Had my Z in to the dealership this AM to fix the grease smears on the windows and the subject of oil changes came up. I asked how much to put Mobil 1 in the Z. Te service manager was adament, not in a nasty way, but VERY firm that they have been told by Nissan's tech people DO NOT reccommend synthetics for the Z.

When I mentioned to him that they field tested the Z with Mobil 1, he re-iterated that the VQ engine was not designed for synthetics.

Have any of you guys/gals heard this before or is is just hype dissuade we Z owners from having engines last longer??

Bill

 

heh - with Nissan's reputation on engine building and reliability I'll be not listening to them and using Mobil 1 for all my oil changes.

 

That's my take on it. I'm just concerned that NISSAN may try and give us s#$t if we have an engine warranty situation.

 

yeah it really shouldnt matter..after the breakin thats all i have been putting in @ the dealer no less.

 

Same here! And when I saw a pre production Z this time last year I looked under the hood and on the strut bar right over the oil filler cap was writting with a black Sharpie that said "Mobil1"!!!
I am using Mobil1. $23.00 for six qts at Costco. Man, the Nissan filter costs 10 bucks at the dealer.

 

Not only did my dealer put in Mobile 1 that I brought with me to the oil change, he even recommended it, said that it was the best synth to use. I agreed, having used it in my last 3 vehicles.

I doubt very much that Nissan does not recommend synth oil, otherwise, there would be a HUGH warning in the consumer operators manual. I did not see any such warning in my book, so I will continue to use Mobile 1.....

 

So what did this knucklehead say would happen if you used Mobil 1?
Sounds fishy to me
later

 

Never believe any of the crap from the dealer.
If Nissan made an engine that could not use synthetic oil it would say so in manual and have warning labels.

Fact is you can use synthetic oil and your engine will thank you.

 

Were there not strict guidelines indicating that it should not be used during the break-in period?

Perhaps they had misinterpreted that and overgeneralized..

 

Always be somewhat suspect of dealers' service departments. --- Better to use the advice of a trusted mechanic.

 

Hey guys. I always get great info from this board, I thought I'd share some from maxima.org. Here's a short thread summarizing the findings that many of us follow. Hope it helps. Also the poster, bill99gxe, is our resident oil guru. If you want more detailed info you could search for his posts. In general he recommends castrol GTX for the first 10,000 miles (better for the full break in of the VQ) and then synthetic. This is based on actual oil analysis.

Here's the thread

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....hreadid=227568

 

As long as the oil meets the API service code specified in the owner's manual (SG/SH, SJ or SL) you can use whatever you want and there is virtually nothing they could do about it. Just make sure you keep a specific record of what you put in.

 

Well, it's up to you on what oil you use. But, I would never use synthetic oil in any of my cars, especially Z-Cars... We have had many problems with order Z-Cars (90-96) that have used synthetic oil... Nothing major, just leaky seals... But for a Turbo, if you used Synthetic oil, you would have major turbo leaks, which could be stopped by switching back to regular oil... But some Zers continued using it, destroying their turbos seals, and having to replace their turbos. It's not a real problem on new seals, just on high mileage seals, becuase synthetic oil gets really thin once it's hot, and will seep through any cracks a seal might have in it. SO, it's up to you, we've had enough Synthetic oil problems to actually make us not use it in our personal cars.

Coz

 

Sometimes the dealer peeps can be helpful too....on my 91 300ZX, I blew 3 fuel injectors in the first year. All under warranty. The head mechanic at the nissan dealership pulled me aside and asked what gas I was using. i told him premium, just like the manual says. He told me never to put premium in again, and I ran the 300 for the next 11 years on 87 octane with NO problems.

 

The dealer WASN'T telling a lie. Check in the back of your owners manual. (I don't have mine with me at the moment, it's in the Z) The owner's manual DOES STATE that Nissan only recommends Mineral Based oils.

However, I know somewhere on the boards here is a post from a member who questioned Nissan and got a reply back stating that as long as it meets the proper certifications there will be no problems with Synthetics.

Read your owners manual and make your own educated decision.

 

lol... that dude was a crock of ****... no offense.

Your injectors didn't BLOW because of higher octane fuel...

off-topic though, I have some land in mid-south Florida I can sell you REAL cheap... interested?

 

yeah probabably not the octane but perhaps the brand of gas..some of this additives are more problematic than helpful. I have heard bad things about cheaper brands particularily.

 

Real simple, if he picked up bad gas... perhaps with trace elements of sediment... CLOG go the injectors. Thats believable.

 

Back to the oil thing... My service advisor told me Nissan/Infiniti do not recommend the use of synthetic oil, but they don't specifically recommend against it either. What's stated in the owner's manual can be taken the same way. That said, my tech was quite helpful in recommending service intervals and when to switch over to synthetic.

 

The only thing my dealership was worried about when I brought my Z to get an oil change was if I was past the break in, and how many miles I should go for my next change.

I also use Mobil 1 and oddly enough I get my Z's oil changed tomorrow.