Oil change interval

Lee123

Went for my first "free" oil change last week. The appointment was set up when I bought the car and was 3 months from the day I bought it. I was told it would be free, and was also given a paper good for 2 years or 20,000 miles of free oil changes "in accordance with the maintenance schedule in your Nissan Service and Maintenance Guide." There were only 1932 miles on the car when I brought it in and the service adviser told me they wouldn't do the oil change free since I did not have 3,750 miles on the car. I finally talked him into it since the appointment was made when I bought it, but he insisted that the other free oil changes would only be done free if I put at least 3,600 miles on it between each change. I told him that would be 5 or 6 months and tried to explain that the manual says "3,750 miles or 3 months whichever comes first." I could not convince him that the factory required it to be done every 3 months. Then I talked to the customer service manager and he said the same thing, the 3 months doesn't matter. Ironically, they stuck one of those stickers on the windshield telling me my next service is due on 10/13, 3 months later.

I also had to pay $72 for the recommended ester oil, but I guess that's to be expected.

Since I only drive about 700 a month, it would be more convenient and cheaper to get the oil changed every 3,750 miles and forget the 3 months, but I believe that would mess up my warranty if I ever had a problem that they wanted to avoid covering.

It's hard to believe the dealer could be ignorant of the factory service requirements, but unless the meaning of "whichever comes first" has changed, they are nuts. Has anyone else run into this?

For what it's worth, telling them where to go and doing my own oil changes is out. I did that for most of my life, but I can no longer do it.

Matt

Ok, where to start....

The dealership guys are idiots, but they're right about the 3 months not being very important. With our engines, any quality oil is going to provide enough protection to last much longer than 3 months, especially if you're only driving 2k miles in that time period (I drive about the same in mine as a DD).

Now, their contract or whatever says "xx miles or xx months, whichever comes first". They're idiots if they don't understand what that means, so no matter how great your engine or oil is, xx months passed by, so you should be eligible. I can't imagine the owner of the dealership would argue with that logic.

Some dealerships throw out the oil change deals as part of the sales, but the salespeople forget that our car (along with the GTR) uses a higher quality oil (as recommended by Nissan) than the Altima, Sentra, Maxima, etc.

All that being said, whether your car needs to go 3 months or 5 months between oil changes (assuming minimal mileage) depends on your driving habits. Is this a DD with just low mileage? Is this a weekend car with very spirited driving? Is it going weeks at a time without being driven at all? Those types of things will dictate whether or not you should be going 3 months, 5 months, or 8 months in between changes (again, assumign minimal mileage).

My best advice is to use a high quality oil, synthetic if you can, and go with every 6 months. Check it often in between to make sure the oil appears to be in good condition and you are at good levels. Take the oil and the filter to the dealer and have them change the oil with your own products.

If you choose to have them use the Nissan Ester Oil, have them throw the empty oil containers in a bag as proof (I dont' think the Ester oil is in drums, but I could be wrong).

Whatever you choose, if you continue to get the oil changes done at the dealership, have them put in writing that they will not do the oil changes every 3 months, as the manual says. That should make any warranty issues down the road easier to deal with.

__________________

"Any man who can drive a 370z while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the Z the attention it deserves." Albert Einstein....modified.

Zaggeron

Note that the manual shows both A & B service schedules - B is 6mo/6k or something like that. It may be that your service contract only covers the least frequent interval. In any event, your warranty is safe if you follow B since it is in the manual.

__________________
2010 Platinum Graphite 370z Roadster:Touring/Sport
2013 Subaru BRZ Limited

Lee123

Thanks for the responses. I appreciate it.

Matt, I hope you're correct about them not selling it out of drums, since they charged me for 6 quarts. I figure they must have at least 3/4 of a quart left to use on the next one. I was so pissed off after all the BS about the 3 month changes that I forgot to ask for the left over oil.

Zaggeron, I suspect you might be right about the schedule B. At least I hope that's it because I hate to think I'm talking to a complete idiot when I take my car to the dealer.

I forgot to mention that I called 1-800-nissan1 last week to ask them for an opinion. The woman I spoke to said I need to bring it in every 3 months and that someone would call me within a couple days to follow up. Haven't heard anything yet, though. I have no idea how good they are about following through when someone is supposed to call.

Zaggeron

The woman was full of crap if she said "you need" or "it is a condition of your warranty that". It clearly says in the NISSAN Service and Maintenance Guide for 2010 that:

As a condition of your vehicle's warranty, you are responsible for properly maintaining your vehicle. In
maintaining your vehicle, you should follow either Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 as listed below. Use these
guidelines to determine which maintenance schedule to use.

Where Schedule 1 and 2 are described as follows (sorry I thought it was A and B)

SCHEDULE 1 (more severe operating
conditions), every 3,750 miles or 3
months, whichever comes first

Use Schedule 1 if you primarily operate your
vehicle under any of these conditions:

Repeated short trips of less than 5 miles in
normal temperatures or less than 10 miles in
freezing temperatures

Stop-and-go traffic in hot weather or lowspeed
driving for long distances

Driving in dusty conditions or on rough,

muddy, or salt-spread roads

Towing a trailer, or using a camper
or car-top carrier

SCHEDULE 2 (less severe operating
conditions), every 7,500 miles or 6
months, whichever comes first

Schedule 2 features 7,500-mile service
intervals; with Schedule 2 fewer maintenance
items are regularly checked or
replaced than with Schedule 1.
Generally, Schedule 2 applies only to
highway driving in temperate conditions.
Use Schedule 2 only if you primarily operate
your vehicle under conditions other than
those listed in Schedule 1.

