2001 Nissan Sentra from North America - Comments

Nothing has failed on the car. I have no idea why, (You'll understand when you read further.), but everything is still good.

Okay, it's not my car, but my friend's. She (knows nothing about cars) so that's why what happened, happened.

One day she picks me after I get off of work. Then I comment her on her car saying that it rides nicely. Somehow after talking with her we got on the subject of oil changes. I told her I change my oil every 3000 miles. Well, she tells me that she's never had to do that before. UH OH!!! Immediately I tell her to take it to a car shop and have it done now!

So, in short, the shop spent 3 hours on the car because they had to flush all the junk out of the engine with some potent chemicals. The oil was actually paste. I have no idea how that engine survived 4 years and 58000 miles without an oil change, but it did, and not only that, it runs really good now!

I keep telling my friend to change her oil every 3000 miles, but she says "Well, if it can go 60,000 miles before I need it, why should I?" That's for her to decide, but there is no doubt in my mind that my next car is going to be a Sentra.

I Seriously doubt that a nissan sentra went 58,000 miles and four year with not oil change! So many things would go wrong after a while. According to the guinness book of world records the longest a production vehicle has gone on conventional oil is 25,878 miles. You see now why I doubt your claims. Even with Full synthetic Royal purple you could not go more than 20,000 miles without some type of damage occurring.

But my dads vauxhall Vectra C has 30,000 mile oil change intervals!!!

My Mother in law drove her 1996 Chevy Beretta 36,000 miles on an oil change! What a cruel way to treat a car!

I commonly run my GF's 97 Escort 20,000kms on synthetic with only filter changes and top-ups b/t (at 10,000kms) using Mobil 1 5w30. There's absolutely nothing wong with the car, and it runs very smoothly.

If you hang around the website BITOG you'll understand how oils are made up to withstand long intervals without breaking down/

As for 60k miles on the same oil...well, I really don't' know abtou that, but I'm sure that some parts would probably sustain some damage!!!

As a mechanical engineer I want to warn you that just because a car went a long distance between oil changes does NOT mean that is a wise or correct thing to do.

In fact it is very foolish and false economy.

If you drive mainly highway miles, making long trips on each journey, you might go even 100,000 miles without changing the engine oil, but the engine will certainly be more worn than if it had received frequent oil changes.

Some cars such as BMWs have service indicator lights. You start off with 4 green lights and the car's computer recognises your driving style, journey frequency and journey length and as time and distance goes by, each light is extinguished in sequence until when the last green light goes out, an "oil service" light appears.

Not all cars have this level of sophistication and the manufacturer's servicing schedule should be followed.

Just remember, no car was ever damaged by having the oil changed too frequently and for the little it costs, it is well worth treating your engine right, apart from the fact that you invalidate the warranty on the engine if you do not stick to the manufacturer's recommendations.

That's pretty silly.

Even if you are capable of changing the oil and filter yourself, if you have a car from new it is advisable to let the dealer or a recognised servicing shop change the oil and filter and you should keep the receipts in case you need to prove this in the event of a warranty claim.

Just happened on this review after being very disappointed with my own Nissan Sentra, and I have to say that I don't dispute what their saying. I personally have driven 48,000 miles on one oil change before. It was a Honda Civic 1999 (Also a review on this website). I know Guinness this and Guinness that, but I know for a fact that my car went 48K miles and on one oil change (all highway miles). I just never thought to report it to a world record book (heaven forbid if I don't.) It also only had one quart of oil in it. (PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME HOW IT STILL RUNS, BUT I SWEAR IT DOES) Why would I lie about something as dumb as that? I'm sure that many other people have gone way above 25K on a single oil change because I know I did. And I went a LOT further than that. Anyway, I'm just saying that just because it's on the net, doesn't always make it false.

I'm not sure what to think on this. I've witnessed 24 or 25K miles on my own oil before changing it, and that was an older Honda. Of course it came out black and the car didn't run too well.

58K sounds a little excessive to me, but oh well, it's probably possible. I work with Nissan's (Diesel trucks) that have 20K mile oil in them, and that's when they get changed. 20K. The trucks run fine.

After my 1996 GMC Sonoma passed the 200K mile mark in miles I vowed to do no more maintenance on it, including oil changes. I just kept up the parts needed for it to pass a state inspection. It lasted until 225,007 miles before quitting. Guess what? When it did die it was a head gasket, nothing to do with the oil. I sold the truck 3 months later and it is back on the road and running strong.