LOW OIL WARNING!!! (all members please read & check)

[ImStricken06]

i know i have heard of this topic on here from a few members, but i cant recall the thread. im sure R1 will point me in the right direction.

FYI: i do 5,000 mile oil changes with regular 5w-30 oil.

today i start my car and i hear the timing chain rattle. i check the oil and not a drop on the dip stick. this is after roughly 4,500 on this current oil change. so i go buy a fresh 5qt bottle and filter. i figured why add oil, since im almost due for it. i drain exactly half a qt of oil from the car. i know a lot of oil is still in the engine, but i found this strange that my dipstick read ZERO, nadda, not a drop... ZILCH.

comments, thoughts, suggestions? feel free!

[Rogue Three]

Oh boy. Are you getting blue smoke out the tail pipe?

[darylzero]

Found this Googling, the Car Talk guys on NPR answered a similar question here
http://www.cartalk.com/content/mikes-lo ... -all-going

I am guessing you never saw any oil leaks on the driveway

[Rogue One]

Found this Googling, the Car Talk guys on NPR answered a similar question here
http://www.cartalk.com/content/mikes-lo ... -all-going

I am guessing you never saw any oil leaks on the driveway

Oddly enough, I wasn't able to turn up anything significant during a brief search. Darylzero's link seems to sum things up well enough. So the question is, do you feel up to crackin' her open?

[ImStricken06]

i drain exactly half a qt of oil from the car.

OK IM AN IDIOT. I TOTALLY FUGED UP THE NUMBERS. THE AMOUNT I DRAINED OUT OF THE ENGINE WAS AROUND 2.5qt's. I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I PUT BACK MY OLD USED OIL INTO THE EMPTIED NEW CONTAINER

anyone else do their own oil changes? if so let me know how much you drain out (by refilling the old bottle back up with your waste). i forgot how much i take out everytime. idk wtf is going on. i removed half a 2.5qts, so obviously the dipstick should have had some oil still on it.

[Rogue Three]

I would use an engine cleaner and shorten your oil change interval for a few changes. Combined with daily checks of the oil level to be safe.

[ImStricken06]

id love to know who else does their oil changes, and if they too remove about 2.6 qt's of oil. removing a tad over half the oil is about right. i just dont understand why my dipstick was reading NOTHING - when i had 2.6qt's in the sump.

[zengshengliu]

I do my oil change myself and its coming in 900 more miles so I will report back
(I do mine every 7500 with full synthetic)

[ImStricken06]

I do my oil change myself and its coming in 900 more miles so I will report back
(I do mine every 7500 with full synthetic)

sweet thanks homie!

[darylzero]

I change my own oil and get pretty much all of it back out. When I pour it back into the 5qt jug it fills it up, that includes some of the oil from the filter and the little bit of unused new oil still in the jug.

So I think you should be getting a lot more out when you drain. How much did you used to drain out?

Did you check your oil filter and see if it has a crack or leak?

[Rogue One]

i drain exactly half a qt of oil from the car.

OK IM AN IDIOT. I TOTALLY FUGED UP THE NUMBERS. THE AMOUNT I DRAINED OUT OF THE ENGINE WAS AROUND 2.5qt's. I KNOW THIS BECAUSE I PUT BACK MY OLD USED OIL INTO THE EMPTIED NEW CONTAINER

anyone else do their own oil changes? if so let me know how much you drain out (by refilling the old bottle back up with your waste). i forgot how much i take out everytime. idk wtf is going on. i removed half a 2.5qts, so obviously the dipstick should have had some oil still on it.

I'm speechless. You're actually admitting to being an idiot, with a dry dipstick too! Don't let the missus see this!

When was the last time you had the Rogue on a lift and examined the underside? Just for giggles, have you tried doing a compression test?

[ImStricken06]

lol i have no problem admitting to be a fool every now and then!

and i have ramps, and check under it all the time. its dry - no leaks. and regarding the compression test - that might be coming up soon.(maybe lol)

[tiggy_rogue]

Data point for you: I change my own oil. I put it 4.5 qts, after 6000-6500 miles, take out 4 to 4.2 qts. I checked the oil in the morning for you, it was showing 3/4 in between the crosshatched region after 5000 miles.


As far as I know the crosshatched region in the dipstick is 1 quart. Hence you may not have seen any oil on the dipstick if you only had 2.5 qts.

If I were you, I would not panic at this moment as you may have made a mistake somewhere, watch it very closely over the next 2000 miles or so. I also would not spend money on compression test etc. if you are still down a qt or so after 2000 miles, then something is wrong. Also, I am not entirely sure with Nissan but in my other car, they consider a qt burned over 800 miles to be normal and don't perform any warranty work.

[Scooter71]

I also do my own oil changes, and I have not noticed a difference in amounts, draining vs. putting back in. Next oil change I will measure for you and report back, It's gonna be while, just changed it a week or so ago. I use full syntheric also and change it every 6,000 miles. I also installed a magnetic drain plug back when I purchased her, just for safe measures. Shes almost a year old (with me) time to start planning the B-day party...LOL

[mikess]

I want to do my own oil changes as well after the first 2 free from the dealership. Now, I want to use synthetic oil like pennzoil ultra, but I think it's too early to change it out at 3500 miles like it says in the service manual. I want to know if I do extended oil changes for about 5000-6000 miles, will I void my warranty?

