Need advice 2008 Subaru Impreza 2.5i 120, 000KM

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2. What your owner's manual says -- ILSAC GF-4 or API classification SM "Energy conserving", SAE oil vis grade 5W30 change intervals is every 6k
3. Live = Mississauga Ontario Canada
4. How you drive = somewhat hard at times & fast when working, normal operations most of the time.
5. What your daily drive is like = short quick trips City and Highway. Long trips here and there
6. Whether your car has any known problems = not aware of any at the moment.

Since the factory fill, I have been using Castrol Syntec 5W30.
Since I have been lurking in the forums I learned that using Synthetic is more for extending OCIs correct?

Sometimes it happens when the oil changes doesn't happen at every 6k due to busy schedule.

Concerns:
1) Stick with OCI of 6k?2) we would like to keep the car as long as we can.
3) Is it better to go with a top quality Dino oil? or High Mileage? or stick with a good synthetic?
4) Can I run 0w30 or stick with 5w30?
5) stick with the OEM OIL Filter? or oversize it? with anouther brand?

Thanks
 
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I'd keep going with what you're doing, because:

In general, synthetic flows better than dino for winter cold starts

6k might be a stretch for some dino oils, considering your multiple short trips and lots of city driving.

Your Subie is doing fine with what you're doing.....


[insert question of why you are interested in changing here]
 
[insert question of why you are interested in changing here]

Trying to see what's best for me or rather for the car.
the best way to tell if the car is in good shape is to send a sample to Blackstone correct?
 
If you read up on it, I think you'll find the EJ253 isn't overly tough on oil no matter how you treat them.

I go a bit overkill on mine and use Napa synthetic 5w30 at 6000-7500mi change intervals.

I've tried other oil filters, but personally prefer the blue OEM Subaru filters. I've get a thread floating around with pics on issues I had using a Napa Pro Select oil filter spec'd for the EJ253.

Joel
 
JTX the blue OEM filter is no longer available in Canada. their much smaller than before..

I might need to pay a visit in Buffalo and buy some
 
Definately stick with the upgraded blue filter.

And I would stick with Synthetic aswell.

There does seem to be an opinion on the board that conventional/mineral oil is as good as synthetic in most applications.

This may well be the case for those able to assess their individual oil usage exactly with regular UOA over a period of time, slowly increasing the OCI to maximise the interval.

Indeed Full synth oil can indeed stay in the sump for a longer interval.

This is when I read the phrase ROI (return on investment), I don't think the only way to get ROI using synth oil is by simply extending OCI's.

It seems this is when the UK and Europe seem to differ from the US and Canada going by what I have read on the forum.

The ROI I am looking for is in better performance and better protection of the engine.

Using an inferior product to save a few dollars or pounds make little sense.

Here is an example to show my reasoning.

I could put Castrol GTX 10w40 in the wife's Clio, it works out at about £10 cheaper each OCI than Mobil 1 0w40.

I do changes on the Clio every 5/7k instead of 12k as I reckon it is used in severe service. I have left it as long as 9k though.

Over a year I could save £30. Over the three years we have owned the car I could have saved £90.

But that is if I change the oil at the same interval. Mineral 10w40 will not protect the engine aswell as full synth. More so in this case as it is a turbo diesel with EGR though fairly mild tune, 70bhp out of a 1.5 diesel.

So, perhaps it would need one extra change per year?

Well a decent filter is £6 roughly, GTX would be £20. So the annual saving of £30 is now £4.

This is all just figures to show my point. The Clio Dci should be run on semi synthetic as a minimum. Magnatec would be approx £6 more per OCI.

But as far as your position goes OP.

As i said already I would stick with what you have been doing.

Maybe use the forum to find full synth at better prices.
 
Originally Posted By: SOUPNAZZI
JTX the blue OEM filter is no longer available in Canada. their much smaller than before..

I might need to pay a visit in Buffalo and buy some


I recently purchased a case of 12 of them from eBay. Got a real good deal on them. Only problem was they included the wrong drain plug washers.

Joel
 
Puro's 14612 is an excellent filter choice for that engine.

Since the OP is Canadian I suspect his 6k OCI is really 3750 miles. In which case it makes little sense to dump synthetic at such an interval. That being said, I did the same quite often in the 120,000KM career of my EJ253. Now I do two changes a year, spring and fall with M1 0w30 in the winter and Rotella T5 10w30 in the summer for towing season.
 
FWIW: my interval averages out to be around 10k KM every six months, which is just over 6k miles. Perfectly fine for even your on sale dino... but we love our H4 engines don't we?
grin.gif
 
Originally Posted By: SOUPNAZZI
2. What your owner's manual says -- ILSAC GF-4 or API classification SM "Energy conserving", SAE oil vis grade 5W30 change intervals is every 6k
3. Live = Mississauga Ontario Canada
4. How you drive = somewhat hard at times & fast when working, normal operations most of the time.
5. What your daily drive is like = short quick trips City and Highway. Long trips here and there
6. Whether your car has any known problems = not aware of any at the moment.

