2008 A/C 2.5S Oil Change Questions

[Colton92]

My A/C has just reached the 3000 mile point and its time to change the oil.

First question what kind of filter should i get? Is the official nissan one necessary or can i just get one from auto zone.?

What kind of oil should i use? I read another post that said use regular on the first couple of changes then switch to blended then fully synthetic, but whats the best brand to use?

Where is the drain plug located at?

How much oil should i put in? The manual has two numbers one says like 4.75 qts and the other says 4 qts
Modified by Colton92 at 1:58 PM 8/8/2008

[Scandinavian Flick]

a filter from autozone is fine, i like k&n oil filters

some people do say not to use synthetic for the first few oil changes, but ive never read anything the confirmed that, so i recommend "royal purple" or "redline"

drain plug should be on the bottom or side of the oil pan

well what ever it says in the owners manual will/should be the correct amount of oil, or on a level surface add 4 quarts, start the car, then turn it back off, wait a moment , check the dipstick, see if it still just a hair low, add some more oil ( 1/2 quart or so) then check again until its perfect

[Rmuth25]

Id like to say thank you for the guy/girl that designed there to be like a body frame post directly underneath where the oil filter goes, so consequently when you take off the old oil filter you drip oil onto it. And taking the wheel off is a little bit annoying as well.

[Rmuth25]

Oh, and after my first oil change I used a Mobil-1 filter and then Mobil-1 full synthetic oil. Well, actually it was the 2nd oil change, the first one was free from the dealership. Either way I wouldn't have hesitated putting full synthetic in if I did the first oil change myself. Next change I am probably not going to use the Mobil-1 filter, they are like 10 bucks. Ill just get a cheaper K&N one probably.

Also, when I filled up my car with the new oil, it took exactly 5 quarts. Not quite sure why it took like .25 quarters more then it called for, but I definitely checked the dipstick many times to make sure I was not overfilling.

Oh, and another thing I am going to do is when I change the oil next is send some of it to get analyzed, so I can know if the oil has more life in it.

[Scandinavian Flick]

sending it out to get analyzed sounds excessive, unless you truely need to know the exact amount of mileage left, i would just stick with the good ol' eye ball test, if it looks dirty then it is, if it looks clean then it is. or just change the oil every 3-5 thousand, and know that no matter what its clean and good to go,

here is something that a friend and I used to do, we both at the time worked at a rental car agency, i worked in the mechanics bay and every time one of us would have a oil change come around, we would put the car up on the lift, drain the oil, fill the car with the oil that is supposed to be used in the rental cars which is just like the most basic of basic 5w30's we would then run our cars for about 10 minutes, then drain the car again and then refill with whatever oil we supplied usually royal purple, yeah we wasted about 1.25 gallons of oil every oil change, but it didnt cost us anything, and we felt that it would help get the virtually all of the old oil out of the car and completely fill it with new, now whether or not it helped at all we didnt know, but we felt that it did,

[adidas2go]

Get a Mobile One 15k mile filter. Then you wont have to worry about changing it for a while. Use synthetic blend this time for 5k miles, then fully syn for 7-10k miles after. I always recommend Mobile One. Its good stuff, they have been in the auto oil game for a lonnnnngggg time.

[Scandinavian Flick]

wouldnt a 15K mile oil filter, have a very poor filtrating ability, i mean say you have a filter that is capable of removing all particles 25 microns and larger, after say 5 k miles the filter is going to be full of crap and require replacement,

now you have this 15K mile mobil 1 filter, if it were to filter everything out that was 25 microns or larger it wouldnt last 15K so wouldnt they have to make it filter less as to not get clogged as to say maybe 60=75 microns and larger,

i dont know just a thought,

[Idok]

The frequency of oil change is determined by 1. Type of driving and 2 type of oil,Stop and go driving, short trips and not letting the engine fully warmm up to temp and remain warm will cause dilution of the oil and this will cause exessive wear on the engine. Synthetic oil is much less degraded by this but it too wears out. If you are doing short trips,, stop and go driving and non syntheic oil, change it often (4000 miles max). Long hiway miles whre the engine warms and stays warm for 30 mins+ can go to the 7000 mile line IF you have synthetic oil and a good filter.If you are leasing the car and will be turning it back in the regular oil just follow the manual guideliies. If you are keeping the car use the synthetic, increase the oil change intervals to around 6-7000. Used oil analysis IS very useful to spot wear problems early before they cause major damage and to detect them before the warranty runs out. One analysis does not say much but trending them tells you a lot. Again this is not very necessary if you are gonna dump the car in 2-3 years.

[adidas2go]

The filter is seperated into 4 different sections. Each section (filter) is designed to catch a different sized particle. With this setup, you can catch 4 times as many particles because one filter is catching one specific size. Not 1 filter catching every size.