550 service and oil intervals?

G'day

I am considering upgrading to a 550, I currently have a D22 3ltr. Shits me having to change oil every 5k, is it the same with the 550? I have read its recommended to do oil every 5k, and service is every 10k. Yet one article said you can stretch it out to 20k for some users (which seems odd)
http://www.carpoint.com.au/car-reviews/pdf/22087.aspx?p=%2Fprint.aspx%3FR%3D22087%26AllModules%3D1%26tabID%3D2608168&fn=22087

The added costs and time in doing it is a concern as Ford recommend 15k. I would have thought with advances in technology (ie: German diesels) that oil changes these days would be at greater intervals. I know its the cheapest form of insurance.

Regards
Chris

Unless you are under extreme conditions there is no requirement to service any diesel every 5K, it's only ever a personal choice. As far as I am aware the suggested interval from Nissan is still 10K in the 550. Some manufacturers are pushing over 10K under normal conditions but I don't think Nissan are one of them. I'm sure there is 550 service threads on this forum somewhere.

http://learning.nissan.com.au/DOTS/media/libTopics/60/V9X-TM-FULL.pdf

handy to know.

My 550 is only 6 weeks old and the recomended oil change and service intervals are every 10000 kms.Had the first service done a couple of weeks ago and i deceided to get the oil and filter changed at the same time just because i am old fashioned and i think its good insurance.
As the oil they use is a special oil it is very expensive but if you if buy a 550 at least you get fixed price servicing for 6 years and the price of most of the services is about the retail cost of the oil and filter alone.
The bottom line is buy a 550 you wont be dissapointed.

the logbook states 5w 30 fully syn
nulon 5w30 matches the specs set by nissan and is a good oil
its currently $65 at super cheap
cheap insurance if you plan on keeping car for a long time
i do my yd25 crd every 5k
cheers

Spotted a few cars coming out with intelligent service minders. Monitors the number of starts to K's, the way it's driven, how much idle time... Then calculates the intervals. Looks like Nissan are not up to that stage yet.

Tappet said:

Spotted a few cars coming out with intelligent service minders. Monitors the number of starts to K's, the way it's driven, how much idle time... Then calculates the intervals. Looks like Nissan are not up to that stage yet.

Click to expand...

interesting concept, I do a lot of highway kms, so I rack up high kms but low hours, would definitely benefit me

what cars have you seen with this Tappet?

Mercedes diesels do it and some Euro trucks do it. Merc scheduled their diesels for 20K servicing but will adjust up or down depending on use. Other European cars do it as well, I don't know if no Nissan comes with such technology but given the number of people who believe that servicing in a diesel must be religiously done at 5K or the engine will die a premature death I can see why car companies don't implement it.

I wouldn't say it has to be done to avoid premature failure
It just gives me piece of mind
You do what makes u happy

Some Mercs and BMWs, Some US Model Fords and Chevolets

The newish Explorer I drove around for a couple of months last year had it. Expressed time to service as a percentage.

When you think about it, all the info for it is already there in the ECU, so would take little cost to have these indicators in all new cars.

Maybe they want you to service more regardless of your usage.

Tappet said:

Maybe they want you to service more regardless of your usage.

Click to expand...

If you read many of the general auto mags (as opposed to manufacturer specific) servicing intervals here and overseas are a heavily debated topic. Apparently there is a large number of makes and models sold in this country that have massively different servicing intervals with Aussie sold models always having less distance.

KraftyPg said:

If you read many of the general auto mags (as opposed to manufacturer specific) servicing intervals here and overseas are a heavily debated topic. Apparently there is a large number of makes and models sold in this country that have massively different servicing intervals with Aussie sold models always having less distance.

Click to expand...

Ah ok, thanks for the enlightenment. Don't read them unless I can get my greasies on them free. Most info from the net, interesting tho, may have to do some drilling online on the subject.

I don't have specific threads but check out Whirlpool forums apart from EVERY person on that forum being right 100% of the time there has been a number of discussions, mainly on euro models that have longer servicing intervals than our cars.

I was looking through some UK sites and one of their comments was that the v6 had shorter service intervals than the 2.5. They were talking 12000 miles for the 6 and 20000 miles for the 4. Don't know what they do different but these are the Nissan quoted services?

There is no way that I would run a 2.5 diesel for nearly 30,000km between oil changes.

FWIW I used to change the oil and filter on my 2.5 at 5k but due to the synthetic oil used in the 6 now run to 10k.

If the 550 uses a fully synthetic C4 low ash oil the oil change interval is 20000k any other oil isnt recommended and lowers the interval to 10000k
No nissan is on a 5000k oil change interval unless its driven under extreme conditions

There was a letter in the paper the other day regarding the 550 servicing intervals. Nissan Australia have stated in response to the car rag's prompts that all Aussie 550's have servicing intervals of 10K, any 550 that shows service intervals of 20K on the dash needs a flash upgrade to revert it back to 10K.

does anyone know if the gearbox is a completely seal box or it can be changed ??

I just just had my 550 for over a year now and after the 1000km service at nissan they put the sticker on for 5000km and I was like ok fine.

Then the next was 10000, So I got it serviced again at 10k or 3 months.

Then next was 15k and I was like What the Hell....
I called them up and asked if I really need to have it serviced every 3 months, and they said no, and blamed it on a junior!

I usually do 5k per 6 months unless I have a trip on, but its all about revenue raising these days!

sparra04 said:

the logbook states 5w 30 fully syn
nulon 5w30 matches the specs set by nissan and is a good oil
its currently $65 at super cheap
cheap insurance if you plan on keeping car for a long time
i do my yd25 crd every 5k
cheers

Click to expand...

Nulon DOESNT meet the C4 requirement, it is C3 which isn't much different and is ok to use.

Variable servicing has been out for ages on european diesels, i bought a 2007 Audi in the UK brand new with the 170hp diesel and it had it way back then. It just monitors how you drive, how heavy your right foot is, whether your journey's are start stop etc i often got over 20,000 miles out of it between services, but if you don't do the mileage it has a period of time from what i remember so 20,000 miles or 2 years for example.

I was talking about this to a good mechanic mate who runs a garage the other day asking him why the service intervals are so much shorter here and we came to no conclusion, he said maybe it was the temperature here compared to the UK but i can't see that as europe (spain, greece etc) get really high temperatures too.

Also one maybe to watch is that my 550 had a Valvoline sticker in the windscreen from new, my mates garage uses all Valvoline oils, fluids etc so i asked him next time the rep came in to get me some Valvoline Synpower MST C4 which i had done my research on the international Valvoline website as the oil for the job, the reply i got was that Valvoline don't import that spec oil to Australia so isn't available so i asked whats in the drums at the local nissan dealership with the Valvoline writing all over it and my reply was it's just a general oil that doesn't meet the 550's specs so who knows what they put in when you go for a service there!