Well, what scares me is that I've seen some other threads where some guys have actually had their engine seize because it ran bone dry and there was never any sensor warning.

That is a lot of copper. To me, it looks like you're losing bearing material. I would be concerned that your motor is toast.

I would run a quick 50 miles on it then bring the car to the dealer for inspection.

I'm no expert but that looks really bad to me. If the oil is 'milky' then it would suggest there is water in there too. Personally I would take it back to the dealer now with this evidence and not run it any more until they have had it inspected.

Flushing the engine might get rid of the mess but also the evidence if you need to make a claim. I don't think your engine will last that long judging by the pictures.

Sorry man :(

Well, there was still quite a bit of oil when I drained it. I'm not saying that it wasn't low but it was definitely not severely low...like now where near bone dry.

I really can't believe this is happening. I'm so carefully with my cars. I never had such a thing happen before. But it is my fault I guess for not checking the dipstick on a regular basis. I honestly only thought you had to do that when a car gets older as it has a tendency to consume more oil. But anyway, if my car is consuming that much oil and it's still less than a year old, then there's gotta be something wrong with it to begin with and assuming (praying) that it's covered under warranty.

Ugh...

Semtex -- did you hear back form your mechanic?

Get a used oil analysis (UOA) from a reputable place i.e. Dyson or Blackstone.

With your pics I would suggest Dyson. Dyson = >$$ although Terry Dyson will break down the UOA in more detail and provide a more in depth assistance to correct the issue.

dyson ANALYSIS

Check your dipstick weekly for oil consumption and make notes.

I know but the problem is I did two oil changes in one afternoon, mine and my wife's. And mine was last. So what's in the oil pan is mixed.

Not yet.

Just the picture of the oil leaking out of the pan is bad enough. Put some miles on the car and drain it again or take it to the dealer. I wouldn't wait for 3k miles though. Like, by the end of next week take it in.

my mentality would be that if that much flakes came out, my engine is toast anyway. i want my case to be as strong as possible. therefore, i am going to run the oil for 3k miles for it to receive the full effect of the situation, then take it to the dealer with that sample. best case: the engine is fine and you can move on with your life. worst case: the sample has proven that the engine is bad and you get a new one. not too shabby at all.

^^ Yes but regardless of what I do, I'm afraid that they're going to come back and say, "well, you didn't use Nissan's recommended oil" or "where's the evidence of when you did the oil change?" Yes, I have the receipts from Amazon for when I bought the oil and filter but no proof of when it was done. Or they might have me prove that Red Line contains contains the ester lubricant, which shouldn't be hard to do.

Basically, I'm preparing for resistance.

Not much you can do if they try to fight it, but they cannot force you to use their oil. Heck, many dealerships do not even use the "recommended" oil and just throw in Mobil-1 or the generic Nissan oil.

But here's the weird thing, the car feels great.....definitely no indication of something being wrong. It's not sluggish, there's not noise, I don't smell anything. It rides smooth.

Is there any documentation (with source of reference) of Nissan saying that it is recommended BUT not required to use their oil?

yes, in the owner's manual.

5w30 oil is required. nissan ester oil is recommended.

dlmartin81: You need to get a sample of oil and send it off for analysis NOW. I would not wait. If you have driven the car for 5 miles, judging by the pictures, that would be plenty enough time for there to be something to show in in the used oil analysis that would indicate what kind of problem you have.

I've seen milky looking oil from bearing wear before, not water contamination. Powdered aluminum in the oil from bearing wear will give it a very milky looking appearance.

Nissan has never stated that Nissan's ester oil is REQUIRED and they can not refuse warranty work due to using non-ester oil, provided it meets all the other specifications (which redline does) and is the right viscosity.

As long as you have receipts and document when you change the oil, that should be sufficient for any warranty work.

Late,
Trav

The mfg must prove that the oil you used caused the damage. There is a law out there on that I think it's called the Magnussium law (not sure on that spelling) but it's been around for years.

As I mentioned before your best bet is to get a UOA as there are a lot of engine assembly lubes that are still being cleaned out. Plus a UOA will tell you if the metal wear is damaging or normal for the engine during break in and if the rings and pistons are seating.

g/l

^^

The MM Act does nothing to protect you. If the manufacturer decides to deny your warranty claim it's on you to take up the legal fight. It almost always ends up cheaper to just pay for repairs on your own than pay the legal fees it takes to fight a big company.

I talked to an old buddy of mine who used to be a mechanic and he said that a lot of time when oil is brown, it's due to a bad head gasket (I think it was a head gasket, that he said) and you have coolant getting in and mixing with the oil. I don't know, I think that's what he said.

Does this make sense to anyone else?

Found this......I know it's talking about aviation engines but probably the same.

AeroShell 100 Plus - Shell Aviation

"Metals such as Copper are normally a problem for oils as they cause oil to degrade quicker than they would otherwise. This can be a problem as many General Aviation engines contain Copper - the largest area is normally found on cam shafts which is left over from the manufacturing process.

