I am at 800 miles and will be changing into Royal Purple 5W30 @ the 1,000 mark. I have the K&N oil filter and the RP ready to go.

Nissan is not wrong in this situation. The oil they gave you meets the requirements of the owner's manual and your car will fine. The ester based oil is a "recommendation", not a "requirement". You can ask for another change with the ester based oil at no cost to you, but they are in no way obligated to give you one.

For the record its not Nissan its "North Bay Nissan" the dealership. Nissan the company it self would probably have put in the oil they recommond. Dealerships i suspect after reading this, uses what ever oil they have around from there supplyer, wich my guess also is the cheapest stuff they can get.


I made it very clear i will pay out of my own pocket. I expect nothing free. They dont even have the ester oil in stock from my understanding, wich is why they wont let me come in.

from the manual "wich is available at a NISSAN dealer." If i go in and request the nissan ester oil i am pretty dam sure they "have" to give it to me. I suspect calling "Nissan the company" would result in the dealership aquireing the oil.

The goal was to use it for a little bit until i decide what i want to put in it, normaly i use royal purple, i had no intentions of "formula shell" to ever make it into my car.

I wasn't trying to say the company Nissan, I thought it was obvious that I meant the stealership you went to.

They will give you what you request, but it might not be immediately. You say they don't even have it in stock, so they will have to order it. Also keep in mind that the ester oil is $12/quart, which is pretty expensive. Your car will be more than fine with the Formula Shell oil, but if you want to spend more I'm sure they will have no problem accepting your money.

What is Ester Oil?

Every manufacturer will have you believe that their oil is the only one to use. Everybody wants your money and wants you to think their oil has some sort of magical pixie dust in it.

I do want to spend more. I never use cruise control in my car until few miles WAY WAY down the road, like 5,000 or 8,000 miles, Yes i go to that lenghts so i dont mess with the engine.

In my 350z i used Royal Purple Religiously, now with the ester crap i planned on using it until i was sure i wanted to continue to use Royal Purple.

No where in my plans did formula shell come in. See what i mean? That was never part of my plan. Im the type of guy that i want it the way i WANT IT, and dont mess with that. Obviously i dont want the moon to fit in the palm of my hand but i keep my wants realistic.

Adding this, guess what i only use chevron also, Costs more. The cheap crap gas is allways right near a chevron too, but i dont faulter.

Well said. I'm sure the manual recommends using only nissan brand coolant, but does that mean if you use another equivalent brand that your radiator will corrode? Most likely not.

Using synthetic oil is considered to be better for engines because of high grade of purity for its chemical make up. Think of it this way, not all oil molecules are made equal. In you typical brand of oil, there are variations in the chemical make up of the oil. They have the same chemical formula but not the same properties, also known as isomers. As an oil, it must contain a certain percentage of specifically oriented oil molecules in order to pass quality. Synthetic oil is chemically altered to eliminate isomers and have a higher chemical purity. Isomer oil molecules affect your engine in that their chemical properties such as a reduced heat capacity before breaking down. Synthetic oil is thought to be superior because of it higher chemical purity. The addition of esters is merely a stabilizing compound which is found in many full synthetic brands.

The key to oil in the engine is providing it with a specified oil by the manufacturer and staying consistent with its recommended viscosity rating. Not only does the oil lubricate your engine, but also keeps the seals lubricated as well. its okay to go from a lower to higher viscosity such as 5w-30 to 10w-30; however, going from high to low is asking for leaky seals and oil leaks. Just to clarify, the first Xw refers to the viscosity rating at cold temperatures and the later is the viscosity at operating temperatures. As long as you are using the appropriate weight oil and preferable a full synthetic, the engine should theoretically run fine.

I notice that oil type wars are popular on every car forum

That's about right; at least if you want the dealer to do it.

The 3.7 runs best with an ester based synthetic; it's a Penzoil Platinum product and the dealer price is around $12/qt.

As I understand it, there is a service bulletin out regarding this for the 3.7L engine across the board.

Okay my dealer called me back as promised, and after there "research" they reconize there is a difference between Nissan Ester Oil and Formula Shell.

Before they stated we are not sure there is a difference and its pointless for you to come and get it changed due to that.

