Loud ticking noise from engine

Augustus

Pretty sure there there's no "low oil level" light on the Z. Not many cars actually monitor the oil level itself.

There is a "low oil pressure" light, which Z's and every other car on the road has. That's usually the "you're f$&#@#" light. But yeah, no oil = no pressure. I'm curious too why that that light never came on for you. I would have thought that it would have lit up before (maybe just before) the engine started destroying itself. Would be a good question to ask the dealer's mechanics.

Hope the warranty claim works out for you. I bet it will. Good luck.

Ron

That was the last time you changed your oil? Last time you checked level? How many miles since that last oil change, like 5k?

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Ron

Check this out. This is the oil consumption test Nissan does to see if you have a "no good" engine.

Miles.................mm from H (dipstick)
1001-1500 >= 10mm
1501-2000 >= 13mm
2001-2500 >= 16mm
2501-3000 >= 19mm
3001-3500 >= 22mm

There are 30mm from L to H on the Oil dipstick. From reading other threads it apparently takes about 2qts to fill from L to H. Continuing the math above:

3501-4000 >=25mm
4001-4500 >=28mm
4501-5000 >=31mm

Based on the table above, a bad engine is burning through about 2qts of oil in 5000miles. What is weird to me is that if your car was indeed consuming oil, it burnt more than twice what a bad engine burns..

I just went and checked mine, I am at 5000miles since last oil change, I am 9mm below H mark.


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***This is just me making assumptions from what I read, from what Nissan says and from what I see on my car. Do take it with a grain of salt.***


.

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Synack

Yeah I was right at about 5k. I change my oil every 5k so I was about to get an oil change very soon before all of this.

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Synack

Even if I were at 7 or 8000 miles into an oil change it still should not consume 5 quarts of oil.

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Ron

No it shouldn't but its not on Nissan's chart and its not their recommended oil change interval. I personally don't go over 5000.

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MJB

A low mileage engine shouldn't really be burning any oil at all, maybe half a qt each oil change would be acceptable. My Explorer had 170k miles on it and didn't burn a drop of oil . Same thing with my Tacoma, which has 69k miles. What do you think Ron, think you may have consumption issues?

Like I said, I drove 1k miles in 16 hours... drove it pretty dang hard only stopping for gas, and I burned through a qt. I think I just may go into the dealership and get the test done.

*sorry to get off topic. Let us know OP what the stealership tells you.

wstar

L -> H on the stick isn't 2 qts, it's more like about 1.

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Augustus

Per Nissan, the "Severe duty" schedule is every 3,750 miles. "Normal duty" is every 7,500 miles. While I think it's generally agreed upon that the smart money is on 3,750 intervals, 5k is still well within the realm of what should be acceptable. Especially since the OP is running synthetic.

I don't disagree that had he changed it at 3,750 he might have been alerted that he was running low before it was too late. But that's why the car has a dipstick....

As Ron asked above, I'm curious as to when the OP last checked the oil level. To the OP, did you check it immediately after your last oil change to confirm that the level was correct? That is a critically important bit of info here.

If you check it like every few weeks and it was fine a week or two ago, then that would seem to point to some kind of catastrophic failure and not something you did. But as others have said, I can't imagine that wouldn't have manifested itself in the fore-mentioned oil slicks or clouds of smoke.

But if you haven't ever checked the oil level since you changed it X-months ago, then that opens up the possibility that the problem was some kind of slow leak or accidental negligence on your part.

I've got a buddy who has changed his own oil for years, and one time he just forgot to put the drain plug back in. Got distracted with a phone call or something in the middle of the change. Put in 5 quarts, then checked the disptick to find it dry. So he put in another quart a little bit at a time. Still dry. WTF. Then it dawned on him. He'd just poured 6 quarts of brand new oil straight through the engine into his to-be-recycled pan. Oops. Not saying you did this, but sometimes things happen. Had he not checked the oil to confirm the level after the change, he very likely could have driven off with it empty.

wstar

Well, maintenance mistakes can definitely happen (I've caught myself on a few before, luckily before driving off in the car), but I don't think this is likely to be a case where the refill never happened. It's been 5K miles since that last change. If the drain plug were left off, the engine would've been making ugly noises and failing long before the 5K mark. With a drain and no refill the remaining oil won't even reach the pump pickup, you'd just be riding on the film left from the old oil. For that matter it would've definitely triggered a low oil pressure dummy light on the first drive, and VVEL wouldn't have functioned without the oil pressure either.

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Augustus

Oh yeah, totally. Not implying that the OP forgot about the drain plug. Just an anecdote that $#^% happens sometimes.

If he did forget the plug, then Mobile 1 might be interested in buying the engine as a marketing piece, considering that it would have run almost 5k miles before blowing up on the film leftover from the previous Mobile 1 oil. That'd be impressive.

MightyBobo

How much...approximately a basketball court?




Sorry, couldnt resist :-p

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cheshirecat

Yep- from the L to H it should be approx. 1 quart.

Synack

No, Ron and I did the oil change together. We MADE SURE the the oil drain bolt was in there. We had no crush washer at the time so we went to Advanced and bought the highest temp thread locker so that sucker would not leak or come out. After unscrewing it the other day it was evident that it was on there pretty good and did not leak a single drop. It took quite a bit of effort to break the bolt. There were never ever any signs of oil anywhere. This car has been 5-6000 miles on Mobil 1 Synthetic 7000 Extended Mileage oil. So everything that we did was correct.

The dealership asked for my oil change records and I of course told them I did it personally.

There's only 2 things I can think of that actually caused this.

1. There is a hole in the side of the engine (100% unlikely)
2. It burns oil like a mofo

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specblue02

I too dropped off my oil service records this morning. The mechanic at the front desk who I have been dealing with the whole time looked it over (copies of receipts as well as a spreadsheet for maintenance). Said that it should be good for their purposes. I should hear something later today on what the status is. Car still has yet to move but it was dying when I started it up so it's possible they may have run a diagnostic on it right in the parking spot since they probably couldn't even drive it into the garage.


BTW, my car is bone stock with just K&N Air filters. Just clear bra & tints on top of that...and I do ALL highway driving, hence why I'm at 46k miles and it's 2 years old today