FYI, here are the poll results from maxima.org for VQ35DE engine burning problem:

Sample size was 386
No issues with engine - 67%
Only timing chain rattling, no oil issues - 17%
Burning oil and rattling between 1500-1800 RPM - 6%
Burning oil only - 10%

So from that poll, Nissan has a 33% defect rate on their VQ35DE motors!? Even if it was half that number, that would be horrible.

Put it in perspective!!
 

Internet forum numbers LIE like a carpet. People come on forums to posts problems, imagine if every G owner came on here to say "I don't have an oil problem".. the server would be overloaded in no time.

Don't get me wrong, not saying there is no problem. Just like you can be paranoid, that does not mean someone is not following you. I just would not use the forum as a community as far as getting real numbers. What we need are some Infiniti techs who see these cars come into the shop to give us some numbers....has anyone who is getting the problem worked on asked how many the dealers see?

I'm with you, I know how it is on forums. Most people come on forums to look for answers to a problem they are having. It sure seems like a lot of people complaining though. I doubt we will ever know what the real number is which is too bad. You'd think car mfgs would participate in forums to provide real numbers. But then I'm sure people would accuse them of misinformation if they didn't support the issue at hand.

If you want the real numbers then ask someone who works for Nissan to post number of engine claims per 100 vehicles for oil burning ;)

Other than that, statistically speaking, the sample size of 386 is large enough to draw conclusions... I have 3 friends that have Maximas with 3.5L engine and 2 of them had severe oil burning and had their engines replaced with less than 60K on them...

I'm wondering if it is really an oil burning problem in the traditional sense? i.e. oil slipping past the rings or through the valve guides. Most of the motors with this problem have good to excellent compression and they don't smoke on start up or when accelerating or decelerating.

I wonder if the oil is being "sucked" out of the motor through the intake somewhere. Look at how many people have done the Mrev mod only to find oil in the lower manifold plenum.

I'm bringing my car in to the Infiniti dealership in a couple weeks to get the small block replaced on my car. It's been since October that I first noticed the problem (engine rattle because of low oil) and now I'm finally get it taken care of.

I read this whole thread now Im kind of scaried should I get a g35 .

How many members have posted trouble?

10? 15?

How many members do we have on the site?

From the Home page: Members: 46,446

Infiniti sold almost 9000 cars last year alone.

What is the percentage that are having trouble?

I'll bet it's less than 1%

Mine has been the most trouble free car I have ever owned.

Mine has been trouble free also, although I do check the oil more often than I used to after reading here about the problem.

:D

keep in mind this trend is happening mostly is not solely on 6MT models... so if u have an AT then u probably have nothing to report, duh.

Anyways, I bought my '06 some time last year and after about 3800mi the oil light came on and it started with the little noise everyone here refers to. Im not an idiot and figured out what could be wrong on it but I took it to the dealership and they said "we filled it back up, drive it for 1000mi and come back." I was already aware of the problem and knew driving it some other 1000mi wasn't gonna fix the damn problem since I needed a whole new engine. So what I did was I just ran the damn motor to the ground to the point I put a whole in the block. So then I went back to them and got me a new engine no charge whatsoever. When I took it in they had 2 or 3 other cars waiting for engines for the same issue. So that's 3-4 cars in one dealership in one city. So then the new engine I did just as the first, broke it in correctly, driving it not too hard for the first 800mi or so. Now im at my first oil change and I started getting this little rattle noise again over the weekend. I already called the dealership and im taking it in at the end of the week for a needed oil change. In the meantime I added a quart of oil and it seemed to shut it up. After that I will closely monitor it to see if the excessive oil burning continues.

Bottom line, this is a big issue mostly on the 6MTs and I dunno what the damn engineers are doing about getting this issue resolved.

that's what i've saying all along. infiniti has NOT correctedt he issue. they are simply giving people new engines all together, and the new engine still has the same issue. so where does that leave you? back to where you started.

What's been said here before is about a TSB they're working on....and guess still working on. Who knows when that'll be released...if ever.

One person here was told about this so-called TSB and was having his chain yanked by the Dealer in not replacing his VQ until that TSB was released. He has'nt posted here with an update for a long time.

Still very curious if the new generation VQ has this issue or not. Anyone with an 07 VQ35HR, please chime in if you have this issue too.

I'm going in tomorrow to start the oil consumption test on my 03/6mt coupe. I have been going through about 1 quart per 1000 miles. I got the car used in Oct. of 05, switched to synthetic oil and after about the 2nd oil change at 33,000 miles noticed the consumption issue. Now at 42,000 miles. Dealer will start the test tomorrow, have me come in at 1000 mile intervals for them to check the dipstick, then inform Infiniti with the results. Sounds about right? They have indicated that they want to put in regular oil for the test. Will this effect anything? Will keep you posted. Only mods are Skunk plenum, Nismo CAI and cat-back exhaust.

I've heard something like synth can increase oil consumption, but by no means is proven. Haha...someone here (forget which page) even said their Dealer switched him TO synth to see if it helped with consumption...lol and think they even did the testing running synth.

I'd say, let the Dealer do what they want to satisfy their testing and not stall them in their decision for approving a new VQ for you, even if it means going back to Dino oil.
Don't be surprises if they seal the dipstick and drain plug. Recently Dealers have been doing that with their oil consumption testing to eliminate any possible oil level tampering during the testing.
G/L