I don't own a Z yet but this issue will definitely affect my decision also.

Me too. I was supposed to have made the purchase last week. I didnt take this matter lightly at first but this thread steered me away from making the purchase right now. I WILL stay away until this matter is fixed as im sure with MANY MANY OTHER PEOPLE OUT THERE. I sure hope nissan is smart enough to fix this as it will result in many more sales in the long run. Word of mouth travels FAST.

Socal370z I agree with everything you're saying. I also am aware of Japanese Culture I have been there multiple times.

I will write a letter and have it airmailed to the office in Japan. Maybe you could proof read it for me? I do respect your opinion and your background. Valuable insight.....

I'm sure until Nissan corrects this problem by putting an oil cooler on the car standard, it will most likely be the first (and hopefully the only) recall they make on existing Z's.

I'm putting one on anyway so I'm not worried about it and I would say that if you are not planning to track your car, then I wouldn't let this sway you from purchasing one right now.

The sky is not falling.

Agreed, by summer if I am running to hot, I am betting we will have a couple of aftermarket choices on oil coolers....... compared to the oil consumption issues for the 2006, this is an easy and permanent fix.

John

permanent? so you think an aftermarket oil cooler that's never been extensively tested nor warranted by Nissan NA that you installed yourself will be permanent? Dude...i've owned many high performance cars in the past both highly modded and stock which i've tracked extensively and i can tell you that the oil cooler you will install will definitely not be permanent. Neither is the one Nissan slaps on but atleast it'll be covered by warranty.

Oil pressure - not oil temp.


Edit - I was just thinking while I was in the shower - and forgive me if this is a stupid thought, because I don't know enough about the car's system to have intelligent thoughts - Is there any chance at all that this could be an electrical's issue with some cars? I mean, is it possible that a sensor is giving a false high temperature reading and causing protective systems to activate, etc? Could it be electrical? A big part of me hopes so. Probably not though.

ahhhh icic.....i agree with the guy that said nissan shot themselves in the foot by adding the oil temp....HAHA oil pressure is easy to measure without a gauge...oil temp isn't. So chubbs, r u still set on getting the 370 after seeing this thread? lol

Chubbs,

This scenario is very highly UNLIKELY. The gauge is a mere thermometer in a sophisticated format. Also, an "inaccurate" electrical sensor will PWN nissan NA with countless amounts of class action suits and complaint claims that it will end up costing the automaker a ton of money. These types of errors are very unlikely in today's lawsuit-happy world. It's way safer to have an accurate gauge that goes real hot than an inaccurate gauge that stays in normal operating temp all the time. Cheers.

Hmm - With respect, I'm not sure I can go along with you completely here, TBone. I agree that Nissan would try hard not to actually design something badly, but for example on the 350z Nissan allowed faulty window winder motors to get through their system and into the early cars, it let faulty Bose stereos get through and - biggest of all - it fitted faulty engines to some of its MY06 350z's, so I reckon that a faulty batch of some small electrical component is highly possible. I'm aware that the guage itself wouldn't be the problem!!

My real question is, could anything electrical (eg - faulty sensor) be actually causing the problem. Any experts out there?

Ohh gotcha. misunderstood your initial post. HAHA that would be a real b*tch wouldnt it....when it wasn't overheating in actuality but we and the car thought that.....lol

From what I've seen and read about the engine design the oil is continuously passively cooled by the water coolant circulating in the engine block. There is nothing electronic that controls this, just the in-line oil temp gauge that seems to read moderately accurately. The added feature that was missing from the 350's is the new limp mode that tries to slow you down by limiting RPM when the oil temperature gets too high.

I'm not a mechanical engineer and so not an expert (just have an engineering background).

In the words of the immortal Al Bundy, My Eyes - My Eyes :rolleyes:

I know that the oil is cooled in that way and not 'electronically'. With respect, that has nothing to do with my question. I want to know if it's possible that an electrical component or thermostat is malfunctioning (possibly just by cutting in too soon, or reading a temp wrongly?) on some cars and the oil temp is in fact within limits, if a little on the high side. If this were the case, it would be a simple fix.

Also (and this is a bit of a side issue), how do you know that the oil temp guage is reading 'moderately accurately'? Without wishing to appear rude, isn't this an act of faith on your part, or do you have proof?

...ps Alan, I get some of my best thoughts in the shower - don't you? :yum:

The data indicates that the first inital cut in RPM takes place at 280F degrees, and the second cut at 300F degrees (approx as the computer is acting on voltage not degrees). So yes you could theoretically disable this feature but I'm not sure if that would be a good thing.

I forgot where I saw it, might have been one of the Japanese forums (ask your buddies over there if they know) but someone did replace the sender and gauge with a racing unit as a test and the readings were quite close. It wasn't tested side by side but was under similar conditions. My ability to read Japanese is limited to what the translator spits out so I may have misinterpreted the information.