First Oil Change, change to synthetic?
 

Hi guys i just hit 3100 miles on the Z, is it time for first oil change right? Should i stick with regular or switch to synthetic? Thanks

My first two were dealer changes with dino oil, but I just did my third change at 8,500 with Mobil 1.

Get ready for a hundred different opinions on this one.

I just did my first (3050 miles) with factory filter and pennzoil platinum full synthetic oil 5w-30. Oil is oil to me but since I plan to run at least 5k miles and possibly a year till my next change I decided to use synthetic oil.

I don't drive hard or track/race the car.

Run what you like. A common choice is Redline.

Some things to remember, generally speaking:

If you plan to run low miles but longer periods of time, like me, you want to at least invest in a good filter. I personally do Redline with K&N filters. Purolator PureOne is a good choice too, since it has a larger volume (and more filtering media, although not necessarily better, although it definitely can't be that bad). I drive less than 5000 miles a year and I've owned my zed for three years and have 13000 miles. It works for me so I've kept at it. Always used K&N filters but ran Nissan Ester Oil, Royal Purple, and Redline, with Redline being run the most. A friend of mine does mass spectroscopy and he can do basic oil analysis for me. I have never bothered to analyze my oil, though. I drive my zed like I stole it and do a good amount of both highway and city miles. I've yet to track the car, so it's never seen the kind of destructive wear that a track does on a car.

Likewise I've seen someone's oil analysis from this forum some time ago and they ran 5xxx miles over a 13 month period. No idea where their car was located, if the miles were mostly highway or city, or if it ever saw blazing heat, winter temperatures, or just mild weather. The analysis actually told them to run the oil for a longer period of time before doing a change. Don't remember what oil they used, or what filter they used.

Here's a popular place to do oil analysis: http://www.blackstone-labs.com/

Like I said, do what you like. Oil threads are one of the most dreaded threads on this forum and I've seen them come and go for four years now. There's never a single consensus and the OP generally just ends up going with whatever opinion sounded most informed or they gave up and did whatever.

Also, if you end up being unable to form an opinion, just use Nissan's Ester Oil and call it a day.

Nice, I think im going to stick with regular for the first couple. what kind of oil would the dealer use? should i even go to the dealer? i cant do it myself im in my last year with roomates...

I have changed mine with Redline fully synthetic and pure one purolator filter and they're working great.

Shot of the purolator filter and filtermag oil filter magnet which I highly recommend as well for catching small particles passing through your oil filter and the iPhone for size reference. I think you should refer to AK's oil change thread for a lot of answers to your questions in the DIY section, very informative and helpful.
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The dealer uses a basic oil, probably some generic drum they get. Everyone calls it dino but I'm pretty damn sure actual pure dino does not exist anymore. The stuff is way too crude to use in modern engines.

The dealer will shaft you hard. They quoted me 105 dollars for a change with Ester Oil and their regular Nissan rebranded filter (I believe most rebrands are similar to old FRAMs, which use terrible paper media with plastic reinforcement: not suitable for any car. may have changed, though).

I really think you should be able to do an oil change. Buy six quarts of your favorite oil and a decent filter like Purolator. It takes all of 30 minutes and maybe 70 dollars for your first change. Maybe get a magnetic oil drain plug and a filter magnet, if you're really paranoid. Hopefully you're not like some people I know who live in areas where you actually cannot work on your car unless it is in a closed garage or if you're in a parking complex that does not allow any loitering.

Z1 Motorsports sells oil change kits at reasonable, sane prices.

Dealer will buy in bulk. Havoline or Quaker State 5/30 for example. Nothing wrong with it, good for 3-5K intervals which most cars will do if they are using Nissan recommended short intervals.

As others have noted: this is a huge topic with no consensus. One general fact is oil can go a lot longer then you think for most conditions based on UOA's performed at labs.

If you want to go synthetic, go for it. I run it as cheap insurance myself and have done so for the last 18 years on all my cars. While under warranty I will be using dealers for the Z and the wife's car (Cayman) until I go back to doing it myself.

I use 6mo changes on the Z to keep it within warranty spec otherwise I would do 7500mi-10K (based on UOA's with Blackstone) or 1y intervals whichever first. uring.

I take a 5 qt jug of Pennzoil Ultra (Walmart, $27) and put it in the passenger seat. I pay the dealer to change the oil and use Nissan filter. They take $8 or so off the cost of an oil change for my effort. My local dealer service advisors have no idea about Ester oil yet my method is still less expensive then an Ester change, and it uses a product I personally want in the car. Win Win.

