Oil Problems. Big Time.
03-29-2012, 12:49 PM
#1
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Maryland
Posts: 11
Oil Problems. Big Time.
Hey,
Before i bring my car to the dealership for a lack of trusty nissan techs in my area, i just wanted to see if anyone has been having or has had the similiar problem that i have. I have a 2003 Maxima SE titanium edition, that i purchased about 2000 miles ago. With in those two thousand miles ive ran through five quarts of oil. Which shouldnt be happening. No oil leaks under the bay. no smoke out the tail pipe. no leaks in the exhaust. No CEL. Im confused. It came to my attention when i started hearing what seemed to be the beginning of some chain rattle and i immediately checked my oil and was dumbfounded. Threw some oil in there and the rattle went away right away but im still trying to figure out where all that oil went. The dealership offered to take it back even though it doesnt have a warranty and do a compression test and some diagnostics. But i just wanted to know if anyone has already ran into this problem. I dont have enough time to run through all the diagnostics and tests my self due to my occupation and work hours so i was wondering if anyone else had this problem. Please help
Before i bring my car to the dealership for a lack of trusty nissan techs in my area, i just wanted to see if anyone has been having or has had the similiar problem that i have. I have a 2003 Maxima SE titanium edition, that i purchased about 2000 miles ago. With in those two thousand miles ive ran through five quarts of oil. Which shouldnt be happening. No oil leaks under the bay. no smoke out the tail pipe. no leaks in the exhaust. No CEL. Im confused. It came to my attention when i started hearing what seemed to be the beginning of some chain rattle and i immediately checked my oil and was dumbfounded. Threw some oil in there and the rattle went away right away but im still trying to figure out where all that oil went. The dealership offered to take it back even though it doesnt have a warranty and do a compression test and some diagnostics. But i just wanted to know if anyone has already ran into this problem. I dont have enough time to run through all the diagnostics and tests my self due to my occupation and work hours so i was wondering if anyone else had this problem. Please help
03-29-2012, 01:09 PM
#2
You got yourself a oil burner, my 03ride cropped out and I put a 04 in there, I would give it back to who sold it or see if they will cover a engine swap 04 or higher, got a 02 now same problem but not as bad as yours....best bet swap the motor or give it back...
03-29-2012, 01:14 PM
#3
Good ol' oil burner.
Yea that motor needs to be swapped or rebuilt, rings are shredded. The cause of the problem is your precats so if you decide to keep the car and fix the motor buy headers(easiest and cheapest option) or replace those precats(why bother?) and get ride of those orginal precats.
Yea that motor needs to be swapped or rebuilt, rings are shredded. The cause of the problem is your precats so if you decide to keep the car and fix the motor buy headers(easiest and cheapest option) or replace those precats(why bother?) and get ride of those orginal precats.
03-29-2012, 01:28 PM
#5
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 1,861
5 qts in 2000 miles is A TON. I go through about 1 1/2 per 3500 miles. If you mean the dealership will refund you your $ or put you in another car then do it asap. But, I think you mean the dealership will run the tests free of charge... Can you confirm?
Oil burning is very common but the amount you blew through is massive. You need a new engine.
Oil burning is very common but the amount you blew through is massive. You need a new engine.
03-29-2012, 01:29 PM
#6
^I didnt read the whole post but....
If thats the dealerships offer. They will obviously try and squirm their way out of fixing problems and/or taking the cheap way out(i hope this is a nissan dealer we are talking about.) But if you want to keep the car. Tell them you will not take it unless the replace the motor and the precats. We know that is the issue with oil burnoff dont let them try and say its something else. They were doing recalls on those precats and have even replaced a very large number of motors because of the issues they have caused(everything from Sentras to Muranos).
5 quarts of oil in 2000 miles is ridiculous, 1/4-1/2 quart of oil burned off in 3000 miles is acceptable. All cars will burnoff a little oil, how much really depends on the condition of your valve seals and piston rings.
If thats the dealerships offer. They will obviously try and squirm their way out of fixing problems and/or taking the cheap way out(i hope this is a nissan dealer we are talking about.) But if you want to keep the car. Tell them you will not take it unless the replace the motor and the precats. We know that is the issue with oil burnoff dont let them try and say its something else. They were doing recalls on those precats and have even replaced a very large number of motors because of the issues they have caused(everything from Sentras to Muranos).
5 quarts of oil in 2000 miles is ridiculous, 1/4-1/2 quart of oil burned off in 3000 miles is acceptable. All cars will burnoff a little oil, how much really depends on the condition of your valve seals and piston rings.
04-01-2012, 07:59 AM
#10
If you're stuck with it, then definitely swap the motor. Someone else can pipe in about this, but get one from an 06 or 07 if you can. Seems like from what I've read they pretty well solved any oil-burning problems by that time. Regardless, it's definitely going to set you back some bucks... GL man!
04-01-2012, 10:13 AM
#12
04-01-2012, 10:19 AM
#13
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 4
Cool. Thanks. i thought we have to swap the transmission too b/c the 02-03 has 4-speed and the 06 and 07 has 5-speed and CVT. Also will MPG improves with this swap?
Last edited by jtg; 04-01-2012 at 10:23 AM.
04-01-2012, 10:25 AM
#14
How long have you had this car? If they sold you a sh1tty car with out acknowledging it i would put a little pressure on them to fix the problem. No car just eats 5 quarts of oil with in 2000 miles right off the lot.
