Oil change at 9,000 to Royal Purple

[CYO44Baseball32]

Sense I've heard such good things about royal purple I decided to use it. Figured it would have cost over $100 at a shop to change it (If anyone knows the exact cost let me know I'm curious) with royal purple I did it myself. $42 with a napa filter and 5 quarts. I bought $32 rhino ramps because most of you know how low low my car is (350z s-techs ftw). I was surprised that Nissan actually put something in the car in an easy to access spot , unlike the headlight bulbs. Filter was easy to take off too, didn't even need a wrench. Old oil wasn't that dirty and the car had driven 1,000 miles the last day over 15 hours from Florida and the last oil change was 5,000 miles ago. I think we can hold out with our cars to 7,000 with no problems if you have full synthetic.

[telcoman]

Sense I've heard such good things about royal purple I decided to use it. Figured it would have cost over $100 at a shop to change it (If anyone knows the exact cost let me know I'm curious) with royal purple I did it myself. $42 with a napa filter and 5 quarts. I bought $32 rhino ramps because most of you know how low low my car is (350z s-techs ftw). I was surprised that Nissan actually put something in the car in an easy to access spot , unlike the headlight bulbs. Filter was easy to take off too, didn't even need a wrench. Old oil wasn't that dirty and the car had driven 1,000 miles the last day over 15 hours from Florida and the last oil change was 5,000 miles ago. I think we can hold out with our cars to 7,000 with no problems if you have full synthetic.

CYO44Baseball32

There have been numerous posts and lots of opinions on which type of oil and change frequency is best?As one who over 40 years of driving experience, I disagree on the use of synthetic oil to reduce the frequency of oil changes.



Aside from the added expense, Changing oil every 3k miles or twice a year with conventional oil is superior to the use of synthetic and oil changes at 5k to 7k miles.Florida has high humidty for part of the year and as such as an engine cools moisture condenses in the oil pan adding water along with other contaminants and acids that are a byproduct of an internal combustion engine. Over time these contaminents build up and can turn into sludge that resembles black mud in your oil pan. Enough sludge can destroy an engine. If one were to take two brand new identical vehicles & use conventional oil changed at 3k miles in one vehicle and synthetic oil changed at 7k miles in the other it would be very clear after examining the oil pans in both vehicles after 100k miles which vehicle had the more frequent oil changes.Since you change oil yourself as I've been doing all my life, use conventional oil & change it every 3k-3.5 miles. Use the savings to....let me see......401k plan BTW the most mileage on a single vehicle that I got using my oil change parameters was 246k miles on a 1980 VW Rabbit Diesel.

Telcoman

[G37 Man]

Got a question on changing the oil on the G37,from seeing how it was changedon my G37,isn't there a cover on the bottom of the G37 that needs to be removed before you can get to the oil filter? Looks to be a pain in the *** unless you have the car on a lift with room to work.

[TeflonG35]

I did the not so pretty way of just cutting the hole bigger in the cover. I really diden't care. No body ever sees down there.The cover may be different in the g37.

[snwbrdr435]

Telco how bout the people that just use synthetic because it is better for your car, not for getting added mileage out of it.

[rn79870]

I have a list of mechanics that is a mile long that use only Valvoline, and swear by it. I use only Valvoline, always have, always will. I have never had a oil related failure in any of the 32 (or was it 33) cars I've owned. A regular 3000 mile oil change regiment does wonders for an engines health.

Now, whether or not you get slightly better mileage or 3 more HP from synthetic oil is another matter. I doubt .5 mpg or 3 HP would be noticed. Do the math on the .5 mpg and is doesn't pay for the difference in cost.

[TeflonG35]

As long as there is no downside(Not including cost) to synthetic i will continue to use it. I rather be the guy that was too cautious. Oil is the life blood of your car. You can't be too careful.

$40 every 5k miles isn't that expensive. Specially for those of us That don't drive a whole lot of miles.

[rn79870]

I think the downside is people thinking it is healthy to extend the oil change periods way beyond the 3ooo mile mark, not the oil itself.

[CYO44Baseball32]

Got a question on changing the oil on the G37,from seeing how it was changedon my G37,isn't there a cover on the bottom of the G37 that needs to be removed before you can get to the oil filter? Looks to be a pain in the *** unless you have the car on a lift with room to work.

