Time to revive an older thread

I am going to change out my oil for the first time, it has 1320 miles on it. I was going to use Mobil 1, but it seems that the syn Castrol is being preferred (mainly to start up noise). I plan on getting 0W-30 for now.

As for filters has anyone had success with CarQuest filters? They have a special on them and was going to stock up on a few. However, I can't get any info on them Otherwise, I was going to use Fram TG.

Any help would be appreciated.

BYW, I am really happy with my new Rougue

Cheers!

I personally use NAPA Gold filters which are made by WIX/Affinia. They are a high quality filter with good media and very solid construction.

Probably the best available oil filter is the Amsoil Ea series.

Generally speaking, Fram is about the cheapest filter in terms of cost and quality. I personally would not recommend or use them.

There is a lot of information regarding filters in the oil change thread, look at my post at the bottom of the first page:

zerothread/296876

As for oil,

I ran my Altima on M1 5W30. Didn't like it as it increased engine noise on startup. I use Castrol Syntec 0W30 (made in Germany). There are a few oil analysis for this engine and Castrol Syntec 0W30, Pennzoil Platinum, Schaeffers, and some others do very well.

I'm getting my first oil change today as well (4 months/3800kms). I thought I read somewhere that synthetic oil is not recommended this early in the engine's life. Anyway, I'm getting it done at the dealer. I don't even know if they offer a choice of which type of oil and filter to use.

goin’ rogue wrote:I don't even know if they offer a choice of which type of oil and filter to use.

They would in all likelihood offer a choice of conventional vs. synthetic oil, they'll just charge you an arma and a leg and a whole bunch of money.

Just go back from the dealer. You are correct, that is the only choice they offer. Conventional: 40$, Synthetic: 80$. I see no point in going with synthetic if I'm going to be changing my oil every 3-4 months anyway. 15$ (40$ - cost of oil and filter) seems more than reasonable for somebody to change your oil for you.

mstrmstr wrote:
Yes the Rogue hits the streets with a initial belly full of synthetic break in oil.

That being said, why are people talking about "switching" to synthetic oil? Changing to conventional oil would be the "switch".

Anyway, my question was answered. My Rogue was born with synthetic so that's how I'll keep it.

Pawprint

I see your point, but the reason being most people here have been using conventional oil and are now debating switching to synthetic, or maybe "switching back" to synthetic would be more appropriate.

Synthetic certainly can't hurt, and your Nissan dealer does offer a synthetic option and I'm sure could offer some input on this decision too.

I don't know what oil I had originally (probably regular) but at 1000 miles dealer declined to change an oil for free so I changed it in local shop at 1400 miles with mobil 0w-30. Changing it every 6000 miles from that point with the same oil.

I put PP in about a month ago, as indicated above. I am scheduled for a free change with the dealer next month. I am going to see if they will go synthetic for me. If not, I will provide my own oil and talk them into a free tire rotation then

Cheers!

I've been using synthetic for many years. I'll admit it's laziness on my part. I enjoy going double the miles, and or time in-between oil changes.

I am guilty of changing the oil at 7,500 miles even though it takes me 1 year to drive that far.

Pawprint

Does anyone else find it annoying that there isn't a service indicator light to remind us of an oil change or x miles maintenance?

I actually find those "reminders" more of a pain in the A$$.

Dan

This is an interesting thread that I'd like to get rolling again.

I'd like to get opinions on the synthetic oil that Nissan uses (or as some have reported "semi-synthetic") - is it worth it or do most of you feel it's either regular dyno oil or a high quality synthetic like Amsoil?

Any Rogue owners out there going with the Nissan synthetic oil, and if so what are they telling you the service interval is?

Thanks!

i have a 2010 rogue with 6600 miles. got it at 4800 miles and took it 2 weeks ago for a free oil change at the dealership. i asked what kind of oil they use and he said the free oil change was regular oil. i asked if they would use synthetic and offered to pay the difference and the service manager told me i didn't need synthetic or semi synthetic so i went with the regular oil change. i dont do a lot of driving. maybe 5500 miles a year. you think its ok to use regular instead of synthetic?

Yes, if you do really few miles per year, you'd better using just regular oil (no need to pay extra), and change it every 6 months or so.
In your case, Time is more important than mileage.

The most important thing is to change the oil regularly. Using regular, semi, or synthetic depends on the mileage you will do during that laps of time.

I'm not sure I agree with that Pescakl.

You're saying that you only can reap the benefits of synthetic oil if you drive high miles? I disagree, because highway miles are easy miles, short city trips in stop and go, with lots of starts is harder on the engine. Over the span of 10 kilometers on average I probably turn my engine off and on 4 times, that is much harder than probably several hundred highway miles. Also if you live in a cold climate those cold dry starts are the worst thing you can do to your engine, my question has always been if synthetic helps to reduce the wear associated with those starts compared to regular dino oil.

And what about the supposed benefits of synthetic in terms of preventing sludge buildup in an engine? If you drive short trips primarily, I would think synthetic would be exactly what you should be running?

