Dealer recommends I get an oil cooler?

Red__Zed

Yeah, pretty much that. The dealer can warranty it though.

houkouonchi

Yeah I realize this but there is no way I would do it myself. They certainly are more expensive than say taking it to a jiffy lube but atleast if they fck up the install then I am covering my ***.

Also it just means no hassle if I do it there (they will have records) just in case I lost my own records/receipts showing my oil changes. Basically after the warranty nightmare I went through before makes me want to just makes sure I have all my bases covered. If that means an extra $20-40 every time I get an oil change than so be it.

My 370z typically runs at about 220 in *cold* weather. In warm weather (which will be hitting soon in socal) it goes up to about 240. In cold (60-65 degree F) weather I took it on glendora mountain road (mountain pass) and after about 10 miles or so the oil temp got all the way up to 265. I didn't want to even get it to the point where it hit limp mode (and it just kept slowly going up at the same rate) I decided to pull over and let it cool off for about 20 minutes and then just drove back down home instead of finishing the course due to the high temps.

IMHO my Z runs higher than many and has some cause for concern. I plan on keeping my 370 for 10 years and will be putting lots of miles on it so longevity is important. I feel that running at 180-200 instead of 220-240 (which wouldn't 'damage' my engine per say) will keep my Z running better/longer. Longevity is actually the biggest reason I won't do FI.

Ok, well I specifically asked about this and this is contrary to what the guy told me. Any idea where this is specifically stated on Nissan's website or somewhere? I decided to go ahead and do the oil cooler there but if I will be SOL if it broke down, wasn't installed correctly, etc. and it screwed up my engine. The extra $300 to have the Nissan badged/installed oil cooler isn't really worth it if its going to not be applicable to my warranty.

SoCal 370Z

Nissan North America response to...

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houkouonchi

Ok so this was some mssage sent over facebook and they don't have this stated elsewhere? I guess in that case I will just have to have them write something up stating what they told me before I have them install it and if they refuse then I may not get it installed.

When I talked to the guy about warranty he stated it had like a 12k warranty (possibly 10k) but then I specifically asked about the scenario that what if my engine died if it was installed incorrectly, broke down, or whatever and caused engine damage if my engine would be covered under the warranty and he said yes. We shall see!

SeattleLion

No oil cooler is covered by the warranty. Period. I just got a 25 row from Z1 for about $550 (I didn't want the 34 row). I am getting it installed for about $250. Total cost $800. It is the same cooler (less rows) that Nissan uses. It has the same sized hoses as Nissan's, and it has a thermostatic sandwich plate (Nissan doesn't have).

I do track occasionally (new at it), but 25 rows is plenty for an engine that is factory stock. The last place to get one installed is at your dealer. Their hourly rate is much higher than other qualified shops. Your warranty on the engine can only be voided if a failure is show to have been caused by the oil cooler. That is highly improbable.

Anyway, just sayin'

Kingbaby

I say do it!

It'd be my first purchase if I got a 370z Nismo!

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11Thumper

houkouonchi,

I certainly see your points. If you can't do the oil change yourself taking it to the dealer is the right choice. No Jiffy Lube please!

I wonder why your temps are so much higher than mine. Maybe Nissan adjust the ECU tune in 2011 to make the car run rich? It would help possibly (to a limit) but I fly airplanes lean of peak all the time to save fuel and it also makes it run cooler. Too long of a discussion to have here but rich isn't always best. It's usually a compromise unless you have direct injection because the hottest cylinder has to be compensated for.

If your temps are that high I would ask the dealer to determine why under warranty rather than buy a cooler at your cost. That just seems to be running too high under normal driving conditions to be called 'normal'. Most cars don't have an oil temp gauge so who knows. I wonder what my S2000 is at normally for oil temps but I don't have a gauge. Ignorance is piece of mind for me.

The idea of keeping the car for 10 years is good, but is that realistic? What if you spend all this $ and the car gets salvaged in an accident (I hope not) or stolen (again, I hope not)? You won't be temped by the new 475hp 390Z with AWD, twin turbo and 20" forged wheels for $25k coming out next year?

