Is your car overdue for an oil change? Probably not by this much, reckons Glenn Torrens
Is your car overdue for an oil change? Probably not by this much, reckons Glenn Torrens
My recent ramblings about an old engine’s sump full of sludge reminded me of another similar situation years ago. It’s a story about a mate who bought a car from his father.
Almost as soon as my mate had grabbed the keys from his dad, he drove it around to my place to show it off and for us to talk shit, as you do. My mate’s ‘new’ car was an Aussie-made-with-imported-engine Nissan Skyline Ti, which with two-tone paint, velour trim and alloy wheels, was a well-regarded top-of-the-line competitor to a late-1980s Holden Calais, Magna Elite or Ford Fairmont Ghia.
Anyway, there was the usual new-toy inspection of revving of the engine, opening and closing of the doors, testing the air-con and enthusiastic chat about how fast and good these Skylines were. Of course, the bonnet went up and I started poking around the engine bay, beginning with a look at the dipstick…
I couldn’t see any oil.
I slipped the dipstick back in and chatted to my mate a bit more about the engine and the car and after a minute or two, I checked the dipstick again…
I couldn’t see any oil.
This time, I mentioned the where-is-the-oil? situation to my mate. The chat went a bit quiet for about 20 seconds while he, too, checked the dipstick… he couldn’t see any oil, either. Then my mate frowned and announced that he should phone his dad and ask when the Skyline had last been serviced…?
My mate’s dad had bought this Skyline brand new and driven it for several years as the usual go-to-the-office rig. When my mate asked his dad when it had last been serviced, the reply was that he’d had the 40,000km service done absolutely on time, because that’s when Nissan’s two-year/40,000km warranty was to run out. Uh, okay Dad, said my mate.
Trouble is, that poor Nissan Skyline sitting in my driveway, last serviced by the Nissan dealer at 40,000km just before the warranty was to expire, now showed more than 130,000km.
Crikey!
We quite rightly decided the Skyline needed some lovin’ right now. We jacked it and unscrewed the sump plug for an oil change. Less than a litre of black crap dribbled into my drain pan, which is of course nowhere near the amount – like, 4.5-litres – that should have gushed out.
Anyway, we filled it with fresh oil and celebrated the fact the Nissan EFI 3.0-litre six-cylinder engine didn’t seem to be damaged. To this day, I’m amazed and shocked and astonished and impressed this engine survived 90,000km with no oil change.
But I’d hate to have seen how much gooey horrible sludgy crap would have been stuck inside it…
From Unique Cars #478, May 2023