Spearfish !! You're awesome ! +1 coming your way... would like to see some comparison of severity vs ambient temp and severity vs driving style

Looks good, but you've got the transmission type backwards on the first chart. The majority of respondents were MT not AT.

No problem Travis and thanks for the heads up Chris. I've updated the original attachment to reflect the correction. Also had the bottom two charts flipped.

Two extra charts also included now to compare overheating severity with driving style and ambient temp.

I'm not even back in the States yet :(

You'll be back before you know it. The install isn't bad at all if your mechanically inclined. I had a mechanic do it but thought it looked easy and I could of done it myself with a friend and some patience.

I filed with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

FILE A SAFETY COMPLAINT

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Complaint Information
Description: Bought A 2009 Nissan 370Z and it has oil overheating issues and the car goes into shut down mode at high oil temps that could be real bad a highway speeds on the insterstate THIS IS A 370Z Model not a 350Z
Approximate Incident Date: 5/4/2009
Your responses to the questions regarding the incident:
Deaths/Injuries: No Property Damage: No
Crash: No
Fire: No Police Report: No
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Vehicle Information
VIN:2181
Year, Make, Model: 2009, NISSAN, 370Z
Failure Mileage: 3650
Speed: 70
Vehicle Component Information
Component 1: ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING
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Consumer Information
Name: Ron Rogers

wow that's awesome. it's a numbers game from here on.

I'm ready to trade up to a 370Z, but all this talk of oil overheating is putting me into limp mode.

Take some Viagra and buy the Z they will fix this issue

I wanted to second this comment. I just test drove the 370z this past weekend. It is a very fun car to drive and is still my #1 pick for my new car. However, I really want to have some piece of mind that while I own this car in Florida, that the temps are not going to be an issue.

I'm currently going through cooling system problems on my current ride. Don't want to buy a $30,000+ sports car that constantly runs on the hot side!

Hope Nissan does something about this.

Just curious, but can I not have the dealership put a cooler on or no new car sale? Is that not really an option, even in these hard economic times???

Yeah, I hear ya! I have been drooling over the 370Z for months and the oil temp issue certainly did put a damper on my fun, but in the end I couldn't resist it anymore. I'll just join the rest of you guys and demand action, if that fails and I have a problem just slap an oil cooler on and go!

I wondering if we should start a poll or something that tracks how many people are wanting to buy the 370z but are holding off or chosing another car due to this oil temp issue. Something else we can show Nissan so they can see how much money they are losing. Seems I'm not the only one who is holding on to my money until I know how this is going to play out.

I'm In
 

As said before, I have not purchased only because of the over heating issue.

It's the inattention from Nissan that makes me leary of buying.
 

I've wanted one of these cars since I was in high school and 280ZXs ruled the world. I never could afford a 300ZX, drove a BMW Z3 and then a 330 Cabriolet while the 350Z was going strong. Now I have an MX-5 (I really missed the roadster handling) that I wouldn't give up for anything out there at twice the price...until I saw the Z.

This car kills everything under $50K in my book. Fix the oil thing, or at least make me confident that you will still stand by your product if I fix the oil problem and I'm a buyer.

I think I know you from Nasioc? Are you in Jacksonville?

When I was negotiating a deal on the 370 they stated they couldn't budge anymore on the price of the car but they asked me if there was anything they could add onto the car to help seal the deal.. I should have said "Oil cooler and sold!" but this was before I even realized there was an issue.

Guys I just test drove a 370Z here in Austrlaia, a 6sp manual.
Awesome car. This thing regarding high engine oil temps has me concerned though. So i checked and diwscovered that oil temp of 220 is normal. Therefore would you not expect oil temp to rise a little bit in heavy traffic or track driving. Just wondering if this is being overhyped. Additionally you could use full synthetic oil like redline, motul etc.

I'm at somewhere around 4200 miles now, on Motul 300V, and I'm still seeing some scary temps (260 without trying *too* hard on the street). The easy fix is to keep the RPMs down and not drive like a maniac. However, I don't think that's the fix I'll be using in the long run :)

Nick, congrats !

