Hey all,

I have a friend with a G35 sedan that is about 2-3 years old. He always takes it to the dealer for regular oil changes, however, several days after his last oil change he heard a terrible screeching noise while driving one day. He took it to an indy and they told him he barely had any oil in his engine. There were no obvious leaks. Our thought is the dealer just drained his oil but didn't refill it but obviously there's no way to prove this and the dealer is blaming him for bringing the car in after 5000 miles instead of the recommended 3750 miles for his last oil change.

Will an extra 1250 miles really make a difference??? Can't modern cars running on synthetic potentially run for 10,000 miles or more without an oil change?

I think he was driving for a couple of weeks before the screeching started but I'm not exactly sure. I'm assuming if they didn't refill the oil then the car would still run but may burn just enough oil over time to cause that sound. He didn't mention to me if the check oil light went off or not but I'm sure he would've seen it if it did.

At first the dealer told him to bring it in so they could take a look at it but now that the screeching sound is gone they are trying to place the blame on him and are telling him to wait for his next oil change before they check it out (or so they say they will check it out).

 

IMHO, if there was no oil from the get go, the engine would start running bad almost immediately.

 

Mobil 1 rates their synthetic at 10,000 - 15,000 between oil changes. I've been running synthetic for 10,000 miles for years now. Anyone that changes synthetic sooner than that is throwing their money away and might as well be using conventional oil. The dealer is using an excuse to shift the blame.

 

Yeah true. But I'm thinking when they drain the oil initially they didn't drain ALL of it but likely left a little in there. Do you think a dealer would actually take the time to drain 99% of the oil out of the engine or just the majority of it?

 

They cannot blame it on the 5k interval, the factory recommended intervals allow for up to 7500 miles between changes.