In short, I would think the opposite of what you are proposing - low mileage, short trips with stop and go and lots of on/off cycles, particularly in cold climates can benefit the most from synthetic. Also if you drive in very hot highway conditions such as in the Arizona desert you may really see the benefit of synthetic over covnentional as well.

Thoughts?

Who said that a lot of miles = highway? Ask Phillip how many highway miles he did on his total mileages. From what I understood, he does a lot of secondary roads, city traffic and such. He just spend more time in his car than both of us combined.
Highway miles are easier than city miles because you have less fuel dilution since you are almost always at the same RPM. Is traffic jam on the highway still considered highway miles or more city miles?

The other thing is that the number of starts is not that important, the important figure is the number of cold starts. As long as the engine is still warm, restarting the engine has no consequence, except maybe some fuel dilution, like in city driving.
BTW, dry starts don't exist, that is a myth, the cylinder walls have always a layer of oil on them, even after the car sits for a long time. People who disassembled engines reported it. Sure, you will have more wear on a cold start until the engine is warmed up and every parts are in place, but dry, no.

The most important thing to remember is that after 6 months, the oil, whatever how the car is used, will be full of junk, sometimes with some traces of fuel in it, and its properties will have been changed. So it is better to change it. Whether or not it is regular or synthetic, it doesn't matter much nowadays as regular oils are almost as good as synthetic ones.
For sure, it is always better to use synthetic oil compare to regular one, but is it necessary? Sounds like a FWD vs AWD question.
The most important thing is to change the oil, not what type of oil is it. The type of oil to use is starting to be important when you go to the limit of the usage, either in time or mileage.

As for sludge, it is either due to design, some engines are prone to that (there, you'd better use synthetic to prolong the life of the oil which is destroyed by the engine, or change it often if you want to use regular oil), or because the oil is not changed. Do you know you can still get sludge with synthetic oil?

As contrary as the VQ series, our engine is average in oil usage, not the easiest ones (GMs, Hondas), but not one of the hardest. Just remember to change the oil regularly.

Kerrton, everything I wrote here is a resume of 3 years and counting of reading and analyzing what it is said and debated on BITOG which is a specialized forum on lubrication. So maybe, my analyze is wrong, but there is a lot of data over there who make me believe I am not too far from the truth.

From what I read yesterday, almost 90% of cars used regular oil and not synthetic (oil manufacturers data). That includes us in Canada.
But remember, most of them still use either the 3k/3months program if they are old school, or 5k/6months if they follow the manufacturers schedule (Toyota, Ford, Nissan (even if this is not written like that, most of them choose to go between severe and normal schedule at 5k), Hyundai, Kia, etc...). Only Honda and GM (+ Germans) use Maintenance Minder which can push the change further, but even with this information, most of people choose to not follow it and change it after 5k.
So you can say, a lot of people use regular oil and never go further than 5k/6 months. And not so many engine blow ups or engine sludges from what I can read on the internet.

To each is own, if you want to use synthetic, go for it, that is your money you spend. But if you ask for advice, I would tell you that it is not necessary (no need), using what I have learned on the internet.

Thanks a lot Pescakl for taking the time to type-up such an informative post to help me out, I appreciate it.

I don't think I'll be changing to synthetic, rather I'll probably stick to old-school frequent change intervals of 3 months or the odd time I will hit 5000 km but normally I take it in every 3 months. This may be overkill but I feel it is good cheap insurance and if I interpret what you are saying correctly frequent change intervals may have a more positive impact than paying the extra cash for synthetic.

Thanks again everybody for contributing information and helping me out.

Kerrton, you should try doing an oil analysis if you're really curious about how your engine is performing with the oil you have.

As for myself... Castrol Syntec 0W30 changed every 10,000km (6,000mi). It's still very conservative, but I have not done an oil analysis on the Rogue yet.

I switched over to Penzoil full synthetic 5w-30 at around 50,000 miles. I do oil change intervals every 5,000 miles and use NAPA gold filters and have been very happy with the results.

I think people who have gone through their oil phase curiosity and oil related searches for more knowledge probably bumped into that consumer reports experiment where they compared oils and studied the effects on some NY cabs back at least a decade ago.

The conclusions: Regardless of brand of oil or weight, no measurable differences could be observed in engine wear. It didn't matter if it was 3000 otc or 6000 otc. It also didn't matter what type or brand of oil.

Just think how much more advance oil products are today.

I know I know, people might not be into Consumer Reports but I find them as one of the more independent researchers out there in my opinion.
So I just say take it with a grain of salt.

Personally, I am using PU and Bosch Dplus for 10,000 miles.
Then after that I will be using Amsoil and a EAO filter for between 10,000-15,000 miles.

I know people might disagree with that but I am confident I won't have any oil related failure personally.

After that I probably go back to PU or Edge since the Amsoil I get at the local store is not GF-5. They don't sell the XL version and only reason I got my original stash of Asmoil is because it happen to be on the shelf.

