New Subaru

[3oilmat1]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
Nope. Good old oil with assembly lube from the part mixed in.

Subarus are EASY on the oil. Any SM 5w-30 will do you fine.

WATCH out for the filter. Make sure you get the short ones as the headers/cats wrap around it and if its too long, you will cook the filter.

If you have a Turbo, then a blend or syn with a 3750 OCI MAX is needed.

Take care and enjoy the new ride! (what did you get?)

Bill


I got a 2010 Legacy.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Originally Posted By: webfors
Oh, and be sure to change out your rear diff fluid after 10k. What came out of mine what all wrong at 10k miles. The break-in sheds tons of wear metals in the rear diff.
Thanks for the diff typ. I dont have ping its a hard bearing-like knock - engine mechanical not timing or octane related. We have a 5sp manual btw. We're (my wifes is) on subaruforester.org as: AlleyCat.

 

[Bill in Utah]

I sure would not be using any oil filter that sticks through the headers as the heat soak would not be a good thing for the filter.

It gets very hot there.

Photos please of the filter and headers!

Bill

 

[Saturn_Fan]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: cjhepburn
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
We have a noisy 09 Forester PZEV, so I've been using Rotella cj-4/SM 10w30 to good effect. Got me 2 MPG over Mobil Clean 5000 5w-30. We average 30 MPG on a stick car with 70mph highway and 35mph backroad mix or 70 miles per day commute. Still waiting for the car to throw a rod though! Factory "Fram" blue oil filter works fine on a 5K OCI, I would use something else on a 7.5 k or longer syn OCI though. Fram XG maybe?

I've got an '03 Forester with the much debated piston slap at warm up, is that what your talking about with the "noisy 09"?
Was quiet on the test drive, then on the way home it started making a sound like a rod big end knock at light throttle before changing gears. The breakin oil is near 20wt. May have damaged something. Had many of these engine and none make this rap sound. Brough it back right away and went for a ride with the Service Manager; he said - " cant do anything now, and hey you got a warranty, we'll take care of it if it goes". This is unacceptable, but getting noisy engines fixed with no other related issues is tough because its a qualitative call. By the way these are NOT great engines in 2.5L form, they have major HG and piston problems and have been blowing up left and right. There was a big bad batch of misassembled, poor QA/QC turbo engines that blew w/in a couple thousand miles due to crank bearing issues. The 2.2L was the best variant for the NA motor.


Arcographite: Have you ever posted anything that didn't involve either your Subaru or your Toyota having rod knock, needing a rebuild, or other general problems?

I have never seen someone have so many problems with almost new vehicles.

 

[09rexwagon]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
I sure would not be using any oil filter that sticks through the headers as the heat soak would not be a good thing for the filter.

It gets very hot there.

Photos please of the filter and headers!

Bill
There is no choice on the 2.5L turbo engines. I can't find a picture but even when I put a properly spec-ed filter on there, I can cut my knuckles on the header heat shield if I'm not careful.

 

[09rexwagon]

Originally Posted By: Saturn_Fan
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: cjhepburn
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
We have a noisy 09 Forester PZEV, so I've been using Rotella cj-4/SM 10w30 to good effect. Got me 2 MPG over Mobil Clean 5000 5w-30. We average 30 MPG on a stick car with 70mph highway and 35mph backroad mix or 70 miles per day commute. Still waiting for the car to throw a rod though! Factory "Fram" blue oil filter works fine on a 5K OCI, I would use something else on a 7.5 k or longer syn OCI though. Fram XG maybe?

I've got an '03 Forester with the much debated piston slap at warm up, is that what your talking about with the "noisy 09"?
Was quiet on the test drive, then on the way home it started making a sound like a rod big end knock at light throttle before changing gears. The breakin oil is near 20wt. May have damaged something. Had many of these engine and none make this rap sound. Brough it back right away and went for a ride with the Service Manager; he said - " cant do anything now, and hey you got a warranty, we'll take care of it if it goes". This is unacceptable, but getting noisy engines fixed with no other related issues is tough because its a qualitative call. By the way these are NOT great engines in 2.5L form, they have major HG and piston problems and have been blowing up left and right. There was a big bad batch of misassembled, poor QA/QC turbo engines that blew w/in a couple thousand miles due to crank bearing issues. The 2.2L was the best variant for the NA motor.


Arcographite: Have you ever posted anything that didn't involve either your Subaru or your Toyota having rod knock, needing a rebuild, or other general problems?

I have never seen someone have so many problems with almost new vehicles.
I spit soda on my laptop when I read this one .

 

[TwoWheelRider]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Was quiet on the test drive, then on the way home it started making a sound like a rod big end knock at light throttle before changing gears. The breakin oil is near 20wt. May have damaged something. Had many of these engine and none make this rap sound. Brough it back right away and went for a ride with the Service Manager; he said - " cant do anything now, and hey you got a warranty, we'll take care of it if it goes". This is unacceptable, but getting noisy engines fixed with no other related issues is tough because its a qualitative call. By the way these are NOT great engines in 2.5L form, they have major HG and piston problems and have been blowing up left and right. There was a big bad batch of misassembled, poor QA/QC turbo engines that blew w/in a couple thousand miles due to crank bearing issues. The 2.2L was the best variant for the NA motor.


Hey, the new ones should not have HG problems!

I had an 02 Forester with one headgasket blown. Subaru replaced it under the warranty campaign, but only because I took it there every 15K for service and it had less than 80K when the gasket went. After that it is a $2500 repair. I was perplexed because I have had many crummy cars before, with 150K+ miles, but never had a headgasket go.

Now they put a "cooling system conditioner" into the cooling liquid wich is basically a buch of fibers end metal shavings in an attempt to plug up leaks. It is almost a joke. Watch what that does to your water pump eventually.

Mine had ongoing break problems too. Front discs warped every 10K and had to be repalced every 45K. And no I don't brake like a nutcase.

Around 90K miles the passanger side CV joint went out. Then the front diff developed a clunk upon take off, an early sign of bad things coming. I never even left the pavement with it just commuted to work and back.

It was also a perpetual fuel diluter (per UOA) and always ran very rich, but the service would never help with it just give me some talk about it being within spec.

I never liked the lumbering way it drove. Yes, the boxer had a cool sound when I stepped on it, but most sedans will accelerate faster without trying.

Other than that it never left us by the side of the road and served us for over eight years, but lately it started to cost about $2K a year to keep it going.

I guess if you must have an AWD it is a cheaper alternative than an Audi Quattro...

Anyhow, these boxers are noisy engines with all sorts of knocking, valve chirpings and clunkings that don't always mean a pending disaster, but sometimes they do. People at subaruforester.org actually post recordings of assorted sounds coming from their engines and have a lot of fun with it.

 

[sxg6]

Watch for consumption, my '09 2.5i se has consumed around 1.5qt every 5k since the first oci. Now before someone goes and says thats not normal.. From my owners manual: