My wife's Sentra 2.5l is now consuming oil...

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I bought an aftermarket header and Im going to replace it anyway. If its destine to happen, I'll try and do it now. Maybe I just went too long on the oil change?
 
Originally Posted By: NattyBoh
I bought an aftermarket header and Im going to replace it anyway. If its destine to happen, I'll try and do it now. Maybe I just went too long on the oil change?


I don't think you went to long on the oil change, if you're going by time, a better measure than miles, not to exceed 1 year on Pennz Plat synthetic (or decent name brand) or 10,000 miles whatever occurs first. If you do do severe service, change it out at 6 months, severe defined as mostly short trips of 10 miles or less.
 
Well, this is a typical picture of religious following common rules:
1. Flush is evil, oil has everything what you need;
2. Synthetic oils are good for everybody, even for cancer treatment
3. I am the smartest guy in the world, so if I use synthetic oil, I can extend OCI beyond north pole.
4. If Blackstone shows me TBN>=1, I am fine.

BTW, everything I mentioned before is wrong from "A" to "Z".
1. Good engine flush products (Liqui Moly, Amsoil, Motul, Xado) are highly recommended. This is a usual oil changing procedure in a Europe, BTW.
2. Read your manual. At least for my Maxima 2005 it was written in plain English: "Nissan does NOT recomment synthetic oils".
3. In a same manual, in same plain English, is written: 3750 miles OCI in severe conditions, 7500 in normal conditions. Where did you read about 10k miles OCI?
4. Blackstone's TBN numbers means no more than very, very approximate milestones for your car. Many "smart" guys rely on them, but they "save money", ignoring TAN values.

What to do:
0. Free stuck rings:
http://www.amazon.com/Verylube-ANTICARBO...4724&sr=8-1
You need 4 such tubes, 1 tube for 1 cylinder.
1. Use engine flush product on your next oil change. My favorite is this:
http://www.amazon.com/ATOMEX-TOTAL-FLUSH...4435&sr=8-2
Or this:
http://www.amazon.com/Lubro-Moly-Pro-Lin...4544&sr=8-2
2. Switch to mineral or synthetic BLEND oils. In couple of words - additives dissolve in mineral oils much better than in any synthetic.
3. Change oil each 5k miles, don't be too smart. Keep it simplier.
 
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Originally Posted By: Vikas
how does oil change interval affects pre-cat damage?

In my personal experience with conservative ~5k mi/6 month ocis on an 03 Altima 2.5L, no effect at all. Once the SES light for the 0420 code showed, the precats had failed and the engine damage done. Afaik, the only known fix was to preemptively bore out the precat or remove it entirely. Nissan's free oil and filter change with their favorite cure all ecm/ecu reflash recall was useless in preventing precat failure.

The biggest factor in 02-03 2.5Ls 'seemed' to be how hard the vehicle was driven as to how quickly the precats would fail. Some Sentra SpecV 2.5L owners got new engines because the precats failed while under factory warranty, terminating the engine. The general conclusion was that the SpecV's were driven more aggressively and thus the precats failed sooner.

Beyond that, the 2.5L precats were ticking time bombs, not if but when it would happen.

Again though, while sudden significant oil consumption is a sign of precat failure, I'm not saying that is the cause of the OP's consumption issue.
 
Originally Posted By: NattyBoh
So long story short, my wife has been religious about her oil changes. The car has always been with her and the car never consumed any noticeable amount of oil. Now it decides to... The oil change has 7500-9500 mi on it. I have hard numbers but I can't remember exactly. So all in all what I'm wondering is what should I run oil wise? Its spec'd to 5w30. Is there something that will slow the consumption? Any tricks? Thicker oil?


Hey NattyBoh – Since your wife’s Nissan Sentra 2.5L just recently started consuming a noticeable amount of motor oil, you might consider having it checked out by an ASE qualified technician. In addition, knowing that your Nissan has over 110,000 miles on the odometer, a high mileage motor oil might also help. You could try Pennzoil Platinum High Mileage 5W-30 which is designed to deliver less oil burn off than other high mileage oils, and it could possibly help reduce leaks from old seals. Hope this info helps! – The Pennzoil Team
 
Originally Posted By: exranger06
The pre-cat is falling apart and the broken chunks are getting sucked back into the engine, which is ruining the cylinder walls and piston rings and making the engine consume oil. It's a common problem with the Nissan 2.5s and there was a recall for it.


Depending on what year. 02-06 2.5L had issues with pre-cats and butterfly screws. But Nissan fixed those problems starting in 07+.
 
Originally Posted By: NattyBoh
So long story short, my wife has been religious about her oil changes. The car has always been with her and the car never consumed any noticeable amount of oil. Now it decides to... The oil change has 7500-9500 mi on it. I have hard numbers but I can't remember exactly. So all in all what I'm wondering is what should I run oil wise? Its spec'd to 5w30. Is there something that will slow the consumption? Any tricks? Thicker oil?


One question, which would be easier to get rid of, the wife or the car ? Pick the route of less resistance and move forward.

Z
 
Originally Posted By: mobilaltima
my 2002 altima came up with P0420 code one day (catalyst efficiency) which meant the pre cat was going bad.


P0420 doesn't always mean the cat is bad... could also be the downstream O2 sensor.
 
Originally Posted By: CELICA_XX
Originally Posted By: mobilaltima
my 2002 altima came up with P0420 code one day (catalyst efficiency) which meant the pre cat was going bad.


P0420 doesn't always mean the cat is bad... could also be the downstream O2 sensor.

'Could.' But in the 02-03 2.5L models especially (Altima/Sentra), combined with sudden significant oil consumption, it almost certainly signals/signaled failed precats.
 
I had the issue on my 03' Spec V. I religiously changed with Mobil 1 5W-30 or 0W-40 and still started suddenly consuming a quart every 4000 miles before I got the recall notice...
 
The QR 2.5 is a disposable engine. I would not tear into the engine and rebuild it.

Its rod to stroke length is low so the piston speeds are qite high with quick reversals at tdc and bdc. This engine was a disaster right out of the chutet in 2002. It marked Nissan's slide from great engines to (with the exception of the VQ) to junk.Instead of junking it from the git-go they have tried to keep it soldiering on by screwing with rings and ring material.

Contrast 2.4 QR to honda's K24. Wait you can't compare them. This coming from a Sentra owner.
 
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I've always wondered why the 2.5 QR engine would kill the convertors in the first place.

Was it bad construction of the convertor material from a lower quality supplier?
Was it ignition coils that failed/started to fail, and then you had unburned fuel getting onto the convertor material?

The engines didn't burn oil from day one, so it wasn't oil contamination that then caused them to get burned up.

And why did the issues end when the car was redesigned in '07?
If it was a flaw with the engine, it would still be happening today.

BC.
 
Just to report back, it seems in about 3-4k miles its using lite less than 1qt of oil. Would switching to a thicker oil help with the burning?

Spec is 5w30. I know I can get 5w40 it its synthetic and the cost goes with it. Is there a dino oil I can use in 5w40?

Thanks.
 
Try MaxLife Blend in 5W-30, and then go to 10W-40 if you need to. A quart in 4000 miles isn't bad IMO, I could live with that. Coupons.com has a $10 off coupon on two jugs of various Valvoline products including MaxLife. Good at the register - not a rebate. Print the coupon.
 
Originally Posted By: Bigdaddy345
I have a 2007 Prius with 267899k that burns a qt every 700 miles.


That's about what my Saturn burns, but it is known for oil burning too.. haha! The QR25 is also known for it. I never did desire to own one, but Nissan used to make such amazingly durable engines, then the QR25 came..
 
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