Advice on Piston Ring Wear

[BISCUT]

2007 Maxima 3.5 VQ

This car has been in the family since new. The oil was changed regularly and now its at 117k. I did an analysis at 104k after a 9k run on M1 5-30 and received a chromium value of 5. Fast forward to 116k and a 6200 mile run on M1 and chromium is up to a value of 12. So, I have wear in the rings.

I'm wondering how long I have before the wear really gets bad. So far 6200 mile run I burned a half quart to 3/4 quart. I'm guessing since I'm increasing wear but I'm dealing with PPM that I have a while. But that is a guess as I'm not a mechanic and I did NOT stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[Ramblejam]

VQ35 = 0w-40

 

[dareo]

Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
VQ35 = 0w-40

This. Also i would just keep running it till the timing chain gets bad as well. I would bet that happens before your rings are a big problem.

 

[mclasser]

I also have a VQ35. I would never do 9000 mile runs since these engines are known to beat up oil. Your current consumption isn't much. PPHM seems to be keeping my engine happy at the moment with limited usage. Like others said, 0W40 is also a good choice.

Do the 07's still have pre-cats? Extensive burning is known to destroy those.

 

[UltrafanUK]

Originally Posted By: BISCUT
2007 Maxima 3.5 VQ

This car has been in the family since new. The oil was changed regularly and now its at 117k. I did an analysis at 104k after a 9k run on M1 5-30 and received a chromium value of 5. Fast forward to 116k and a 6200 mile run on M1 and chromium is up to a value of 12. So, I have wear in the rings.

I'm wondering how long I have before the wear really gets bad. So far 6200 mile run I burned a half quart to 3/4 quart. I'm guessing since I'm increasing wear but I'm dealing with PPM that I have a while. But that is a guess as I'm not a mechanic and I did NOT stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.



Cut the OCI to 5000 miles and try and find a set of universal averages to compare with. The figures you are quoted are not that bad at present, it's the trend that is more important and the present jump could just be caused by a partcle streak. Obviously if the oil consumption goes up, that is not a good sign.

If the rings do start to wear there is not much you can do about it, although using an oil additive like Liqui Moly Ceratec can help. Using thicker oil will not help although if the US OEM spec oil was an Xw20, I would move up to an 0w30.

Any sludge or varnish can restrict oil flow around the top end and that can cause high Cr figures. Might show as high insolubles, high viscosity or low TBN in a UOA.

 

[Merkava_4]

Sometimes the oil flow holes to the piston rings get covered over with varnish which keeps the rings from floating. As a result, the rings don't seal and the engine oil slips by and enters the combustion chamber.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Sometimes the oil flow holes to the piston rings get covered over with varnish which keeps the rings from floating. As a result, the rings don't seal and the engine oil slips by and enters the combustion chamber.

Exactly. I'd try a piston soak, and pump up to 0W40 and see what happens.

 

[Trav]

0w40 and a shorter oci.

 

[racin4ds]

I'm no engineer but if the junk M1 OCI's caused your values to increase, I'd try another oil!

Oops did I just say that?

 

[BISCUT]

I will certainly go shorter OCI and go with 0-40. I have about 1k miles on the current M1 5-30. I'll take that to 5 and leave the filter (Fram Ultra) for another 5k. I've never had an issue like this so don't know how long a big time failure of rings takes. PPM is pretty small, is is safe to believe it will take a while (15k, 20k or more) before its a significant issue? Or is this not exactly a linear thing?

 

[Trav]

I seriously doubt the rings are worn out at that mileage but these engines are murder on the oil, the 0w40 usually reduces oil consumption on these.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

Your problem... doing a UOA and BITOG. For all you know, its a one-time spike. You'd have to track UOA religiously over time to see trends. Honestly don't worry about it. Use the recommended oil/OCI mentioned by others.

 

[bbhero]

Trav and mclasser are right as are others. Try a 0w40 or Castrol 0w30. I have run Castrol Extended Performance 5w30 for at most 6500 miles and old Pennzoil ultra for 6800 miles the longest. Like has been stated these VQ 3.5s are tough on oil. My 3.5 has 156k miles with no discernible oil consumption. I got lucky I guess that the first owner was very diligent about changing the oil every 3500 miles.

 

[Doog]

I would change the oil to a 10w40 and trade it in.....that engine will give you some serious repair bills in 20-30k

 

[BISCUT]

I'm not getting any oil burn that is abnormal quite yet. The last fill only had 1k on it so I dumped it today (will reuse it) and put 0-40 M1 in there. I'll go 5k and do UOA and report back. 3.5 to 4 months for the dish though.

If that one shows the trend of higher chromium then I'll look to get rid of it over the next 6months after that. Seems reasonable to me. That would be the 3rd upward trending UOA over a 27k or so period.

 

[artificialist]

Always check your air intake and vacuum hoses for leaks. They can let dust in, and that leads to more ring wear.

 

[BISCUT]

Wanted to follow up and say i sold the Maxima first week of January. The guy i sold it to I know well. He did a ring job on it and said 2 were shot. Is that normal? To have some shot and others not? I guess it's not a linear failure. Maybe cylinder not cut correctly? Just thoughts....

 

[28oz]

I've read some year VQ35DE's were given "soft rings" or something and were prone to oil consumption. Not sure about your '07. My '04 VQ at 143K hasn't consumed anymore than 1/2 qt during any random OCI. Most OCI's, it doesn't burn a drop. I've used generally Pennzoil Platinum and a few OCIs of Valvoline SynPower, both 5w30 and usually don't go past 4-5000k. I just put some Mobil 1 0W40 in it and it seems to like it just fine. No UOAs on anything though to compare or evaluate. It just runs/sounds great. I've picked up on online "chatter" that this engine doesn't like Mobil 1 5W-30 for whatever reason. Who knows. I've never run it, so I can't really comment on that, just what I've read hear and there.