the highest mpg and HP? Plus with the risk of oil consumption from the seals, its simply not worth risking with a early syn change. However, all you can do is see trends. Your engine may be fine with an early change, many are... it's just that the trending with oil analysis doesnt support that.

ANXIOUZ

iTrader: (13)

I switched to Mobil 1 at 12k miles and my car is running much more smoothly. I'm really pleased for spending the extra $ for it.

The guy at the shop said that they were going to be offering Redline soon. It was like $100 and would supposedly last a hella long time. Anyone here use Redline?

tware

iTrader: (12)

by lasting, yes it will have additive left and will not have shifted viscosity, but that doesnt mean you'll be able to safely use the oil that long. Some German cars have 2x the oil capacity and sump type filtering, so you cant compare those cars that allow 12K+ changes.. We just cant seem to do that with the VQ, even with the best oil.

sprmario

I probably looked at 10 to a dozen reports on the VQ35. i'm not sure I interpreted the results right, but I remember noticing that the metals don't settle down till around 7.5k to 10k, but i saw the same results using dino vs. synth early on. I didn't really look at reports from 15k to 20k and compare people who changed early vs later, though. i'm coming up on 5k miles on my first synthetic change and I plan to send in a sample for analysis.

I'm using Mobile-1 10w30 which seemed to be a good choice for those in hot climates (I'm in Miami, FL).

Lucino

If I were to change that often I'd stay with regular.

Lucino

well, it took me almost 6 months to put on 1,500 miles on my VQ, just did the first oil change two weekends ago, went with regular Valvoline 5W-30, I have to be honest, after having the car sitting that long all I started to hear weird noise from the engine compartment, so now tware ur are saying it would gain more benefit if we wait till the car passes 5K or 10K? I have almost redlined the sucker already think I hurt it?

SkiTTlez

iTrader: (4)

i am sitting at 6800 miles on my 05/ i am going to switch to Mobile 1. i live in NW Florida. do you guys recommend 10w-30 or 5w-30? also which Mobile filter fits the Z? and lastly, is it the consensus here that it is quite safe to go 5000 miles between oil/filter changes with Mobile 1 products?

yobri

iTrader: (2)

Wow... do you mean gold like slightly brown and yellow gold, or gold as in almost like new???

tware

iTrader: (12)

nah, I'm not going to second guess your decision. You read up and did what you thought was best for you. You're going to do well with your choice I think.

I went syn at 4500, but I had alot of hours on the engine because of 90% city driving and my breakin metal wear was settling.

HarvesterUT

iTrader: (10)

i will change mine to synthetic at 8,000 mi

Lucino

as far as know, for hotter weather the thicker oil, 10W-30 .

Camel

I've gone synthetic in several vehicles and I'm not going to bother anymore starting with this one. As a long time synthetic user, I've converted and I no longer feel it matters. I'll change it with dino as recommended by Nissan on their schedule and not worry about it anymore.

Lucino

as long as you change it frequent enough, I doubt it will make a big difference, but for lazier ppl like myself who has a heavy foot, haha, synthetic all the way.

ZJOHNZ

I asked my service guy at the dealership about synthetic. His reply was "This is the only car I know of that the owner's manual specifies NOT to use synthetic, the Nissan engineers must have had a reason, but I don't know what it is."

sprmario

The nissan engineers use synthetic in their test 350z's. There was an article about this when I was doing the research on this before.

MEI

i think that the synthetic oil is the best choice for the car.

but i heard that you can't put it unless you break 12k with your car (if it's new)

but it costs a lot in US, here it costs around 12$ for Mobil 1

Zshazz

Do you own one of these cars? If you do, then look in the manual and you'll notice that they specify that they have a special break-in synthetic oil. At least, thats what the 2003 Corvette manual says. Thats why they don't need abnormally long break in periods. However, if you took a completely new engine then you put synthetic oil that isn't for break-in, then you'll notice that it isn't good for the engine. You know that breaking in the engine is basically wearing the parts together, so its just logic that tells you by using an oil that wears much less than a conventional oil will make the break-in period that much longer. 12,000 miles is really a conservative estimate, because synthetic oils can reduce wear by 25% in some cases, and mobil 1, for example, has as much as triple the wear of Amsoil, so depending on what kind of oil you are using your break in period may be increased to 12,000 miles or even greater. Just to be on the safe side, stay with standard oil for well past the break in period.

Due to new posts stating that it takes the VQ abnormally long to break in normally, I'd actually recommend you sticking with conventional oil for at least 15k, possibly even 24k to make sure the parts are fully broken in.

And by the way, I think people misunderstand the whole extended drainage things. You still have to change your filter, the idea is that you just catch your oil in a pan and put it back into your engine. People are putting in filters that are suppose to last for 3000ish miles in their engine and then running it for 7000 miles and saying that the oil is bad because the filter couldn't filter everything out anymore. The idea is to change the filter when it recommends, but keep your oil because your oil is the most expensive part (at least if you get a really expensive extended drain oil anyway.) If you don't want to change your oil filter as much, you have to get a filter thats made to filter for longer periods of time.