2022 Sentra Oil Control System?

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Feb 1, 2022
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An at-fault driver totaled my car. Due to the insane used car prices, bought my first new car in 15yrs. Getting familiarized w/the newfangled stuff-

From the 2022 Sentra SV Owner's Manual:

OIL CONTROL SYSTEM (OCS)
Your vehicle's oil control system calculates engine oil and filter change intervals based on driving conditions. Driving in the following severe conditions will shorten the engine oil and filter change interval.
If the oil replacement indicator is displayed, change the engine oil within two weeks or less than 500 miles

Two of the "severe conditions" listed that shorten the OCS oil change interval:
Repeated short trips of less than 5 miles (8 km).
Repeated short trips of less than 10 miles (16 km) with outside temperatures remaining below freezing


Per the maintenance schedule, the synthetic 0W-20 SP oil and filter get changed every 10K miles for this Nissan MR20DD engine.

3 Q's:
1.) Does Nissan Know Best? Is 10K miles conservative for oil changes? Seen references to 7.5-10K miles elsewhere. Recommended miles between oil changes?
2.) With the Amazing Oil Control System, why are oil changes even listed in the Maintenance Schedule? The OCS provides alerts when it's the appropriate time to change the oil based on monitored driving conditions/miles.
3.) Do most cars have OCS? Does everybody dutifully change their oil when OCS alerts prompt that? ie: Any problems/failures with this tech -can it be trusted?

Thanks for your time!
Asker the New Car Guy
 
You will get plenty of opinions. You sound like you are frugal by the fact you haven't bought a new car in 15 years. Good on you. Take care of this one. Oil changes at 5k, depending on how you drive. But, I would change at 5k no matter what. Look after that CVT as much as the engine. Nissan CVTs I heard are known to fail early. Read up on it and change fluid frequently to give yourself the best chance.
 
Is this the only option or can you set the maintenance minder to manual and put in your interval?

Also some further info will help. What is your driving routine? Short trips or highway? Where are you located? Climate figures in on this too.

Congrats on your new Nissan.
 
You will get plenty of opinions. You sound like you are frugal by the fact you haven't bought a new car in 15 years. Good on you. Take care of this one. Oil changes at 5k, depending on how you drive. But, I would change at 5k no matter what. Look after that CVT as much as the engine. Nissan CVTs I heard are known to fail early. Read up on it and change fluid frequently to give yourself the best chance.
EEE, thanks for your reply-
My 15yr-old car was an Altima, and sad to see it's life end that way!
Great car (no CVT probs at 123K mi) and hoped for another 5yrs.
 
Is this the only option or can you set the maintenance minder to manual and put in your interval?

Also some further info will help. What is your driving routine? Short trips or highway? Where are you located? Climate figures in on this too.

Congrats on your new Nissan.
PimTac, thanks for your reply-
The Oil And Filter Maintenance Reminder allows user to set a reminder at a specific interval or reset the current one.
Will be driven approx 5K mi annually. Mostly local, Location: upstate NY.
 
PimTac, thanks for your reply-
The Oil And Filter Maintenance Reminder allows user to set a reminder at a specific interval or reset the current one.
Will be driven approx 5K mi annually. Mostly local, Location: upstate NY.


My suggestion would be to set it to 5000 miles /one year. Pick a major brand of 0w20 and run with no worries.
 
Thanks PimTac-
That's 2 recommendations to change oil at 5K intervals vs the recommended 10K-

Anyone have perspective on the "Oil Control System"?
Anyone trust the OCS/use it to override a standard oil change schedule?
Would be interesting to see at what mileage the OCS alerts time for an oil change.
 
My suggestion would be to set it to 5000 miles /one year. Pick a major brand of 0w20 and run with no worries.
My dad has a CX-30 and the manual recommends for sever driving as he does (about 4000 miles/year), the oil should be changed at 6 months. Since that's only 2 changes a year for him, he will do it (or I should say I will do it).
 
Thanks PimTac-
That's 2 recommendations to change oil at 5K intervals vs the recommended 10K-

Anyone have perspective on the "Oil Control System"?
Anyone trust the OCS/use it to override a standard oil change schedule?
Would be interesting to see at what mileage the OCS alerts time for an oil change.


You could leave in on automatic and plan on the change at 5k and see what the system reads at that point. Most have a percentage countdown.
 
