Subaru oil filter fitment

[dwasifar]

My wife and I have three Subarus between us: a 2011 Forester non-turbo, a 2019 Crosstrek, and a 2021 WRX. (My wife's car, if you can believe it; I never drive it.)

I keep oil and filters stocked for these cars, and sometimes RockAuto has closeouts, so I have a small variety of filters on hand, and I was comparing them. I note the physical sizes are different and it made me wonder how much interchangeability there actually is.

Going by Purolator's parts finder website (not dedicated to Purolator, their lookup was just convenient), I find the following part numbers (leaving off the alpha prefixes that denote product line):

• 2021 WRX, FA20F engine: 14459
• 2019 Crosstrek, FB20 engine: 14615
• 2011 Forester, FB25 engine: 14459 or 14615 (both are listed)

However, things may not be so simple with the Forester. This car was built at the tail end of 2011 production, and I have reason to believe this car was built with a 2012 engine (or is actually just a 2012 model titled as a 2011). It is still an FB25 engine for both years, but the 2012 model has a larger oil capacity, and that larger capacity is what it takes to fill this engine. When I look up the Forester as a 2012, Purolator's site recommends only the 14615. But I remember what was on this car when it was new, and it was a wider filter, sized like the 14459.

In Wix, the situation is:

• WRX: WL10078
• Crosstrek: 57055
• Forester (2011): 57055 or 57830
• Forester (2012): 57055 only

Wix's cross-references for the Purolator numbers do not wholly correspond. 57055 is one of the matches for Puro 14615, but also crosses to Wix 51334, and the other Puro number crosses to Wix 57712.

My question in all this is, does it matter? If the catalogs list the larger and smaller filters interchangeable on one car, why can't I use either filter on any of the cars? It would be nice to stock only one filter instead of two sizes; and the WRX filter is larger and presumably has more filter area, whereas the others are little "peanut" filters - especially from Purolator, as you can see here with a size comparison:

The leftmost two are for the WRX (OEM and Puro respectively) and the other five are for the Crosstrek or 2012 Forester. According to the catalogs (and Subaru), a 2011 Forester can use any of these. The Mazda filter is a close match for the OEM Subaru Tokyo Roki filter the Crosstrek was built with and is identical in dimensions. You can see that the smaller Puro and ProLine (made by Puro) are really small, considerably smaller than the Baldwin and Champ.

Thoughts?

 

[fantastic]

Seems like a rolling change over to the updated filter model to increase oil capacity? First it's hard to say if the smaller filters are worse off simply because their media type & media mass decide how capable they are. They may appear smaller but have better media technology that requires less media overall as an example. The other is use the updated 12' version since you already use that for the 19'. I'd look into the capacity of the 12' & see if that helps the amount to fill it with oil bringing it up to the full line.

 

[Bellavita]

My wife and I have three Subarus between us: a 2011 Forester non-turbo, a 2019 Crosstrek, and a 2021 WRX. (My wife's car, if you can believe it; I never drive it.)

I keep oil and filters stocked for these cars, and sometimes RockAuto has closeouts, so I have a small variety of filters on hand, and I was comparing them. I note the physical sizes are different and it made me wonder how much interchangeability there actually is.

Going by Purolator's parts finder website (not dedicated to Purolator, their lookup was just convenient), I find the following part numbers (leaving off the alpha prefixes that denote product line):

• 2021 WRX, FA20F engine: 14459
• 2019 Crosstrek, FB20 engine: 14615
• 2011 Forester, FB25 engine: 14459 or 14615 (both are listed)

However, things may not be so simple with the Forester. This car was built at the tail end of 2011 production, and I have reason to believe this car was built with a 2012 engine (or is actually just a 2012 model titled as a 2011). It is still an FB25 engine for both years, but the 2012 model has a larger oil capacity, and that larger capacity is what it takes to fill this engine. When I look up the Forester as a 2012, Purolator's site recommends only the 14615. But I remember what was on this car when it was new, and it was a wider filter, sized like the 14459.

In Wix, the situation is:

• WRX: WL10078
• Crosstrek: 57055
• Forester (2011): 57055 or 57830
• Forester (2012): 57055 only

Wix's cross-references for the Purolator numbers do not wholly correspond. 57055 is one of the matches for Puro 14615, but also crosses to Wix 51334, and the other Puro number crosses to Wix 57712.

My question in all this is, does it matter? If the catalogs list the larger and smaller filters interchangeable on one car, why can't I use either filter on any of the cars? It would be nice to stock only one filter instead of two sizes; and the WRX filter is larger and presumably has more filter area, whereas the others are little "peanut" filters - especially from Purolator, as you can see here with a size comparison:

View attachment 220597

The leftmost two are for the WRX (OEM and Puro respectively) and the other five are for the Crosstrek or 2012 Forester. According to the catalogs (and Subaru), a 2011 Forester can use any of these. The Mazda filter is a close match for the OEM Subaru Tokyo Roki filter the Crosstrek was built with and is identical in dimensions. You can see that the smaller Puro and ProLine (made by Puro) are really small, considerably smaller than the Baldwin and Champ.

Thoughts? Here are the results from Fram look up which I trust.

Here are the results from the Fram look up that I trust:

WRX- XG9688 Ultra Synthetic
Crosstrek- XG7317
Forester- XG9688 for both engines.

If your OCI is 6k or less the Tough Guard line will be excellent too. Use all with confidence.

By the way, you have excellent taste in cars!

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I always try to run a larger spin-on as we have winter starts and these engine sound like they are eating themselves on a cold start as it is.

I would ONLY run the Tokyo Roki Japan filter on WRX. I liked the MP supertech in the 7317 size, and the engine ran the smoothest and quietest on a WIX XP - but these are reportedly low efficiency. That doesn't bother me, but it may someone else - in fact I prefer it in these palm sized filters. Wix pedigree is up in the air these days so take that as a caution. Good luck and have fun in 'roo world

p.s.: I have had many Subaru thru the decades, but I am liking my little Ford (made in India) better. I do not require the Forester spaciousness. I did greatly enjoy the little Impreza wagon from the mid-nineties that cost about 16K out the door - only with a 5 speed stick.