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I'm thinking Nissan recommends either 3000 or 3500 miles on your Altima?
12,335 miles between synthetic oil changes! Never again!
- Thread starter KlubMarcus
- Start date
if me, 7500
- Joined
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My Z may be different. It calls for 3000 mile oci's with no exceptions in the fsm.
What's your Altima's fsm's suggestion for severe service?
I dug up this old video of mine where I'm changing the oil and filter on a 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5 S sedan. If you watch until the end, you'll see the mileage since the last oil change which is 12,335 miles.I only did this once, and you can see how dark the old oil was! I normally change every 7500 miles or twice a year. It doesn't matter if I use dino oil or synthetic or which brand is on sale. I just change it and call it a day. The car has over 212k miles on it today.
Wife's Sentra is good for 10k with full synthetic
try it again with a highly rated oil filter. it looks like yo aer using a nissan standard which is likely a fram orange inside, try a fram ultra next time and see if it stays clearer longer,
That's literally exactly what you're implying.
I've gone over 25K on an OCI. That will probably make some BITOG heads explode. BTW, that was at ~100K on the car and it is now 190K+ closing in on 200K. My "secrets" are that I use a quality full synthetic (Amsoil), supported by bypass filtration and UOA. My car runs well; leaks, burns nothing. The color of oil (on a healthy engine) means nothing other than the color of the oil. This has been discussed on BITOG ad infinitum. Note that test lab says "oil is suitable for continued use" with 25K on it. I suppose it will blow up any day now...(sarcasm). I've never used "whatever is on sale"
No, it's not. Duh... Just because the oil is still good doesn't mean I want the contaminants in suspension circulating around my engine any longer. Some of you are morons.
The car is already past 212k miles so "whatever is on sale" works just fine.
I quit using synthetic oil and name brand filters, unless they are on sale too. I just buy the motor oil + filter deals and call it a day. The brand of oil, high mileage or regular, synthetic or dino, the brand or model of filter, etc... made no difference to the car or to me.I'm even using Valvoline MaxLife on a ZF 9-speed tranny, no need for Honda OEM Type 3.1 ATF, either. Most of that stuff is marketing BS because it won't make a difference to most drivers and most cars. Just match the spec, change it out regularly, and you're good.
If the Altima CVT is like the one in the Versa there are 2 filters. One of the filters is a standard transmission filter located inside the transmission pan and the other is a cartridge filter for the valve body and is located on the side of the transmission. To change the cartridge filter on my Versa it's just a matter of taking the front of the fender liner loose, then up near the front of the transmission there's a round housing held with one bolt. Just remove the bolt and turn the housing about 45* counter clockwise to release the housing and access the filter. When I changed the fluid I did it at ambient temperature then I just measured the amount of fluid that I drained and replaced it with the same amount of new fluid.
On my wife's car, we went from 6K mile oil change to a 9K mile oil change. The two used oil analysis I did showed MUCH LESS WEAR per mile than those that changed around the 6K mark. The engine also ran fantastic and returned great fuel mileage. SO Shorter OCI is not always better. The Color or opacity of an oil will tell you if the oil has been changed recently, but other than that - not much else.
It seems 12K miles was too much for you wifes car so that 2x per year OCI is probably a good place for you.
In those Northern states that have severe seasons - I cant argue a Late Fall and Early Spring oil change schedule.
Carry on.
p.s.: did you get enough video hits now to get a Kewpie Doll from YewToob?
j/k- Ken
I judge how much it's been contaminated by blowby etc. Neglected engines turn it black almost immediately, well looked after they stay clean until time for an oil change. Everyone loves making this ridiculous statement on here.... because they want to push the oil to ridiculous mileage.
Getting darker is one thing but being completely black on the stick is bad news someone. If you think it's fine for your car...good for YOU... but don't try to sell the piece of junk to me or my family. You might be doing just enough maintenance to get it to the point you sell it to some sucker.
We're not talking about diesels or direct injection either.
For 2σ of the driver population, likely 4K mile OCi is too short and 12K oci is too long.
Pick a number in the middle. and lets dispense with "feelings", put a little methodology into your reasoning.
Pick a number in the middle. and lets dispense with "feelings", put a little methodology into your reasoning.
I always wonder what oil color really means when I change the oil. I use full synthetic only in any car. On my Jetta TDI the oil turns black almost instantly. Makes it easy to read the dipstick. I had a Dodge 2500 Cummins that took 12 quarts of 5w-40 and would still be amber colored after 8,000 miles. Yesterday, I changed the oil in my wife's Civic after just under 5,000 miles and the oil was real dark with a slight brown tint. To me that means the oil got really dirty, but why? At 45,000 miles, 5k oil changes and 0w-20 full synthetic only, it could not be sludged, could it? Lastly, on my pickup and my daughters Suburu the oil comes out brownish. On both of them they went 100,000 miles on dino oil and regular oil changes at around 7.5k, so probably still cleaning the engine.
His oil started out crystal clear.
You know, now that I think of it, I'm surprised none of the boutique manufacturers has done this as a marketing gimmick—like Crystal Pepsi years ago.His oil started out crystal clear.
In the video, I can see color in the oil coming from the filter, meaning it's not completely black. And TBH it looks pretty good for over 12k miles but it's hard to tell for sure just from a video. I agree that oil color is not the best indication of oil life remaining. But if you have been servicing the same vehicle/engine for many years and very familiar with it, the oil color does matter due to personal experience. E.g. if the oil has always stayed pretty clear until say 4,000 miles, and then suddenly it gets real dark at only 2,000 miles, something is going on. Just sayin.
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