So im scheduled for the May 4th, to get Nissan Ester oil in. They are offering to pay for it, i am telling them NO i want to pay for it, so far we are on a stand off on who pays for it, but i may have to toss money at them and run out like a fiend hehe.

I think that's great customer service that they actually did check it out instead of dismissing you. Not to mention they offered to correct the situation free of charge. Sounds a lot better than many dealerships I've worked with in the past.

I buy all my nissans from them. There service deparment can get a little picky but in reality they are just trying to do the best job. They are also rated like #1 with the nissan dealer locator, some nissan dealerships have no rated and a few have the big #1 symbol, this is one of those dealers.

I opted for the "economy" warranty package when I bought the car which gives me free maintenance and oil changes every 3750 miles and (insert number) inspection checks and brake adjustments, etc... I guess I feel I made a good choice then! I think they will do free oil changes/inspections up to 75,000 miles or 5 years, whichever comes first.. doubt i'll even own the car by then.

$120 seems resonable...i guess
cheapest i found the nissan ester oil from a dealer is $11.99+CAtx per quart
so that comes to about $80.00 for 6 quarts
add to that a good quality oil filter(K&N or Mobil) which is about $12.99+CAtax
which is abot $15.00
plus maybe $1.00 for a new gasket

so that adds up to $96.00 an oil change(WOW!!)

so savings of $24.00 plus the satisfaction of knowing you are able to change your own oil and you know it was done right(by you) :D

WTF?

The place where I bought mine charges $18 for an oil change.

Then they're not using the recommended oil that's spelled out in the owner's manual.

I dont think that would matter considering they have to back the warranty anyhow.

I only put about 5 miles per day on in the car anyhow.

Right. I doubt what they're putting in is going to hurt anything (as long as it meets the API requirement). It's just not the recommended stuff is all. Note that I say 'recommended', not 'required'.

Well I'm at my Nissan Dealer getting my 1st oil change @ 1500mi. Sure enough the service rep had no idea about the Nissan Ester. They wanted to put regular oil in the car until I pointed out that the 370z required the Nissan Ester which of course they had no clue of. (Thanks to semtex for the pic which I printed out and put in my back pocket just in case.) I asked them if they sold the Nissan oil and sure enough, a knowledgeable parts rep brings out 5 quarts from the back room. They quoted me about $95 for the complete oil/filter change. Fortunately, my first service is free. ;)

The 370 is now in the back getting the correct oil changed out. Thanks to this forum and all the great input you guys provide.

PS. I also expressed my concern regarding the high oil temp while in traffic (240F). I don't expect them to find anything, but at least they'll have a record of my concern.

Nissan Ester Oil (1qt) 5w30 - $12.99
Motul 300V (2L or 2.1qts) 5w30 - $31.95 (was recommended replacement per the parts rep after the first few oil changes)

OK, please do not make this worse than it is. NO WHERE does ANYTHING say Nissan Ester is required. I'm simply recommended. They also recommend inspecting brakes and hoses every 7,500 miles or whatever. It's a performance car and they know that unsuspecting owners will buy into whatever it is.

At the end of the day, it's probably no different than a quality synthetic. If you want peace of mind, then go with the Nissan Ester, but by no means is it required. They will not void your warranty for not using it, etc.

Our Toyota dealer says they recommend "Toyota Motor Oil" in all Toyota's. It's just conventional oil; the only reason they recommend it is it's more cash in their pockets.

I think they put its "recommended" in the manual incase any thing goes wrong they can point to the manual and say well you didnt use recommended oil.

Besides the first guy to make there own Ester oil is gonna make a mad profit. I would love to use Royal purple ester oil if it costs half the price of nissans. Hell every one on the board would be useing it.

Thats too bad man... I would stay the fvck away from chevron if i were you... I get chevron once in a couple months and thats it. The techron they add to their gas mix can be harmful to your engine life if constantly used... There might be no real evidence of it but why take a chance? It does have extra stuff that engines were not supposed to burn lol... same w/ shell... stick w/ 76

what makes you think 76 has no additives? just because they dont advertise it like chevron and shell ,doesnt mean they dont have additives

as far as i know the only ones with no additives in them are the cheap/ and or costco gas thats why they are so cheap

on top of that i have a 1990 sentra with 225k and a 1997 dodge caravan with almost 300k both running fine since day 1 using chevron gas

Actually in the US, the law requires certain additives in retail gasoline at service stations. Some companies (notably Shell and Chevron, but others as well I'm sure) go above and beyond the required additives, but they all have additives of some sort, mostly detergents to keep engines running cleaner and more efficiently.

