Here is PN for individual quarts!
Subaru cvt maintenance
- Thread starter Joeescape63
- Start date
I'm pretty sure they are programmed to be sluggish when cold, so they don't slip the belt. Its a bit hard to figure out what's actually happening when the car is controlling the throttle body, timing, the CVT pulley and the torque converter all as it sees fit, with the throttle pedal position only 1 input of several?
I find when our car is cold, I can indirectly control the rpms, by asking for full heat which increases rpms, or not quite full heat and then it drops the rpms a bit, but once engine oil temp hits 32C the engine/trans just runs like normal.
I think the simple fact that high viscosity cold oil works "better" to keep the belt and pulley from gripping well, so its got to manage that for a while before the trans warms up, and still get the car down the road without people complaining too much.
As for different fluids, I don't know if the transmission knows how well the belt and pulleys are gripping? I suppose it must detect if they are slipping, but I would think the warmup routine has been developed for the factory fluid and it doesn't adjust for lower or higher than expected viscosity , or friction coefficient fluid, at a given temperature?
Went to do the CVT 100K Km/60K mile maintenance in our nelwy acquired 2021 X-trek. Called the local Subaru stealership, who said they only sell the apparenlty platinum-infused, Mars procured, ultra-grade, Subby-only CVT3 fluid in 20L/5gal pails in Canada. How much? ALL OF IT. $795.00, for me.
So I said OK, how much to have you do it? $500 he said. So I told 'em: I didn't want MY fluid changed, I wanted the cars fluid changed.
So he pulls me aside and wispered (as if we were trading state secrets) that I could TRY buying Subaru CVT fluid in the qt online, or that (looking around to see if anyone was listening), there might be "off-brands' that could work. But I didn't hear that from him.
SO, after much research, including emailing the TECH departments at both Subby Canada and AMSIOIL, I dit it myself....and you'll NEVER guess how much it cost - and how long it took me.
Take a gander at this - and learn ALL the SECRETS.
So I said OK, how much to have you do it? $500 he said. So I told 'em: I didn't want MY fluid changed, I wanted the cars fluid changed.
So he pulls me aside and wispered (as if we were trading state secrets) that I could TRY buying Subaru CVT fluid in the qt online, or that (looking around to see if anyone was listening), there might be "off-brands' that could work. But I didn't hear that from him.
SO, after much research, including emailing the TECH departments at both Subby Canada and AMSIOIL, I dit it myself....and you'll NEVER guess how much it cost - and how long it took me.
Take a gander at this - and learn ALL the SECRETS.
Nice video! Your the 2nd YouTuber I’ve found that’s intermixed Amsoil CVT and OEM fluid with zero issues. I’m confident the Amsoil fluid is ok. They used to not have CVT-3 on their spec sheet but I believe added it sometime last year.
No issues with Amsoil CVT fluid in 2017 Accord sport past 50K miles. 3rd drain and fill coming up this spring
HPL is not some fly-by-night company (hello, Triax). I’m not speaking for HPL legally here, but I’m willing to wager that if HPL’s fluid was proven to be the cause of the failure, Dave would make it right. IMO they go above and beyond on the service side. Every single employee I’ve met takes pride in and responsibility for the quality of the product they deliver. Somebody who buys $80 of product per year is treated with the same respect as someone who buys $80,000 of product per year.
So you’re saying that Multi-CVT fluids work. Color me not shocked. Amsoil makes great fluids as well.
It would cost a mint and then some, and I understand your concerns, but what would your (and every other hesitant person’s) position be if HPL bought a brand new Legacy XT (I forget the nomenclature for the “new” turbos ATM), drained all factory fluids and replaced with the “base” PCMO, CVT fluid, and Gear Life with as close to zero miles & no break-in, and then ran laps at top speed around Indianapolis until they got to 60k and then measured wear? (For fun, at an average of 140mph it would take nearly 18 days around the clock to make 60k). Let’s offer 10k OCIs, 30k CVT, and 30k diffs, with UOAs on all fluids at changes.
Wide *** open the whole 60k besides pit stops. Similar to what Subaru did in-house with the Legacy back in the late 80’s when they set multiple Guinness world records. What would anyone’s argument be against their fluids after all those measurements came back within factory tolerances? Sure, I know the test will never happen due to the costs and logistics involved, but I’d put my money on HPL in that bet.
Not true. You are putting your money on the additive supplier (whoever that may be), not HPL.
You mentioned you only did one drain and refill with HPL fluid. I don't know the capacity and how much comes out when draining, but in my TR580 in my Crosstrek, I only got 5.6quarts out of it during the initial drain. That's even with dropping the pan and removing the pickup screen. Based on the 6.2 quarts I put back in during the 1st refill, I estimated it was underfilled at the factory by ~0.6 qt so I adjusted the initial capacity as such to give me a more accurate old/new ratio after the first drain/refill.
Here's a screenshot of a spreadsheet I made up for my own use to roughly compute what I have in for percentages of fluid per drain and refill. Due to it being underfilled from factory and the fact I pulled the pan and screen, I was able to get ~50/50 mix of new to old after the first drain/refill. If not for being underfilled and me pulling the pan/screen, it would have been more like 40% new to 60% old. After that initial drain/refill, I just pulled the plug and let it drain for an hour or so each time. Then I got 4.5 quarts out, when filling the tranny to the level it's supposed to be.
After the 5th drain/refill I figure I had ~93% Amsoil CVT fluid to 7% old stuff.
It seems Idemitsu is the main supplier(to factory's) for all Asian vehicle automatic and cvt transmissions.
Not true. An additive alone will not make an otherwise subpar fluid perform to the specification. Any oil is determined by the overall product, not any given component of it. One could have the greatest add pack known to the world, mix it in an incompatible base oil, and create failures in every application.
With Dr. Rudnick on staff, HPL has one of the premier formulators in the entire industry. He’s choosing the best overall product based on component compatibility. That means the final product is solely determined by HPL.
True, but stated in a slightly misleading manner. Additive supplier will provide a "recipe" with acceptable base oil options, which if followed, will lead to a validated end result.
Of course the recipe can theoretically be improved upon using better base oils and other tweaks, but the frictional properties of ATF/CVTF are the most critical issue and this is not something that will always be improved upon by the blender.
I just wanted to see what it would take to get to 90%+ new fluid.