04-01-2012, 01:05 PM
#16
It is extremely rare for our 3.5 maximas to have the failing precat causing scared up cylinder walls. I talked to the local master tech at our busy dealership and he can't even recall dealing with a failing precat causing catastrophic engine damage to our generation maxima. My point is not to waste time or money worrying about replacing the precats now. A new engine is best. Some early 350z and 3.5 maximas are known to have bad piston rings (cylinder 2 if I recall correctly). I burn about 2 quarts in my 02 and I don't mind at all. No smoke, no performance loss. I also run full synthetic 5w30 and have heard going with a thicker dyno oil really helps cut down the oil consumption. Good luck.
04-01-2012, 01:51 PM
#18
It is extremely rare for our 3.5 maximas to have the failing precat causing scared up cylinder walls. I talked to the local master tech at our busy dealership and he can't even recall dealing with a failing precat causing catastrophic engine damage to our generation maxima. My point is not to waste time or money worrying about replacing the precats now. A new engine is best. Some early 350z and 3.5 maximas are known to have bad piston rings (cylinder 2 if I recall correctly). I burn about 2 quarts in my 02 and I don't mind at all. No smoke, no performance loss. I also run full synthetic 5w30 and have heard going with a thicker dyno oil really helps cut down the oil consumption. Good luck.
Google Nissan precats recall. All your answers will be there. Because the QR25 has the same problem with oil consumption. It was those precats that caused them. Incase you didnt know 5.5 gen maximas use 2 of those same precats.
04-01-2012, 01:56 PM
#19
I'm still hoping someone will pipe in to verify this, but two things. I think I mistook what you meant about the transmissions. I thought you were asking about the difference from an 04 motor to an 06-07 motor as it pertained to the transmission, because those are the same generation. On the other hand, the 02-03 block should be the same as the 04-up block, so I (think) that the 4-speed will bolt up to the newer-gen 06-07 motor. I doubt mileage will change much. Obviously it would be slightly better with the 5-spd, but you should still get in the mid-20's on the highway and push low-20's combined I should think.
04-01-2012, 03:33 PM
#20
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Maryland
Posts: 11
Well. I'm not sure how much leverage I have with the situation anymore. Just dropped the car off and the dealers going to do a compression test, leak out test, and take the block apart and figure out whats going on and said that he would help me out with the cost as much as he can when it comes to fixing whats wrong. Is there any way that i could just rebuild the motors internals to deal with the oil consumption rather than doing a swap? is there enough aftermarket support for that motor for me to totally redo whatevers faulty?
04-01-2012, 06:59 PM
#24
Just changing the precats is not going to solve the problem but the precats were the cause of the problem. It is not an extremely rare problem for these cars to have clogged and failing precats. Ive seen 3 threads pop up in the past month about clogged precats and people wanting to just gut them. Again the motor sucked the particles back into the cylinders and chewed up the rings. So are we going to ignore those precats throw in a new engine and wait for the process to repeat itself?
Google Nissan precats recall. All your answers will be there. Because the QR25 has the same problem with oil consumption. It was those precats that caused them. Incase you didnt know 5.5 gen maximas use 2 of those same precats.
Google Nissan precats recall. All your answers will be there. Because the QR25 has the same problem with oil consumption. It was those precats that caused them. Incase you didnt know 5.5 gen maximas use 2 of those same precats.
04-01-2012, 07:48 PM
#25
Please check your information and give real sources other than citing the three threads here where people are basically looking for a reason to gut their precats. A clogged precat is much different than a precat literally breaking apart. Nissan did have a problem with the sentra engines a few years ago with the precats. My dealership is well aware with that problem and has warrantied countless sentra engines but as I said earlier, they can't recall having any engine failure due to precats on the maxima.
04-01-2012, 08:49 PM
#26
Please check your information and give real sources other than citing the three threads here where people are basically looking for a reason to gut their precats. A clogged precat is much different than a precat literally breaking apart. Nissan did have a problem with the sentra engines a few years ago with the precats. My dealership is well aware with that problem and has warrantied countless sentra engines but as I said earlier, they can't recall having any engine failure due to precats on the maxima.
Last edited by ShocknAwe; 04-01-2012 at 08:53 PM.
04-02-2012, 11:20 PM
#27
had the same problem with my 02 burned oil like a **** turned out my cats had caused that......got lucky from a friend of mines and bought his 05 engine with 46k on it for $300 havent had any issues at all for a yr now havent burned not one drop of oil than k goodness
04-03-2012, 11:17 AM
#29
If the dealership is going to test it for free go for it. Then when it fails, (and it will) see what else they are willing to do for you. (ie: swap out the engine). My 03, manual went thru about 1.5 qts every 1200 to 1500 miles. On the off chance when I forgot to check the oil, that rattling chain sound was a surefire reminder that I was low on oil. Funny though that I mostly heard it on hills and under hard acceleration. I traded my car with 130k miles on it.
04-04-2012, 09:44 AM
#31
It'll be interesting to see what the techs find, since everyone here is convinced it's burning oil.
04-04-2012, 09:48 AM
#32
Yall guy's got me scared now i swapped in a motor with 18k on it a few months ago and used my old precats.i been saving my cattmans for a merlot 6mt if i ever find one.but now this got me thinking
04-07-2012, 11:18 PM
#33
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 61
Any idea what the labor cost is to swap out a motor? I have an 02 and i am currently at about one quart every 2k miles. Must say moving to thicker oil has greatly reduced the oil loss issue but has not gone away completely. As others are saying, we can get 04+ motors for a few hundred but what is the labor cost? I am not experienced enough to do this myself of course. Just wanting to get some idea for the eventual case when my current motor gets shot.
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