[TrevorK]

As far as I know the crosshatched region in the dipstick is 1 quart. Hence you may not have seen any oil on the dipstick if you only had 2.5 qts.

This is my experience with other cars as well - the dipstick does not measure the amount of oil you have, but how much you need up to a given amount. This does not give the illusion you are "half full" when you have half the oil, but rather gives you the message "I am out of oil" when the dipstick is dry.

Oil will either be consumed (burned off, etc..) or leaked out. It is not uncommon for some oil to be burned off however 2 quarts is a lot for 5000 miles so there would seem to be another cause. I think the first step to take is monitor your engine with the fresh oil and see if the problem exists (eliminates the problem of not filling it with 4.5 quarts before). Watch for leaks and burning if you notice the engine oil level going down.

There are other old tricks such as changing the weight of the oil you use, however it does not fix the problem just masks it.

[ImStricken06]

i just changed the oil with 5.8 qt's to see its progress(added more oil to make sure i can make it my 5000 miles lol). i used heavier oil (10w-30) to see if that might slow down the problem.

[mikess]

That's almost a quart more than specified. Isn't that supposed to be bad for the engine as well. I read somewhere that adding too much oil is very bad for engine.

[tiggy_rogue]

That's almost a quart more than specified. Isn't that supposed to be bad for the engine as well. I read somewhere that adding too much oil is very bad for engine.

I agree, I never heard of overfilling the crankcase by 20% to address burning oil. I suggest going to BITOG forum to read the disadvantages of overfillign oil. At the end of the day, it is your money and car though...

[ImStricken06]

That's almost a quart more than specified. Isn't that supposed to be bad for the engine as well. I read somewhere that adding too much oil is very bad for engine.

yes, in engines that reach high RPM's, overfilling will blow seals. over filling by 1 qt in a normal engine isnt really a big deal.

I agree, I never heard of overfilling the crankcase by 20% to address burning oil. I suggest going to BITOG forum to read the disadvantages of overfillign oil. At the end of the day, it is your money and car though...

thats the thing, idk if i am burning it, or leaking it somewhere. i want to see whats the deal. and if a car is eating it, obviously you gotta put in more, or start out with more right? whats your solution - allowing it to run dry?

[mikess]

I'm sure checking it periodically, for example, every other fill up, and adding as needed won't allow your engine to be run dry.

[tiggy_rogue]

I agree, I never heard of overfilling the crankcase by 20% to address burning oil. I suggest going to BITOG forum to read the disadvantages of overfillign oil. At the end of the day, it is your money and car though...

thats the thing, idk if i am burning it, or leaking it somewhere. i want to see whats the deal. and if a car is eating it, obviously you gotta put in more, or start out with more right? whats your solution - allowing it to run dry?[/quote]


Fair enough, lets call it disappearing oil syndrome For now, we know that you started with 5qt and after 5000 miles, you are left with 2.5qts, hence the oil is disappearing at a rate of 1 qt every 2000 miles. So, if you start with full 4.8 qt as specified in the manual, after 1000 miles, the oil should go down to half way on the crosshatched region. I dont know you but I drive around 300 miles per week, hence it will take me 3.5 weeks to go 1000 miles, hence I dont think you are risking running dry overnight.

Right now, you are adding another variable to the experiment (overfilling by a qt) by not repeating the same conditions as last oil change, and we dont what the effect of that will be on the consumption.

Good luck

[ImStricken06]

Fair enough, lets call it disappearing oil syndrome For now, we know that you started with 5qt and after 5000 miles, you are left with 2.5qts, hence the oil is disappearing at a rate of 1 qt every 2000 miles. So, if you start with full 4.8 qt as specified in the manual, after 1000 miles, the oil should go down to half way on the crosshatched region. I dont know you but I drive around 300 miles per week, hence it will take me 3.5 weeks to go 1000 miles, hence I dont think you are risking running dry overnight.

i drive a little over 15,000 miles per year. so that's about ~300miles per week. i know i dont risk going dry over night, but as of recently i have been making ~300mile round trips over the weekend deep into nowhere-land PA. i just feel a tad safer having some extra oil in the sump just in case. could i carry it in a bottle in the trunk? sure... but it doesnt hurt anything if i dont rev over 4,000rpm on a regular basis.

Right now, you are adding another variable to the experiment (overfilling by a qt) by not repeating the same conditions as last oil change, and we dont what the effect of that will be on the consumption.

its not anything i cant subtract 1qt from. its not that complicated. if i removed 2.5qt's last time, i should remove about 3.5 this time under the same conditions (5000 mile OCI)

and now that i think about it, if i drove just about 5000 miles, and drained out 2.5qts; that means i lost:

• about 1.25qt's over 2500miles.
  .6qts for every 1,000 miles.

[zengshengliu]

Ok I just done my oil change today (after 7500 miles) and I have 4 and a half qt of oil coming out (with filter changed)
So yours are definitely not normal

[jonnyd91]

Do the 08 engines suffer from pre-cat failure? I owned a 2004 SER Spec-V, the earlier engines were prone to the pre-cat breaking up and getting sucked into the engine causing oil consumption. Not sure if it was an issue on later models. I pulled the pre-cat on that car and used a synthetic blend oil in it. When I traded it in, it had 109,000 miles on it and did not lose a drop of oil. Im leaning toward using synthetic blend in the rogue too.