Well, at least you can be assured that the extra money you're spending gets you a thorough check of the blinker fluid every 3,750 miles.

When I picked up my car, the poor F&I guy just didn't know what to say when I explained that I pay for oil changes a la carte, and don't pay hundreds of dollars extra to have a tech do an otherwise free inspection to make sure nothing is falling off the car. After taking a look under the hood and seeing how unbelieveably user friendly the engine air filters are to change, you'd have to be insane to prepay hundreds (thousands!) of dollars for simple maintenance items on this car.

My dealer even furthers the scam by telling you that you'll get an "extra" $1,000 off your NEXT car at the dealer if you buy a $1,500 service package. I bet they get a laugh out of that one at lunch after every sale.

Question: Assuming you have staggered wheels, did the dealer give you a credit for never having to rotate them? I'm guessing "no".

 

The only solace I can get out of this contract is that the dealer just gave it to me at the end of negotiating my lease deal and that I never really purchased it. It was one of their last efforts to swing the sale and I figured I had a 39 mo lease with 45k in mileage and this contract covered all the expected maintenance for the time I would own the car. I doubt that they do anything different if you actually pay for the oil change at each service interval, they probably would still use valvoline!!

 

Jon it was useful to chat with you earlier today. I learned and validated a lot of my knowledge on oil use on our VQs. Thanks for the hard work in contributing to this forum.

Joe

 

Umm, I had my ECU reprogrammed with the updated VVEL software at Suburban Infiniti of Troy, and they had ester oil on hand to fill me up with. Kind of odd that who you talked to hadn't heard of ester. Was it the chubbier guy, Chris, he's kind of a n00b.

They used to have a much better service assistant named Josh. He's gone now!

 

Just curious, what did they change on your ECU?

 

That was Chris I talked to. You are correct in that he is a noob. At this point I don't know what to do as my car is noisier than ever after my oil change on startup. Its a lease so I'm not sweating it but its a sad day if thats the way Infiniti treats its customers who buy maintenance contracts.

 

Eauty, I sure hate to hear about things like this. Trying to be helpful
here with some possible options for you. I would contact the
dealer service rep' or the dealership manager, prefereably in person
eye-to-eye sooner rather than later, describe the events and
nicely tell them you are bringing the car back for repair and want
a loaner until repairs are complete.

I don't want to predict bad news, but it is possible by the
noise you are describing that damage to the VVEL
actuator motor has already occured. I'd get it checked.

Again, I'm not making any accusations, but the take-home
message for G37 owners is change your oil often with
good stuff. The more you put your foot into the throttle
on this engine, the more often you should change the
oil.....The VVEL will cook your oil faster than you can
say WTF. Also HIGHLY RECOMMEND NEVER EVER
REVVING this engine in neutral, park, or with the
clutch depressed.

 

We've read that Consumer Repots loves the Infiniti g37; b ut no one has noticed that Infiniti comes out next-to-last on satisfaction with service.

If only I had known

GED

 

The TSB presribes new ECU software that better manages the VVEL. To be honest, I'm not sure what exactly it does, but it helps and improves the behaviour of the VVEL. On the older 08s it's almost applied to every vehicle. Perhaps on 09s and later they may be shipping the cars with it already taken care of. Though you can't be sure, because "JonfromCB" complained about receiving his car without it being done. So best to check. The TSB also includes a free fill of ester oil with the reprogram.

 

Jon, I appreciate your posts here. I now have a much better understanding of the higher quality oils discussed here and how they work with the VVEL engine.

To put some numbers to your recommendation, would you go even less that 3,750? Sure, if someone spends the day at the track they should come home to an oil change, but how does this affect the typical G37 driver?

Myself - 80% of my driving is "normal" with traffic. I typically pass most cars when driving - not blistering through traffic but I prefer to stay ahead. On occasion (3-4x a week) I'll get into it. Just yesterday I was experimenting with the manual shifter and was in the 7K RPM range a few times. On my road trip last weekend I stressed her a bit, several times.

With the Pennzoil Ultra in there now, I was hoping to go 5,000 miles between changes. Think I should stick to 3,750? Or even less? Most of my day to day driving is city - not heavy city, but I do sit at a few lights on the way to/from work in my 25 minute commute.

