2020 Subaru Forester 1st oil change question

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On the Lake, Ohio
My new to me 2020 Subaru Forester is just a few miles shy of Subaru's 1,000 mile break in period (basically no fast stop/starts, stay under 4000 rpm, etc). I plan on changing the oil next weekend myself with a little over 1150/1200 miles on the new engine. Is this a little premature sending an OCA to Blackstone with such a low mileage engine?Subaru recommends 6 month or 6,000 mile OCI. My first 6,000 mile service will be at the dealership since I'm curious on what they all check on all servicing. Then I'll take over from there HOPING I can score a Subaru service manual for better maintenance info. Thx!
 
There are too many assembly contaminants to achieve meaningful UOA data on the first few oil changes.
Run 15k-20k miles (2-3 oil changes) and then take a first sample in order to establish a useful baseline.

Good luck!!!
cheers3.gif
 
It's totally a personal call, the additive in the oil isn't used up on it in 1k miles, you will see elevated wear metals due to the break-in process, but it'll give you a great baseline for future analysis. If you are going to do routine Blackstone reports, I would probably do it. But if you are doing it sporadically then I would do it the next oil change once all the wear metals are mostly flushed out. Although they say technically the engine doesn't break in until 20k miles, who really knows.
 
Wait until the starting mileage is 20K or more for first UOA.

Better yet, drive car in a reasonable manner, 6000 to 7500 OCI and remember it requires a 0W20 synthetic and save the UOA for more exotic vehicles. . I buy NAPA synthetic on sale, Subaru OEM filters on Amazon by 6-pack and have a Fumoto value.

I have done many many UOAs over the years. None on either Subaru vehicles.

I would suggest on a yearly basis to pull the brake off and clean and lube them. Seem more prone to a little rust screwing things up than most cars. (Rust belt statement.)
 
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Nothing wrong with a early oil change out. That's one of those things that gets a 50/50 pro or con opinion here. As for the analysis, save your money. The suggestions above are good.
 
I have owned 7 Subaru's from 2 dealers. Both dealers offered the first oil change free at half of the manuals OCI. All of the N/A Subaru's I have had were very easy on oil. The EJ turbos on the other hand were rough on oil. I have had 5 EJ N/A engines, 1 FA20DIT, and 1 EJ257. The FA20DIT always had higher fuel deposit UOAs. I have yet to do the EJ257 UOA. It has 2k miles on it and its on its 2nd oil change. Both Subaru Syn (free).

I would not even start UOAs till 15k + miles. Liked mentioned above, the break-in readings do not tell you the real story like tests done from 15k-300k.
 
I dumped my factory oil at 1K in my 2012 Impreza (known high risk of oil burning year) and then did two 4.5K intervals and then switched to 6K intervals at the 10K mark. Factory OCI was 7.5K but I always stuck with the 6K intervals through the power train warranty. Ironically, Subaru changed the same engine (FB20) from 7.5K to 6.5K intervals in later model years. I started running 13K intervals with AMSOIL and later M1EP after several UOAs and the engine has been rock solid. No oil burning or any other issues for 137K and counting.
 
Subie owner here. Change it with the cheapest 0w20 you can find, and I recommend the wix filter as it has a high bypass setting. In my opinion the key to keeping a Subaru engine from consuming oil is shorter oci in the first 15k miles.
 
I think the first oil change in my 18 Forester 2.5 Premium was around 1,200 miles,dumped the factory fill. I change it out every 6 monthly putting 13k miles on it in 2 years. I still dump the oil every 6 months rather than 6 k miles. I usually use M1 afe but recently stocked up on 0w-20 5qt. hugs of QSUD for $17.77 at Menards
 
Originally Posted by electricmarquis
I have owned 7 Subaru's from 2 dealers. Both dealers offered the first oil change free at half of the manuals OCI. All of the N/A Subaru's I have had were very easy on oil. The EJ turbos on the other hand were rough on oil. I have had 5 EJ N/A engines, 1 FA20DIT, and 1 EJ257. The FA20DIT always had higher fuel deposit UOAs. I have yet to do the EJ257 UOA. It has 2k miles on it and its on its 2nd oil change. Both Subaru Syn (free).

