03' Nissan Maxima eating oil

check PCV valve

Anything over 900miles/qt is considered normal.

Some manufacturers say that oil consumption is normal and they even give figures as the one you mention. In my opinion, that is the way to justify poor design or manufacturing practices and poor vehicle quality. It is indeed normal for the oil level to drop, but it should be more in the range of 1/2 to 1 qt per oil change.

Some time ago, VW came out with this k> snipped-for-privacy@carol>

That is a possibility. We have to keep in mind, though, that today's engines are WAY more sophisticated and capable than yesterday's. Just think, a 3.5 liter V6 pushing out 300 HP. That was freaking un-heard of from even a 5.0 liter V8 back in the day. Because these engines work much harder, get hotter, are built to tighter tolerances, and a host of other reasons, a little more oil consumption may be a small, even miniscule trade-off for the incredible bang for the buck we're getting with today's motor. They do all this AND get better feul economy AND burn with cleaner emissions. Gotta luv it.

By the way, considering 1129's problem, the oil consumption may be OK since its about 1 qt every 1000 miles. Bear in mind that synthetic tends to burn off or leak out quicker than dyno oil, so you'd expect synthetic oil to go down faster if your dyno oil was going down a bit already.

CD

If these newer engines are built to tighter tolerances they should use LESS oil!!!

In general that's true, but there are tolerances in every manufacturing operation. It doesn't take much to consume a qt every 1K miles. It doesn't effect the life of the engine and the oil is burned in the converter. You can complain to Nissan, but you won't get very far.

Not if it's working correctly, it will be burned. We're talking about a very small amount of oil over a long time.

Jim:

What is the source of your > AS wrote:

If the OP hasn't discovered a solution yet, check/clean/replace the PCV valve.