got a certified '18 subaru Impreza with @ 9800 miles a few weeks ago; planning DIY oil changes during warmer months to save $$$; subaru calls for 6k miles/6 months oci & mine uses Ow-20; was told to use subaru oil filters (basically an expensive rebranded fram) but any 0w-20 with SN/ILSAC GF-5 or later will meet spec; is there anything wrong with using house brands from walmart, autozone, or advanced auto parts?
'18 Subaru Impreza 2.0...which 0w-20 for tight budget?
- Thread starter kmrinpa
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Nothing wrong with those. The benefit of SN/SP rating is you get a suitable product gay-run-teed.
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My fave has always been QSUD 0W-20 (now QSFS).
My Subaru does great on Superteh 0w-20.
Pick the cheapest name brand (most house brands are made by name brands) which meets the spec and be done with it.
We have a 2019 Impreza. I've used Mobil 1 and Rotella Gas Truck 0w20 so far. I found a few jugs of the RGT clearanced for $5 awhile back. This is a pretty low stress, low power application and I think anything meeting the spec should be fine.
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Both Mobil and SOPUS (Pennzoil) have really good rebates. That's the cheapest way.
If you don't want to mess with that catch the NAPA sales on oil and filters, the NAPA (WIX) filters are one of the best alternatives to the OEM
If you don't want to mess with that catch the NAPA sales on oil and filters, the NAPA (WIX) filters are one of the best alternatives to the OEM
NAPA/Wix filters are an excellent choice for Subaru. Correct bypass setting and very good build quality. Easier for me than oem as dealer is in adjoining county. Currently running NAPA Syn and NAPA Gold filter on my son's 2018 Impreza 2.0.
Subaru filters wont do you anything, esp in the winter they have a nitrile ADBV.
We ran Valvoline Advanced 5W20 with some Magnatec or just plain Magnatec 0W20. Did not like RGT or PP.
I ran the Fram Ultra with good results. Would prefer the Japanese Tokyo Roki but they hard to acquire.
Wife did long highway commute of 32 miles one way so we extended OCI to 9K miles easy.
Posted two Blackstone UOA on here showing less wear then those changing at the shorter 6K interval.
If you are driving over, say, 17K miles a year, I bet you would save MORE money by running a premium oil and changing less.
We just traded a 2017 Crosstrek Premium for a Outback. That '17 Crosstrek was a great car. We Liked the older design better.
Better quality interior materials. They took money out of these cars recently and they are not as good.
DO NOT cheap out on oil ! - its much cheaper than a 1/2 tank of gas to get premium oil and filter.
I hope you paid under 18K for that car. Dealers are gouging big time. They gave us $11,5K for ours and then had it on the lot for
18K ! They just cleaned it and put tires on it. Just saying dealers have major wiggle room if they are in the mood to sell.
I might even have a hyperlink to the Famous Arcographite Crosstrek at the dealer if it didnt sell yet ....
Arcographite Wife's Traded 2017 Crosstrek
We ran Valvoline Advanced 5W20 with some Magnatec or just plain Magnatec 0W20. Did not like RGT or PP.
I ran the Fram Ultra with good results. Would prefer the Japanese Tokyo Roki but they hard to acquire.
Wife did long highway commute of 32 miles one way so we extended OCI to 9K miles easy.
Posted two Blackstone UOA on here showing less wear then those changing at the shorter 6K interval.
If you are driving over, say, 17K miles a year, I bet you would save MORE money by running a premium oil and changing less.
We just traded a 2017 Crosstrek Premium for a Outback. That '17 Crosstrek was a great car. We Liked the older design better.
Better quality interior materials. They took money out of these cars recently and they are not as good.
DO NOT cheap out on oil ! - its much cheaper than a 1/2 tank of gas to get premium oil and filter.
I hope you paid under 18K for that car. Dealers are gouging big time. They gave us $11,5K for ours and then had it on the lot for
18K ! They just cleaned it and put tires on it. Just saying dealers have major wiggle room if they are in the mood to sell.
I might even have a hyperlink to the Famous Arcographite Crosstrek at the dealer if it didnt sell yet ....
Arcographite Wife's Traded 2017 Crosstrek
Jackson_Slugger
$50 Site Donor 2022
With the $15 rebate Mobil 1 EP is just over $9 from Walmart. Am I missing something here?
Yes. Subaru hate Mobil 1. there was even an internal memo years ago according to the our local Subaru Service manager
n/k !
Use the cheapest 0w20 on sale.
Wix makes good oil filters for your Subaru, and their Wix XP (Napa Platinum) often goes on sale for a good price.
Wix makes good oil filters for your Subaru, and their Wix XP (Napa Platinum) often goes on sale for a good price.
wemay
Site Donor 2023
Nothing wrong with house brands. You can get FRAM synthetic with a FRAM Titanium filter from AAP for $25
Jackson_Slugger
$50 Site Donor 2022
Nonsense...
Nope. One of my good friends was a long time Subaru Service manager who quit and opened an indie shop.
I agree it was odd to say the least, and maybe it was Fuji H.I. making excuses, but
there was high wear with multiple failures, they said it was due to the oil not being able to "resolve small motions".
There may well be a Japanese translation issue at play here.
But that was a different time and a different formulation, well over a decade ago.
I stand by what I was told. - Ken
I agree that it's nonsense and have my doubts that the memo (if it does exist) was specific to a certain brand. I might buy it if the memo made reference to a certain viscosity since Subaru Japan recommends thicker oil than we do. The problems with Mobil 1 in Subaru's is derived from knucklehead's in WRX's /STI's getting a 400 hp "brotune" and running Resource Conserving 5W-30. I've had debates with some of these knuckleheads that continued to run thin oil in a highly modified STI because "it's what's on the cap".
Having been on Subaru forums (or whatever they were called back in the day) since 1997, I've seen a LOT of nonsense. And a lot of knuckleheads too.
As a matter of fact, I'm going to switch to Mobil 1 EP 0W-20 in my OBXT and keep running the OEM Honeywell filter to see if my car blows up, or to see if my car tells me that it doesn't like it.
I would guess that over 150k miles of the 190k that I put on my FXT were using the Honeywell filter.
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if your on the cheap , i would seriously consider going this route , read all the posts
when its all said and done , with rebate ,it works out to less than 5 $ per 5 qt jug
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when its all said and done , with rebate ,it works out to less than 5 $ per 5 qt jug
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