Posted: Aug 19 2007 at 6:41am | IP Logged

Folks, I'd like your opinions on break-in of a 2007 Frontier V-6.  Owner's manual recommends 1200 miles before any sustained speed is held for a time.  Since I only drive 4-500 miles/month, this would indicate about 3 months before I can drive for 2-3 hours non-stop on the highway.  Is this reasonable?  I know that GM always seemed to suggest 500 miles for breakin.

Also, when did you guys do your first oil change?

Posted: Aug 19 2007 at 9:49pm | IP Logged

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Boomer;

I don't know about Nissan but there can be a lot of trash in a new engine. I change oil and filter at 500 miles in the new ones. I changed the oil in a new B&S 17 horse engine at 2 hours and the oil looked like glitter paint in the sunlight. That B&S engine now has several thousand hours and is in great shape.

It would be nice if our members would add their vehicle information to their signature (similar to mine) plus add their City and State . A member in the same town might be willing to drop by and help you with a problem.

Posted: Aug 20 2007 at 5:52am | IP Logged

Lakota, I had the same experience with several small engines.  Normally, I am a maintenance freak and use only Mobil 1 products.  I anticipate changing the oil in my new Nissan at about 500-1000 miles.  I was curious as to what others have done.

Also, how did you break yours in?  Did you avoid any trips for 1200 miles?  My son lives 125 miles away and I only drive about 500-600 miles/month.  Should I not drive there for the first 1200 miles of vehivle life?

Posted: Aug 20 2007 at 5:25pm | IP Logged

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Boomer;

Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 1:51pm | IP Logged

I kept to the recommended break in schedule of 2000 km.  It did take a while, but whats thatto the price and downtime of an engine.  Problem is tha tyou would never knopw the difference until you were just off of warranty most likely, then you;'re on your own.  I just stayed on the regular oil change interval, even for my first one.  I checked the oil regularly though and there was nothing to alarm me.  I asked them in depth about the break in proceedures.  Nissan runs their engines in a the factory before they ever go into a vehicle and they change the oil.  Then they ship the vehicles with the break-n period to help cover their warranty.  PLus, we have all been raised wit the break in theory and it makes us feel good.  For example, nissan deliverd the first gen of the murano, with no shift points.  They had endless comlaints and warranty claims because people had never felt a transmission with "one gear" before and they paniced.  So nissan wrote a ecu program to "fake" shift points to calm people down.  Now they advertise it , and we are used to the concept now.  It's all about training the masses.  Not saying to do away with break in totally, just not nearly as critical as it used to be. 

I did drive on the highway during my break in period.  I just took the back way in so that I could change gears once in a while on the way without disrupting traffic. 

I also allowed nissan to use their oil in my engine until all the free ones wer gone.  The theory is that they would use regular petro oil, which is not a slick as synthetic.  This would aid ion the speddy "wearing in" of the lubed aprts.  Now I use synthetic all the way.  Myth? maybe, who knows.  Besides, ignorance is bliss.  I only started looking into synthetics after I bought my new baby.

Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 4:10pm | IP Logged

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In the ‘Old Days’ oil wasn’t a tenth as good as the modern SG grades that have been phased out recently by the EPA.

Engine break-in oil changes in the 1940s & 1950s and even later.

AMC ( American Motors Corp - Rambler) engines came from the factory with a ’break-in oil’ and advised that it should be replaced with an ’HD’ (high detergent) 30W oil (summer time U.S.A.). In practice we found that many of our customers engines were consuming too much oil well after they should. To resolve the problem I called in the local Pennzoil representative for help. He recommended an oil changing plan as follows:

At 500 miles drop the break-in oil and filter and refill with cheap a non detergent Pennzoil 30 weight. Then after another thousand miles replace the oil and filter with 30W Pennzoil with ’Z-7’ High Detergent. This plan was offered free to the next thirty people buying our cars. This test was 100 percent successful.

It would be nice if our members would add their vehicle information to their signature (similar to mine) plus add their City and State . A member in the same town might be willing to drop by and help you with a problem.

Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 11:09pm | IP Logged

I just changed my oil at 1200 miles and went with mobil 1 5-30 I will change that at 4k and every 4k after that. I do 70% highway and 300 miles min. a week some towing and some moderate off road. I've had 13 new trucks and never really babied any breaking them in (other than not towing the first 1000 miles to break in trans,rear end and breaks). I changed the oil in all of them before 1500 miles the first time and except for diesels went to a 4-7.5k schedule. modern oils are all great synthetics will give you a little better mpg and are better if you are working the truck as they don't shear so easily.  I think any time after 500 miles of varied driving you're pretty much seated in and it won't hurt to change out to what ever you want.  My 2 cents. Scotty.

Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 6:04am | IP Logged

Thanks to all of you for the comments on break-in and oil.  I always use Mobil 1 but with my GM history, I was used to a 500 mile break-in period.  However, those were cast iron engines (block and heads).  I now have about 230 miles on the Frontier; it had 22 on it at delivery.  I'll make sure to keep trips fairly short, vary the speed and not run above about 2500 rpms for the foreseeable future.  I'll probably change oil at about 1500 miles and use Mobil 1 5W-30.

So far, I am pleased with the Frontier.  It is roomy and comfortable, has great roadability and runs fine.  It is my first Nissan mvehicle.  I keep vehicles a long time.  The Chevy truck I traded in I had for ten years.