I have almost reached the 1,200 mile break in period and want to change my oil. I have two questions.

1. Should I use synthetic oil if so what brand and oil viscosity

2. What is the Nissan Part # for the oil filter for the Rogue?

I have almost a full case of Nissan oil filters left over from my 2003 Altima that was totaled before I purchased the Rogue. The Part # is 15208-65F00

I would hold off using synthetic until after the second oil change at miles so the engine has had a little time to completely break-in.

The oil filter should be the same as the Altima. I have an '07 Versa and our '06 Altima 4 cylinder uses the same filter. I can't imagine they used a different filter in this application of the same engine.

I believe it's part # 15208-65F0C

I'd wait until at least 7,500 miles to allow for proper break in.

However, I'd strongly recommend just getting Castrol GTX. It outperforms many of the psuedo-synthetics like Mobile-1.

Save your money and just change the oil/filter more frequently. I'd argue that 3,000 mile changes with GTX would be better than 5,000 miles changes with a synthetic (even a true synthetic like Amsoil or Castrol Euro Formula).

rrs26ja wrote:I have almost reached the 1,200 mile break in period and want to change my oil. I have two questions.

1. Should I use synthetic oil if so what brand and oil viscosity

2. What is the Nissan Part # for the oil filter for the Rogue?

I have almost a full case of Nissan oil filters left over from my 2003 Altima that was totaled before I purchased the Rogue. The Part # is 15208-65F00

why are you changing your oil after only 1000 miles?

boooey wrote:
why are you changing your oil after only 1000 miles?

A lot of us change our oil early for the first time at around 1000 miles. There are some that think the oil might pickup more metal particles during the break-in or left from the machining process. Over kill maybe but I would rather not take any chances. I had mine changed by the dealer at 1200 miles and just did my second change myself at 4200 miles. It was very easy to change thanks to the tips on this forum. I just pulled the cover back from the oil filter I did not remove the pins. Oh by the way Castrol GTX was my oil of choice.

According to the owners manual, the break in period is 1,200 miles. I figured right after the break in period, I would change the oil and get the metal break in particles out of the oil so it didn't do damage to the engine. Like Ticmxman says, might be over kill but who cares.

rrs26ja wrote:According to the owners manual, the break in period is 1,200 miles. I figured right after the break in period, I would change the oil and get the metal break in particles out of the oil so it didn't do damage to the engine. Like Ticmxman says, might be over kill but who cares.

interesting.. now i wanna get my oil changed .. i'm close to 1200 miles

Just don't drive the car really hard until the second oil change. I usually change my first oil between 1,500-2,000. I don't get hard on the car until 2,000 miles. I also do the common-internet preferred break-in procedure of driving the car increasingly harder every 1k miles. Raise the max revs by 500 rpm. Usually by time I get to 2,500 I'll redline it once in a blue moon.

Basically I go:

New -> 400 miles = Baby400-600 miles = Drive a little more aggressively, maybe 4,000 rpm max600-800, a little harder, 4500 rpm max800-1000, a little harder, 5k max1000-1200, 55001200-1500, 60001500-2000, 6500

I usually do this once or twice per period.

I put Mobil 1 in all my vehicles and I don't think you have to worry about when you do it. Some vehicles like my Corvette come with synthetic oil (Mobil 1) straight from the factory. 20 years ago manufacturers would use a so called break in oil for the initial fill but those days are long gone. And although I like Mobil 1 I'm sure any quality synthetic oil would be fine. In addition I use a Mobil 1 (M1-108) filter which is very heavy duty in my Rogue. You'll find that with synthetic oil you can go much longer between oil changes, your fuel economy will improve and your cold weather starting will be much easier.

mag318 wrote:I put Mobil 1 in all my vehicles and I don't think you have to worry about when you do it. Some vehicles like my Corvette come with synthetic oil (Mobil 1) straight from the factory. 20 years ago manufacturers would use a so called break in oil for the initial fill but those days are long gone. And although I like Mobil 1 I'm sure any quality synthetic oil would be fine. In addition I use a Mobil 1 (M1-108) filter which is very heavy duty in my Rogue. You'll find that with synthetic oil you can go much longer between oil changes, your fuel economy will improve and your cold weather starting will be much easier.

Mobil-1 changed their formula a few years back and the new one is worse than the old one. Unless you're buying their more expensive extended formulas or high performance formulas, I'd recommend switching to Amsoil or Castrol Euro Formula. Ever since Castrol won that lawsuit that allowed them to sell psuedo synthetic as regular synthetic, Mobil decided to do the same to save money.

I used to run synthetic in all my cars but found I was still changing my oil every 3k miles because I just didn't feel comfortable leaving it in any longer. With the stellar oil reports surrounding Castrol GTX in most cars (Nissans being especially great), I just use GTX everywhere now.

The Rogue's engine is nothing special, it's not a Porsche engine, it's an engine designed for regular passenger cars. It was designed to have junk thrown down it and not complain. I think spending the additional on synthetic in this type of vehicle is just wasteful, but hey it's good for the economy. So long as you stay away from junk oils like Pennzoil, regular oil is more than sufficient assuming it's changed at the proper intervals.