Let your judgment guide you, but you don't have to bring it in every three months and the way you described your driving habits it looks like every 6 months is close to your schedule.

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2010 Platinum Graphite 370z Roadster:Touring/Sport
2013 Subaru BRZ Limited

wishihadnav

yeah i agree that the dealer should give you a change every 3 months if you meet the schdule 1 operation..its BS.

Lee123

I'm a little surprised that no one from Nissan has called me back. The woman on the phone was very helpful and said a representative would call be that week and would speak to the dealer. That was 7/14. That seemed like very good service, but it it just doesn't happen it doesn't mean much. I called her back today and got voice mail. I don't want them to do much - either explain to the dealer what "whichever comes first" means or send me a letter saying I can disregard the criteria they list in the manual for when you need to use schedule 1 and just come in every 3,750 miles. Looks to me like I meet at least 2 for the requirements for schedule 1. It's certainly hot here in Phoenix and it is the dustiest place I ever lived.

Zaggeron

I agree. I you can show them that you require schedule 1 because of the way the vehicle is used, then they should pay for schedule 1 oil changes.

Actually, the schedules don't partition the space very well ... lol

schedule 1: you thrash the car in dusty, crowded, short distance conditions
schedule 2: you only drive on the highway in non-rush hours


Seems to me there is an excluded middle

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2010 Platinum Graphite 370z Roadster:Touring/Sport
2013 Subaru BRZ Limited

DRoc7822

They always used the 3000 miles or 3 months thing for oil changes. Its a marketing ploy that was instituted way back in the day. It made sure that oil change shops/dealerships had enough business each month to keep operating. I have owned 4-5 vehicles by now... and I have never changed the oil every 3 months or 3k miles. Cause if I did... Id be broke all the time lol. Your gonna be fine if you change the oil every 5k miles regardless of how you drive the car. I mean its not like the 370's engine is some sort of marvel that no other engine has. Its an engine and will most likely conform to the same practices as other engines. I think maybe thats why the service manager/dealership was against giving you an oil change. Its because it just didnt need it and was a waste (in a sense) of resources and materials. And the dealership is gonna look at the mileage prolly rather than going by months if something did happen that cause oil starvation or something related. I dont mean to be rude or demeaning, but I really think your taking this whole maintenance/oil thing to an extreme when it doesnt need to be. Thats my .02 cents.

Zaggeron

The schedules I posted are for all Nissan vehicles, so they don't assume the 370z is special in any way. The real issue is on one hand they say "you bought a service contract so we will pay for your scheduled maintenance for X years" and on the other they say "you have to bring it in every 3 months". So it looks like, on the face of it, they are not honoring their contract if they insist the schedule is every 3 months/3750 miles, but then refuse to pay for the service. The OP is just trying to resolve this apparent conflict.

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2010 Platinum Graphite 370z Roadster:Touring/Sport
2013 Subaru BRZ Limited

flashburn

Also, the maintenance contracts do include Ester oil, but you have to ask for it. If they give you hassle, tell them to call their Warranty 800 number to verify it.

Lee123

Thanks for all the responses. I should probably clarify a couple of things, though.

The contract I'm talking about is not something I paid for. It's something that the dealer is giving customers for buying a car. Oil and filter changes " at the time or mileage intervals stated in the maintenance schedule of your Nissan Service and Maintenance Guide." I didn't know I was going to get this until after I bought the car, so I really can't complain much if I have to pay for the oil changes.

I just want Nissan to confirm that it won't effect the warranty if I just bring the car in every 4 or 5 months. The dealer is telling me that I need to follow the schedule 1 mileage requirement of 3,750 miles but I can ignore the time requirement. Regardless of whether I pay the $30 for the oil change or not, I just want some official word on whether the 3 months can be ignored.

I totally agree with the responses pointing out that it won't hurt the car to go longer between oil changes. It would save me time and money and the oil isn't going to go bad from age in 5 months.

wishihadnav

yeah 5 months between changes will not degrade the oil quality much at all..however have you ever seen a Nissan oil filter cut open?..its not a pretty sight..haha..give them a purolator instead.

Zaggeron

Don't mean to be picky ... and perhaps it is a simple matter of semantics, but believe me, you paid for the contract. Everything the dealer adds to the deal to sweeten it is part of the contract in a very real sense.

Clearly the dealer associates a particular monetary value with that service contract and chances are good you could have negotiated a slightly lower price if you had said you didn't want it.

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2010 Platinum Graphite 370z Roadster:Touring/Sport
2013 Subaru BRZ Limited

Lee123

It would have been tough for me to say I didn't want it since I didn't know I was getting it until I was putting the papers away the next day. I asked the salesman about it a couple days later and he said, "I didn't know they were still giving those out." The free oil changes aren't as important to me as the fact that the service department is incorrectly telling people to disregard the time requirement for oil changes, especially since they told me I'd have to pay $72 for the oil.

Nissan called me back Saturday and said in no uncertain terms that the 3 month oil changes are required. She offered to send me a service contract that will provide a year of free oil changes. She said the dealer would do them every 3 months under that contract. I was a little disappointed that they chose not to straighten the dealer out, but that seems to be the way corportations are these days. If the contract she sends me covers the ester oil, it will be a much better deal than what the dealer gave me.