roguehippie

Hi all,

I just purchased a 1999 Pathfinder, 3.3, auto trans, A/C and am thinking about the future. I do all of my own basic work, and when visiting the Nissan dealership to take care of some final paper-work, I was told by one of their wrenches that I MUST use Nissan oil-filters because of an "anti-drainage valve" found only in their filters.

I've always used Fram filters and have had engines with 200,000+ miles and good compression. Am I missing something? Is the 3.3 a techno-wonder engine that reguires something more than a good quality mass-produced filter? I have no problem buying my filters from Nissan for future oil changes, but was just wondering if they are actually any better than anything else out there. I couldn't find anything on the net.

Thanks in advance!

Oldnissanguy

Everyone has an opinion on this, here's mine. I've tried using other filters but always go back to Nissan. Recently I tried a MaxLife filter on my 97 HB with 190K+ miles and got startup rattle. I switched back to a Nissan filter and no rattle. There is some merit to the 'anti-drainback valve' thing.

Fram filters cost $3 - $4 each in my area. If I buy 4 or 5 Nissan filters at a time, I can usually get them for around $5 from a dealer. Sometimes I have to buy 10 to get a really good price but I have 3 Nissans so they go pretty fast. Even at the retail price (around $7) it seems worth the difference to me.