Everyone with oil temp issues

PinoyRacing91

If you mean track the car, like wot all the time will overheat the oil quickly?

wstar

Well you're not being very specific. You can overheat the oil and destroy the engine of just about any factory car given hard enough abusive driving If you're actually going to use the car on real tracks or road courses doing real racing, an oil cooler system of some kind is highly recommended. Generally speaking the more you keep the revs up high and the engine under heavy load, and the less airflow you're getting, the more the oil will heat up. A long session at a hard track will almost definitely limp-mode a stock 370Z. Cruising down the highway at illegal speeds and occasionally dropping down a couple of gears to sprint past someone generally won't.

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joeyz10

i dont' have this problem anymore but can i ask you guys where to purchase this other brand of oil like RP and etc.. I might just switch mine because right now my dealer changed my oil and used the nissan ester oil.

gemini09m3

I would report this oil issues with the Home | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) | U.S. Department of Transportation this can be a safety issue when on the highway and car goes into limp mode. This may force nissan to do a recall and an investigation on this issue.

TheWeatherman

Ummm, not on the highway. Won't happen. You have to actually be racing to get limp active.

gemini09m3

Are you a 100% sure about that???? There is a video on how high the temps can get on street driving. I can imagine someone who is living in a warmer state seeing temps rise and hitting limp mode its built in the ECU.

Modshack

Please don't blow this out of proportion. No one has reported 280 degrees with street use (go back through the 60+ pages) and if anyone has they probably deserve to be taken off the public highways. . At that 280 point Max RPM's are reduce by approx. 2K. This is hardly a "safety" issue..

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wstar

Agreed, we have yet to hear of anyone, no matter how insanely they drive, hitting limp mode on a public street. It's probably possible, in a really hot environment, if you could find enough breathing room without traffic in the way or a cop to haul you off to jail, but it's unlikely anyone can do it.

Keep in mind that cruising at highway speeds, even excessive ones, doesn't tend to ramp up oil temps much, as you're getting good airflow and the revs are relatively low. To pull off limp mode on the street, you'd have to be constantly accelerating and decelerating around small streets and corners and keeping the revs way up high, and sustain those conditions for at least 10-15 minutes straight, if not much longer, without ever giving the car a break.

Usually cops, traffic, or general common sense would prevent the limp mode on the street.

That's not to say that the oil temps we see on the street (which aren't high enough to kick in limp mode) under harder driving and/or conditions are healthy, but it's not a catastrophe either.

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semtex

Yeah, I can *cough**cough* attest to the veracity of that statement.

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Gaiiden

I hit limp mode on the highway during Bullrun last month traveling from Monticello, NY to Pittsburgh, PA. Right on the outskirts of Pittsburgh I couldn't push past 5k RPM and had no idea what the problem was at that time.

However, obviously I was not driving under normal conditions :P The car was also newer, so like other people have said as it breaks in further oil temps have been better at remaining stable. Two weeks ago I drove up to CT for a car show, played tag with a few cars on the way home and didn't have any oil temp issues.

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ZForce

Back in May when heading to Laguna Seca in Monterey CA, two 370Z's in our group including myself hit limp mode. We were on the highway, hot dogging on a warm morning (about 80 degrees). It did not take much or very long for limp mode to kick in.

Note: The car had about 750 miles on the engine.

Since then another very hard run in July on very much cooler day (65 degrees) up through a canyon and both 370Z's did NOT go into limp mode. Mileage on the engine then was about 4000 miles.

Normal day to day driving in the summer time (90+ degrees) the oil temps are 225 - 235 with no high reving or pushing it.

AutoX Z

Is there any way we can unsticky this thread now that the people who originally posted this issue have had their cars break in and now it no longer happens? I feel having this posted at the top just causes new owners to panic.

Maybe just having a single post thread that sums up what everyone has discovered:

1. Temps may be high during the initial thousand miles but will decrease as the engine breaks in.

2. On a properly broken in car you will not hit limp mode during street driving.

3. If you track your car you will need to install an oil cooler. If you only plan on autoxing this is unneccesary.

4. And then Nissan's official statement on the matter.

Just a suggestion so we don't have to keep going over this again and again every time someone new joins the board and doesn't want to read though all 60 pages.

antennahead

Pretty much the same experience here ZForce. Once I got some miles on the car (now at 5000), the temps went down some. I average around 225 at the present outside temps (hot, lol). As others have stated, it is very hard to get to limp mode off the track. If I drive the car in a spirited fashion (it's a Z damn it ), AND encounter stop and go traffic (no airflow through the car like freeway driving), I can easily hit 250 to 260. It has been quoted here that todays oils can easily handle that, and if you change your oil at recommended intervals, you should have no oil breakdown issues. The more pressing concern to many, is bearing life. The changes in metalurgy by Nissan to be more "green" has reduced the temperatures at which they fail. Most here however claim that 260 will not cause any failure issues. From a longevity standpoint, my concern is how will regularly sustained temps of 250 to 260 effect engine life. From a performance standpoint, my car runs better and seems to pull harder at 180 degrees than 260, so I forsee a cooler in my near future. I don't understand the indignant members here though, that want to get belligerent when people want to discuss this. Maybe it's noob questions that spark that reaction, or a need to be defensive about their cars. I agree though, that if your location relative to outside temps, and your driving style and encountered traffic doesn't result in spikes over the usual 220 to 230, just enjoy the car and don't worry about this.

John

antennahead

I agree with you on this, with the caveat that some of us want the added protection and lower running temps a cooler provides, as stated in my previous post. But that scenerio is different than the sky is falling, and as you state, this causes new or prospective owners to panic first, before reading all the dialogue that exists on the subject.

John

ZForce

^John, I agree and also want the added protection over the long haul, hence an oil cooler for street use. No harm with a little more engine protection. I and you can relate to this having come from the oil consumption 06 Rev-Ups. So if I tend to be more pro-active its because I have had the last 1.5 yrs experience beating up Nissan over an oil consuming 06 Rev-Up.

As far this thread is concerned, I am for leaving it stickied and keep the discussions going. 62 pages ....Ha...that's nothing to the 200+ pages on the oil consumption thread (OC). I would suggest doing what we did over on the OC thread, which is have the OP update the first page with the current findings on the oil temp issue. Therefore newbs would see the point that has become after 62 pages. But to unsticky it....not...it's too important, you do that and a newb will just open up a new thread, then wadda have? ten gazillion threads of everybody saying the same-o-same-o.

.05 cents...now off the soap box.

If any is interested in the general format, here is what is working on the oil consumption thread as far as updates and a REVISED first post.
MY350Z.COM Forums - View Single Post - RevUp Oil Consumption TSB and discussion

Cheers
Curtis