We're not concerned about 220... problems happen above 260

I'm wondering the same thing. I bought a new 370Z, but with 7AT not 6MT, a week ago and took the car out this weekend for a drive through Cleveland National Forest - not a lot of major elevation changes, but some nice twisties with outside air temp at about 85. I had to really work the car to get the oil temp to hit 220 - it pretty much stayed at 210 the whole trip. At the end of the trip you end up in Lake Elsinore where the outside temp was 93, and the oil temp dropped down to 200 and then rose back up to 210.

Moving at highway speeds and RPMs under 4k won't lead to problems. If you did that drive, revved to 6k a few times and then immediately slowed to 5-10mph stop and go driving...you'd be a believer in the oil temp problem.

Im looking at getting an A/T 370z for sometime in August. This overheating problem has me reconsidering what I get. I live in NY and this car would be my daily driver. The car would never be tracked, but a little spirited driving once in a while can not be avoided. Should I worry? or should I try getting them to put in an oil cooler?

shadyDR,
I don't want to get off topic, but if you go through the entire post there has been some data captured and recorded by other members. I only know this because I really like this car but this issue has me rethinking it, that and I have some spare time to read 30pgs worth of posts.
Anyways, to sum this up, the AUTO trans don't seem to exhibit this behavior all that much. The theory to this (from what I've been able to gleam from reading) is that the AUTO is much more precise in shifting and will keep the RPM's lower than the typical driver on a M/T.
Second, it seems to have a lot of us worried/concerned in the southern states. I'm originally from Vermont and I would not worry about the Northern areas too much because the heat-to-humidity ratio is nothing compared to Florida, SoCal, Texas, etc.

If you go back in the posts you will see the data collected and compiled regarding people posting with problems that have the A/T vs the M/T.
EDIT: just for quick reference: PG 24, Post #4 by travisjb has some data.
EDIT: There was another word document somewhere but I'm having trouble finding it right now.
EDIT: Oil Temp Survey

As a side note, anyone know if the G37 A/T's have showed this sign? Or even if the M/T's have showed this sign? I have not gotten over to their boards. I do have a co-worker that has the new G37 A/T and again we live in Florida. I will post back if I ever hear of their car going into 'Limp Mode'.

[QUOTE=ricer333;72261]shadyDR,
heat-to-humidity ratio is nothing compared to Florida, SoCal, Texas, etc.

QUOTE]

I don't mean to be this guy Ricer, but just so everyone knows, cars don't feel humidity, but only heat. Your dewpoint/relative humidity is only felt by your skin because we use sweat evaporation as our cooling mechanism. Your ambient temperature is the only factor in a car engine's temperature and its ability to cool itsself. (Sorry, I've taken a lot of classes on this stuff. Just look at my name! ;) )

[QUOTE=TheWeatherman;72269]Weatherman, you are correct, but still the heat is going to be much higher down south than up north. Not that the north will not have issues, but I'm just pointing this out because down here we are already hitting 90+ degree weather. Vermont was in the 50's this past weekend. But enough of this, just edited the above post to include some of the survey data.

Again any word/knowledge about G37? Thanks and sorry to mis-speak above.

[QUOTE=ricer333;72272

Weatherman, you are correct, but still the heat is going to be much higher down south than up north. Not that the north will not have issues, but I'm just pointing this out because down here we are already hitting 90+ degree weather. Vermont was in the 50's this past weekend. QUOTE]


Ricer, you're definately right about the southern states getting hotter and are right about them having the more frequent problems. That is totally the issue. (Again, sorry to be that guy.)

Humidity does in fact affect cars multiple ways. In the case of intake air, it changes the air's density, and more importantly changes the oxygen density (how much available oxygen to burn in a liter of 'air' at a given pressure). As for cooling, humidity in the air changes the heat-transfer properties of the air, which again affects cooling (it makes your car hotter for much the same reasons it makes you feel hotter).

Edit: I'll give you that the car doesn't rely on evaporative cooling like skin does, but still, the heat-transfer properties of humid air are going to be different.

We're not talking about the intake part of this. This is a radiator issue, not an MAF issue. Elevation & pressure is the biggest factor in what you're talking about, not so much humidity.

