Posted: Jan 05 2008 at 11:28am | IP Logged

****patiently awaiting the AMSOIL dealers to smell this like sharks in the ocean, then a posting frenzy begins****

all kidding aside, AMSOIL is a known as a quality oil, however if you are under warranty, i would not run extended drains on ANY oil only for warranty purposes.

with that being said, any conventional oil these days will go 4k easily usually, depending on how severe your driving style is (i.e. stop and go, lots of starts, idling, etc) 

The advantages of synthetic are that they usually have better cold pumpability at lower temperatures, generally more shear stable, and tend to have the ability for extended drain OCI's (oil change interval).

if you are not going to try and run amsoil a LONG drain, i wouldn't bother and would purchase any synthetic on the shelf, pennzoil platinum, valvoline synpower or the maxlife fulll synthetic, quaker state's syns, Castrol syntec and the M1 line. There are others out there that are boutique oils such as Amsoil, such as RP (tho can be found at wally world), Redline, etc that tend to be more expensive, especially if you are not going to run oil analysis to determine what your maximum OCI can be. any of the off the shelf full synthetics will get the job done. a good source of information is www.bobistheoilguy.com

just be sure to use the oil grade recommended for your app, which for the frontys i believe is either 5W-30 or 10W-30. just my .02

Posted: Jan 06 2008 at 2:40am | IP Logged

Thanks, I really was just thinking it would save me some money. I am one of those that changes there oil faithfully every 3000. Regular synthetics are a little more pricy and you still have to change them sooner still so I was going to go with amsoil because of the 25,000 change. Its like 40 bucks for the iol and 20 $ for the filter for a total of approx 60 bucks but in the long run less hassle and kind of saves you money/ time. I do have the extended warantee on the truck but I dont know how good the drn thing is . I am still pissed about the gas mi. I just talked to a nother guy at work with a titan and he is getting better that me too. Nissan told me to save my receipts for gas sos I am going to bring it back again. I just dont get it. I know my cousin bought a nissan in ny and was pissed and kept complaining they gave him his money back. Its funny the dealer ship just sent me a letter saying thank you for buying a nissan from us and we arehere for you and want you be satisfied and bla bla bla. Well sorry to get off the iol subject with my ranting and raving. So is there any harm in the using synthetic? I am not a hard driver and I baby my vehicles and I never let anyone do it but myself I did read onewebsite I found on the internet where nissan said it was ok to use it. I really just want to whats best for the truck I have never used synthetic I have always used valvoline.

Posted: Jan 06 2008 at 4:15am | IP Logged

I must have missed where you live at, is it cold? that would be a big factor in the gas mileage for sure i would bet.

as i said before, if you plan on keeping the truck, and especially while under warranty i would not run anything over the recommended oil change interval specified by nissan, just an easy way to give the dealer a way  out of repair work if they were able to prove it it was oil related. Also, amsoil may not (someone correct me if i'm wrong here) be API certified still, i heard that it wasn't in the past, so that is yet another contention that could possibly be had by the dealer, even though it is a good oil.

what you stated before, 25,000 change (is that km or miles) would save you money i'm sure, because you are changing your oil less often and as long as it's doing it's job, of course it would save you money, that is one of the benefits of synthetic oils, that you can stretch them out longer in theory than dino oils. That is where oil analysis comes into play because you can get some feedback on how well your oil is performing. that being said however, it would be a huge waste of money i believe for you to run full synthetics for 3000 mi oil change intervals. if you wanted to stay with valvoline, i have heard a lot of good reviews about the valvoline maxlife blend, and there are some that say...the high mileage oils aren't for new cars, i am not sure i agree there, just a diff formulation, there is also the durablend from valvoline which i think is their synthetic/conventional blend. Also out there is castrol syntec blend as another option. I am not sure what the prices are on those, but i heard that if you keep an eye out for deals in the papers and at the parts stores you can find buy one get one free on lots of oils but they will be cheaper than a full synthetic at any rate. you will get some of the advantages of the synthetics and not be paying the price of a full synthetic if you really want to try something with the synthetic oil in it.

however in my opinion if you are going to keep doing changes at 3000, then i wouldn't waste the money and just buy a quality dino oil and stay on top of the changes as you say you do, it will be fine. lots of vehicles go long way on dino and do just fine

sorry for the long post

Posted: Jan 06 2008 at 12:47pm | IP Logged

..

boneyard10;

... I've been using the Wally-World pure synthetic 10W-30 about four years in two Nissons.  Changing it and filter at about 5000 miles. Have not driven enough miles to tell if it's any good but I'm comfortable with it.

BTW...  thanks for your service!

Posted: Jan 06 2008 at 11:56pm | IP Logged

Thanks for the info. I dont know if I could bring myself to use walmart oil or not. I know filters play a big role Im just not sure what to use. I have been told by one mechanic it sdont matter about oil just chsnge it regular and visa versa. I just know from experience that I tried the cheap oil once and notice after 3000 miles when it came out it was like black and nasty and I dont drive hard. So you tell me. No it was not synthetic. I did have a napa guy tell me that Valvoline is what is in napa brand bottles though. I dont know if he was trying to sell me napa products or being honest. So what is a good reliable filter to use i know I am probably nucing it. Thanks again

Posted: Jan 07 2008 at 11:08am | IP Logged

lakota makes a good point, one that i have illustrated prior in another thread dealing with engine oil. whether it's synthetic or dino oil, as long as you maintain your vehicle, and keep up with the fluid changes, whatever those intervals are that work for those fluids and your driving style (course i am not speaking of the synth vs dino and synth vs synth drain intervals here) you should not have any issues with any oil. I have a buddy at work who is a mechanic and he claims to have a late model ford ranger (not sure which year) with over 300k on the clock and all original tranny/motor and says he uses nothing but cheap oils and tranny fluids as well as some marvel mystery oil in the crankcase/gas tank (he likes the stuff, but this is not an endorsement for this product, nor would i say it's a bad product) but he says he changes it on the money when it needs to be changed.

as far as wally world oil, it's usually supplied (depending on what part of the country) by either SOPUS (read Shell, also owners of Pennzoil/quaker state) or Warren Performance Products I believe I read someplace. You could probably turn the bottles over and find out at wally world.

as far as quality filters, at 3k change intervals, most of the filters on the shelf will do you just fine, just change it when you change the oil.