I just got a new 08 G35 Sedan Journey with sport and premium.

I love it!

I turned down the pre-paid service offer from my dealerwho said it would cost 1500 and was valued at roughly 2000 dollars worth of service. It did not sound interesting to me, especially since it's based on oil service at 3750 miles intervals. I'm guessing that's because of the regular oil, it breaks down and doesn't last very long.

Honestly, I think it's a little ridiculous. I drove a BMW 330ci convertible and the first interval was at 12000 miles, more than three times later than the infiniti service. You guessed it, the beamer used synthetic oil.

Here is my question, if I use synthetic oil, can i extend my intervals and therefore reduce my maintenance costs? Can the oil filter also last longer? If BMW can do it then certainly Infiniti can do it too, I just wonder if they don't give us regular oil just so we spend more in service...

 

Motul is a great Synthetic oil... I would not recommend to drive our cars 12,000 miles! i change my oil religiously due to the excitment that i get out of my car! Now your car is faster than my car so you will probably drive it harder than i would drive mine because of the whole thrill factor!


Motul/OEM Filter = WIN!

 

it depends on ur driving habits.. more hwy you can run dino oil up to 7500, city/short distance/stop and go=3750 intervals

 

Oil Changes based around 10,000 miles are for the lazy. Beamers are meant for rich folk not wanting to change their own oil. Oil change is good for your car. No matter what there is gonna be metal in the oil due to friction within your engine. Not just the oil breakdown. Thus changing oil is not only because of its own molecular breakdown but to clean the engine of whatever debrees thats not supposed to be floating around in there. Most normal dino oils will last 3 months 3,000 miles. Synthetics can last up to 7500 plus depending on how you drive. I use Synthetic but I still change oil 4k to 5k miles. Cuz I am not lazy. lol Anyways our engines run high compression, thus our high octane and higher heat, thus more molecular breakdown of oils, and thus lower mileage on your oil. CHANGE YOUR OIL AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE. Not saying you cant run 7500 miles on oil. Just check your oil color and your oil levels. You should be good... Once the oil starts to get dark the oil is breaking down and you should change.

 

the first oil change or 2, stick with conventional oil. i finally switched to mobil 1 synthetic around 18k miles on my coupe. i went 3000 miles on conventional and now go 6000 miles with synthetic.

 

Thanks for the advice! Larger intervals are what I am looking for.

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer. and thanks for calling me lazy.

I'm not worried about having to change oil because it's an effort, I am worried about the cost of it. I do have an uncle who would actually go as far as draining his oil, filling up with fresh oil, running the engine for a couple minutes, then drain it again and refill with fresh oil. He thought it would help. Maybe it did, maybe it was all in his head.

The funny thing is, at BMW your oil changes are free and they are 12000 miles apart, the repairs are free too if the interval does mess up the engine. However at Infiniti, where the oil changes are not free, the oil chabges are every 3750... hum... interesting. A lot of dealerships make their money on service and repairs, and Infiniti is obviously on a different business model as BMW.

Am I lazy or am I smart? I don't know. Another strange fact is that when I was driving the BMW I did call the dealership to change the oil at 3000 miles. I did not know about 12K being the first scheduled service. The dude told me it would do nothing for the car, that he was happy to take my money but it was really not gonna do anything. So I ended up not doing it and three and a half years later, with 25K miles, I sold the BMW and it looked and drove like new. So I dunno, either german engineering is better or we can definitely be more efficient with our G35 Sedans and Coupes. A synthetic oil will resist the heat of high performance engines like the G35's better, and therefore not breakdown as much (if at all). Not to mention that using less oil also has less impact on the environment, considering our gas mileage I would say we owe ourselves to try.

Again, thanks for the reply.

 

Technically, it's not free at BMW, the maintenance service is rolled into the price of the car.

Anyway, your change intervals will depend highly on the type of oil, your environment and your driving style. I've managed to do 5k miles on Castrol GTX with no problems and up to 12k on Mobil 1 EP with a filter change halfway through.

On our other car, it's on AMSOIL HP and is currently at 9k on it's rated 25k OCI. (I've only gone as high as 10k on this as well).

All of these, at regular intervals, were Blackstone certified as being okay. I just keep pushing it by +500-1k intervals every time i get an OK from Blackstone.

Although, even with that said, i would not go beyond 12k on any interval regardless of the test results. Personal preference.

 

I respect all things mechanical and don't understand how you can push the
oil change envelope so far. You drive quality vehicles and should be able
to afford doing oil changes when they're due. When Nissan wrote the manual
and recommended oil changes at 3K miles why would you assume you know
more than the individuals that built our cars? I too have put 125K miles on at least 3 Nissan
vehicles but I changed oil every 3 to 4K miles using synthetic and quality
filters....at least 2 that I know of are still on the road.
Gary

 

For some, it's not a matter of cost. I could change oil every 500 miles if needed but much like the 3,000 mile mark it's just waste for a daily driver that doesn't see a lot of stress. A schedule 2 on any Nissan vehicle even recommends 7,500 mile intervals. For me, as long as the lab tests come out okay then that means the oil and engine is healthy.

Car manufacturers base their suggested intervals on the least common denominator - that is, for those people who just don't outright care about their vehicles, or don't care enough to stick to the schedule religiously. Regular servicing keeps those cars alive for the duration of car ownership. Proper maintenance lowers warranty repairs for them so it's in their best interest to suggest items that are ahead of its time. (I have yet to see anyone actually change their oil right on the mark, people who go in for servicing are off by a few hundred, even a thousand miles over -- this is one of the things that manufacturers take into account when suggesting relatively short intervals).

 

1yr or 10k miles for me. usually i only drive the car in the warmer months so i only do like 7k miles tops.... that's on Mobil1 silver cap.

 

kinda OT here and n00bish, but when you go to change your own oil... do we need to use a new drain plug nut each time or new crush washer or something?

I remember that being the case on my old honda, but not sure here. Can't just reuse the same drain plug over and over?

May consider gettin one of those Fumito valves or w/e soon.

 

^^ yeah supposed to... they usually last a lot longer but if the seal breaks then you will be leaking.

 

Just Check your dipstick... The best indicator when to change oil. Put in whatever oil you feel like using but check dipstick. All I gotta say. As long as you change oil when your engine tells you to. Listen to your engine!

 

You should replace the crush washer, but IMO it's not crucial to do so every time if it's in good shape. Next time you're at Nissan, buy a handful, they're cheap and then you'll always have one.

OP - I run Amsoil and change every 10,000km (about 6200 miles). Works fine and can work out to be the same cost or a little cheaper than changing dino oil every 3k miles.