Nissan also recommends oil changes at 7500 mile intervals. A close read of the differences between schedule 1 and schedule 2 maintenance intervals should be in order to understand whether or not more frequent oil changes are required.

This is true. If you want to save money, go with the 7500 interval anyway. But not with the Nissan magic oil, only with a known-good synthetic.

Dino is fine also.

Yeah, if you want to push the envelope... :ugh2: I hate to know what TBN looks like on a sample of regular old Pennzoil after 7500 miles on a 332 bhp 3.7 high-strung V6.

From the Z service manual:

"FOR NORTH AMERICA : Engine Oil Recommendation:
NISSAN recommends the use of an energy conserving oil in order to improve fuel economy.
Select only engine oils that meet the American Petroleum Institute (API) certification and International Lubricant
Standardization and Approval Committee (ILSAC) certification and SAE viscosity standard. These oils
have the API certification mark on the front of the container. Oils which do not have the specified quality label
should not be used as they could cause engine damage."

I highly doubt Nissan engineers would recommend a schedule 2 maintenance interval that would push the envelope under normal driving using dino oil.

Sure they would. You'll long be out of warranty before the accelerated wear on your engine starts to matter.

It's just dumb to run cheap dino oil on a sports car anyway - try to argue that all you want, I doubt you'll have anybody agree with you.

I'll be sure to switch to Wal-Mart brand conventional next oil change and run it for 7500 miles. After all, Nissan says it should be OK.

If memory serves the 7.5 interval is only for folks who do 99% highway driving.

Everyone else is recommended to change at 3750. Notwithstanding what one's own UOA data might specifcally suggest, that OCI is probably fine with either dino or synthetic for most people.

Really? I didn't specify the oil for the Z so there's no argument from me. However, you should contact the Nissan engineers and let them know their specs are incorrect or at least that dino oil should not be used on a sports car.

Schedule 2 is far from 99% highway driving. In fact, it's probably what most non daily drivers should be considering and following if not tracking the car.

Engine warranty is 60K miles, there is a reason why most banks wont give you loans on cars over 70K miles.....

Seeing how easily this oil shears out of grade to a 20 weight within the first 3K miles on various Blackstone UOAs, I'm not surprised that Nissan wouldn't recommend OCIs longer than 3750 mi. Personally, I wouldn't push this oil past 3K miles unless I was doing only low-speed driving where oil temps never got above 220 deg F.

Seeing how high the flashpoint is, about 230 deg C, I would suspect that the base stock oil is probably a PAO with very little, if any, conventional oil in it.

this one has got to be a record haha, 8.5 yrs bump

Most of the Blackstone UOAs I've seen on this oil in a VQ37VHR engine look okay at the 3K to 4K mile mark, except for a consistent hot viscosity breakdown from a midline 30 weight to an upper 20 weight. I'm running NEO in my Z but will not push it past the 3K mark if I'm planning on doing any kind of spirited driving.
I do believe Nissan's claim that this particular oil reduces engine friction significantly, as I get 32 to 33 mpg in 6th gear at about 60mph on a level highway. My combined highway/city mileage is about 18mpg - I often late shift and run at higher revs than necessary. My good highway mileage was a surprise to me as I was not expecting highway mileage numbers that good in this car, a Prius it is not.

So Mobil 1 recommends using Mobil 1 oil... interesting.
By saying it's "part or full synthetic", I think that they are trying to suggest that Nissan's oil might not be full synthetic, even if they know it really is. "full synthetic" falls into the category of "part OR full synthetic." I have no idea whether or not Nissan's oil is full synthetic. I don't understand how a company like Mobil 1 can't determine that. Their "analysis" smells like BS to me.

According to the Nissan dealer I used to buy my NEO from, it is not a full synthetic oil. It is simply a dino-based oil with a certain percentage of ester oil and other secret additives. It was designed to mainly quiet down the VVEL in our cars so people would stop going to the dealer to complain about engine noise. Logic dictates that if it was truly a full synthetic oil, it would state so on the bottle. The only reason Nissan kept it off the bottle is because it legally cannot claim it is synthetic when it is not.

Nissan Ester is actually formulated by Motul

There are a huge number of oil threads here - all of which are full of probably well-meaning but ultimately un or partly informed "expertise".