Don't be afraid to BYO oil. Just needs to meet S rating and weight specs as per Nissan and your owners manual so you can use just about any quality 5/30 out on the market.

If you run low miles and just want to change it every 3 months personally stick with dealer 5/30 as 3K miles on oil is nothing.

- b

You can go 8,000 or more. I just did 8000 on Mobile 1, no track time but fun spirited driving and its a daily driver as well. UOA via Blackstone Labs said I could go to 9000 easy. Synthetic oil is strong. No need to have wasted oil or down time with 3-5,000mile changes for non heavy track use type driving.

In Germany the 370Z oil interval is 15000km or 1 year. They use Castrol 5-30 synthetic here.

The US public has a lot to learn. The crap oil change centers keep filling people's heads with lies, ie Jiffy lube etc.
My VW is on a 30,000km change interval here. THe VW dealer does NOT have a yard full of blown engines either.

I just got back from the dealership for a 1200 mile break in oil change. The dealership actually used Mobil 1 oil for the oil change. I told them I was expecting them or thought they would put Ester oil back in the car. They advised that if I do not specify the oil desired they use Mobil 1. The regular Mobil 1 oil service charge was 33.28. I don't think they were completely happy but said they would pull the car back in and change it to Ester oil. In the end the Ester oil change cost me 86.00 dollars.

I figured if I keep the car going forward I will switch to another synthetic brand.

I use royal purple 5w-30 and it works good so far, thought of switching to redline, but I think ill stick with it for a while. Keeps the engine nice and clean, and if I need to I can go up to 6k in between oil changes. :driving::tup:

Go with synthetic,I just had my first oil change,called my local Nissan dealer and they wanted $170:icon17:,I went to walmart bought a gallon of Mobil 1 synthetic for $25 and went to my local Honda dealer where a good friend of mine is a mechanic,paid him $30 including filter,moral of the story is go with synthetic,buy your own oil and filter,take it to a reputable shop where you will get a proper reciept and documentation if you are worried about warranty issues

I took my 6 quarts of redline and puro oil filter to the dealer. They charged me only $13 for labor.

Wow, my local dealer only charges $70 for Nissan Ester Oil. I think it's pretty good deal.

Otherwise I'd go with Penzoil Ultra ($28 for 5qts + $6 for Bosche filter + $30 labor). Comes out about the same.

I did my first change at about 1250 miles. I used the Nissan ester oil and a Mobil 1 #110 filter. The Nissan ester oil isn't that great and was almost $14 a quart at the dealer after tax. At the 5,000 mark I switched to Redline 5W-30 and a new Mobil 1 filter and have run that exclusively ever since. I now have about 27K miles on the car and it is 3 years old this week so I'm not piling a lot of miles on it. I only go 5K oil change intervals, probably overkill but I like to err on the side of caution. I have had 3 Blackstone analysis' done and the Redline oil has trended nicely in the VQ37 engine.
You can get a case of Redline delivered to your door, no tax & free shipping from Amazon for a just under $11 per quart. If you don't want to go to a boutique oil, the Pennzoil Ultra has an outstanding reputation and can often be found on sale. Either way these engines run hot and are hard on oil so I wouldn't recommend pushing OCI's much past 5000 miles. It's a pretty exotic sports car and you shouldn't expect the cost of ownership to be the same as a new Altima. And learn to do your own changes. It's not rocket surgery.

I did my first change just at 1200 miles to Penzoil Ultra and a Purolator PL14610 PureONE filter. This will be the routine every 5,000 miles starting when I get to 5,000 on the odometer. (I am just under 2,500 now.) As a plus, the same filter will work on my Altima, so I ordered half a dozen for now. I may even switch the Altima from Mobil 1 to the Penzoil too, just to keep it simple. I guess the cost of ownership, at least for oil changes, will be the same for the Z as my Altima. ;)

Wow compared to CT thats dirt cheap, here I was charged 150! :eek:

Good thing I learned to do oil changes myself. :icon17:

Was I supposed to change at 1200 miles?

Looks like I'm gonna end up going to dealer and paying alot, I can't do it myself and don't trust autozone or jiffy lube

You did not NEED to change at 1200 miles. Just something us obsessive types do.

5000 on synthetic is nothing. I just did 8000 on Mobil1 5-30 and they said(Blackstone), 9000 was no problem. This on the Autobahn, high revs, mountains, city traffic and daily driver as well. I hate down time and 5000 changes are a waste of synthetic. The standard over here is 15000km or just over 9000miles(9320) at the Nissan dealer who uses Castrol 5-30 synth.

