Change my conventional oil to synthetic. Ideally I was thinking about 10-12k miles , but my 04 only has 6800 on it. Will it hurt to change to synthetic now or is it ok

 

The real benefit of full synthetic oil, is that you can keep it in your crankcase longer without having to change it, considering you replace that tiny oil filter with a larger one.

The immediate advantage of switching to a PAO synthetic will be that your engine will stay as clean as new for as long as you use the PAO oil and your seals will always be well lubricated and healthy. Mineral oils will leave behind deposits and waxes that can cause seals to recieve less lubrication over time and when these types of vehicles are finally switched to synthetic at old age, the seals get lubrication because the synthetic oil, with it's strong additive package, cleans the gunk out and oil starts to seep through the cracks which have developed as a result of lack-of seal lubrication.

Regardless of what some will say, you can use a PAO synthetic the day you get the car home from the dealer. Just make sure you observe the manufacturer's oil change interval recommendations unless you perform an oil analysis and it tells you otherwise.

 

You can change the day you bring the car home if you like. Waiting is an old wives tale.

 

I switched at my first oil change 3K.

 

I think infiniti figures the typcial consumer will not be doing their own oil changes and will have the dealer do them, and what better way to enforce shorter oil changes then to make a smaller capacity oil filter and use mineral oil

These cars were designed with the thought that consumers would have dealers do all the work. - just a thought

 

Changed to synth. at the first change in all my cars.
Some say it's a little early, but I've never had any issues, and my rides always treat me right.
C.

 

[QUOTE=bythabay]The real benefit of full synthetic oil, is that you can keep it in your crankcase longer without having to change it, considering you replace that tiny oil filter with a larger one.

Why do you have to change the oil filter from a small one to a large one when you change over to synthetic? and what happens if you don't?

 

The filter which is OE for our g35s is very small because the manufacturer expects you to follow the 3750 drain interval (hence it is designed to hold enough particles for 3750miles). If you run the filter longer than the 3750, you run the risk of having your filter media saturated, and it will stop filtering altogether. It's not that running synthetic requires you to get a better filter, it's the extended drains which cause you to get a larger & better quality filter. And extended drains should only be done after performing an oil analysis to make sure you are not going too long on any oil, whether it be synthetic or mineral.

But my personal recommendation is that if you plan on sticking with stock change intervals, synthetic will be a waste of money for you - just make sure you use a good oil filter regardless. Otherwise, upgrade to a large & higher quality filter, like a mobil 1 or amsoil filter, and run a PAO synthetic oil only - extending drains reasonably and perfoming oil analysis along the way to ensure you are indeed doing reasonable intervals.

 

Thanks for the reply guys. I guess my next oil change will be mobil1 super sync

 

My dealer told me that Infiniti uses a Mobil1 sythetic/mineral blend, designed specifically for the VQ engine or Infiniti cars. Is this true?

 

No, this is false for 3 reasons:

1. Their manual explicitly states to use mineral oil.
2. Their manual explicitly states to use 3750 miles oil change intervals.
3. As a result of mileage, they use a very small filter, making it very diffucult to go beyond the recommended 3750 mile oil change interval, and thus recommending/using synthetic to be a waste of money.

Now I don't know this for a fact, I'll admit, but logically this seems to make the most sense to me.

 

So which brand oil filter do most folks use if they're doing their own oil change and are using synthetic?

 

I believe most people use mobile 1 filters becuae they are widely available and are of very high quality, although there are other filters which are similar in terms of performance and reliability, yet they cost less.

check out this study for more info on what brand/model of filter to get:

http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilterstudy.html

the study may be a bit outdated, but you get the general idea as how filters can really differ.