 

Well, are you very familiar with the G? Our cars do start loud and even shut down louder than most cars. It's the nature of the beast. How about after the car warms, does it idle smoothly? Does the RPM needle rest nice and low? DO you hear any ticking or knocking from the engine? You should be fine. The maintenance package is really intended to skim money off of ya. They are making double off of you what you would spend just doing the essentials "a la carte." Especially things like oil changes, air filter changes, "check fluids," etc. Crap like that, you could do for free or cheaper, they are stacking up at dealership prices. Especially on a lease, why not just do maintenance "a la carte."

Anyways, Chris @ Troy is a n00b. He has a good heart, but he doesn't know that much about our cars. If you have problems with him, you may have to be a little pushy, or just talk to his boss.

 

I think you'll find that people buy Infinitis for the product, not the service. Plus, you sort of have to take that info with a grain of salt because if I remember correctly, Infiniti came in second to last in the luxury/premium category...not of all automakers. To be honest, I'm not surprised considering the short history of Infiniti and the fact that it's really just an upscale off-shoot of Nissan.

 

I'll start by asking everybody here....Have you all noticed that
all those guys who were so arrogantly insistent against using
Nissan Ester or other expensive premium oils in their VQ37s
are now so conspiciously quiet in the oil threads? Has
anyone else noticed some of those same guys using
the group III synthetics (M1 is one) are having oil related
engine problems, consumption issues and high wear metal
shedding in their UOAs???? interesting.

To answer your question in reagrds to shorter than
3750 mile change intervals...I would emphasisze being
aware of how long your oil is in this engine. Don't
just focus on miles driven. My observation is that
modern mass produced engines have more assembly
lube in them than anyone would ever imagine. I's
just glorified grease for Pete's sake!!! Also consider
that my car was built in Oct 08..I took delivery
10 months later! Many guys will leave that FF
in their car, spinning that old oil full of assembly
lube at up to 7000 RPM for another 3-5K. In
my opinion that is just plain stupid. I do
a HARD break-in with oil changes at 300 - 500
miles, 1K, 3K, and 5K, and then I go to whatever
interval I decide is best for that engine. Now
please understand: this is what works for me
and I'm not telling others to do what I do.
I have learned that this approach consistently
provides lower break-in metals indicating complete
break-in at around 10 -15K vs 20 -25K. This
has been so consistent for me that I no longer
do UOAs.

Back to your questions....we simply don't know
how long Nissan Ester or PU will hold-up well
in the VQ37. Until we do, I recommend 3750
or three months, whatever you use. Perhaps;
and we're all hoping that UOA data will provide
us conclusive data on which oil/oils will hold-up
for 5K or longer in these motors, but for now
I haven't seen any data that makes me feel
comfortable either using something longer,
or recommending it to others. Would I run
PU for 5K in my car???? Yes, If I was on
a road trip and driving most of those miles
at highway speeds over a short amount of
time. Would I use it for 5K in my normal
driving paterns for 5K?...Not until I study
some UOAs and feel confident about it.
...the same goes for Nissan Ester.

 

I know one personally that has given up trying to get people to switch. Guy drive like a maniac, or "angry teenager" according to Gamedog

Guy also builds superbike motors for a living, and knows a thing or two about engine lubrication. He doesn't just use this "ultra premium" for no reason.

 

interesting stuff. I have been involved in cars and building and modifying engines for a long time. This new VVEL technology scares me a bit given what it seems to be doing to the oil.... But that aside...

What I did is change the factory oil at 1200 miles with M1 5W30 and a nissan filter.

Today I just did the second oil change at 5K miles and used Penzoil Ultra Synthetic 5W30 and a Wix filter. This was 2 months since the previous change - wife was daily driving the car then and she logs a ton of miles. She is back in her Mazda now, so the car will see a lot less miles and probably easier miles - more highway and less city. She drives about a 50/50 mix.

My plan is to do the next change at 8K miles and at that point will probably go to the Nissan Ester oil and then do changes every 3750 per Nissan's recommendation for this engine. No sense risking anything for a car I plan to keep for awhile and certainly past the warrantee period. I will probably stick with the Nissan oil. I am debating about bringing it to the dealer for the 7500 mile service - it includes a bunch of fluid level checks which would take me 5 min to do, and the oil change and rotate the tires. 1 hour at most. But it may be worth it to get registered into the dealers service network and have them check for any TSB's or updates available for the car while it is in there. Any thoughts on that? My dealer is Beshoff in San Jose, CA, and they do seem to have a competent service dept.