Was this smart or stupid? Also, was this a reasonable price or did I get taken?

First, please please do not say if you did it myself it would only cost X, I promise you I still would not do it.

Here is what I did today at my local Nissan dealership, and I decided to go back next week to finish it off.

Today:
Oil Change
4 wheel alignment
Braking fluid flush and refill
Rear Synthetic Differential Service with installed limited slip additive
Front Synthetic Differential fluid remove and refill
Total Price= $925.17

Next Week:
Coolant Flush and Refill
PS Flush and Refill
Total Price: $437

Total between Today and Next weekend: $1362.17

Two questions:
1) Was the above services a smart move with my car being 13 years old (even though it only has 40k miles)?
2) Was the above prices reasonable at a Nissan dealership?

*Transfer Case fluid service and transmission fluid service has previously been done

 

The average price of a new car is 50K. Does that answer your question? People often get stuck on the cost of a repair compared to the resale value of the car. I tend to lean towards thinking about what it would cost to replace the car.

To be honest, many of those services are pretty straight forward DIYs, but the first set is water under the bridge right?

Maybe do the others yourself?
Coolant Exchange?
https://www.myg37.com/forums/d-i-y-i...acement-2.html

At the same time, replace the upper and lower hoses, radiator cap, heater hose connector and Thermostat. Z1 has everything you need, included OEM parts and coolant.

PS Flush:

 

Follow up questions, as the fluid weights on the receipt do not seem to align to what the OEM specifications say, is this okay?

Oil: 0W-20, which is different than OEM spec

Front Differential: 75w-140 which is different than OEM spec

Rear Differential: 75w-140 which is different than the OEM spec
-Also the rear diff service included "Limited Slip Addiitive" but my AWD is not a limited slip,but has an open differential. Hopefully no issues with this "additive"

 

I personally say you got took. That "today" total is crazy. As far as next week, I would see if they are actually "flushing". My Nissan dealer called it a "flush", but I found out later that they only drained what came out of the radiator and put in ONE! gallon of coolant and some conditioner in. They didn't even drain the overflow tank. Got charged $350. And they are probably only going to take a turkey baster and suck out out what they can and put in 2 ounces of new power steering fluid in.

 

Did you ask them why they decided to use fluids that weren't within the recommended spec? I don't think your car is going to fail tomorrow because of this, but the added anxiety caused by "use what you got" mentality is unnecessary.

#1 Gear oil. I will let someone else respond. 140 is high compared to the recommended SAE 75W-90 or 80W-90, but I don't think gear oil is as critical as motor oil.

#2 Motor oil.

Manufacture spec is 5W30 and the VQ37VHR is known for cooking oil (as does the VR30). For the most part it's ok to lower the first number (cold viscosity) and raise the second number (warm viscosity) and you will remain in the range of what the manufacture recommends. You ask, well why not just use 0W40? Best of both worlds, right?

The issue is that oils with a wide viscosity spread are often a little pricier, unnecessary (see below), have more complex chemistry that is often not as predictable in extreme temps, lower gas mileage and have variable viscosity plots across temp ranges compared to 5W30. European standards provide a some level of insurance against some of these tradeoffs.

If you want to red pill on the topic, the web is full of proponents and arguments against 0W40. Note that many manufactures like Honda spec'd 5W30 for their cars, then changed everything to 0W20 to meet CAFE standards. Others like GM spec'd 0W20 then switched to a higher weight when the cars started having issues (see video below).

Essentially, if you change your oil often (3K or less for me), almost all the advantages of any oil go out the window. I use Nissan Ester Oil (made by ENEOS) which is a Conventional base with an excellent additive package and the web is full of discussions which criticize its effectiveness. However, my car runs amazing, is whisper quiet (by design with NSE), gets better mileage than most, and my Blackstone Analysis show very little to no excessive wear at 81K miles.

This guy does a good job educating:

 

I agree with your statements, I am calling the dealerahip tomorrow to state my concern and displeasure that they did not utilize the correct fluids specification for the engine oil And the Front/Rear differential and ask for them to change them out for the correct specifications for my car

 

Almost everything new uses 0W20 (or less, Toyota is moving to 0W8), so they used what they had in stock. Again, not the end of the world but also not what's recommended.

140 on the high end for the gear oil seems excessive on a 10+ year old car that will never be towing anything.

 

I called the service advisor. He put me on hold, came back and stated that not all of the fluid description is available within the system to add to the invoice.

After checking he at least stated that 75w-90 was used for the differential. He did admit that 0w-20 was used for the oil, but they will replace it with 5W-30 when I bring it in on Saturday.

 

What a cluster, I should have just went to Infiniti. I doubt I saved any money going to Nissan.

After I called earlier in the week and explained the situation, the service advisor said just remind him and he will change to the 5W-30. I get here and he said he doesn't even know if they have 5W-30 (uh, you should of checked that prior to having me come down), I said if you don't I will just need to come back for everything, he then said "I don't know if we will get it as we haven't put that in cars in 10 years" he called his parts department and they have it in their oil canisters so do not need to use any of the small bottles, so they are going to correct it and put the correct 5W-30 engine oil in.

Then I asked him if he can show me where in his system that says they put 75w-90 for my differential and he forgot where he saw that. He started looking through his system and pointed out it said 90w, I noticed it said that by the front differential. I said, what about the rear and he pulled up their internal notes for the rear and it clearly said 140w. He asked where I saw 90w, and said in a question "Google"? With a laugh. I said I believe it also says in the manual, he said he will check with his parts department. He came came back and told me there are conflicting information in his system as some say 140w and some say 90w. He said he will just change it out, I responded "with 90w"? And he said yes.

Unbelievable

 

And this is why I work on my own car, unless I can't.

 

I had a strange experience when I tried the Nissan dealership near my house for a brake fluid exchange (I hate brakes, dates back to my old man making me maintain all the family cars). They essentially agreed on one coupon price over the phone which included measuring the pad thickness (wheels are already off the car), then they ended up charging extra for checking the pads ("Safety Systems Check", negating the coupon), then when I asked about the added charge politiely, the service advisor's manager mysteriously showed up (did he press a button?) in a "good cop/bad cop" scenario to explain to me their operation and how they pay employees.

While I was waiting, one of their young sales guys saw I had a G and he was asking me about the new Z on display (65K window sticker with a bunch of BS dealer adds) while he set next to me taking notes on the G/Z platform while I talked.

Felt like stealerships of the 1980s. Plaid suits, red ties, Vitalis Hair Tonic. No wonder my normal mechanic has a two week waiting period for scheduling any work.

Infiniti is a great experience, but there is only one and its 40 miles away. I also have Hondas, and those dealerships feel much more approachable. If Nissan wants to make a Ghosn-less comback, they need to reboot the dealership experience as this is one thing that keeps me from buying a new Z as it feels like they treat everyone there like they came in with a 500 credit score.