Hi all,

I am prepping my 2012 M35H for driving from the UK through Europe this December and doing some 'do-it-yourself' maintenance before the trip. I thought I'd share what I'm going to be doing and share my experience after! Any tips and trips would be much appreciated as I've never done that before.
I've had the car for ~1 year and done only ~6k miles. Odometer is ~105,000 miles.

- Oil and oil filter change -- Planning on using Castrol 5w30 Edge and the Blueprint Oil filter (found for ~£35 both on Amazon)
- Antifreeze change -- The car is at ~105k miles and according to the Infiniti maintenance schedules, the coolant should be changed. I also want to avoid incidents in below 0 temperatures. Now since I have the hybrid M35H, it seems to have separate tanks for coolant - one for the engine and one for the inverter. Has anyone done the change and do you know what volume is needed, anything special for the inverter bit, and whether 'aftermarket' antifreeze is ok to use? Saw this on Amazon and Nissan are charging 3-4 times the price for the Nissan blue antifreeze: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00 ... A1OLE&th=1
- Winter tyre change
- Cabin/pollen filter change - I've seen the grape polyphenol filter posts on this forum and I wanted to try it, but this seems to be unavailable in the UK. I'm just getting the BluePrint ADN12545

- Power steering -- I thought I might change the power steering fluid (not sure if it ever has been changed). Any idea how this is done?

Besides this, I know driving in the EU requires headlight stickers (to prevent blinding drivers), breathalysers, yellow vests, fire extinguisher and warning triangle. I am yet to buy some of these.

Thanks in advance!

Sounds awesome! I've been wanting to do this too - first fly into my native Ukraine and then do a Europe trip to London or something. Curious how it goes!

As for power steering fluid, you can do it with a turkey baster but be careful not to get completely try. Remove some, add some, drive, repeat. Should eventually end up with mostly new fluid.

I would also bleed your brakes with new fluid (keep bleeding till you've added a bottle or two) because those alps and such will put your brakes to the test (when you're going down them).

Thanks, Ilya, your trips sounds like fun, too!

Many thanks for the tips - I'll look into bleeding the brakes!

Any tips on the antifreeze? I guess any good brand should work for both the engine and inverter, right (given it is the same fluid that goes into it normally)? What I want is a fluid usable to less than -30 degrees C (given central Europe and mountainous areas). So I'm thinking of buying a concentrated antifreeze and diluting with Brita filtered water to get to ~-36 degrees C. Advice much appreciated!
By the way, I've had a response from Nissan on the volume required - it seems the M35H requires 9.2 litres coolant for the engine & 2.7 litres for the high voltage cooling system.
Interestingly, only 4.9 L of engine oil. Makes me think about the engineering of the engine.

Regarding the power steering fluid, Nissan said it requires 1 L only. Can I follow up - why do you suggest doing it with a turkey baster/large syringe? I haven't yet looked at the factory service manuals, but I guess there is no draining for the power steering fluid? And by remove a bit, add, repeat, do you mean remove ~half, add half a litre, etc, or do you go in smaller increments?
I'm wondering whether or not to do the power steering fluid replacement now because I might mess something up! The initial reason I though I'd do it is that after coming back from a holiday (and driving another car, a 2016 VW jetta), the steering on the Infiniti seemed quite 'heavy'. But maybe that was just the perception after driving the super light steering on the VW.

Thanks!

immber wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 25, 2022 4:09 am

Regarding the power steering fluid, Nissan said it requires 1 L only. Can I follow up - why do you suggest doing it with a turkey baster/large syringe? I haven't yet looked at the factory service manuals, but I guess there is no draining for the power steering fluid? And by remove a bit, add, repeat, do you mean remove ~half, add half a litre, etc, or do you go in smaller increments?

Ilya is right but don't overcomplicate it in your head. There's no drain plug, and on many Infinitis air in the PS can be a complete PITA to purge. So you don't want to let the reservoir go dry while you're swapping out the fluid, that would introduce air. By almost emptying the reservoir and refilling the system incrementally, you avoid that but still swap out most of the old fluid.

I love filtered water, but I would not put that into my coolant system. Please get either a premixed coolant (not sure if Europe has that like the US) or get some distilled water and coolant and do your own mix. Personally, I'd probably just go with Nissan long life. Back in my days on the Maxima forums, we used to use Toyota coolant because it was cheaper by the gallon...but my understanding Toyota, Nissan and Honda are all the same but different colors (Toyota red, Nissan blue, Honda green IIRC). You're not going to antarctica or something...no need to overthink the coolant. As long as it's fresh and the right level, you should be fine in Europe.

RE: Turkey baster...yep, what VStar said. Just don't go super low/dry on it and you'll be okay. I don't remember how many times I had to do the process, but 3-4 should get most of the fluid exchanged. Drive a few miles in between each exchange (or if you have a lift, turn the car on and turn the wheel back and forth for a few minutes).

The same applies to the brake system...DO NOT LET THE MASTER CYLINDER GET DRY! If you are doing it yourself, using something like a speed bleeder, keep an eye on the level and keep adding more. If you are having a shop do it, then just tell then you want the brake system bled.

Thank you, both!

Got it, regarding the power steering and brakes!
Also, after some reading mixing the coolant with filtered water seems very silly on my part! I'll just go for premixed as suggested! 3x5L of the blue L255N one is ~£96 in the UK rn. \Non-oem blue antifreeze is around half the price, but I think worthwhile investing in the real stuff.
Do you need to flush the system before adding the new coolant? I've seen special antifreeze 'flush' fluids being sold as well?

Cheers!

immber wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 25, 2022 4:20 pm

Thank you, both!

Got it, regarding the power steering and brakes!
Also, after some reading mixing the coolant with filtered water seems very silly on my part! I'll just go for premixed as suggested! 3x5L of the blue L255N one is ~£96 in the UK rn. \Non-oem blue antifreeze is around half the price, but I think worthwhile investing in the real stuff.
Do you need to flush the system before adding the new coolant? I've seen special antifreeze 'flush' fluids being sold as well?

Cheers!

I haven't done it in a while, but the proper way to flush a cooling system at home is to open all of the drain ports and just run distilled water through the system (like 9-10 gallons of water). Some folks have done just a garden hose but that can leave sediments, etc. so best to not risk it. Then fill to proper level with your choice of coolant. However, you need to be able to catch all of the old coolant and drained water/coolant as it's not the best for the environment. I just paid for the coolant flush to be done on my wife's QX60 at the dealership and it was $199 USD.