I would not even start UOAs till 15k + miles. Liked mentioned above, the break-in readings do not tell you the real story like tests done from 15k-300k.


I must have been drinking.

1 FA20DIT
1 EJ257
1 EJ22
1 FB20D
3 EJ253 SOHC

Currently own and driving the EJ257 and FB20D. I have yet to do a test on either. The first test will be on my impreza, it's about to hit 20k.
 
My new to me 2020 Subaru Forester is just a few miles shy of Subaru's 1,000 mile break in period (basically no fast stop/starts, stay under 4000 rpm, etc). I plan on changing the oil next weekend myself with a little over 1150/1200 miles on the new engine. Is this a little premature sending an OCA to Blackstone with such a low mileage engine?Subaru recommends 6 month or 6,000 mile OCI. My first 6,000 mile service will be at the dealership since I'm curious on what they all check on all servicing. Then I'll take over from there HOPING I can score a Subaru service manual for better maintenance info. Thx!
You're going to see residual assembly lube usually in the form of a high moly count, which some people think is "break in oil" excessive wear metals, and high silicon to name a few things, all part of a normal engine break in. I'd ignore all of that and look for excess fuel dilution and coolant in the oil if I did a UOA that early on. Either of the two could indicate a problem, aside from that I'd disregard pretty much everything else.

It could take up to 20K miles to get an accurate report.
 
Dave @High Performance Lubricants made this suggested to me that when you have a new engine that is shedding metal. Dump the factory oil and run your fresh oil for a couple hundred miles, then sample. This give you a good baseline of how much metal contamination is in your fresh oil, from the factory oil. Then sample again when you are ready to dump the oil, the delta between the first and second UOA will give you a good idea of how much real wear there was during the run. You then also have a way of trending how much metal continues to shed as the miles increase.
 
My new to me 2020 Subaru Forester is just a few miles shy of Subaru's 1,000 mile break in period (basically no fast stop/starts, stay under 4000 rpm, etc). I plan on changing the oil next weekend myself with a little over 1150/1200 miles on the new engine. Is this a little premature sending an OCA to Blackstone with such a low mileage engine?Subaru recommends 6 month or 6,000 mile OCI. My first 6,000 mile service will be at the dealership since I'm curious on what they all check on all servicing. Then I'll take over from there HOPING I can score a Subaru service manual for better maintenance info. Thx!
No UOA really needed in the vehicle, but if you plan to, absolutely wait till at least 20K miles. I did UOA to get data to extend the "too short" factory OCI out to 7500-9500 miles as our Subaru Crosstrek gets driven mainly on the highway on long daily commutes with the oil fully "boiled off" each way.
I did two UOA ( posted here on BITOG ) and they showed better than the engine Universal average wear numbers even though the OCI was extended 50% past the 6K factory recommendation.
This all depend on vehicle usage patterns, and you have the larger engine..
I hope you car came with the good rubber: Yoko and not Stones.

The only place where Yoko is preferred over the Stones.
 
OP asked his question a year ago and said in post# 9 that he wasn’t going to do it. Why still give him advice not to do it?
 
My first 6,000 mile service will be at the dealership since I'm curious on what they all check on all servicing.
If you're paying for it, make sure you ask the dealer what they perform at each service. Some dealerships have a lot of unnecessary add-ons and you can save a lot of money by following Subaru's recommendations instead of the dealer's recommendations.
 
Do yourself a favor and review your owners manual maintenance guide and ask for a breakdown of the full service in writing.
 
Modern cars require little service. On Subaru its good to get the rear diff fluid out after wear-in at say 12k or 1 year then maybe at 60K then never again. My dealer put in Mobil 80w90HD GARBAGE and I had noise, I put in Supertech 75W90 synthetic and the noise went away.
big waste of money there. Dealers WAY WAY overcharge for diff fluid changes which are MUCH easier and cheaper than oil changes.

Subaru likes to do brake fluid flushes every 30mo/30k.

Then its just air filters every couple years.
 
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