I just bought a new Frontier. The owner's manual says the oil should be changed every 5,000 miles or 6 months. I have no problem with the 5,000 mile requirement, but this will be a low mileage truck and it will not be driven on short trips. If I change the oil every 6 months, I will only have 1500-2500 miles on the oil, and modern oils can easily go a year or more with no problems. I don't want to void the warranty. Should I go ahead and change the oil every 6 months regardless of how few miles I have driven? Thanks!
Oil Changes and Warranty
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How are you going to have that low mileage but not driving short trips? You just take it out once in awhile for a long haul?
For warranty purposes YES change it every 6 months and save the receipts with dates. Take photos because some receipts fade. For the trucks health I would say YES as well. I would be worried about engine sludge if you drive so little and do not change the oil enough.
t will be used as a secondary vehicle, so I get to pick when I use it. I use another vehicle for short trips. The Frontier will only be used when necessary on trips that are long enough to thoroughly warm up the engine. Thanks for your reply.
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They won't deny warranty if you miss or wait on an oil change here and there. What will be important is that you DID have the oil changed regularly and you have that handful of receipts. But, for the cost and the peace of mind, I'd still change it at the 6 month mark so if you do have an issue, the dealer has nothing to say.
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I'm sorry but I do not agree with some of the above answers at all... Generally speaking sludge does not form in oil from being underutilized, it forms from being overused and getting cooked. Now if you would have said you drive very short distance then I would say yes change your oil once every 6 months as when oil is underutilized oil can turn acidic and allow corrosion to form inside and engine due to moisture not being fully burned out....
Now take this advice with a grain of salt as I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night but I have worked with motor oils for the past 30 plus years as a ship engineer...
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If there was no warranty involved, I would agree with you wholeheartedly. But, have an internal engine issue and show up to the dealer with one or no oil change receipts? Yea, not worth the $30 twice a year.
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I have had the same question, why throw away perfectly good synthetic oil with 3K miles on it just because it's over 6 months old? If your truck hasn't been used in dusty conditions or a lot of short trips there is no good reason I can think of except the warranty. I decided to ignore that part of the warranty requirements and change it once a year or 7500 miles. I'll worry about the warranty requirements if I have an engine problem which is extremely unlikely.
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What I would do is, I think, a happy medium. I'd run the oil for a year and do the change once a year. I would buy oil and filter for a change every six months and stockpile the oil & filters in my barn. That way you only change the oil once a year, but you have receipts showing you "changed oil & filter" every six months. When the vehicle is out of warranty, you won't have to buy oil & filters for a good long while.
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That right there where I stand, how many true oil related failures can you honestly say you are fully aware of? Oil related issues are all but nonexistent...
Another point I see is many people are downright fearful and worried that a dealer is going to VOID your warranty for some obscure and/or unrelated issue. It does not work that way but the stealership likes to let you think that it is that way. It is up the manf to PROVE that something you did or didn't do CAUSED your specific failure. The user is protected under THE MAGNUSON-MOSS WARRANTY ACT
I will show up with absolutely no receipts as they are not a requirement... Simply logging your maintenance records in the back of the manual is record enough... Again I'll reference the THE MAGNUSON-MOSS WARRANTY ACT...
I agree with what you said earlier. Since OP came back on and said no short trips I don't think there will be too much of an issue. I do not see many engine failures though toyota went through a bunch of BS some years about with sludge and other engine contaminates in low mileage vehicles.
The part about no receipts is false from what I read in the manual though. I have found it online and pasted it below.
This all being said, I am known to extend my changes. Last car had plenty of 10k miles changes and car before that even went 20k between changes. The 20k was with a leaking oil feed line to the turbo so I was adding fresh oil often though. I also was driving alot of highway miles. 35k plus miles per year. All the engines were running great when cars sold.
So to answer the original question you must change the oil every 6 months and hold on to a receipt in order to keep your warranty. Now is the oil in there still good at 6 months? I bet it is but that is another topic really.
