oil change
 

not searching through hundreds of pages to find a quick answer... At 7,000 miles, called the dealership and they want 95 for an oil change. Does our car have to have the ester? Why not go to a trusted shop and watch as they put something like castrol, mobil 1 etc for 20 bucks. Also, does it matter what kind of oil is in the car now (for example if the car had ester in it now vs something else). What would you guys do in my situation...aka low on money and dont want to do it yourself

service guy just called me back and said he will not service my car unless they use ester..all Z cars have ester. Now to rephrase the question...has anyone gone from ester to non ester after their 3,500-7,000 oil change. I cant afford 100 dollars

very few people on here use the ester oil. the dealer saying that's the only oil they will put in the car is very dumb. i would avoid them. i use mobil 1 and it works great.

Did you research maintenance costs before you bought the car?

There are a number of people here who have used non-ester synthetic oils that seem to be ok.

"The Ester oil is a required oil for that engine. Failure to use it could void engine warranty. Nissan only allows 2 types of oils. Ester oil and Mobil 1. They are both bonding type of synthetic oils. Using those 2 types of oils will keep the warranty from being voided"

found this on google...its from a 19 year tech at Nissan

recommended, not required. you can use oreilly branded oil if you'd like. so long as it's 5w30.

yah, once you're past the initial break-in just use M1 silver cap and change the oil yourself. there's nothing SPECIAL about this engine, i dont think. just treat it well.

That's a totally BS statement.....If that were the case it would be spelled out in the Owners manual. Nissan Ester is "Recommended" but hardly required.

I'm at 8k miles and I've yet to change from Ester oil. I don't think there are any advantages or disadvantages (other than price) to running it other than maybe a slightly less noisy valvetrain. I will be switching over to Redline 5w30 for my next oil change and then back to Nissan Ester oil after that (because its already paid for + I want them to keep records that I go back for regular maintenance)

^ lol... hey you should do a compro - please note your peak oil temps w/ each RCZ - think it would be helpful

With the ester oil I usually hover around 190 when cruising. When driving faster or in traffic it goes to 200. Then when I hammer on it or when its really hot out and im in traffic, then probably goes to 220-230.

I'll let you guys know when I switch over, but that wont be for a while.

RCZ has an oil cooler, so logging his temps with different oils may not be directly comparable to those of us not running a cooler.

I can tell you that the car sounds identical with ester oil and Redline.

That's a load - and totaly contrary to the Owner's Manual. I have my mechanic do my oil changes (for warranty documentation pourposes - do the oil changes myself on the other Z's) although that's not required. I have no idea where he got the idea of Mobil 1 as being the "other" acceptable oil since it doesn't have any Ester at all in it (Class III only).

I talked to my dealership and they said in all the G37's (our VQ37HR engine) the only time they've used the Ester oil is for the TSBs - never had a single client do an Ester oil change in the last two years.

Mobil 1 jumped to a Class 4 a lil while back AFIK

have to - no...