I just purchased a 2009 G37S with 34,500 miles.

I was looking through the documents the dealership provided when I purchased the car and noticed they performed an oil change when they received the car as a trade in. They used 5W-40 Pennzoil Ultra. I noticed the manual states to use 5W-30 Ester Oil. I've driven the car about 500 miles and all seems well, but is the heavier weight oil going to cause issues down the road? Should I switch out the oil for 5w-30? Or can I safely wait until my next oil change? I'm in Maryland so our winters are fairly cold.

Also, I noticed the car occasionally flares between 3-4th gear shifts. I read through a BUNCH of tranny posts and some people said the flaring is the torque converter and normal... Some say it's a bad sign. Any consensus on this? I'm still under factory warranty, but the flaring is hard to reproduce. It does it about once a day or so. So I'm sure the dealership will have a very hard time reproducing the problem.

I came from an 18 year old Volvo so it's great to see a big support forum like I participated in with my old car.

Thanks in advance!

 

The oil is perfectly fine to use. No need for concern. Run it until your next oil change.

I can't help you with the transmission situation, I have MT and not particularly knowledgeable about the G37's AT.

Congrats and welcome though.

 

Jeremy is right about the engine oil. I have been using the penzoil 5w-30 ultra for years in both of my cars and its just fine. The 5w-40 shouldn't matter much until you're due for an oil change.

As far as the tranny flare, they reprogrammed my tranny the first time and it was smoothed out a lot. I would take it to any Infiniti dealer and have them do the reprogram on it and see if it has the same result as mine.

 

^+2. odd that the dealer would use 5W40 since they should be aware of specs, but you'll be fine until the next change. the 5 number is for the cold temp viscosity so it is the same as the spec 5W30.

i can't help on the 7AT issue - i'm 6MT as well.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I figured the 5W-40 was OK, but thought I would ask here. As for the dealer, I purchased the car from an Audi/Porsche dealer. It seems 5w-40 is what a lot of Porsches use. I'm not sure what the previous owner traded his car in for, but it's amazing what information people leave behind in the Nav/Phone system!!

Remember to clear your home address and phonebook from your vehicle before you trade it in!

Thanks again for the info.

 

Make a 3 AM booty call to his girlfriend. That'll teach him!

 

A buddy of mine picked up a used mazdaspeed3 a few years back and when I looked in the glovebox I found a ton of info left behind from the previous owner. Financial records, personal info, employment records and pay statements, health club memberships, phone numbers, addresses, and so on. Not only did the previous owner forget to clean out the car, the dealer who had completed a "comprehensive vehicle reconditioning" failed to notice a jam packed glovebox.

 

Coulda been repo'd. Shame on the dealer for not removing all that crap though.

 

You guys are making me jealous with the 6MT. My first car was a manual and I really wanted to get the 6mt but the wife just wouldn't have been happy. I read that this car wasn't the best to learn on (I thought it was fine) so I found an S auto. Which was surprisingly hard to find in Maryland. I guess everyone here wants the AWD.

I bought some winter tires from tirerack which has dampened the fun a bit but so far the car has been a joy to drive. So far the winter has been more like spring so I'm actually hoping for a little bit of snow just to see how the car does in light snow with winter shoes.