Oil Overheat IMPORTANT UPDATE

7sudden

I would be happy to provide my contact info if he could hook me up with an engineer here in Phoenix. It would be easy to demonstrate, as we're already seeing 100+ degree days.

I can replicate in a matter of a few minutes.

AARC51

Same. We can provide some of the worst heat tests North America can produce.

spearfish25

7sudden and AARC51, go ahead and PM me your name, contact telephones and addresses. I'll call Bill and see if he has the info for his counterpart in the Southwest. That will surely expedite the demonstration, and perhaps you could demonstrate the issue during more 'normal' driving. With the 60-70F weather here in Chicago now, I'd have to drive like a maniac to make it happen and he may just wave it off saying I'm being excessive. I think less is more during the demo...take 30 minutes, drive it sporty but sanely and show him 260+. Then it's a done deal.

I'll wait for your info until I call him just in case he asks for it directly.

ricer333

Spearfish,
I am a software engineer and I had the same worry that you did. In this 'I need to replicate the problem before fixing' age that really could throw a wrench into the problem (no pun intended... or maybe it was?).

Anyways, I would suggest taking the car out yourself and documenting (via digital video) the heat of the day, the Date/Time, and the temp of the oil gauge at start up, 10 mins in... 20 mins in.. etc.

I have a digital camera with an 8GB HCSD card (high capacity secure digital). It can take up to an hour and a half of video constantly.

This would be great evidence to show him. If you were to take someone out or set up the camera to run continuously then there would be no denying that this is an issue.

TheWeatherman

My Midwest CS manager called me as well on Monday. I was also told that the Nissan Motorsports cooler is just about out. She said they'd like some of us to try it and monitor it with them to "have it available for future models." Don't worry. Nissan's on it. I've owned Nissans and Infinitis loyally for a lot of years. They will make sure we're happy. With my experiences, I know they are very, very serious about things like this. Cars are cars. Things can go wrong with any brand. Look at Bimmer with all of their TT V-6s. Same thing, and that's "German engineering." Yeah, would we have liked them to resolve this before the car was released? Of course. They're machines, and aren't always perfect. Think about a lot of other products we know that have problems and noone at the companies do a thing about flaws. (eg. bad refrigerators, washer/dryers, furnaces, computers, TV's, home problems... etc.) My CS person couldn't have been nicer, and is going to let owners know when this product is available. She said just a few weeks, and it will be here. The engineering department is now well-aware of the problem. Not all of the CS people know. Think about all the other people calling them b**ching about the door handles on their Sentras and Versas thinking they have serious issues. Be nice, and we all will get a long way. Have some faith in this company. They usually come though... And in my case, they do better than most companies on the market. This all is my perspective on the issue, and you can deal with it the way you'd want, so take it easy.

shadyDR

I'm in NY and the temps only get high in the summer. But it happens to be that I will be getting a car around august(hopefully the 370z). The car will never be tracked and I will get it in automatic. This would be my daily driver and would be driven aggressively on occasion. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Minicobra1

Drove to the top of MT. BALDY in Ca. yesterday, never once got the car over 5000 rpm. Outside temp was about 90 degrees at the bottom and 80 degrees at the top. It's about a 15 mile climb to the top. about 3 miles into the climb my car get to 265-275. Now, Im pretty sure the car didn't go into Limp Mode, but there is no question there was a lot of power loss due too the heat. More then a few times downshifting to second or first and coming around a corner the car was really hesitant. I would give it throttle and it almost felt like traction control had kicked in. There was a big delay until the power came on, and when it did it felt weak. Keep in mind that I did not rev above 5000 rpm, was just driving up the mountain like if my grandma was in the car. I had the Traction Control turned off as to make sure that wasn't effecting the car. I'm pretty certain that if I had drove more sporty (kind of what you should be able to do in a SPORTS CAR) it would have shut down. I had to pull over to let some girl in a VW Bug pass me, b/c I was afraid to push it LOL :-) Pretty lame for a $40K sports car.

Ok, so on a side note. I took the long way down. GMR (Glendora Mountain Ridge Road) about 24 miles. This time I did a few spirited driving sessions, but still nothing extreme. The car ran in the 230-250 temp range and I didn't notice any power loss :-) Then again I would get on it for a couple a minutes and then back off, etc. There wasn't a time where I would be on it hard for more then a few minutes as to let the car and my temp to go back down :-)

This is totally unrelated but I have to say that was one of the best drives (down the mountain) that I've had in a long time. 24 miles and I only past 1 car, 2 motorcycle and 2 cyclist, otherwise the road was pretty much deserted. This was Sunday afternoon about 4pm, probably the best time to go. The car stuck like glue once the tires heated up, the HOTCHKIS swaybars made a huge difference in control and feel. It was a great ride, I will have to try and get some other 370z drivers up there on a late Sunday afternoon. GMR meet

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ct63084

This is very unfortunate, I might have to hold up my purchase of a 370z as it gets to around 95-105 here in Fairfield CA. I was already convinced that this is the car i wanted most likely I won't be buying a 370z till nissan fix this issue.

shabarivas

Hey man... do you know of any closed courses and/or dragstrips near your house? just take him there with you and run it hard a couple times after she warms up ... should be easy to repro even if its not too hot outside...

joentown

If Bill doesn't already know that oil temp is the No 1 issue confronnting 370Z owners then he has no right being employed in the position tha he is in.

that's like a lung doctor today saying "I've never heard that smoking is linked to lung cancer"

We all know that there are enough oil temp issues out there that have been documented by reputable car mags, z owners and track heads to qualify it as a legitimate issue.

I can't believe that Nisssan itself doesn't have boat loads of documented cases that Nissan itself created while developing/testing the car. They know the issue is there and that it is a legitimate concern.

Question is, what are they going to do about it?

They should include oil cooler as standard on all future production runs (and replace that fuel guage and add a digital speedo while they are at it) and simply issue a recall to all existing owners to have the cooler installed.

....fat chance

spearfish25

While I'm sure that would do the trick, he appears most interested in the daily, street driving aspect of the problem.

theDreamer

Glad to hear things are moving forward, about to be out of my break in period and hitting hotter weather in Texas.

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spearfish25

I would recommend you guys continue calling Nissan North America and get your respective Field Quality Engineers involved. Bill Hayes is the Midwest person, so I'm sure there is a Southwest, Northeast, etc etc. Hopefully someone in a hotter location can get their respective quality engineer on the phone too.

Zeto

Lets hope we get good results!

TN370ZLC

Maybe sales are slowing on the 370z
and Nissan is linking the slow sales
to the oil overheating problem.

People are waiting for an oil
cooler before buying ?

Just a thought.