Amsoil Euro 5w40, 3500 miles, '06 Subaru STi

[Jodice112]

Hello everyone! After my second oil analysis with this car, I've decided to sign up here and post up my results. First oil analysis was done with German Castrol and I decided to switch over to Amsoil. Blackstone recommended going to a 5,500 mile interval but that seems a tad bit high for me. Anyway, let me know what you think!

 

[Artem]

I say you can easily do 5k intervals with this oil. There's plenty of oil life left in it, might as well use it a bit more before dumping it.

 

[ltslimjim]

5,000 miles is fine in this set up. Get your money out of it, re-test at 5,000 for peace of mine. It is a turbo, so as long as the oil in use meets the specs for the turbo, that'd probably be my first concern, aside from general/overall engine health. EDIT: Found this on Amsoil's site for recommendations...

Quote:

SUBARU TURBO SPECIAL MESSAGE: Subaru has published Service Bulletin # 02-103-07 that identifies a factory design related problem with premature clogging of the oil mesh screen located inside the oiling system that supplies the turbo charger on all model turbo charged cars. A clogged screen will result in oil starvation and turbo charger failure. Subaru has reduced their recommended oil drain interval in half, as a solution, from 7,500 miles to 3,750 miles (3-3/4 months) and requires the oil mesh screen to be inspected, and possibly serviced, at every oil change. With this Subaru factory related design issue, AMSOIL INC. therefore must recommend customers follow the new Subaru oil change interval of 3,750 miles or 3-3/4 months until Subaru resolves this issue.

 

[bluesubie]

I would probably stick with 3,750 - 4,000 mile intervals max until the wear "noise" comes down a bit more. Do you still have the turbo oil mesh screen mentioned in the Amsoil recommendation? If so, I wouldn't recommend going much farther than 5k and definitely no more than 6k. A Blackstone uoa will not tell you if your turbo screen is getting clogged. Any mods? Thanks for posting and thanks for the TBN! Wait, this is an '06 with under 12k on it? -Dennis

 

[chubbs1]

Welcome!! Nice ride, nice UOA. Looks like the vehicle is breaking in well I would not worry about a thing. Keep up what you are doing!

 

[daves87rs]

Looks good.

 

[zyxelenator]

Try can of LM Mos2 additive, and see if wear numbers improve.

 

[qr25de]

Do not add additives and do not worry too much about a slightly longer interval. I would investigate whether or not you've got the mesh screen and adjust your OCI accordingly. I don't see the wear metals as "abnormal" bearing wear. Your engine is NEW and wear numbers like this are to be expected. Continue a 3500-4000 mile interval and set a trend. You may consider having the oil changes done at the dealership if you do in fact have the mesh screen.

 

[ltslimjim]

Low mileage for a 2006, nice.

 

[Norm Olt]

For the state of tune the STi is in following both AMSOIL & the Subaru recommendations makes complete sense to me. If you are putting a grand total of 11K mies in 5+ years, this should not be too great a financial burden. But... Why not the AMSOIL HDEO 5W-30? Was that not the original weight? Did they go to an xW-40 sometime? Cheers!

 

[Xstang]

Thanks for posting this! I've been curious about how this oil would do in a WRX since I saw it on Amsoils website a while ago (it would've been my pick as well out of amsoils stable of products). That's really low mileage for an '06-previous owner, maybe? Track car? It probably explains the copper/lead figure, but iron looked okay, so who knows for sure. My '03 is at nearly the 110k mark, and still runs strong. That listing on amsoils website about the 3750 mile OCI? There was a thread a couple years ago on NASIOC where a WRX owner actually tried to go for 25k ocis on signature 5w-30, and promptly blew a bearing (and I think the factory warranty and his reputation) in the process. Would not be surprised if the two were related. IMHO, you should be fine running it up to 4000-4500 miles next time.

 

[bluesubie]

Originally Posted By: Norm Olt

Why not the AMSOIL HDEO 5W-30? Was that not the original weight? Did they go to an xW-40 sometime?

For many years (well before my 97 Outback Sport), Subaru always stated that 5W-30 was preferred for fuel economy and that thicker viscosities were recommended in severe conditions and required in hot temps. SAE 30, SAE 40, xW-40, and xW-50 were in the manual up until and addendum during MY 2011.

Originally Posted By: Xstang

That listing on amsoils website about the 3750 mile OCI? There was a thread a couple years ago on NASIOC where a WRX owner actually tried to go for 25k ocis on signature 5w-30, and promptly blew a bearing (and I think the factory warranty and his reputation) in the process. Would not be surprised if the two were related.

Actually it was a Legacy GT owner. I thought it was hilarious at first, but the guy was probaby lied to about the oci and no one bothered to read Amsoil's recommendations (although they were not 3,750 miles at the time). Lucky for him he was able to edit out his original post, but the torture that ensued is still there. Poor dude. http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1353582&referrerid=767 -Dennis

 

[Jodice112]

Thanks for the comments guys, sorry I kind of forgot about this thread for a bit. I bought the car about 8 months ago with 4k miles on it and the previous owner was an older fellow that had 3 other cars besides this one and this one was the least driven of the bunch As far as I know he never tracked the car or even went above 4k rpm (he doesn't seem like the type of guy to drive the car hard). I believe my car does have the turbo oil mesh screen in it so I will probably keep my oil change intervals lower (3500-4000). Current mods are Bilstein PSS9 coilovers and a Cobb AP OTS stage 1 tune. A local Subaru tuner told me they use this oil in most of their cars and said it is a great oil overall so I decided to try it myself.

 

[Loi]

The UOA looks nice. You can take the Amsoil AFL 5w40 up to 8000 miles. I ran the same oil in my 05' STi with no oil mesh screen.

 

[Jodice112]

Did you remove the turbo oil mesh screen yourself or did you have the dealership do it?

 

[Loi]

I bought a new banjo bolt with the mesh screen in it and just removed it and installed it myself. It's a fairly easy fix.

 

[bluesubie]

Just don't go to 8k miles on anything with the screen in place. You would be an ideal candidate for a blown turbo. -Dennis

 

[MrWideTires]

my best friend had a 02 WRX with 180k miles and it didnt even burn oil, he would just use dino oil and change it every 1500 miles lol.. at least it worked for him