There are 4 10mm bolts that a hand tools can remove easily. I just drove the car onto ramps I bought for $32 at the auto parts store. My car is slammed and I still had room to work. Once those four bolts are off just fold back the small section of the cover and you see the drain plug and oil filter.

[CYO44Baseball32]

I think the downside is people thinking it is healthy to extend the oil change periods way beyond the 3ooo mile mark, not the oil itself.

The whole thing is after 5,000 and one trip of over 1,000 miles straight, the old oil was still good. The old oil is what ever infiniti uses for oil changes, so I think that oil would have been fine for 7,000 and the royal purple will be fine for 7,000.

[snwbrdr435]

rn when i said mileage i was talking about mileage in between oil changes. I think that synthetics are just better for you engine and they have been tested too. In the long run we will find out what is actually better but for now i will stick to the royal purple in all my engines.

[telcoman]

There are 4 10mm bolts that a hand tools can remove easily. I just drove the car onto ramps I bought for $32 at the auto parts store. My car is slammed and I still had room to work. Once those four bolts are off just fold back the small section of the cover and you see the drain plug and oil filter.

I take the whole fiberboard shroud off using a portable electrical drill with a 1/4 in adapter for the 10 mm socket to remove the bolts. It only takes a couple of minutes to remove it completely and I clean it off. I pour the old used oil into plastic jugs and drop it off at Pep Boys.



The old pink plastic shower curtain that the wife told me to take out to the garbage makes an ideal cover to wipe up any spills on my concrete driveway.



I generally do my tire rotations every 5k miles while changing oil at the same time.

Telcoman

Modified by telcoman at 10:30 AM 5/31/2008
Modified by telcoman at 10:32 AM 5/31/2008

[rn79870]

Synthetic oils have been known to seep into your transmission and cause your neuteral gear to seize (if you have an AT) or they can cause the pre-lubrication on your pressure plate to gel and not work efficiently. They also are suspected of causing premature wear to the freeze plugs in the combustion chamber.

Edited... I found an article that reports pistons are often found to have crowns after teardowns when synthetic oils were used.

[CYO44Baseball32]

I take the whole fiberboard shroud off using a portable electrical drill with a 1/4 in adapter for the 10 mm socket to remove the bolts. It only takes a couple of minutes to remove it completely and I clean it off. I pour the old used oil into plastic jugs and drop it off at Pep Boys.



The old pink plastic shower curtain that the wife told me to take out to the garbage makes an ideal cover to wipe up any spills on my concrete driveway.



I generally do my tire rotations every 5k miles while changing oil at the same time.

Telcoman

Modified by telcoman at 10:30 AM 5/31/2008

Modified by telcoman at 10:32 AM 5/31/2008

Damn way to make my whole operation look cracker jack lol. But very nice set up

[Goat_Wiz]

what about switching to synthetic for a little more hp? In the new DSPORT when they just added Eneos synthetic oil to their Saab, it got a 6.9 whp increase. Any horse power gain would be enough to sway me. Maybe that's just me. I'm trying to squeeze all I can out of her

[CYO44Baseball32]

I've heard that it will add a little and the oil claims that too but I'm not sure how true it is. Someone should dyno b4 the oil then after the oil

[Beancooker]

Synthetic oils have been known to seep into your transmission and cause your neuteral gear to seize (if you have an AT) or they can cause the pre-lubrication on your pressure plate to gel and not work efficiently. They also are suspected of causing premature wear to the freeze plugs in the combustion chamber.

Edited... I found an article that reports pistons are often found to have crowns after teardowns when synthetic oils were used.

What???

Pressure plates don't have lubrication...

You would have to blow out the rear mail seal in order to have it leak into the transmission/gear box. At that point, the transmission is less of a concern as having a leak in the rear main seal.

The freeze plugs theory is absolute BS. Freeze plugs are not in any way associated with the combustion chamber. Freeze plugs are a "cap" that is pressed into the outside of the block, where the coolant flows around the combustion chamber. There is no way for oil to be getting in contact with the freeze plugs, unless you have a blown head gasket, and then in that case, freeze plugs are the very least of your worries.

Email me the link to the article about crowning the pistons with syn oil, please.

[badutahboy]

Thanks for debunking that... I was about to call a mechanic friend and pick his mind about synthetic because the specific nature of those complaints had me thinking there was credibility to it... Sounds like a Jiffy Lube manager's story to keep the business rolling in.

