Right now I'm in the process of changing my oil. I crawled under my Titan (about even with the driver's door) to change my oil like I have done on my GMC Sierra for years. I went to put the wrench on the drain plug and when I looked closely I noticed it was the Transmission fluid pan with a drain plug.The motor oil pan on Titans is WAY far forward. I guess it's like that because the Titan has a cab forward design. The best way to go about changing your oil is to go at it from the front end of the truck. The oil pan on the Titan is very small. To me it looks smaller than the transmission fluid pan. The filter is very small also. Both of these parts look like they were sized to fit go carts. I hope size doesn't matter in this case! :lookaroun Anyway, I could't find the filter on my Titan! On most cars and trucks the filter is located near the drain plug. On the titan it seems further forward than what I am used to. I looked from the side and saw it under the access plate (thanks for the tip CaliforniaTitan). However, I don't have 4 wheel drive or the Off Road package and but still have the access plate. Is this how it is on every Titan? One little tip: Before you crawl under your Titan to change oil be sure to take a 10 mm wrench with you to get the access plate off. It seems like a duh thing to me but it seems like the Nissan engineers should have made the bolts that hold on the access plate the same 9/16" size as the drain plug so that you would need only one wrench to change oil.CaliforniaTitan said:
I am not going to do an oil sample test this time. This is my first oil change at about 1,500 miles. I would have liked to have changed oil sooner but we have had some rain and it made it inconveinent to change it at around 1,000 mi. There has been a lot of talk about proper oil usage, proper break in procedures etc. on Titantalk and I am a firm believer in all of that. My last four vehicles I have bought new and have been very anal about the break in period and earlier than normal oil changes while the engine has few miles on it. All of the engines on these vehicles have outlasted the usefulness of the vehicles. All of the engines had more than 140,000 miles when sold and didn't "burn" or use any oil. I hardly had to add oil between oil changes. I attribute this to very frequent oil changes for the first 7,000 miles or so and not "dogging" the vehicle until it has several thousand miles on it.JetForeman said:
Yes, good point Jet. Even though the stuff you mentioned is above the frame, if something you run over happens to bounce up, as it often does, it could cause trouble. I'm glad I have you guys to think for me.JetForeman said:
So, my question is exactly how many qts of oil did you have to add? I put 7 qts and the oil barely touches the low level on the dipstck?
Our trucks have a two-piece oil pan. The larger portion of it which attached to the engine block like your typical pan is aluminum. Then the small, stamped steel part, which you are referring to is bolted onto that. I kinda like that design. If one were to strip out the drain plug hole, you could simply unbolt the lower steel portion and put a new one on, vice replacing the entire pan, or trying to re-thread it, etc.
But, I just don;t understand how you can realisticly think it is still worth it to change your own oil. 20 bucks for change and filter..usually 30 for our trucks because it takes 7 quarts of oil. Over here they have a place that gives you a free tire rotation as well. I used to be one of the guys who changed his own oil and would fight someone because charcoal is better than gas...but in the end I was wrong. All about easy these days for most things, face it we are one big lazy USA compared to a decade ago.
I feel like a DA for not noticing that :bangit:This thread is from 2004
SludgeMan · updated 
