2009 Nissan Cube OCI

[SilverFusion2010]

2009 Nissan Cube 1.8L I-4 approx 122k miles

Vehicle is mostly short tripped, with a few longer drives per week. Some varnish visible in fill hole. It’s a friends vehicle and I convinced her to take advantage of the M1 rebate and changed oil yesterday with M1 HM 10w-30 and Fram extra guard.

I looked up the service manual and it states 3750 OCI for severe service. I recommended 5k change to her. She was doing approx 4K changes at the local quick lube place.

My thoughts are that she could probably go 7k on this oil/filter combo. 7k is the factory oci for regular service.

Thoughts? I think with a tough guard or ultra could probably run 10k as long as she maintains the few long trips a week.

 

[JLTD]

She's got varnish at 4k? Sounds like it'll be time for a UOA at 4k with the synthetic to see how it's doing.

Nissans are known for small sumps and the 3750 might be all it can handle.

 

[mx5miata]

You could definitely do 7,500-10K OCI

FRAM TG OR ULTRA WITH A QALITY SYNTHETIC NO PROB

 

[VeryNoisyPoet]

I'd take a sample when you change it at 5k and get it analyzed. That will show if she can go longer, or if contaminants / moisture / fuel are building up from the short trips faster than the long trips can cook them off. If it never had HM oil before, the M1 could also pick up crud which might need a shorter OCI the first couple times.

HM oil went very dark very fast in my car when I first switched, and still gets pretty dark by 4k miles. Even non-HM M1 got super dark in my mom's car after just 2k after switching it over. Both are getting sampled for analysis so I can better decide when to change.

Without analysis, you're flying blind since oil color can't tell very much, and you don't want to guess about how long she can extend the interval.

 

[mx5miata]

Short trips are number one destroyer and bad gas

 

[StevieBoy]

Agree with VNP & mx5.

 

[bbhero]

I've got 229k miles on my Nissan Altima 3.5 and have zero varnish inside the oil fill hole area. I have run 11 different types of oils in the car. Longest I've ran one was Pennzoil Ultra for 6,800 miles. I have 4 and 28/32 qt capacity in my 3.5. I do a lot of longer trip drives with short drives mixed in as well. The VQ motor can be a bit hard on oil. One of our members on here did do a long run of 11k miles on Pennzoil Platinum and the oil still held up it's viscosity extremely well aka still within normal limits for a 30 grade.

I could well be wrong but I believe the capacity of the 1.8 L motor is not even 4 qts. That alone is not helpful for running real long runs. I think your idea of 5k miles sounded like a good idea. That's what I think would be a judicious way to proceed forward.

 

[SilverFusion2010]

Capacity with filter is 4.5 qt

 

[Charlie2015]

Change it every 10k until the car [censored] out

 

[bbhero]

Well I did say I could well be wrong... In this instance that is a good thing. I still think your initial thought was right on. 5k makes sense to me given everything.

 

[SilverFusion2010]

Originally Posted By: JLTD
She's got varnish at 4k? Sounds like it'll be time for a UOA at 4k with the synthetic to see how it's doing.

Nissans are known for small sumps and the 3750 might be all it can handle.


I suspect there have been times when she went past 4K.