Subaru oil consumption

[Primus]

vad,
The majority of cars are still under the warrantee, so they are serviced at Subaru dealers that use only Original OEM oil and air filters and fill in Euro oil that is Mobil 1 in 80 %. The oil is supplied by Mobil distributor. Yes, from time to time we can hear rumours that this ot that oil is not normal, but nobody yet proved it's a counterfeit.

As for the gas quality, it's worse than that in Europe. It's composed mainly of aromatics (40-55%)and olefins (5-30%) and has higher content of sulfur, benzole and tar. Widely used ferrocenes and manganese to increase octan number. Temperature of 50-90 % distillation is usually higher by 5 C than in European gas. Vapor pressure often does not suite to ambient temperature where the problems with ignition during winter time. Boiling point is 205-208 C. Besides, about 15 % of RON 92 and 95 on the market is tampered: they are made from RON 55-60 by adding tons of different chemicals like benzole, MTBE, ethers, ferrocenes and even aceton or some their blends.

2000wrx,
A great park of cars ! You alone provided nearly 50 % for the data bank. Thank you.

 

[oilyriser]

Where is the oil going? Is there ash buildup on the spark plugs? Are they fouled with oil? Does one plug have more buildup than the others?

Are people sneaking under your car at night and stealing the expensive Mobil 1 oil?

 

[Nikolas]

I opened a similar thrad a couple months ago and some people were trying to convince me that the car had broken rings...

Anyway, recap: My family owns 2 WRX's, one in Greece and one in the US. The one in the US was broken in at low speeds and it never got above 90 mph. Oil consumption: none in 5 k miles, with Mobil 1 5w40.

The one in Greece was broken in at not so low speeds. That car hits 200 km/h on a daily basis. One OCI was with Shell Helix 5w40, and it it burned 2 liters in the last 1500 miles or so of the OCI. Almost destroyed the engine, dipstick dry. Notice the nonlinearity here, consumption was nil in the beginning. This consuption coincided with raised temperatured in the area. Second OCI, Motul 10w40. Consumption not as bad, but it seems that once the car hit 5 k miles on the OCI, it started burning oil. Third OCI, ELF Excellium, 2000 miles so far, no consumption.

Based on the above observations, I believe that this turbocharged engine tends to "cook" the oil toward the end of the OCI, hence the consumption. This happens if the engine is run hard, especially at high temperatures. Any suggestions?

 

[unDummy]

Suggestion #1: change the oil more frequently
Suggestion #2: check the oil and top off always
Suggestion #3: buy another car

Don't assume that foreign oil is blended to the same quality or accuracy as over here. I'd love to see how well an exported "US oil" would perform in Greece or Ukraine, when compared to the available oils under the same name.

 

[Primus]

oilyriser,
I'm checking with end-users the answer to your question on spark plugs. The cars are still under the warranty and do not have enough mileage to require spark plugs change. That's why, nobody yet did their check.

 

[Primus]

Nikolas,
I also noticed that a non-linear oil consumption with some oils at different cars: mostly the appetite became considerably higher after 4000 km. Interesting remark on oil consumption with Elf: at certain period my Prelude 2.2 VTEC became to require up to 0.8 l of make up oil during 5500 km and I already started to think that my car has not avoided the fate too. This happened with Motul 8100 0W-40 and 300V 10W-40, Castrol Formula SLX 0w30 and Elf Excellium 5W-40. With Motul and Castrol the consumption was more or less linear (the highest with Motul 8100 and the lowest with 300V among these three), but not with Elf that was perfect up to 4000 km and then showed about 0.6 l decrease within only 1000 km. The next was Elf 0W-40 and the dipstick level remained nearly unchaged during the next 6000 km.

 

[Primus]

unDummy,
Fully agree with suggestions 1 and 2, but if a car is still under warranty and its manufacturer cannot clearly explain why about 1 car of 4 usually shows a strange behaviour with oil consumption, why I have to loose my money selling 1 or 2 years old car ? And who can guarantee that the next Subaru will not exhibit the same issue ?

As for your assumption about oil quality, I aslo have some doubts, but in respect of certain European oils. But, to offer an off specs oil for warranty cars, this would be the top of stupidity for both, a car dealer and an oil importer. As for US oils, distributors of international companies are not allowed to import oils from the US. Only Unocal distributor imports the US oils on official base. BTW, the US oils are usually out of suspicion because they are bought on the US market and distributed hear by independent traders.

 

[vad]

quote:

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Originally posted by Primus:
why I have to loose my money selling 1 or 2 years old car?
And who can guarantee that the next Subaru will not exhibit the same issue?

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1. That's life.
2. Nobody.

I know it's brutal but it needed to be said.