Also, I can't find a source right now, but I'm pretty sure I've read before that the base fuel stocks (before additives are mixed in) are virtually identical between all the top tier stations (ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, Shell, BP/Amoco, etc).

What says that Nissan Esther is better than another leading oil. It'll only take a few months before someone sends their oils out for analysis and I'm going on record now saying that those will conclusively prove there's no need to spend $12 / quart for this pixie-dust Nissan oil.

The Chevron/crap gas station comparison is not a valuable contribution to this thread. I've seen no one on this thread mention using some crappy no-name oil like Kendall or GreatWestern or whatever. People are talking about Royal Purple, Mobil-1, Motul, etc. These have been proven time-after-time in VQ engines (although Mobil-1 isn't that great actually). To me, this recommendation is not too different than if Nissan "recommended" Chevron Premium and someone decided to put Shell in it instead (both top-tiers gas). Again we're not comparing this Nissan magic-juice to crap oils.

Even Castrol GTX performs really well in just about every VQ engine to date. I'd be using Amsoil if I got a 370z and I'd have no hesitations about it.

To the guy who said the dealer can deny warranty because you didn't use the recommended oil. That's complete BS and would be illegal. There are laws specifically written to prevent that sort of issue. If it was a "Requirement" it's one thing, if it's a "Recommendation" it basically doesn't hold any weight.

I generally tell people the best thing they can do is use a quality DINO and change it every 3k miles. My favorite mainstream DINO is Castrol GTX. I use it in my Infiniti because A) it's a lease and I have no intention of keeping it. B) I change every 3k miles regardless C) In oil analysis GTX outperforms Mobil-1 (on 350z/G35).

However, since the 370z is likely to be driven more aggressively by most drivers, and some of the overheating issues documented, I'd be inclined to run a top synthetic: Amsoil or Castrol Euro Formula would top my list.

I had mine changed at the dealer last week with ester oil. My bill was $78.

I dont want to find out that you NEED it after i have not been using it. remember a test can go both ways.

If they are the ones doing the oil change it wont matter, either way they will have to back it.

Danops, have you gotten any feedback on Motul 300V?

If you NEED it, it'd be a requirement. This engine isn't brand new, it's been in use in the G37 for a good year now. Usually within a year there's the signs of whether something is going to be wrong.

Regardless, if it turns out there's ANY problem and that the car must have this special oil, Nissan will be responsible for any damage caused by not running it since it's a recommendation and not a requirement. It's not unheard of for entire engines to be recalled (see e46 M3 for example). My point being, read things literally: REQUIRED = NEED TO DO. RECOMMENDED = Optional.

The fact that it's optional means using any other high-quality, proven synthetic is still ok and still exceeds the requirement. If it gives you peace of mind, I say go for it. A regular synthetic oil change will cost you $60+ and it seems others have been able to get Ester changes for $80 so it's not such a big difference. However, at $120 it's bit more of a contemplation.

The valvetrain info is interesting.

Performance gains from oil. :shakes head:


This sticker adds more than 10whp over Venom and other leading nitrous systems.

http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/billb...OS_Nitrous.jpg

Im going to get my frist oil change this Saturday.Im taking Royal Purple ti put in my Z.

I've been running Royal Purple 5w-30 since 2k miles. No problems.

i want to use royal purple also but i am hesitant until i hear more feed back from everybody.

I just changed mine yesterday at 2000 miles. Mobil 1 5w-30 cost $50.

Got Royal Purple taking to the dealer PUT IT IN MY Z!!!!!!!!

I've been an avid RP user on my previous cars but I'm gonna stick with Mobil 1 on my Z.

Put in german Castrol 0w30 (fully synthetic) @ 500 miles. Presently @ 1114 and running wonderfully.

Does Royal Purple look purple when you pull out the dip stick?

No. Only when you pour it in. lol