When cams are manufactured the cam face is often hardened using a process called Nitriding. This leaves a hard, but brittle, surface - ideal for the cam face, but not for the rest of the shaft. The rest of the shaft does not need to be hardened and it performs better if the surface is not brittle from the Nitriding process. So to protect the rest of the shaft, a thin layer of Copper plating is used to cover all the areas which do not need to be hardened. Once the cam has been manufactured this Copper serves no useful purpose, but it is not removed. This can be a problem for the oil in an engine because, as I have mentioned, the copper acts as a catalyst to make the oil degrade faster than normal - and a degraded oil does not make a good lubricant."

It does but even if a HG explains the milkiness--all that copper screams of rod/journal bearings. Get it checked ASAP, no need to keep speculating. You most likely have a serious issue.

yep, your buddy is right. a blown head gasket will introduce coolant into the oil and will make it very milky...

I do want to get it taken care ASAP but I'm not sure if I should wait a week or two so that the oil has time to collect some of the crap that I saw a week ago. I'm afraid of going to early and risk them saying, "I don't see anything wrong with your oil." I might try to drain a quart to get a sample and then top it off again. But yes, I'm definitely not going to wait long.

Like someone already said, you can drain just enough for a sample and then top off with fresh oil. If you have a siphon pump you can just siphon some out of the oil pan through the dipstick tube.

Even without a pump, you can get some tubing at Home Depot, insert it down the dipstick hole and just suck some out by mouth. I did this the last oil change when I overfilled a bit.

You can suck, yes, but it's not a good thing for a man to do.

:bowrofl::roflpuke2:

Dan, at the very least, go to Blackstone's website and order their test kit. It's free. They don't charge you anything until you fill it with oil and send it back to them for analysis. But at least get the kit so that you have it in hand when you finally decide to drain some for analysis. Also, I don't know about others, but when I suggested that you go ahead and drain some and then top it off, I was thinking in terms of draining some to send to Blackstone, not to take to the dealer. Indeed, if you show up at the dealer with a Blackstone report showing abnormally high levels of wear, that's some massive ammo you have in hand which will hopefully preempt any of their BS denial.

^^ I just ordered the testing kit.

I have a few questions:

1) How long will it take to arrive at my doorstep?
2) What's the turnaround time for them to do the testing and reveal to you your results?
3) Are the results sent via e-mail?
4) Also, since I just did my change last week, my oil is still pretty fresh. Will there be enough evidence in oil if the oil is less than a month old?

I guess I'm just trying to find out if it's a quick process or a lengthy one. God knows I don't want to wait too long.

1. about a week
2. depends on how you send it to them. I sent it USPS priority on a Monday and they emailed me my results that Wednesday. Doesn't get much quicker than that.
3. answered that
4. depends more on mileage than on how old. How many miles do you accumulate in a typical week?

My vote...water in oil

Check your coolant level, see if it's low. That could be a clue.


Then again, maybe your engine had Nissan Ester in it, and you're seeing the nano particles? (joke...sorry)

Just as a Ford manual will recommend Ford oil, etc.

I just called Black Stone and they said that they like to have at least 1K miles on the oil to do the analysis.

I think what I'll do is...wait that long, drain what ever is need for testing and then immediately take my car to the dealer, while the oil is being analyzed. And then follow up with the dealer with my (Black Stone's) results.

I don't know that I want to wait 1K and then wait some more to receive the tests before going to the dealer.

What do you guys think?

Two days? You can't wait two days for your test results so that you have solid evidence in hand to take to the dealer?

Hehe....well, it all depends on how fast it gets shipped to BS. But I guess you're right.....if it's F'd up, what's another week, right?

I guess you still haven't heard back from your mechanic?

Well, my engine is definitely consuming oil.

I went out for lunch today and my oil light came on. I checked the dipstick and it was definitely low. So I stopped at Pep Boys and got some Mobile1 to top it off. I'm gonna start carrying the Red Line in the car for now on until this issue is resolved.

Also, yesterday I checked my coolant reservoir and it was at the MAX fill line. It was hard to tell if oil is mixing with it because you can't directly see the fluid with our type of reservoir. But from what I could tell, it looked blueish-green. Again, really hard to tell if it was clean. I'll try to snap some pics of it and post it here.

So far, I haven't noticed any discoloration in the exhaust smoke, nor any alarming fumes.

Man, my BlackStone testing kit needs to arrive soon.

Soooo....my buddy (who used to be a mechanic) said that it sounds like my value guide(s) could be worn, which would explain the copperish color shavings in the oil, the oil consumption, and the valuetrain noise that I had prior to the oil change a few weeks ago.

We'll see....only time will tell. I'll keep ya'll updated.

I'll tell you a brief story I read in this forum: An engineer from the U.S. went thru' the trouble of purchasing a sample of each brand of oil filter on the market; he proceeded to "disect" (i.e. cut in ½, and inspect) each and everyone of 'em: His conclusion was that Pureone by Purolator is THE best oil filter available to us on the market. Remember: I'm not an engineer. This is the conclusion a pro' in his field arrived at. Since I've been using that brand, my engine oil comes out less nasty than it used to, 'cause the filtering element is of superior quality, according to this guy. Give it a shot, dude!

Thanks for the tip on the pure one filter j.arnaldo +1