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I am in the same boat as the OP. I drive less than 7,500 miles per year. Many times when I hit 6 months I had 2,500 to 3,000 miles on the oil. I changed it at 6 months. Which means I change the oil twice a year. That is not going to break the bank. I do have short trips (less than 5 miles), and once a month a good 2 hour drive on the highway. I tend to keep vehicles 8=10 years. Changing the oil twice a year is just my way of trying to keep the engine in good condition. Have done this pretty much with all the vehicles I have owned.
I am not a lawyer, but the manual says x miles or 6 months. If I have not hit the miles, I go by the time.
I am not a lawyer, but the manual says x miles or 6 months. If I have not hit the miles, I go by the time.
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Rob, the info you provided speaks quite clearly and I should not have spoken with blanket coverage as I've not read Nissan's verbatim; I spoke from issues dealt with long ago.... Though I doubt they would hold such a cut and dry line I'd make effort to ask a Service Manager and see what kind of answer I could get directly from Nissan.
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Well, you can go in at 59 months and or 59K miles months with your log book, I'll go in with a log book AND a fist full of receipts. I'm not arguing the point of the condition of the oil, I'm just saying it is silly to not arm yourself with every tool you can when the dealer / manufacturer is looking at covering a multi thousand dollar engine repair.
I am with you. I am betting some that some dealers are great and people build a real relationship with them. These types of dealers I doubt will ever ask you to provide all this information. This is the kind of dealer I want. But other dealers are not as good. Honestly it is almost impossible to hold onto any receipts if you are a DIY guy. Because buying oil and filters in bulk to keep costs down makes it impossible to prove what and when it was done.
I have a dealer near me that so far has been great with warranty work. They also have $20 oil changes and I know that when it's done there they log it in. I would assume I do not need to keep my receipt at that point. Though I will probably toss them in the glove box.
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This is what I have always done when I have been under warranty. $30, they are changing it for you, they wash your truck and if and when there is an issue, the oil change records are in their system. Easy peazy, lemon squeazy, hand me the keys to my rental, call me when it's fixed...
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I'm glad you came up with this thought before I threw it out there... This I believe is where the not needing receipts to document every single DIY detail came from; but honestly I don't remember if it came from a Honda, Hyundai, Kawasaki or a stinking Russian made Ural motorcycle anymore...
Hum or perhaps it was Caterpillar or EMD engines? Nope we track them by hours or gallons of fuel used... ::wink::
This is exactly what I started doing a few years ago on my low mileage truck. The warranty period ended in August and I have oil and filters for three changes sitting in my garage.
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Thoroughly warm up the engine? That's why the engine has a thermostat. In normal weather conditions it'll be at normal running temperature within a few minutes. In the winter I see sub zero temps for months and at the most it's still a few minutes to get to normal operating temperature.
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So if the OP had said he drives say 2000 miles a week and it doesn't seem right that
he should have to change his oil every 3 weeks. Would it be ok for him to think...
well, the manual says 5000 miles OR 6 months so... 6 months it is? So that would be
48,000 miles?
I guess there's a reason why they say x months or x miles rather than just x miles.
I don't know what it could be , maybe breakdown of additives from combustion by-
products... something?
I guess the main question is, can you demand that they honor the warranty if you
choose to blow off their maintenance "requirements". Guess it's chance you choose
to take to save what? $20 bucks a year maintaining a $25-30,000 machine.
Maybe he's worried about wasting motor oil... I'm pretty sure they recycle it.
he should have to change his oil every 3 weeks. Would it be ok for him to think...
well, the manual says 5000 miles OR 6 months so... 6 months it is? So that would be
48,000 miles?
I guess there's a reason why they say x months or x miles rather than just x miles.
I don't know what it could be , maybe breakdown of additives from combustion by-
products... something?
I guess the main question is, can you demand that they honor the warranty if you
choose to blow off their maintenance "requirements". Guess it's chance you choose
to take to save what? $20 bucks a year maintaining a $25-30,000 machine.
Maybe he's worried about wasting motor oil... I'm pretty sure they recycle it.
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