In all reality, most folks who spend huge amounts of $ for synthetic oils and such are really just giving $ to the next guy. Even with dyno Chevron oil a car engine will go 100k miles easily unless abused or mistreated. You won't get the benefits of reduced engine wear...the next owner will. To each his (or her ) own, I respect both viewpoints on the issue.

MightyBobo

Yeah, sweet! Do it and waste money!

OP: They just want to take you to the cleaners, dude. I doubt that little oil cooler is even big enough to handle a proper HPDE. The price they are charging is through the roof, and they even threw in the injector cleaning thinking they had a sucker on their hands.

And nothing personal, but the fact that you came here and posted asking if you actually needed it (the injector cleaning) or not, means you probably dont even need the oil cooler anyway.

Unless you're actually taking your car to the track, of course.

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houkouonchi

It seems like its just pretty random and some peoples Z's run hotter than others. Unfortunately I got one of the ones that run hotter =(.

Unfortunately I think I would have a hard time trying to get the dealer to do the oil cooler under warranty since I won't hit limp mode with regular driving and that's probably all they care about. I would honestly be amazed if they agreed that running 240 degrees in hot weather cruising at freeway speed to warrant a warranty-covered installation.

I remember one time when it was decently hot (90s, but not 100s) and I was driving at freeway speed (70-80) for quite a while and then hit traffic I actually saw it get up to the 245-250 range. Again too high for my tastes.

SoCal 370Z

I was following some of the Japanese blogs for a while and the consensus they seemed to all arrive at was the temp solution was threefold:

1. oil cooler
2. supplemental radiator for engine coolant
3. ECU programming

I wonder whether the original 370Z press cars that were first driven on closed circuits here in the States, where they photographed the screened opening in the driver's side fender well, wasn't really an supplemental radiator cooler the likes that ARC developed, but has not yet released to the public yet. It was mentioned, but not substantiated by the magazine articles as an additional oil cooler.

ARC was addressing the problem with a long, but not high, angled longitudinal oil cooler to aid in not disrupting the oil level reading, plus allow the oil to be constantly in the loop versus the other solutions we've seen. Nissan response to the North American market has been to source stateside regular stocking items into a kit form; neither a proper nor a comprehensive solution in my eyes.

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Kingbaby

Slow down there buddy! I'm saying an oil cooler is a mod to do on the 370z platform. Definelty don't fall for stealership tricks. There are many DIYs on this topic!

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MightyBobo

The way you said it, it seemed you were implying you were all over the dealership installing the NISMO cooler. Which is a ginormous waste of cash.

And yes, I know there's DIY's...you might want to search for the Stillen 25-Row cooler install, and check who wrote it

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11Thumper

Try a different brand of oil and see if anything happens.

I didn't say to ask them to do the cooler under warranty, I said have them try to determine why it's running hot. As for their argument about what if the dealer claimis it's normal, you can do research and look into operating temp specs for the brand of oil you use and also keep in mind these engines are aluminum. The metal will fatigue and crack under the right circumstances. What temps will that happen? Maybe you should ask the super-intelligent dealer . Believe it or not, oil is more important for cooling & cleaning of engine components than it is for lubrication. Not to say it doesn't lubricate, obviously it does ...but damn near any oil has more than enough lubrication these days. Even Walmart dyno oil that's been on the shelf since Britney Spears was attractive...

May I ask what has lead you to determine this yourself? If the oil cooler gives you a lot of 'piece of mind' then by all means have it installed.

Davey

Personally, I take my cars to the dealer for service because they will go to bat for me if I'm a regular customer. You run into a warranty issue, you're way ahead of the game if your on the books as a good regular maintenance customer.

So on that note, I'd gladly pay $1100 to have that installed by them vs. some other unit installed by someone else a couple hundred bucks cheaper. That $300 is cheap insurance (as is the $39 labor for an oil change) when you're looking at a 6K short block.

Kingbaby

Gotcha! Well we're on the same page then. I've always like Setrab howeer robust.

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