The Nissan Path

I got my oil sampled by Blackstone labs. The oil was Walmart's Supertech Full-synthetic 5W30 oil which had 7500 miles logged on it and a genuine Nissan oil filter was used. I have been using this oil in my 2006 Pathfinder LE since I purchased it over 4-years and 65,000 miles ago. The results were great and they say I can run the oil up to 9500 miles. They stated,"Wear was remarkably low compared to universal averages, which show typical wear for these Nissan engines with oil run about 5,800 miles." It looks like I'll be sticking with Supertech oil!

That is an awesome result thank you for this information

I'm changing my oil today, mobil 1 synthetic and sending a sample off to Blackstone. This is at 6,000 miles, so I'll post my results once I get them back.

Ran WM Tek oil for years is several cars and SUV's also had great results from Blackstone Labs. That is real good oil I also use it in my mower and snowblower. SMJ it sounds like everything other then the engine in your Pathy will need replacing before the engine wears out.

Good info. I've had a couple different off-brand synthetics (as well as the name brands) tested over the years and they seem to have very similar performance at reasonable intervals. I think for general automotive use, synthetic is already over-kill so there's no reason an off-brand isn't just as good. Unless you want to go 15k-20k mile intervals, just buy whatever synthetic is on sale.

I heard long ago that Supertech synthetic was made by Royal-Shell, the makers of Rotella. I know Walmart has a tendency to change suppliers for their brands, so there's no telling who's making it for them now, if not still made by Royal-Shell. It's tough to beat the price at $17.50 for a 5 qt. jug. My Walmart recently added Valvoline Maxlife ATF 1-gal. jugs, also for around $17.50, which I use in my transmission and transfer case. I'll try to post a copy of the complete analysis soon.

Here's the full report from Blackstone Labs:

So the big ? SMJ will you run the next oil change to 9,500 miles?

Frankly I can't do it my skin starts to crawl anything past say 7,000 miles and I have to change it.

I was just reading your wear numbers on your Blackstone print out and wow your wear numbers are crazy low! Your motor is in grate shape considering the millage.

I have an oil sample I took this summer on a short oil change run of 3,000 miles but more then half of that was towing my camper up some steep grades and high RPM I am going to send it in for kicks just to see what's up I will post the results.

One of the things that I thought was interesting was the high silicone level, which they say can be due to recent repairs or from dirt bypassing the air filter. While I have had the front cover off to repair the timing chains, it was a couple of years ago. Last week while replacing the air filter, I noticed the rubber air ducts were split, which could be a place for dirt to enter.
As far as me extending my intervals, I'm debating it. I'm so used to doing 7500 intervals and it keeps me inline with Nissan's maintenance schedule and it's a good time to rotate my tires, as well. It's also good piece of mind that if I'm a little late on my oil change, the oil is still in good shape for a couple of thousand miles.

Thanks for the info SMJ! I've been wondering about switching to Supertech since I use it on my ATV as well. Supertech gear oil and Rotella from Walmart are the recommendations on the CanAm forums.

I use the Supertech synthetic gear oil, too. I would be surprised if it's made by Mobile One as the bottles are so similar, but hard to say.

Here is my sample, should I be worried about the bearing wear....

Probably a fluke and I wouldn't be concerned unless it persists or worsens. If the number was 100 I'd be thinking about an early change to monitor it but this is still reasonable.

Lead can also end up in the oil from contaminated fuel or octane boosters.

I'm with skinny2 prob a fluke run another test. If the next one does not improve try switching oil brands it may seem crazy but sometimes that will actually change things for the better. It's actually not a bad report you want to talk bad report you should have seen the one from my fathers Jeep V6 now that was bad! He still got 225,000 miles out of it!