You could leave in on automatic and plan on the change at 5k and see what the system reads at that point. Most have a percentage countdown.
An OCS countdown would interesting to track-
Unfortunately, no mention in the Sentra manual of the OCS providing a countdown that can be monitored.
Only says that user can reset the current interval after completing oil change maintenance.
 
My concerns that I base my oil change intervals on.

Timing chain/guide wear
Intake valve deposits

Both of those don't show up until you're far down the road in most cases. I think there's pretty decent evidence out there on GDI engines of all makes to shorten up the oil change interval and make sure to use a decent oil, should you plan on keeping the car a long time.

Me, I settled on 5k changes on my GDI vehicle.
 
You will get plenty of opinions. You sound like you are frugal by the fact you haven't bought a new car in 15 years. Good on you. Take care of this one. Oil changes at 5k, depending on how you drive. But, I would change at 5k no matter what. Look after that CVT as much as the engine. Nissan CVTs I heard are known to fail early. Read up on it and change fluid frequently to give yourself the best chance.
Thanks Scotty Kilmer
 
Ctechbob, thanks for your reply that makes it a unanimous 3 for 3 in favor of 5K between oil changes.
What's the basis for Nissan's recommended 10K?
Thought I'd be conservative considering 7.5K, but being recalibrated by these responses!

I keep my cars until they die, therefore do value correct maintenance.
 
Ctechbob, thanks for your reply that makes it a unanimous 3 for 3 in favor of 5K between oil changes.
What's the basis for Nissan's recommended 10K?
Thought I'd be conservative considering 7.5K, but being recalibrated by these responses!

I keep my cars until they die, therefore do value correct maintenance.
Because they only have to worry about it until 36,000 or whatever their warranty is.

10k oil changes will get you there and probably even up to 100k, but after that, who knows. I'd rather get more use out of the vehicle before I have to tear into it to start replacing hard parts or intensive cleanings.

Now a port injected engine (My Honda V6's) I'll do a 7500-10k oil change all day long and not think twice, but that's old, reliable tech.
 
Thanks Scotty Kilmer
LOL -had to look him up!
We're a Nissan family- my 07 Altima was first, then other family members owned 09 Sentra and now own 2010 Altima, 2013 Altima, 2016 Pathfinder, 2019 Rogue.
None needed Scotty to Beam Them Up -No CVT issues!
 
Thanks Scotty Kilmer
Several personal friends had CVTs go at under 11000. One was all highway miles. Guy drove 140 mile round trip to work everyday. 2 other friends had Subaru CVTs go. One had 160k on it . The other about 100k. These are very well known/documented issues.
 
I vote for 5k miles interval. I've done yearly oil changes 8-9k miles on our Toyotas with good used oil analysis results however I will be switching to 5k miles interval from now on for peace of mind. I have watched a few videos of toyota master diagnostic technicians saying prolonged intervals are killing cylinder walls on the 2.5l camry engines when they get up there in miles. Like mentioned before, if you want to keep your car for a long time I would stick with 5k mile interval.
All these 10k intervals and lifetime ATF claims are just to get by the warranty period and advertising low maintenance cost to consumers.
 
I am a fleet manager and it is my experience that the maintence monitoring systems that recommend oil changes based on driving conditions shorten the oil change intervals as the engine ages.
Brand new van, oil life monitor comes on around 8000 miles.
As the engine racks up miles the oil life monitor shortens that until eventually it comes on within a few hundred miles of resetting it.*
I prefer to ignore the oil life monitor and go with set oil change intervals.

*your results may vary
 
Welcome to BITOG!

If you were traveling longer distances on a regular basis I’d tell you to stick to the system and let it guide you. However, given that you’ll only be doing 5k a year made up of primarily short trips. You have a good chance of having increased fuel dilution and moisture buildup. Given that likelihood, a once per year OCI should fit the bill.

As a reference point, my Mazda comes with an OLM which was wildly optimistic. UOAs found that my fuel dilution was in lockstep with the duration of my OCI. I’d approach 10k miles and the OLM would show 40-60% life left, yet the oil had thinned more than I felt comfortable with. Because of that, I do a 1yr/7.5k OCI. The Alfa on the other hand handles the 1yr/10k OCI just fine, so I stick with that.
 
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