205 Subaru WRX 2.0 DIT

[dsonyay]

I've got about 2200 miles on a new 2015 WRX I bought in November 2015.

I've read a lot about the oil required (owner's manual, dealer, and online forums). Seems like most agree these engines really need a 40 weight.

Withought needing to worry about warranty issues and the fact that I'll be getting free maintenance for the first two years, I'll go ahead and have the dealer service with Subaru 5w30.

Since they will only change out every 6000 miles my intuition is to drain the oil afterwards and fill with a high quality 30 weight, or even a 40 weight on my dime. I can get Rotella T6 as well as Mobil 1 Extended Performance oils for an excellent price.

I figure these oils will be superb to use over the Subaru 0w30 brand (or god knows what they may substitute). And will easily last 6000 miles between changed.

This way, The official record will show dealer changed oil every 6000 with 30 weight, even though I may be dropping in a very good 0w40 or 5w40 and need to worry about the dealer not honoring the warranty.

I can change the oil myself, but having the dealer do it, will cost me nothing, allow for a record of maintenance performed, have the tires rotated, and everything else checked. All I'll do is crawl under the car later, drain the oil and fill with an oil I like.

What are your thoughts? I'm a little leery of leaving Subaru oil in the crankcase for 6000 miles.. UOA seems to show it won't hold up well at all for that long.

I am planning to keep this car 5 or 6 years. So maybe this is overkill.

 

[Dominic]

If your plans are to keep the car for 5-6 years, I would do regularly scheduled oil changes with 5w30 or 0w30 if it's street duty only. Moving up a grade would only be for high temperature operation like on a racetrack, otherwise you're compromising oil flow and will have a hotter running turbo during daily driving. This is not something that will show up on a used oil analysis.

Most oils can easily go 6000 miles without any problems, but definitely check the oil level every 3000 miles and top up as needed. During break-in these engines can use oil. I personally would do all the oil changes myself just to know what's going in the car each time. Goodluck with the new toy!

 

[bluesubie]

I would just change out the dealer fill at 3,000 miles which is Subaru's recommendation for severe service. IMO, you won't be gaining much with an oil like Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30 over dealer service oil whether the dealer uses Subaru/Idemitsu oil or some other GF5 oil. EP only gives you longer intervals.

What many enthusiasts are doing that want to run 5w30 is running an oil like Mobil 1 ESP 5w30. While it's not a GF-5 oil, it meets Euro ACEA C3 specs and has a high HTHS and higher viscosity when hot so it usually stays a 30 grade even after some shearing/fuel contamination.

So far, the FA engines seem less prone to failures on thin oil than the EJ engines and there are lots of low wear metal used oil analysis on this engine with high fuel contamination and 20 grade oil (the used oil viscosity after fuel contamination/shearing).

 

[Branson304]

Your plan sounds fine to me. I would personally use Mobil 1 0W-40 Euro or Rotella T6 5W-40.

 

[dsonyay]

My new toy? Ha-ha! Well I guess it is in a way. It's my daily driver.

. And a really fun daily driver after having an S10 for a few years.

I do a lot of spirited driving and once in a while I do an Autocross for fun...maybe twice a year at most.

I thought the Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30 met all the requirements of Subaru. It doesn't?

I don't mind a bit of overkill. But I did see UOA of the Subaru oil shearing down to 20w after well under 5000 miles on every Subaru 2.0 DIT engine I could find. Is that something not to be concerned with?

I do love getting under the car, so spending about 30 bucks on oil every 4 or 5 months isn't a big deal to me. This engine is such a breeze to do an oil change on.

Thank for all the advice.

 

[dsonyay]

Oops.. Misread the line about Mobil 1 ESP.. That's the diesel oil. Sorry. Yeah, I thought about running that as well. I'd rather go 6000 miles with an oil that can go that long.

My friend swears by Rotella T6 in his 2.5 WRX

 

[05LGTLtd]

I'd consider running the Subaru synthetic for 2k and then go to Mobil 1 0w-40 for 4k. Might as well let that free oil soak up some of that fuel dilution...

 

[SR5]

Mobil 1 Extended Performance 5w30, is a high TBN, extended drain interval oil, for those who want to go 15k miles between oil changes. It is still a ILSAC GF-5 resource conserving oil (and API SN), so it's HTHS = 3.0 (sort of a measure of the oil film strength).

Mobil 1 ESP 5w30, is a mid-SAPS, but strong oil, made for high performance applications (both petrol & diesel).
From Mobil's web site: Mobil 1 ESP Formula 5w30 is recommended for all types of modern automobile engines, especially the high-performance gasoline and diesel engines found in the latest passenger cars, SUVs and light vans.
Mobil 1 ESP Formula 5w30 is especially suitable for extreme conditions, where conventional oil often may not perform

The Mobil 1 ESP 5w30 is rated API SN, ACEA C3, MB 229.51 and Porsche C30, it has a HTHS = 3.58 and so is a much stronger oil than any ILSAC oil. It's a full synthetic, SN, 5w30 oil, which is I think what Subaru requires.