 

[Nikolas]

Well, it appears that the oils are ok, if the engine is used reasonably. For example, the US WRX burns no oil in 7 k kms, but on the other hand I rarely go above 130 km/h. The euro one, burned something like 750 ml/500 km of hard driving. That is, ~ 200 km/h sustained in 37-39 celsius outside temperature. After that trip, the consumption picked up until I changed the oil. Basically I believe that I literally cooked the oil in that case, and it started burning it.

Couple of remarks here: the plugs looked fine, I pulled them out of curiosity. No deposits. Weird, after all the oil it burned. Second, the factory oil cooler doesn't seem to be doing much in these conditions. Would an aftermarket one help? I would ask in NASIOC but they will flame you if you're new.

Now, Subaru says it's ok to use even 20w-50 under severe conditions. If this thing continues with the ELF LDX, I'll just ditch it and get some 15w40 (have tons of it at work, cheap) and change it every 4 k kms. Or get some 50 wt synthetic. Or drive slower

.

Again, suggestions are welcome! Doug, you had a Subaru, right? What worked in yours?

 

[goodvibes]

What if common knowledge for break-in in the Ukraine and is it normally observed? Looking at that attached Aussy thread, I wonder if a slight overfill when cold may cause a cavatation problem in a squat boxer motor. I was surprised at the difference in hot and cold level measurement.

 

[theguru]

Wouldn't it be normal for significantly increased oil comsuption to occur at sustained speeds of 120+mph (200km/h)?

 

[yannis]

Why don't you e-mail and ask motul France?
Since they provide the oil for the subaru world rally team , they will know better.
For use in Greece , i would bet my life that their advice will be :
300V 15W50 during summer
300V 10W40 during winter.

As for Russia prety much the same although the 15W50 doesn't seem necessary.
Come on, if the use of an ester 15W50 doesn't seem reasonable in a high output turbo engine ,there is no other reason for it to exist.

 

[Primus]

goodvibes,
For many owners their actual car is not the first Subaru. Some guys claim that previous car had the issue, others complaint on actual car.

We may admit that sometimes the break-in is not perfect, but the same happens with other makes and no complaints. Or, sometimes, it can be different: if there is an elevated oil consumption, it's observed with nearly all cars, for example S2000. Here, with Subaru, we see a very strange picture: the issue concern about 20-25 % of all cars and not only WRX, but other models like Outback 2.5 and Legacy 2.5 too.

 

[Primus]

theguru,
At 200 km/h any car will burn oil, though some more then others. But nowadays, a sustained 200 km/h is not possible even in Germany with its roads: officially there is no a speed limit, but there are so many signs "100" and "120", as well as road works that it's hardly possible to drive 200 km/h over 10-15 min. Besides, there are stops at gas station, cafe, w/c. I tried A2 and A3 several times: 180, 200 and even 220 km/h, it looks sustained, but at the end of 700 km way you realize that your average speed was 130-135 km/h only.

 

[Primus]

yannis,
I suggested 300V 10W-40 for all seasons or 10W-40 for summer and 5w30 for winter, as well as relatively 10W-40 + 15W-50 and 5w30 + 10W-40 mists for those who had a fuel dilution. But this is my opinion only.

Most of Subaru dealers used Mobil 1 5W-50 in the past and use Mobil 1 5W-40 and 0w30 now. At the request a dealer can fill Motul 300V. However, no one oil issue was fully solved by an oil substitution. According to one end-user the switch from 300V 5W-40 to 5w30 helped to reduce the oil burning by about 30 %. Another one wrote that switching from semi-synthetic 10W-40 to 300V 20W-60 the engine started to burn a double volume, so he came back to 10W-40.

 

[oilyriser]

Is oil spray from the crankshaft being sucked in the PCV system?

 

[yannis]

Fuch's 5W30 felt like water when i shaked the bottles. It didn't burn it though.

 

[Primus]

quote:

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Originally posted by oilyriser:
Where is the oil going? Is there ash buildup on the spark plugs? Are they fouled with oil? Does one plug have more buildup than the others?

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According to one of the end-users, the spark-plugs were clean, no oil trace or ash buildup.

 

[oilyriser]

Oil thieves?

At 200 km/h, the Subaru engine will be doing about 5000 RPM. There must be a lot of oil droplets floating around in the crankcase, and getting sucked through the PCV valve. Some types of oil might have less tendency to form small droplets, and might show less consumption. This might be related to the surface tension of the oil. Surface tension might change as the oil gets contaminated with use.

Someone who knows more about this spray topic might want to comment.

 

[Primus]

Looks like BITOG showed itself impotent in front of the problem. To my regret the reasons of too high oil consumption with some Subaru remained unclear. Owners were not active to help with statistics too.

It's difficult to believe in a bad oil or a high fuel content at such a big number of cars. Well, let's agree with our impotence and shall relate everything to "particularities" of Subaru engines and to "unexperienced" owners that do not know yet how to break-in the engine after possessing a number of cars. It sounds stupid, does not it ? So, let's make an effort and find the answer together !