Since the factory fill, I have been using Castrol Syntec 5W30.
Since I have been lurking in the forums I learned that using Synthetic is more for extending OCIs correct?

Sometimes it happens when the oil changes doesn't happen at every 6k due to busy schedule.

Concerns:
1) Stick with OCI of 6k?2) we would like to keep the car as long as we can.
3) Is it better to go with a top quality Dino oil? or High Mileage? or stick with a good synthetic?
4) Can I run 0w30 or stick with 5w30?
5) stick with the OEM OIL Filter? or oversize it? with anouther brand?

Thanks




1/ Get Blackstones to do a UOA with TBN so we can see if your OCI is OK.
2/ Don't use an HM oil unless you get oil leaks or high oil consumption. An 0/30 is slightly better if you don't have a pre heater in Canada.
3/ If you don't want to extend your OCI, then a good major brand 5/30 conventional is OK during the summer.
4/ I would stick with the OEM filter until you figure out if your OCI matches the filter in distance terms. For example if your OCI with a top quality synthetic was 10K and the filter was only good for 12K, then you change filter every OCI, but if the oil was good for 7.5K and a 15K oil filter was available, then you could do oil only changes in between a main OCI. It just depends what filters are available and what you final OCI is.
Dirty filters are more efficient, so try not to change them until they reach their full recommended interval. The US 3K mile quicklubes cause higher wear factors because they are changing oil filters far too often, although some of them compound that error by using oils with poor quality add packs.
 
Basically you can run anything as some others have already said, but I would just stick with conventional oil with your short interval unless you need synthetic for winter. My daughter's 2000 RS gets Pennzoil conventonal High Mileage 5W-30 every 6,000 miles or so. And I believe the OEM oil filter for your car is the black Tokyo Roki, correct? It's fine for up to 7,500 miles.

-Dennis
 
Originally Posted By: bluesubie
And I believe the OEM oil filter for your car is the black Tokyo Roki, correct? It's fine for up to 7,500 miles.

-Dennis


huh? The black tokyo roki has been long gone for the 2008 2.5NA EJ253, unless there's super secret information that I'm unware of. If not, tell me where... I miss those filters.
 
You can stay with your current regimen of changes, although I'd probably use M1, PP or Ultra over Syntec.
I posted a 5K UOA of Synpower from our '09 2.5i Forester here (same engine as your car):

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...rue#Post2770735

Polaris flagged the TBN of 2.15 as having exceeded service limits for any oil. Blackstone would have considered this oil fine for continued service based on this TBN.
We have a mod here who would have said that I wasted my money on the synthetic oil and the UOA, although the oil was really cheap net as was the UOA.
I'd UOA what you're running now and see how it looks.
Post your UOA and see what other members have to contribute.
Syntec, other than GC, doesn't get much love here, but it appears to be a solid oil based on the UOAs posted here.
Your Subie engine should last a long time with nothing more dire than a timing belt service around 170K kilometers.
The oil leak and head gasket problems appear to have been mostly solved by the time your car was built.
Also, any decent oil filter should be fine for your engine.
I've used everything from grey body Frams to M1s and D+s and I can't see any difference.
 
Lots of experience with the 2.5, but all have been in the Legacy. If the exhaust manifold is similar on the Impreza to the Legacy, I'd be careful using an oversized filter on a 2.5 EJ motor. The longer/bigger filers are very close to the exhaust (at least on the Legacy) and I understand there is some concern with heat. As mentioned the Purolator Pureone PL14612 is a great filter for this motor. Most of my Subaru's have had this filter in their service. If you are doing 3750mi/6000km changes, any high quality conventional 5w30 will do the job in your Subie 2.5. If I went this route I'd do PYB But as mentioned since you are farther north syn may be better for cold weather. Syntec is a good choice. My wife's 10 Legacy really liked QSUD. I know the newer Subaru spec is 7500mi oci's and if you are comfortable with that mileage (warranty?) syn would be more economical in extending the oci over conventional.
 
Originally Posted By: webfors
Originally Posted By: bluesubie
And I believe the OEM oil filter for your car is the black Tokyo Roki, correct? It's fine for up to 7,500 miles.

-Dennis


huh? The black tokyo roki has been long gone for the 2008 2.5NA EJ253, unless there's super secret information that I'm unware of. If not, tell me where... I miss those filters.

Wow, for some reason I was thinking that the OP had a newer Impreza with the FB engine. I can't see this stuff on my phone.
grin.gif
In that case, the OP should just stick with a Honeywell made in his home land.

-Dennis
 
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