Who's burning oil?

[SixGuns]

Hey, did a search, and all I could come up with is standard Nissan tech questions...So here's my question posed to you guys specifically with the 3.5 - y'all burning oil? Is this due to the poorly designed valve cover that was mentioned before? Or are we looking at rings? Normally can't smell anything, but every time I tach it out or really anything over 4k RPM, burnt oil can be smelled for at least a full minute after the ensuing upshifts. Running about 76k miles with the 4 spd auto trans. Penz. platnum 5w30 has been used for the past 15k. Just curious if anyone else is running the same problem.

[Empty V]

I'm at almost 200ik miles on my 01 and have never had a drop in oil level. I am interested in finding out what it is though as I'm sure I'm just lucky, really lucky.

Billy

[Pwnin O'Brien]

I've never had any problems with burning oil. I'm at 67k miles and I've used Royal Purple 5W-30 and K&N filter (used a Mobil 1 filter a couple of times) since I've owned the car (since the 29k mark).

[Buzzman]

Is it actually using oil, and how much?I usually use one litre between oil changes. I don't consider this to be a problem though.Some oil loss is to be expected after 200,000 Kms.

[W O T]

I dont burn oil at all, ive stretched 4k out of an oil change and my oil always stays at the same level, not noticeable anyways.

Im close to 110k miles to

[KyooX4]

I'm at 110k miles and I've never noticed a drop in oil level.

[Densetsu]

I go through about 1 litre of oil every change... which in my experiences is normal for a lot of vehicles. But I've never smelled it in my exhaust, no matter what I do.

'03 Pathy, 163,000 km.

[carnal_c30]

I'm at 165k miles and I run 5w30 and don't burn a drop of oil.I've had vq30 with over 240k miles and it ran perfect as well.

[slickroger]

Im at 135k miles and I lose about a liter or so every change and I usually run a change after 4.5k miles.

[Medic307]

My pathfinder burns oil. it is usually low when i go to get an oil change. When i use high mileage synthetic oil the level stays up. I have about 320,000 kms on my pathfinder.

[SixGuns]

Huh...Thanks for the input, guys...guess I'll just go with it till I rebuild the engine sometime in the next few years...Glad to hear your rides are holding up well.

[stevemac19]

I Just recently had to have my vq35 de engine remanufactured due to the oil consumption issue. I was burning 1.5 qts every thousand miles. The burning oil was causing my catalytic converters to fail. My nissan dealership confirmed the oil consumption but would not help me as I have 89,000 miles and I bought the car used with 21,000 miles. I contacted nissan and they will not help either even though they have recognized this issue on several models of cars. The issue, according to my mechanic, was bad rings and blow by--- although I had no smoke and no visible residue at the tail pipe. Overall the rebuild cost 6900.00 with only 2600.00 covered by my extended warranty. Then, to boot, the remanufactured engine had a coolant leak which cost 1553.00 to fix and the remanufacturer only agreed to pay 183.00 less than 2 months after the rebuild---- unreal. Do not use Promar our of NJ for any remanufacturing work as they do not stand behind their products. Promar will try to blame the installer and will try to get out of all warranty issues. So I had had a rough go of this and I regret my decision not to try and trade the truck in at this point. I wil never buy another nissan--- EVER.

[Chuck Tribolet]

223,000 miles, a quart every 1000 miles.

Chuck

[jroo]

My O4 Path has been using oil since 60K. It picked up more when I hit 100k. Cant really tell you how much it uses becasue it varies with the type of driving I do. As a matter of practice, I check my oil level every 2 weeks. Sometimes I am really low others not so much. No real ryhme or reason other than driving to work or doing a lot of highway miles. I never smell oil, no blue smoke during driving or at start up, never heard anything tick, it just plain uses oil.

My father had the same issue with his Infiniti I 35. He owned it since new and was mostly dealer serviced until the end. He was nutty about oil changes on the car and around 40k the people who changed the oil would tell him "did he know he was low when he brought the car in." He started checking and it had started using oil to the point that he constantly had to watching the level. He pushed the car to 90k and got sick of looking at oil levels in the morning and traded the car about a month ago. It sucks, but I know someone just picked up a very clean car dealer maintained car that drinks oil like a kid drinking water at football practice in summer heat.

You either have a good VQ or one that uses oil, Nissan really did some of us badly on this engine. Coupled with the bad gas mileage and need for premium fuel, I really could have gotten a larger SUV and done better on several factors. It sucks to know that my buddy has a Yukon that does better on gas, runs on regular octane, and doesnt use a drop of oil between changes.

[yngw13]

^^^re : fuel consumption
nobody predicted that GAS would increase in price prior 01...$1.80-$2.00 was a good price for premium back then...

[Densetsu]

Coupled with the bad gas mileage and need for premium fuel,

Need for premium fuel? The VQ35DE can certainly take advantage of premium fuel, but still runs fine on regular. Check out your owner's manual.

[craig1980]

My 2003 Pathfinder 3.5 with 127k burns a quart every thousand. I changed out the passenger valve cover and the pcv valve. Didn't really change much. Every morning at start up I get a puff of white smoke out the exhaust and sometime when taking off from stop signs I get the same thing. Last oil change I used a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil for about 1k miles and after it was drained out I added a quart of Lucas stop leak with my new oil. (http://www.walmart.com/ip/36052508?wmls ... 12&veh=sem)
I guess it seemed to help a little. Lucas recommends using it a few times for best results.

[AlanAZ]

I've read this on a couple of forums:

"If your VQ is losing/burning oil, it is NOT because of the viscosity. The problem lies in the taper of the cylinder bore. All VQ engines have a tapered bore, and on some, it is excessive, to the point where the secondary rings and oil control rings are not making full contact with the cylinder walls. During heavy deceleration, or high rpm deceleration, the vacuum in the cylinder draws oil past these rings. In a situation where you are losing 1qt every 1000 miles, you can be sure to find secondary rings that show minimal signs of wear."

On our 120K ml QX4, no smoke at cold start, burns 1.5 qt of M1 0w40 over the 7K ml OCI, no oil burning smell like OP.

Specs on the taper:

http://www.alldatadiy.com/alldatadiy/DI ... /145860203

[yeldogt]

All three of mine used a bit of oil ... and would leak if Syn was used. Using the high mile oil stopped the leaks ... it uses over a qt between 7ish oil changes.

[rgk]

I've read this on a couple of forums:

"If your VQ is losing/burning oil, it is NOT because of the viscosity. The problem lies in the taper of the cylinder bore. All VQ engines have a tapered bore, and on some, it is excessive, to the point where the secondary rings and oil control rings are not making full contact with the cylinder walls. During heavy deceleration, or high rpm deceleration, the vacuum in the cylinder draws oil past these rings. In a situation where you are losing 1qt every 1000 miles, you can be sure to find secondary rings that show minimal signs of wear."

On our 120K ml QX4, no smoke at cold start, burns 1.5 qt of M1 0w40 over the 7K ml OCI, no oil burning smell like OP.

Specs on the taper:

http://www.alldatadiy.com/alldatadiy/DI ... /145860203

Finally a good explanation!