First oil change in 350Z?

[JaseR33]

The nissan service mechanics recommended a mate of mine to do his first oil change in a new Z at 10000kms. Does this sound right? I thought it would be best to change at 5000kms. What do you think??? Are the new engines designed to be changed at 10000???

Cheers

[SteveL]

The nissan service mechanics recommended a mate of mine to do his first oil change in a new Z at 10000kms. Does this sound right? I thought it would be best to change at 5000kms. What do you think??? Are the new engines designed to be changed at 10000???

Car would be under warranty, so he should follow whatever NIssan recommends (which is presumably what the Nissan mechanics are doing). OTOH, changing the oil earlier should no affect warranty as long as Nissan oil specs are followed (I would also make sure they are happy with that tho, and have it all recorded in the log book).

The 350Z was primarily designed for the USA market and long service intervals are mandated for cars sold in there (but it must be said that long intervals are also specified for recent model Commodes and Falcans). My wifes 1998 RAV4 has a 10,000km specification for oil changes, but I change it every 5000km.

[wrxhoon]

Most car co's these days specify 10-20 k k's service but there is a time frame as well ( 6 -12 months usualy ) . If you drive your car normal ( no short trips no hard driving or dusty conditions) thats fine . Personaly i would do it every 5000 or 3 months though and i would use fully synthetic oil as well .

40 years ago 1000 mile intervals was the norm but oil technology has improved sinse then .

[Guest RedLineGTR]

The nissan service mechanics recommended a mate of mine to do his first oil change in a new Z at 10000kms. Does this sound right? I thought it would be best to change at 5000kms. What do you think??? Are the new engines designed to be changed at 10000???

Cheers

My mate got a new 350z about 6 months ago, same deal with the 10000 service..thought it was weird but why wouldnt the company know best (running in wise)..since they made the car.

[Busky2k]

You can dump the oil at 5000ks no problem and probably is a good idea considering all the wear particles from running in are floating around in the oil. I'd stick something in there similar to what they give you at the dealership. Something along the lines of Castrol Magnatec (cos I dont think synthetic is specified by Nissan). After that, i'd be using a proper synthetic like Castrol R 5W30 from then on..

[Duncan]

Yeah we saw 10,000klm for ours too.....personally I do the 5000klm change and let nissan do the services so we get those all important stamps in the warranty book

Dead easy to do yourself....except there is a plastic undertray held on by about 20 screws...

One other thing....our Z uses a frightening amount of oil...so if you don't change it, keep a very close eye on the levels.....

[wrxhoon]

Yeah we saw 10,000klm for ours too.....personally I do the 5000klm change and let nissan do the services so we get those all important stamps in the warranty book

Dead easy to do yourself....except there is a plastic undertray held on by about 20 screws...

One other thing....our Z uses a frightening amount of oil...so if you don't change it, keep a very close eye on the levels.....

How much oil does she use Duncan ? 1 lt every 3000 km ? How many k's on the clock ? Its normal to use a fair bit of oil until the rings bed in but it should settle after 10-15 k k's .

If you drive it hard on the track its going to use more oil of course .

Some gen 3 Holden v8's use 1 lt every 1000 km and they tell them ( Holden ) thats normal .

[Duncan]

nah it was in the holden range, about 3l in the first 5000klm it has settled down now though only about 1l per 5000.

Still, if you are the just service it when the light says sort of person you might be down to no oil before the first 10,000klm service

Of course it may not of helped that it was about 3500klm old for its first track outing

[wrxhoon]

1 lt every 5000 k k's is normal for a high performance engine especialy if you drive it hard .

On the track it will use a lot more though .

You should always check the oil level and not wait until its due for a service to do it .

Taking it to the track at 3500 k wouldn't efect the oil usage one way or another . If you

drive it very easy the rings may never bed in but i wouldn't take it to the track before 1000 k , hard driving when very new may bust a ring .

Holdens use low friction rings for better fuel consumpion and their tolerences are not as tight as nissan .

[sooley]

Hi Duncan

Do you own a Track or Touring?

Just wondering, I have a Track that I'm selling and I need a set of track wheels. I have R34 GTR wheels on it at the moment. I'd do a swap + $2000 if your keen.

or if you have your wheels lying around let me know

Thanks

0419 044 472

Anthony

[Duncan]

Hey Anthony, we're not looking to change wheel atm but thanks for the offer

What are you moving to? the Z is a pretty good car to zoom around town in

[jasin66]

I use Mobile 1 it's a synthetic oil and was told i could skip the 5000 service if i use it, so i change it out at 10000km, it's a track with about 35000km on clock and have never needed to top up the oil level.

[Bobjones]

On a side note, yes the 350Z is designed for long service intervals and to be honest 10,000km is not long at all, especially if you are using a good oil on a n/a engine, albeit a high revving one.

Currently, here in the states Mobil is advetising its new oil range, with 3 different oils with different service intervals, being

7,500 miles = 12,000KM

10,000 miles = 16,000KM

15,000 miles = 24,000KM

So I think the yanks are lazy, that and their fuel is shite, the cars run like a bucket of crap cause no one services them (I am just talking the tri-state area at the moment as I am yet to venture to far into other states).

So I am sure that 10,000km's will be fine, hey change it more regularly if you want, it cannot harm anything!!!

[r33freely]

Mmmm id defently be changing at 5000ks or well under that depending on how padentic you are, iv seen 1st hand the deposits of alloy dags and other general production rubish that gets left in the engines oil gallerys.

Remove the filter strip it down and have a close look, you may be extremely supsised of what you find.

oil shoul be changed as reguarly as possible, Its just a matter of how much damage you want to do to your engine as apposed to your wallet...lol

[WazR32GTSt]

if you are going to change the oil yourself and don't want nissan to 'find out' (re warranty) then be careful of the oil filter. make sure you use a nissan one and check that the original one wasn't orientated specifically to line up with anything... who knows? they might position it specifically to see if people are fiddling with the car...?

alternatively you could just change the oil without the filter (i know its not ideal but its better than not changing the oil, right?)

cheers,

Warren.

[maxforce]

the guys at nissan are right. turbo cars you should do it a 4000kms cause you need to have good clean oil not just for the motor but also good oil to lubricate and cool down the turbo. NA cars dont need that often like turbo cars so there's ya solution.

[ferni]

in the states mechanics charge like brain surgeons, so would explain the long servicing times.