I think the Mobil 1 ESP is much more suitable to your application than vanilla Mobil 1 or Mobil 1 Extended Performance. Yes, I also think other 40 weight oils would work well in your application, like Mobil 1 0W-40 (HTHS = 3.8) but I believe the Subaru warranty would prefer a 5w30 oil.

Going from a ILSAC 5w30 HTHS of 3.0 to 3.1, and moving to a ACEA A3 or C3 5w30 with a HTHS of 3.5 to 3.6 is a big step forward in oil film strength.

That Mobil 1 ESP is a good strong oil when used for regular 6k mi OCI.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[dsonyay]

Thanks all.. There really is no chance the dealer will know what I use for oil if what I do is drain their oil and replace with my own. The filter will be Subaru and the service receipt will show 5w30 (or whatever the dealer uses).

My reasoning is that this is the easiest way to use my own favored oil that may cause the dealer to balk if I have an engine issue. I figure if I use, for example, Mobil 1 0W-40, and something happens to the engine, the dealer may want proof at what I used... Showing them receipts for that oil may cause a problem....

By changing out the oil they use after the service, They'd have no way of knowing I drained it out and used my own choice.. I'm not paying for their service... It's free for two years. It will cost me about 30 bucks for the oil, but that's not much for a 6000 mile interval.

I don't feel I'm taking advantage of them when my motive is to use a better oil, rather than do something underhanded to purposely to blow it up.

 

[LoneRanger]

Idemitsu used to supply the OEM Subaru oil to dealers. It was pretty good stuff. That was several years ago however. Could have changed since.

 

[Yup]

Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Idemitsu used to supply the OEM Subaru oil to dealers. It was pretty good stuff. That was several years ago however. Could have changed since.


Our Subaru dealer used Eneos.

 

[Yup]

Originally Posted By: dsonyay
I've got about 2200 miles on a new 2015 WRX I bought in November 2015.

I've read a lot about the oil required (owner's manual, dealer, and online forums). Seems like most agree these engines really need a 40 weight.

Withought needing to worry about warranty issues and the fact that I'll be getting free maintenance for the first two years, I'll go ahead and have the dealer service with Subaru 5w30.

Since they will only change out every 6000 miles my intuition is to drain the oil afterwards and fill with a high quality 30 weight, or even a 40 weight on my dime. I can get Rotella T6 as well as Mobil 1 Extended Performance oils for an excellent price.

I figure these oils will be superb to use over the Subaru 0w30 brand (or god knows what they may substitute). And will easily last 6000 miles between changed.

This way, The official record will show dealer changed oil every 6000 with 30 weight, even though I may be dropping in a very good 0w40 or 5w40 and need to worry about the dealer not honoring the warranty.

I can change the oil myself, but having the dealer do it, will cost me nothing, allow for a record of maintenance performed, have the tires rotated, and everything else checked. All I'll do is crawl under the car later, drain the oil and fill with an oil I like.

What are your thoughts? I'm a little leery of leaving Subaru oil in the crankcase for 6000 miles.. UOA seems to show it won't hold up well at all for that long.

I am planning to keep this car 5 or 6 years. So maybe this is overkill.


Sounds like a great plan. If you live near me I'll be glad to come over and drain the oil for you. Then I'll use this awful oil with 20 miles on it in my Subaru for 5-8k miles.

 

[dsonyay]

Sounds good, that will save me a trip to turn in the used oil

 

[Virtus_Probi]

One thing to consider when picking an oil for the newer Subie DIT engines is Low Speed PreIgnition (LSPI), a knocklike effect to which this type of engine seems to be vulnerable. There is some evidence from multiple studies that high calcium levels in oil can worsen this problem...
http://fuelsandlubes.com/digital/fli/2013-Q3/files/assets/basic-html/page43.html
If the PQIA testing from 2013 can be trusted, Mobil 1 and Castrol Edge 5W30 are good choices that have low calcium contents. I have noticed that some of the "super" oils that are popular on here, like Mobil 1 0W40 and AMSOIL Signature Series 5w30, are actually unusually high in calcium.
http://www.pqiamerica.com/March2013PCMO/Marchsyntheticsallfinal.html
Mobil 1 ESP 5W30 is very low in calcium by some VOAs posted on this site and definitely is superior to standard Mobil 1 5W30 in HTHS. However, it also has a low TBN and is NOT actually certified API SM or SN...XOM only claims that it meets the engine test requirements for those grades, and they also say that this oil is of API CF "quality level" (this is an obsolete diesel spec).
I am tempted to try this oil, too, but I am a little wary of its lack of certs.