[Tampa G35 Sedan 6MT]

I think you have to use regular oil for the cars first 10k miles then you can switch to Syntetic.

I use Mobil 1 15,000 mile extended preformance.

Love it and only have to change my oil once a year or every 15,000 miles. Even at 15000 miles the oil is still clean in my G

3k mile change X5 =15k miles @ 20 bux each....100 bux

15k mile change 60 bux at walmart with mobil 1

40 plus bux to IRA or 401k

oh yea and I get to have someone do the work and i sit in the A/C

That is the only thing my father ever tought me. He said one day "son today i am going to show you how to change the oil"... I thought wow dad is going to show me something. We got in the Jeep and drove to the 10 min pensoil and said "this is how you change your oil.... Get a good jop so you can pay people to do what they do and you can get paid to do what you do."

I still live by that to this day and me and my father don't have a good relationship.

DJ

[badutahboy]

I think you have to use regular oil for the cars first 10k miles then you can switch to Syntetic.

I use Mobil 1 15,000 mile extended preformance.

Love it and only have to change my oil once a year or every 15,000 miles. Even at 15000 miles the oil is still clean in my G

3k mile change X5 =15k miles @ 20 bux each....100 bux

15k mile change 60 bux at walmart with mobil 1

40 plus bux to IRA or 401k

oh yea and I get to have someone do the work and i sit in the A/C

That is the only thing my father ever tought me. He said one day "son today i am going to show you how to change the oil"... I thought wow dad is going to show me something. We got in the Jeep and drove to the 10 min pensoil and said "this is how you change your oil.... Get a good jop so you can pay people to do what they do and you can get paid to do what you do."

I still live by that to this day and me and my father don't have a good relationship.

DJ

Lol.. I definitely agree with your dad's advice when it comes to oil changes.. It's hardly worth your time to save $15-20 bucks while wasting an hour under your car and dealing with disposing of old oil... However, most other maintenance stuff I do myself.. brakes in particular. It drives me nuts that most everyone charges $80+ for brakes when you can do them in your driveway for $25-40 and 20 minutes of your time.

[zozoka1212]

Although you are right about the 15-20 bux but most of these guys doing it them self to make sure it is done right. Probably you heard some of the horror stories going around of the fast oil change places.

zozo

Note I take it to the dealer to change oil due to my lazy a$$. Also I've got 2 years free oil change.

[Beancooker]

I also take it to Nissan. $40 gets me synthetic, and my hands are clean. Plus I know that for less than Jiffy Lube will charge, it'll be dne correctly.

[TeflonG35]

Lol.. I definitely agree with your dad's advice when it comes to oil changes.. It's hardly worth your time to save $15-20 bucks while wasting an hour under your car and dealing with disposing of old oil... However, most other maintenance stuff I do myself.. brakes in particular. It drives me nuts that most everyone charges $80+ for brakes when you can do them in your driveway for $25-40 and 20 minutes of your time.

$80 per axle with brakes....I just called up pepboys to ask how much to change spark plugs on friday. $100 just to change the plugs i had previously purchased. I said screw that and changed them for free in like 30 min.

[badutahboy]

Yeah, I've even experienced them... One of my good buddies took his completely modded Maxima into Jiffy lube for an oil change and they didn't fill it... at all... He ended up in court, having to bring receipts for all of his engine work, as well as proof that his mods left the car street legal... It took him two years, but he got paid around 8k to replace everything.

[Tampa G35 Sedan 6MT]

The guy that works in the auto dept at walmart is a customer and a family friend of mine and he does my car himself...(at walmart) Never had any problems so far "Fingers Crossed!"

Brakes are the biggest money saver. I don't think i will be needing brakes for about 20k miles or 2 years so the write up will have to wait for now... But my father would spend 500bux for pads on his tundra at toyota I started to put them on his truck when i was 16 after i did a little resarch on how to do them online lol... I have saved my family probably 10k in auto repairs.

I like the challenge to fix things.

Last week i save my grandfater about 500bux on his camry.. The A/C relay went out and I figured out the problem thanks to a google search.

Then two days later i installed a thermo sensor in my dads altima. It controls when the clutch engages the ac compressor. And it wouldn't work when the car was hot in the day. 60 dollar part.. Nissan wanted 330 bux to install and then the part cost...

That was 900 bux in one weekend!

DJ