Oil change interval

Matt

Ok, where to start....

The dealership guys are idiots, but they're right about the 3 months not being very important. With our engines, any quality oil is going to provide enough protection to last much longer than 3 months, especially if you're only driving 2k miles in that time period (I drive about the same in mine as a DD).

Now, their contract or whatever says "xx miles or xx months, whichever comes first". They're idiots if they don't understand what that means, so no matter how great your engine or oil is, xx months passed by, so you should be eligible. I can't imagine the owner of the dealership would argue with that logic.

Some dealerships throw out the oil change deals as part of the sales, but the salespeople forget that our car (along with the GTR) uses a higher quality oil (as recommended by Nissan) than the Altima, Sentra, Maxima, etc.

All that being said, whether your car needs to go 3 months or 5 months between oil changes (assuming minimal mileage) depends on your driving habits. Is this a DD with just low mileage? Is this a weekend car with very spirited driving? Is it going weeks at a time without being driven at all? Those types of things will dictate whether or not you should be going 3 months, 5 months, or 8 months in between changes (again, assumign minimal mileage).

My best advice is to use a high quality oil, synthetic if you can, and go with every 6 months. Check it often in between to make sure the oil appears to be in good condition and you are at good levels. Take the oil and the filter to the dealer and have them change the oil with your own products.

If you choose to have them use the Nissan Ester Oil, have them throw the empty oil containers in a bag as proof (I dont' think the Ester oil is in drums, but I could be wrong).

Whatever you choose, if you continue to get the oil changes done at the dealership, have them put in writing that they will not do the oil changes every 3 months, as the manual says. That should make any warranty issues down the road easier to deal with.

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"Any man who can drive a 370z while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the Z the attention it deserves." Albert Einstein....modified.