After numerous thermodynamics classes, the humidity you speak of for cooling is totally different. You're talking about latent heat processes which pretty much don't affect your radiator. Radiators rely on the movement of air over the exchangers which is a conductive process, not a latent process. Your A/C works on latent heating/cooling, not radiators. Actually, humid air can hold more heat than dry air, which would make it better to have humid air running over your heat exchanger. It's similar to a moist adiabatic process vs. dry.

Don't give people ideas about humidity causing this issue. It is completely irrelevant. Any engineer or atmospheric scientist knows this.

Our numbers indicate that our radiators aren't doing much for our oil temps. Water temp in the radiator is fine, but the radiator water isn't getting enough heat out of the engine oil (not enough transfer between the two). Therefore the cooling of the block itself is a factor (engine bay heat). You don't think there's an effect there?

Yeah, with pure heat, not humidity. If anything, humidity would help, but in way so small that it would barely register. Again, heat conduction vs. latent heat processes.

I LOVE IT!!! I haven't heard (or read) the word adiabatic in almost 10 years since my engineering days :icon18:

Ha ha! Thanks for understanding Spearfish, but you know as a scientist, that's how it really works with a car! I just wanted to make it clear so people who go outside and think it's humid think it's going to make your car overheat faster than a dry day. Another common misconception is the thought of a car feeling a wind chill. Sure, it rids heat faster when it's cold, but when you have a windchill of -80F, your car only feels the outside air's temperature. Good stuff, good stuff.

Weatherman no wonder it feels so hot when the temp is over 100 f on a low humidity state like ca and las vegas compared to 85 f humid states. i can't stand 118's in vegas on summer...

A quick note on my last trip. I drove from Cincinnati to Atlanta for my high oil temps cure. Just after crossing the KY (not jelly) TN border on I-75 you begin a climb up a fairly hilly stretch. The ambient temps were 62-65F. Prior to this the oil temp was running at about 220F. Five minutes into the climb I was at 235F with the cruise on 70 mph.

Back to the latest topic of humidity. Has anyone tried a mister on a car with the oil cooler added? I used one on an inter-cooler once. The mister came on at a preselected boost level. It seemed to help but you needed a lot of water capacity for a hot day using boost on a frequent basis.

Final note: On the way back from Atlanta I had absolutely ZERO oil temp issues.

Something that has been bothering me lately:

We have been seeing high oil temps. Nissan included an oil cooler with the preview cars. We "know" high oil temps are a problem. Nissan is coming out with an oil cooler. There are oil cooling kits already on the market. Most people are aware of the oil temp issues.

However, Nissan also included a differential cooler on the preview cars. We don't have an oil temp gauge for the differential oil. If Nissan has data that we don't have (and they obviously do, otherwise they would not have included the oil cooler on the preview cars) it suggests that the differential oil is also likely experiencing undiagnosed/unseen temperature problems as well.

There is very little discussion/data about the differential temps, but Nissan obviously thought there might be a temp problem there, otherwise why would they include a differential cooler? I'm starting to think this may be the underwater part of the cooling iceberg - a potentially big problem, but completely unseen at this point in time.

What's considered normal oil temp? Even in hot (80 degree +) weather.

On 80 degree days, my 370 hits about 220. I read somewhere that if any car hits 260 or near this, you're in trouble?

Nissan did exactly the same thing when they introduced the 2003 350Z. A differential cooler was installed in their introduction test car to the media and others. The reason: not to overheat and stress out the stock VLSD and show it's inherent weakness with continuous tracking.


Since I believe the 370z's differential is the same as the past 350, the only reason for the diff cooler install in the test car is to prevent the stock VLSD from crapping out on the track test.

Yes, the Viscous LSD turns itself into an open diff when it overheats ... and it doesn't take much to make it do that.

I just removed the rubber insulation where the hood meets the windshield, and removed the engine cover (plastic top that says VVEL and stuff), and removed the covers over the battery and brake fluid area. I am hoping this helps the oil temps keep cool. I will post the results.

My temps have been hitting 240+ daily now since it has been in the high 90's and low 100's.