As I was getting close to 3K miles, I became concerned about getting the oil changed even though the manual says 3.7K miles for the first change.
I checked the oil with the dipstick (dipstick is the person that desinged this car's oil checking method). I could never get a consistant line on the reading...it was more like a dot of oil here and there.

I took the car in to a 3rd party shop to have the oil changed and asked the tech to measure the amount of oil that came out of the car. Yeah, he said 1 quart came of of the d4mn thing and 5 quarts went in with no problem.

So, in 3K miles, I have either burned 4 quarts of oil, or the factory never put enough in and the dealer did a sloppy job with the PDI inspection and did not catch it.

I went to the dealer today and we recorded the mileage and verifed that the level was full. I am going back in 500 miles to see if the level changes. Either way, I am furious about the possibility that the engine was damaged.

The dealer told me that there is no way the engine was damaged...the oil light would have come on. However, the manual states that the oil light is not a low level indicator...just a low pressure indicator. I realize that low enough oil level would lead to low oil pressure, so maybe the car is OK. What do you think?

P.S. The bluetooth in my car $uck$ ballz. Other than that, and the 1 quart of oil, the car is great.

 

The next time you take your car in have the service
manager show you how to read the dipstick. This
way you can keep an eye on it yourself. Don't
depend on the manuel for your oil changes, and keep
in mind Infiniti sells engines. They would love to sell you a new one....get it?

 

Wow.. one QT... .i would hardly think thats enough to lubricate the whole valvetrain, be in the cooler lines, and some in the pan for pickup.. I know I had bout 3 QTs come out in my last oil chagne with 9K between changes (run mobil one extended life) and I have heard of these motors burning oil..

 

You would not have 1 quart left in the engine. If you were lower than 2 quarts (meaning 3 quarts left in the engine) the oil pressure light would have came on. The guy who measured didn't measure right and probably was wrong.

 

How did he measure it? Most shops drain the old oil into an oil drum.

 

Highly unlikely there was only 1 qt. Maybe he meant 1 gal.
You were right to take it to the dealer. However, I personally think you had more then 1 qt of oil in your car and you will be fine.

 

Thanks for the responses.....all I can tell you is that the tech checked the oil with the dipstick after the car sat for 10 minutes and he could not get a reading either. In other words, the oil level was so low that it did not register on the dipstick at all. Then he drained it and estimated 1 quart came out.

I agree that he could have made a bad estimation, but I also know that the oil level was so low, it did not register on the dipstick.

 

One quart low will not register on the dipstick.

 

No, I am afraid I am not making myself clear. No oil line was registering on the dipstick. The oil level was so low that it did not register a line on the dipstick at all. Only a dot here or a dot there which was probably remnant in the dipstick tube as it was pulled out. Once they put oil in the car and we used the dipstick, it obviously had a clear line of the now full oil level. There was nothing like this on the dipstick before we changed the oil.

Keep in mind that there is an inch or so of spriral at the bottom of the dipstick....well below the low mark on the dipstick. There was not even an oil level on that before the oil change.

 

You made yourself perfectly clear and I will say it for the 3rd time. It only takes one quart low to not show on our dipsticks on these cars. It will not show up at all!

You had more than 1 quart. At the bare min you had at least 3 quarts. But anything below 3.5 your oil pressure light would have came on and your engine would have been knocking some.

Your TECH (not even a trained tech) did not measure it right. I know people who work at places like that out of HIGH SCHOOL.

 

If 1 quart low puts you right off the bottom of the dipstick then how much volume is indicated between the full and add lines? On my past cars the distance between those lines corresponded to 1 quart (give or take). Are you saying that it is way less on these cars?

 

I changed my oil at 3000 miles. It ran fine until about 6500, and then my oil light would come on during hard braking and it started making HORRIBLE noises all the time. I checked the oil and it would cover the entire stick. (Car was off and yes I know how to read an oil stick) It kept covering the whole stick no matter how many times i cleaned it off and re checked. Anyways, I ended up putting in a few quarts and the sound went away, but how the hell did my car burn that much oil?

 

When we did a oil change on my car the place I went too only put in 4.5 quarts. It was barely even reading on the dipstick at all. We put the other half in and it read normal.

Still the point being the car oil pressure light would have came on and with only 1 quart the engine would have siezed or being making some loud noises. The guy was just plain wrong.

 

Doesn't seem to be the case for me either... the last time I changed my oil, I only had a quart come out after draining the oil for quite a bit... and this was after adding a quart of oil because the oil pressure light occasionally came on the day before...

 

Actually Nissan Oil pressure sensors read really low.
Around 4psi from what I remeber. I noticed that with my G and my 240. With 2 Qts in the car it wont go off unless you break hard like in my situation. My 240 had less than 2 Qts left before the oil light would come on......and that would only happen if I broke on the harder side.

I had just above 2 Qts left in my G before the light would come on while braking.

Its been discussed on FA numerous times that you should not pay attention to the stock oil pressure sending unit.