sorry im not the brightest of the bunch lol thanks for the advice, nissan is looking into the engine hopefully they will just relaize its mechanical failure nd i wont need a lawyer

Lack of simple maintenance on your part, got you were you are. Had you been more careful in checking your basic fluids and not relying on an Idiot light, You could have probably saved your motor, Oil doesn't disappear from one day to the next. I have no sympathy. You're learning an expensive lesson for not paying attention to your Car.

Note that there is middle ground between the oil change place not putting any oil in and putting the correct amount of oil in. They could have put in a few quarts too little. It's possible that this could have caused subtle damage that caused what oil was left to burn off over the course of 3 months.

Your complaint is likely with the oil change place and not with Nissan or your dealership.

Added: Triple's is right. My guess is that your last oil change was screwed up, but you share a large part of the responsibility for not checking your oil

No excuse for not checking the oil in your vehicle regularly. Good luck.

I agree Zaggeron that’s what I am thinking too. It SHOULDN'T be a Nissan problem because really what could have gone wrong for the engine to eat that much oil???

I do not understand though, why we need to slam members for not looking into their oil... When I take my car to a professional (I cannot comment on where he took is car as I don't know the place) I would hope its done right. I know our car is a big investment and it is something I personally would want to look at every time I get my oil changed however, some people do not have any mechanical knowledge and need to rely on these "Professionals" that they do things right. If the OP was a 90 year old grandmother would you feel the same way? “You should have checked your oil level.”

It’s a very bad situation and unfortunately one that may end up costing the OP some money…

this is 2010 oil lights have been around forever automatically popp up wen the car has 2 to 3 qts left...you guys sound like you work at nissan lool

Dakilla,

I'm not saying yea or nay, but you can add a great deal of credence to your incident by simply uploading a pic of your service sheet from the Nissan dealership (even if it's the one they gave you when you admitted your Z) so members can see it. You can also scan and blackout important data such as names, and the like, but leave enough information showing that validates your case.

Losing 5 1/8 of oil is a lot and believe me the tale-tale signs will show even if a little to the entire volume of oil leaving the engine. The tailpipe tips, and the rear bumper will exhibit signs on a slow burn and even if the rings went you would notice black smoke bellowing in your rearview mirror and someone behind you would have alerted you if you didn't. Our 370Z gets its oil checked after each drive about an hour later when it comes to rest in our garage. If you were changing your own oil you might have stripped the oil drain plug if not torque correctly or by using an air tool versus a hand tool, but the dealership can determine that too. Good luck on the outcome....hopefully, it is in your favor.

It's just really hard to read your posts, it's nothing personal. It's just the Internet.

But on the real... some people have ruled out oil consumption because he saw no oil smoke, but that argument isn't completely sound. When you're burning oil in combustion at a steady rate, it usually leaves no noticeable blue smoke out the exhaust - it burns just like gasoline would, but slightly dirtier. You start to notice blue smoke in noticeable amounts when you are pulling unburnt or excessive amounts of oil through the engine. This causes the oil to burn off in the exhaust and shows distinctly blue smoke and can happen multiple ways, but I won't elaborate on the details.

Fact is, if you're burning 2-4 quarts of oil every oil change interval, you may or may not notice the oil smoke. It may only happen under high load, where you're not really watching your rear view to notice any oil smoke. It may happen constantly, but in such a minute amount, most the oil is completely burnt off in the catalytic converters before it reaches the exhaust tips where you see it exit.

If they find no fault on your behalf, then you're still covered if your new engine leaked or consumed that much oil into a 4000-mile oil change cycle. Your warranty does not require you to strictly monitor your oil levels - at least I don't think it does. Nobody can be expected to do that with a brand new car. A lot of us do, but that's our prerogative. It's not something you have to do to keep your warranty.

:tup:

Yes, and the world is full of sad stories of people who relied on them. The sending units can fail. I'm not sure whether they can be damaged by a botched oil change.

Assuming the sensor or light failed and the failure of the oil pressure sensor or light was Nissan's fault, are they responsible for your engine running out of oil if losing that oil was the result of negligence by some third party?

exactly im not a mechanical geek my 95 eldarado oil light always popps that tells me CHANGE THE OIL ASAP..im not saying always wait for the oil light to get an oil change but it sure woulld have helped..especially considering the last oil change was done about 3000 miles ago

The knocking you are describing is probably rod knock -- meaning that due to improper oiling, the bearings were toasted, and bam -- dead motor.

This leads me to believe either:

(1) Faulty motor -- possible, but the lack of oil begs the question of where it went...

(2) oil pump or oil pickup failed -- again, possible, but then we'd see evidence of a destroyed oil pump gear or something major blocking the pick up in the pan -- again where is the oil?

(3) Seriously fvcked engine from improper ring sealing due to incorrect break in/poor build -- possible, but it's hard to imagine all the oil went into blowby and you would have been way down on compression and therefore power

(4) Oil leak or oil was never put back in -- the pistons and rods are coated with a dry lubricant film (I believe), so yes, it is actually possible that you had hardly any oil in there and it held together for a while before breaking -- highly unlikely, but not impossible.

(5) A combination -- not enough oil was put in, you were burning what little there was from improper ring sealing, etc. finally insufficient lubrication led to toasted bearings.

Get a lawyer.

And a leakdown test/teardown.

This car does not have an idiot light that comes on when the oil is down to 2-3 quarts.

From the 370Z Owners manual:

" The engine oil pressure warning light is not designed to indicate a low oil level. Use the dipstick to check the oil level. (See
“ENGINE OIL” in the “8. Maintenance and do-it yourself”
section.) "

Engine output actually may not be affected by poor ring sealing which is causing oil consumption. Depends which rings are at fault. Failure or poor sealing of the oil control ring and/or the 2nd compression ring can cause oil consumption, but not necessarily a large loss of power since most of the cylinder sealing is accomplished by the top/1st compression ring. Power WILL be lost by inadequate oiling of the wrist pin, piston skirt, etc. in those cases, however. But that power loss would be negligible until you had a wrist pin seize on you.

From the 370Z Owners Manual