Everyone with oil temp issues

wstar

I'm planning to put an oil cooler on mine even though I probably won't track it much (if ever), I'm just waiting for a good kit from a reputable vendor (did I see elsewhere that Stillen has one coming soon?). Houston gets insanely hot and humid during the summer and early fall, and between that and me being a bit aggressive at times, I know this oil cooling thing is going to be an issue.

Weather here is pretty mild right now (highs in the 70s, overnight lows anywhere from 40s to 60s). If I drive like a grandma, the car stays around 200-ish on average. However even a few minutes of "spirited" driving pushes it up to 220-230-ish and it takes quite a while to come back down closer to 200. If I tried, I'm sure I could hit 250 even in this weather.

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alan93rsa

Musashi,

I appreciate your points on the manufacturer knowing that the oil could overheat and the idea of principal.

On the point of over heating Nissan has acknowledged it in the implementation of the RPM reduction when it hits 300F. My guess is that they do not think the typical driver will run into this issue. Remember that the people on this list form a small population of the total customer base. To that end there will have to be a significant number of people complaining 'after' they have experienced this issue. If I encounter this issue, trip to Mid-Ohio in about two weeks, I'll write a letter with return receipt and make a phone call.

For those that have read about the oil temp issue and then purchase the car I think those people will not have the proverbial 'leg to stand on'.

Having posted on this you may think I don't care, I do. I also know there are two solutions:

1. Make phone calls/write letters and hope for a solution.
2. Remedy the situation on your own.

Number 1 may not happen and number 2 may be made to happen by the individual. Number 2 might lead to a warranty issue. But there is some ammo on the part of the owner. The fact that the magazines noted the presence of oil coolers on the press vehicles and the fact that the vehicles were presented to the press at a track. There is a certain enticement for track/spirited driving presented by the manufacturer.

Will Nissan step up and introduce a mid model year change and add a cooler, don't know. How about their making a retrofit of an oil cooler? Nissan's cost would most likely be less than $200 per cooler in their quantity. Give the dealer 2 - 3 hours to install it and your out the door for about $500 per car times the total cars manufactured to date. Maybe this would be the right, principals, route to follow for the manual sport models. We'll have to wait and see.

Rest assured that I will post my experience on this board when I encounter an over heating issue.

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SoCal 370Z

There are other considerations to note as well: Typically manufacturers reserve the right to modify or change specifications at any time without notifying the customer. Nissan might very be doing just that in the 370Z production today. You simply will not know until time allows.

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Musashi

Alan I do agree... I'm working on it and will report back as soon as I here more. Thank you for your post, you're totally right.

MarcusMIA

Sounds to me like Nissan shot themselves in the foot by including an oil temperature gauge...

alan93rsa

A poll at this time to see how many people have had an overheating issue and their geographic location would be helpful. Ideally it would be good to see the same for the end of June. Data talks.

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16 Cayman GT4, Carmine Red, Buckets, PCCB etc.

tbonesteak

did the 350 have an oil temp gauge?

semtex

Nope. Well, my '06 didn't. Not sure about later model years. Btw, small pet peeve people (this isn't directed at you, tbone) -- it's principle, not principal. A principal is typically a person in a school whose office you get sent to after stirring the pot a little too much.

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tbonesteak

^^ then what gauges were in the 3-pod cluster on the dash in teh 350s?

chubbs

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.

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'03 Grey >>> '06 Black >>>'10 Silver >>> '16 Grey ^

tbonesteak

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.

chubbs

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?

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'03 Grey >>> '06 Black >>>'10 Silver >>> '16 Grey ^

tbonesteak

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

ChrisSlicks

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).

rbratton

I just called and spoke with Nissan about this issue. Although they were very polite, the call was not helpful. The woman on the other end could only tell me that there were no recalls and that I should talk to my dealer technician about extracting "maximum performance potential" from my vehicle. She also offered that we should not experience any of the overheating issues without violating the law. I guess I'll get the Stillen unit so I can enjoy a track day.