Best Oil for Me

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Feb 19, 2003
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SLO County, CA
Hello all. I found my way here thru alt.autos.subaru and been lurking for a while. Been very informative. Well anyway, here's my post.


Vehicle Facts:
Make: Subaru
Model: Standard Outback Wagon AWD
Year: 2000
Engine: 2.5L
Transmission: Automatic

I purchased this car on 14Oct’02 as used. Its 2 years old, at puchase had 12,375 miles (17,269 now) on the odometer and very, very clean. CarFax says a clean title, one owner and first sold in Nov’00 One of those oil change reminder tags read at 15,200. I had the oil and filter changed at 14,335 with Mobil 1 10/30 Super Synthetic and Subaru OEM (made by Purolator) filter on 12Dec’02 (previous oil and filter brand are unknown). I did it early because I knew there was a lot a Xmas driving coming up.

Driving Conditions and Habits:
Where I live and work the wintertime lows are seldom below 40*F and the summertime highs rarely exceed 85*F. I work 5 ½ days and is only a 2 mile drive one-way. In a normal workweek (all city type driving, 35 mph max speeds), 3 days it’s a straight drive to work and back twice a day and in the other days rarely will I drive more than 10 miles but usually involves a lot of stop and startups. Days of more than 10 miles are usually hiway miles to the “big cities”, around 30 miles roundtrip and happens once or twice every couple of weeks. On my day’s off…..who knows….0 to 50 miles to 100+….never know what I’m going to do, just do whatever fancies me at the time. Best guess is I drive from 300 to 450 miles a month.

Maintaince Plans:
I hope to keep this car for a long time, 15 years +. In fact, it’s the last vehicle I had planned to buy….save a RV. So maintaince is going to be upmost importance to me and engine wear is at the top of the list,especially since a lot of times the car does not get up to full operating temperatures. I would like to do extended oil change intervals and plan to do the following in the next 2 weeks.
1. Take an oil sample to send for analysis.
2. Change the oil filter (Subaru OEM)
3. Change the air filter (?????).
4. Install an Amsoil by-pass filter (BMK-11 with BE-90 element).
.

Thereafter, an oil filter change at 3-4 months with oil analysis. Once a year, oil change (hopefully longer) and air filter change. For the first year or two, I plan oil analysis with every oil filter change and then every other filter change.

My Questions:
1. Will Mobil 1 10/30 Super Synthetic or is there anything better to meet my driving conditions and habits.
2. According to Amsoil, the BMK-11 will filter all the oil(5 quarts) in about 5 minutes at 45 mph. Will the Amsoil by-pass filter benefit my car since I could be at work in less than 5 minutes? Hummmm, almost all of my workweek driving is less 5 minutes away.
3. What are your comments and recommendations about my oil change interval plans?

Thanks as I will appreciate any and all advice….bgin
 
I have a 98 Toyota Tacoma which I purchased new and now has 44k km on it. I walked to work and used it on weekends. I too am planning on keeping it for a long time. My driving habits are similar to yours I guess, other than the temps here are a lot colder in winter. I have been using the Mobil 1 10/30 now after switching from a 10/40 Redline which was too heavy at start up on the colder mornings of this winter. I am using Bosch oil filters as the Mobil 1 filters were becoming too expensive to get in and the Bosch is made by the same company I think. I am not familiar with the bypass filter but am not sure of it's benefit to your application. You are talking 3600 to 5400 miles driven annually, below I think the longevity of any good synthetic changing the oil once.

Redline allows for 10,000 to 18,000 mile oil changes on vehicles that don't see frequent starts without warm-ups and short trips, but says at least once a year or whichever is shorter. Amsoil has higher limits even I think. That's a lot of driving. Maybe with this bypass filter you could extend the 12 month drain interval but is it worth the price of an oil change as compared to the filter? If you go 12 months that's pretty good. I change the oil in my Tacoma once a year. The only change I am making now is to try a switch to the Mobil Delvac 1 5/40 heavy duty oil. It is primarily a diesel recommended oil but has a gasoline rating also. I may switch back I don't know. Both Mobil products are available at Walmart here which is important. As far as the air filter goes it will depend on your driving conditions. I have the original air filter in our 2001 Corolla which has 36K kms on it. I am going to change it this spring but it still doesn't look too bad.

[ February 24, 2003, 11:35 AM: Message edited by: 7tford ]
 
Maybe if you plan to keep your car 15 years+ then a bypass will work for you. Don't worry about ALL the oil cycling through the filter in a short drive.....but DO worry about the short drive!

That's the rub - those short drives may not get your oil fully hot enough for long enough to drive the condensation out. This will be hard on any oil. A by pass will help some here....

Just as a preliminary suggestion check out Amsoil's HDD 5W-30. I think it's one of the better oils for your conditions.....

Also stick with a stock airfilter and change at 6 months or so.

Analysis is indeed smart
 
I think that the 10W-30 Mobil 1 is as good as any. You should do fine with once/year oil changes. But any way you can help to get the vehicle hot as often as possible will help with fuel dilution, iron and in general will cut back on oil degredation. Make sure when sample you do it hot and ideally you should go in thru the dipstick tube with a sample hose (when not draining). A plan is to go to analysts.inc and get a sample bottle from them that can suck the oil up thru the dipstick tube. You can then thououghly clean/flush it out and use it over-transferring the oil to another clean oil sample container (unfortunately they are not a site sponsor-so I hate to tell you to use themall the time) You can also purchase an oil sample pump from Amsoil.

Just keep reading and you will get lots of other good ideas as there is no one "best" oil. The nice thing here is no one sill shove a particular oil down your throat. We hear good things about some Mobil1 oils even thru our very knowledgeable Amsoil Sponsors here. So even though I don't use Amsoil now-it will certainly give you equal or better service than Mobil1.

welcome.gif
 
I'd just run Mobil 1 and change it every six months. You aren't putting on enough miles to make a by-pass filter worthwhile. This car will rust out before you wear out the engine at this rate!

TooSlick
 
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