Frankly the cost of ownership shouldnt be much more considering the car is low maint. The tires are different story. Its just a car.

I do exactly the same - same oil, filter, and service interval.

And to the OP: You do know that many cars come with synthetic in them from the factory, right? Oh, and AFAIK Nissan has never really confirmed what their factory fill is... ;)

Running the same thing with nismo oil filter. Royal works awesome. Oil stays cooler from my experience. May switch to redline @ 30k miles

Yeah I only do it for convenience, no other store in my town sells redline, I would have to order it online, where as royal purple is available within 1 mile of my house at Napa. :driving:

I'm doing first oil change at 1300-1500 miles to wash out all the metal shavings and stuff from the break in then doing one regular Nissan stock oil and then switching to Amsoil best synthetic oil out there... It was the first and is still the best.
I use it in all my cars and all transmissions and differentials as well. It made my 350z transmission and my Jaguar clunky feeling tranny feel smoother then they ever felt.

I too am about to do my first oil chnge after reaching my break in mileage of 1200 miles. I use Mobil 1 Extended Performance in both of my other vehicles and will do so in the Z. A past experience with Mobil 1 convinced me that you can't go wrong with this oil. I am embarressed about what I did, but I'll share my experience.

I have a 2004 Ford F150 FX4 truck. I put alot of miles on this truck and have used Mobil 1 in it since the first oil change. I change the oil every 3000-5000 miles depending how much towing I have been doing. At about 180K miles I changed the oil as normal prior to going down to my hunting camp on a Friday afternoon. I hooked up my trailer to haul the ATV and went on my way. About 4 miles after leaving the house, I noticed in my rear view mirror there was smoke coming from under my truck. Since I hasn't far from home, I decided to turn around and go back home and check it out. I kept checking the oil pressure guage and it read normal, so i continued on. When I approached my driveway, what I saw gave me a sick feeling...there was a trail of oil from the driveway out into the street. I parked the truck and quickly crawled underneath. The underside of the truck from the engine back was covered in oil. The exhaust was smoking. I determined the oil was coming from the oil filter. I removed the filter, and as many of you have probably already guessed, there was no rubber gasket on the filter. I know it was on the filter when I started the oil change because I coated it with fresh oil prior to installation. Upon further inspection I found the missing gasket on laying in my oil drain pan. I must have placed the filter, gasket side down, on the drain pan, when I layed down prior to installing it on the truck. when I checked the oil in the truck, I had only about a quart left in the truck. This truck holds 7 quarts of oil. So, basically I had driven the truck about 10 miles with very little oil. I figured I ruined the engine or at the very least significantly shortened it's life. like I said, this happened when I had about 180K miles on the truck. I now have 224K miles on it without any decreased performance. I had the oil pressure guage checked and the dealer said it was OK. I still don't know I did not get a low pressure indication.

I am 54 years old and have been doing my own oil changes since I was 16 years old; I have never once paid for an oil change. I guess I used to be on "cruise control" doing oil changes because they are so routine for me. Not anymore. This experience taught me to always check to make sure the gasket is in place before I install the filter. I am sure there are other quality oils that are just as good as Mobil 1, but I will never use anything but Mobil 1 Extended.

^^I would of guessed you double gasketed the filter rather than no gasket at all. Back in HS, a student got an ear full of all sorts of choice words from the instructor when doing this. Ironically, the instructor had touched on this topic in a previous lecture.

Anyways, my method of preventing any gasket issues is to make sure the new filter is always right side up. From the time it comes out of the box to the time it gets installed.

As for mobil1, ymmv. I had a bad experience with it in my camaro. By 80K miles, the car had excessive oil consumption (1qt/400-500miles). A friend running this in his dodge truck also noticed considerably higher consumption at 60-70K miles. Engine defects, perhaps, but it left a bad taste for the oil :)

Strange how different people have different results with the same oil. I have 224K on the F150 FX4 using only Mobil 1, and burn zero oil.

Anyone ever use Chevron full synthetic oil for our 370's? My mechanic swears by the stuff, but I can't seem to locate any reviews on how the z does on it.

Why wouldn't the Z do fine with any brand of full synthetic oil that's API certified?

Buy whatever synthetic Pep Boys has on sale that month :) Castrol Edge, Mobil 1, etc.

They usually have a monthly special 5 qts/$35.00 + free oil filter. I use that for GF's truck and her daughter's car. For mine I use Motul/Torco but that is only needed for track abuse.