Quote:
Originally Posted by ZKindaGuy
This might be someting that we should all keep in the back of our mind to see if a pattern arises when using SYNTHS instead of Ester oil. We might find that if SYNTHS run the engine around the 240 range most of the time then this may have been the motivation behind Nissan recommending in their spec to use Ester oil. And if that is the case then:
1. Nissan definitely knew the oil issue existed.
2. Nissan recognized the issue to be significant enough to make the Ester oil use recommendation.
3. Nissan is covered in having provided a solution (the use of Ester oil) to the issue and thus mitigating any "negligence" issues that an owner might raise if their engine died as a direct root cause to the oil issue and they did not elect to use Ester oil as recommended by Nissan.
4. Nissan avoids a recall since they have provided a workable solution........
5. Nissan saves money by not having to do a recall.....and shifts the onus of paying for the solution to the customer....and Nissan makes money be recommending their own Ester oil as a solution.
Interesting....
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I'm not too worried about the Nissan Ester thing myself. They didn't start recommending it as a "workaround" for the G37's VQ37VHR until people complained of VVEL noises, and then they later released an ECU fix that supposedly quieted things down without the special oil. Our owners manual recommends Nissan Ester Oil (in the same way that they recommend Nissan's own variant of every fluid in the car: diff oil, coolant, power steering fluid, etc - most of which are obviously not necessary), but they also are clear in the service manual that any API SM-rated oil of the appropriate weight is fine.
To top it all off, most of the reports here from people going to dealerships for oil changes indicate that the dealerships have no clue about the Ester oil, and are all too happy to put in whatever their favorite random synthetic is.
If Nissan Ester were really necessary for this engine to function properly, they would've made a stronger case for it in the Service Manual, and made a note to all the dealerships about only using their special oil for oil changes on this car. Already thousands and thousands of random 370Z owners have had their first (and perhaps 2nd, 3rd) oil changes done by dealers without the special oil.