Only reason I use synthetic is because it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Especially when I don't have to do it as often. I also use it in conjunction with a filtermag and a magnetic oil plug. But I never do oil analysis, so I am not really hardcore but I guess you can assume that from my long oci's.

Or maybe I am since I believe in this oil routine. And confident in this oil.

I am surprised 10,000 miles is not the normal OCI, especially when some of these luxery cars and even the 2010 camry is that way.
It should be normal now because I think these oils can handle it, we are stuck in the old ways when technology has advanced.

Dealership where I bought the car sent me a letter about 2 weeks ago about offering a new car. They extended changing period time again. I remember when I bought the car they were saying it's 3000 miles but later they were saying it's 4000 miles. Mechanic was telling me they were using a good regular oil which is good for 4000 miles but now it says it's good for 5000 miles. Regular non-synthetic oil for 5000 miles? I still go to walmart for mobil 1 full synthetic 0w-30 which I change every 6000 miles.

Leo2005 wrote:Regular non-synthetic oil for 5000 miles? I still go to walmart for mobil 1 full synthetic 0w-30 which I change every 6000 miles.

The only time Nissan recommends oil changes longer than 3750mi is when driving primarily highway in temperate climate... then it's 7500 mi.

I think they have obviously stretched the limit for 'economic' reasons. Besides, every time I see a 'lifetime' oil change deal... I know they want me in on a regular basis so they can find other things to charge me for. Injector cleaning, filter changes, transmission flush, cooling system flush, etc

Just follow the recommended service intervals in the manual. It's all you need.

Leo2005 wrote:Regular non-synthetic oil for 5000 miles? I still go to walmart for mobil 1 full synthetic 0w-30 which I change every 6000 miles.

Regular oils are a lot better than they used to be when 3,000 mile intervals were the norm. I'd stick to the factory intervals for the warranty period at least as you're probably going to run into trouble if they attempt to blame a problem on your intervals.

I'm getting tired of frequent oil change intervals, I'm starting to seriously consider doing the changes myself and going with 8000 to 10,000 km change intervals. I only drive about 12,000 km per year so my oil changes are always due to time and not mileage. I'd like to move to an oil that is more stable over time and potentially offers better protection in cold winter start conditions as well. For me, this would mean an oil change every 8 to 10 months which would avoid sheduling several trips to the dealer and save some cash in the process, not to mention I enjoy doing basic maintenance work on my car when my skills allow for it.

I've been reading up on Amsoil and have found some head-to-head comparisons of the more common synthetic brands, Amsoil seems to come up as the top rated oil most often. However it's a little unclear if Amsoil is API certified, if not that would eliminate it as an option and I'll probably stick with Castrol synthetic, the only other question in my mind would be 0W30 or 5W30....

kerrton wrote:I'm getting tired of frequent oil change intervals, I'm starting to seriously consider doing the changes myself and going with 8000 to 10,000 km change intervals. I only drive about 12,000 km per year so my oil changes are always due to time and not mileage.

For the last two years, I am like you, based on time.
I use synthetic oil (PP, Synpower,...) for one year and about 6 to 10.000kms.
I do Used Oil Analysis on them, and it shows that I still have quite some margin.
So you can go confidently changing your oil only every year, like in September - October while it is still warm and nice outside.

It may not that good to extend more than one year, Nitration level is quite high after one year period.

kerrton wrote:I've been reading up on Amsoil and have found some head-to-head comparisons of the more common synthetic brands, Amsoil seems to come up as the top rated oil most often. However it's a little unclear if Amsoil is API certified, if not that would eliminate it as an option and I'll probably stick with Castrol synthetic, the only other question in my mind would be 0W30 or 5W30....

Amsoil oil is not certified, it only meets or exceeds the certification level. That is why there is no starbust on the bottle. They did not pay the fee to be allowed.

Pescakl1 wrote:Amsoil oil is not certified, it only meets or exceeds the certification level. That is why there is no starbust on the bottle. They did not pay the fee to be allowed.

That's what I heard from mechanic that I know. They're using penzoil in garage but I'm still using mobil.

I just looked at Canadian Tire online and was surprised to see Amsoil for sale, and the image of the bottle had the API logo on it.

Also I noticed Canadian Tire has an online $10 off coupon on 5L jugs of Castrol Syntec until the end of April....just thought I'd mention it in the hopes of saving someone a bit of cash.

Thanks for the tip Kerrton. Sadly, the Castrol 0W30 (Made in Germany) was never offered in 5L jugs. This is my favorite oil, but I might switch now...

It was oil change sunday - changed the oil on the bike, the snowblower and the new Rogue. It was the Rogue's first oil change at 1200 kms - I'm very pleased with the filter placement on this Nissan engine compared to my previous car's 1ZZ-FE. Easy to access and I didn't get a drop of oil on the floor. Replaced the factory fill and filter with Motomaster synthetic (made by SOPUS) and a Quaker State filter.

I cut the OEM filter open and saw that it used cheesy cardboard end caps. A few flecks of metal or casting sand caught in the filter media. Not sure about the oil, but I'm glad I changed the filter earlier than recommended.