Quote:
Originally Posted by 1slow370
actually it isn't just ester oil they recomend if you read the technical papers or hell the patent aplication you find out that nissan is using a special ester different from the ester used in ester oils in the amount of .5-1.5 percent. The ester used in the nissan oil has no lubrication properties but instead works to glue the oil molecules to the hydrogen free diamond like coatings on the bearings in the vvel system. In the patent application it goes on to explain that any quantities greater than 1.5% of the special ester will dramaticly reduce friction up to 5% but at the cost of water being absorbed into the oil from the atmosphere thus destroying the life of the oil and it's lubricating abilities. Which is why nissans ester oil is actually a conventional oil because over time the esters draw in water vapor reducing their effectivness meaning the oil has to be changed more often anyway. There is only a 7 year 100,000 mile powertrain warranty anyway so there wasn't really a reason for nissan to spend more on making the ester oil synthetic based so what you buy is essentially a 3 dollar quart of oil with 10ml of alcohol based ester that costs an additional $9. Biggest scam ever.
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There's some truth to the above about high-ester oils sucking up water and thus having a shorter life in the engine, I think. I can't find the reference now, but this was something I read about a few times when I was doing my first google-research on oils for my 370. I ended up going with Motul's 300V, which like Redline is an ester-based Group V.
These kinds of oils in all likelihood are better for our engine, especially under hard use (high temps and high revs), but the tradeoff is that they cost more, and they're not going to endure time very well in an engine. They may well last as well as any other synthetic miles-wise, but they're not going to hold up against months of spending lots of time shut off in the garage, because they'll suck up moisture quicker, which creates acids in the oil. So I'm using the expensive Motul stuff, and I'm still changing every 3K miles anyways (which goes by in about 2 months for me lately), getting no extended drain benefits. Of course I have other factors driving my change interval down, like the fact that I'm leaving an additional quart of old oil in my oil cooler system on each change.
I suspect by early next year my miles-per-month is going to drop off more, and I may switch to changing on a time schedule instead (once every 2 months or so, roughly, although oil analysis will help decide that) so that I don't let the Motul sit around in the engine too long.