High mileage FX45 guy

I

INFINITE KARL

Member
Car
2003 Infiniti FX45 Beryllium Silver
Name
Karlton
Hello all, new to the Scene. Such fantastic rides here. Just wanted to mention I have a FX45 with 280,000 miles on it. I am a shadetree mechanic as well, so yup, I do oil changes every 3,000 miles with Castrol Extended Performance oil and do constant drain and fills on the transmission using Valvoline Maxlife ATF fluid. I also top off/change other fluids as well.

I plan on driving mine right into the ground and will document it along the way. Feels good to be here!
 
Hi!

Mechanic changing every 3K. Doesnt it last longer than that? Is it synthetic?
 
gto said:
Hi!

Mechanic changing every 3K. Doesnt it last longer than that? Is it synthetic?
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It does last longer; Castrol says 15,000 miles, but I would never touch that interval lol. Yup it's full synthetic.
 
Welcome to :iS2: Karlton. Wow, in my memory you have the highest mileage FX. (y)
 
Nice, I'm right up there with you in my 2006 FX35. What repairs have you done so far?
 
Yeah, wonder what repairs has been done. Today, I just found out my passenger side valve cover leaks oil into the spark plug well. Its always the one closest to the firewall. They were replaced around 125K miles about 4.5 years ago. I'm at 203K miles now.
 
Hello goldmage and la_fx35! Ok, so repairs, I purchased mine's with 268,000 miles in March 2015. The Carfax has 6 pages worth of diligent oil changes, checking this and that, topping off fluids and has had 2 transmission flushes/fills - one from an Infiniti dealership and the other at a Nissan one. So far myself, I've been doing oil changes every 3,000, and I've been doing drain and fills on the transmission until the fluid coming out looked like what was going in (I've done about 4 up until now).

However, the vehicle did develop a small power steering leak last summer - completely fixed by draining and filling the reservoir 5 times with Valvoline ATF Maxlife. The fluid before was milky white - hasn't leaked a drop since. Also, I heard a roaring sound coming from the rear end after a long road trip. I took the car to Meineke and later discovered that the wheel bearings on both rear wheels were completely shot. So while the shop was repairing that, they came to another problem. Apparently the wheel bearings were so bad, that they chewed up both axles as well. Well, that ish got expensive - it was $2,700 after taxes when all was said done.

I'm still 100 percent satisfied with the car though, I'm not trading it or getting rid of it. And yes, mine does burn oil too as well - about 1 quart every 800 miles. I don't mind, I'll just keep topping it off. :D
 
Thanks for sharing that. Sounds like all wear and tares stuff. The rear axles and bearing is a bit over price to me. Have you check the spark plug holes for engine oil leaks. Its a common problem to the VQ & VK engine. The seal around the hole got dried up and engine oil leaks into the spark plug hole.
 
la_fx35 said:
Thanks for sharing that. Sounds like all wear and tares stuff. The rear axles and bearing is a bit over price to me. Have you check the spark plug holes for engine oil leaks. Its a common problem to the VQ & VK engine. The seal around the hole got dried up and engine oil leaks into the spark plug hole.
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No prob for sharing, and yeah, that price was steep but the entire rear assembly besides the diff is new - so I guess fair game. I was unaware of the oil/spark plug issue, I actually wouldn't know what to look for. I'm going to do a thread search...
 
Remove the coil pack near the firewall (cylinder 8-passenger side, or 7-driver side). If there's a leak, you'll see the coil pack will be covered with oil.
 
Sweet, ok
la_fx35 said:
Remove the coil pack near the firewall (cylinder 8-passenger side, or 7-driver side). If there's a leak, you'll see the coil pack will be covered with oil.
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Sweet, ok. I will actually check this out later, probably in springtime, too lazy right now and I've been hooked on Forza Horizon 3 :D
 
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