The manufacturer is NOT the gospel. They implement those ideas to keep from having to fix their product and loose money. Go out and dump a qt of oil on the ground and then try to explain where that much would go from inside a sealed engine that doesn't leak or smoke in 1k miles. That is not normal and if it were normal, there would not be TSB's to cover oil consumption issues nor would dealerships be allowed to begin the process of oil consumption tests.

Someone asked what the mm chart represented as far as quarts and the answer is 8mm is approximately a touch more than 1/4 of a qt. The amount of space between H ~ L is 30mm, between the hash marks is 24mm.

Most people don't understand that dealerships would love to replace your engine as they get paid by Nissan for warranty work. When I had my engine replaced in my 04 G, I had no problems with getting a replacement block and that year vehicle DID NOT have a TSB to cover oil consumption.

Dealerships and their employee's get paid a lot less for warranty work, and that takes away from money they could be making doing non-warranty work, and if they have too much warranty work, it looks bad to corporate. They are not clamboring to replace your stuff. You just got lucky/found a great dealership that went to bat for you.

:iagree: You are absolutely correct - the dealer usually makes a lot more profit doing non-warranty work.

Anybody know if they provide a loaner car when replacing the short block?

yup...but don't expect a GTR. my dealer had Hertz office in the service dept. so i got a voucher for the rental. they still put a hold on your credit card, but the dealership gets the bill.

btw, since they did the short block and then the had to go back and replace the entire engine, not only do i get a loaner car, nissan north america reimbursed my loan payments (pro rata) for every day in the shop.

My dealership is telling me they only provide loaner cars for EXTENDED warranty service and not warranty service. They also say that I can rent a car and they can do their best to try and get Nissan USA to reimburse me. :shakes head:

That's because they rip off the consumer, but the car companies have their balls in a noose and they can't get away with it.

The average car mechanic bills 15 hours of labor for an 8 hour work day, with lots of smoke breaks.

Any auto mechanics in the house who can confirm, or want to argue?

Since many cars can and do, I'd say a 1/2 to 1 quart at the most every 6000 miles is reasonable, which is about what mine does, anything more I would call "should be better". But, unless it gets progressivley worse, the best thing to do is just top it up. I ran a Camaro SS that drank a quart every 3k miles, for 120k miles. It never changed. It ran fabulous. But, when I bought it at 15k miles and ran dino oil, it used 3X more oil. I switched to M1 and oil use went down dramatically. I would say try different oils if you have a lot of oil use.

Sure

1. I don't smoke.
2. Show me a dealer that I can rake in 15 hours a day and I'll go there now, if you think all we do is just spin one wrench and then flag a hour for it your quite wrong.
3. Your paying not only for the time it takes to do the job but also for the experience and training of the dealer tech. Not to mention your also paying for the right to come back and chew out both me the service advisor and the manager if everythings not right with your car.
4. I'm happy flagging 8 hours a day. If I make more then that great but I don't want to screw people in the process for it. When you don't come back because of a bad experience then that means we just lost a customer.

I work for BMW and have now for 3 years since graduating school, our cars tend to go anywhere from 12,15k between oil changes. In that time the engines use about 1.5 to 2qts that we top up when the customer comes in.

I'm not employed as a mechanic, but I have relatives who are or who own their own shop so I know that what you stated above is pure BS.

When a dealer performs warranty work the price for each job is set by the auto manufacturer - in other words, the profit margin that the dealer gets is limited. When the dealer does non-warranty work, they can essentially charge whatever they want.

It has nothing to do with double-charging or smoke breaks by the mechanics doing the work.

:gtfo2:

I am getting a new Short Block!

My 370z has 39k miles on it and developed a Tick in the engine, sounded like a bad lifter. It started after an oil change last week so I took it back to the dealer and had them replace the oil thinking maybe they did not put in the Ester Oil. I didn't think that would help but they have to go through all the motions. Went in today and had three services managers working with me. Then after an hour of testing and listen they came back and said we are going to replace the short block :eek:

My Z has consumed 1 quart of oil every 3,000 miles the entire time I have owned it. I passed it off as normally since I have read that it was not excessive enough to warrant a new motor, and just top'd it off when needed. But I have more miles then most 370z owners so thought I would post my experience here. My Z was built in late 2008, thats not a typo I was surprise when they told me the build date. They had service bulletin with a series of steps they needed to take to ensure that my issue was related to the short block. The dealer is ordering the parts right now. I will definitely post back when I have my new short block it should be in two weeks, hopefully! :tup:

Interesting. Did you get any idea of what that ticking sound actually is?

Congrats on new engine sblock! At 39000, I am going to assume they are pursuing warranty ($0.00 to you)? Will they give you another warranty period on the new short block?

Did they say what is wrong with the engine? How bad was the 'tick'?

My short block is going in next week. Having them install an oil cooler while they're in there. Yes I'm getting a loaner just like I did when they changed the cam sprockets and timing chains. Mine burns 2.5 quarts per every 1,400 miles. :shakes head:

Its sounds just like a lifter going bad 'tick' a 'tick' a 'tick' a 'tick', injectors have a quicker 't' 't' 't' 't' sound. Before I took it to the dealer I went to youtube and checked out a bunch of other (Maxima's, G35's, and 350z's) that had lifter or rod knock to get an idea of what the sound was. It definitely sounded more like a tick then a knock. So it did not sound like a throw rod. But when in 2 weeks of the first sign of the tick the noise started to get louder and making noise all the time at idle and 1800-3500 rpm.

It will be taken care of under warranty, which is great considering the cost of repairs. After the dealer drove my Z around a lot and listened to the noise they said without a doubt is coming for the bottom of the engine (Short Block). They discovered this by having it on the lift and reving to 1800rpm where the tick was very loud and easy to discover in the shop. If you are modded keep all your stock parts and return to stock if you have issues. They did not care about the after market exhaust at all, that surprised me and of course made me very happy knowing I can just keep it on there. They wanted all my oil history which is not a problem since I am one of those suckers that got every oil change at the dealer ever 3-4k miles.