1. What kind of vehicle you have - SUBARU 2005 LGT LIMITED
2. What your owner's manual says -- not just viscosity, but certifications (look for acronyms like API SM, ILSAC GF-4, etc.) and change intervals as well -> [censored]... need to find the manual somewhere...
3. Where you live - New York, Queens
4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?) - Normal speed limit driving around locally. On the highway, I usually go 65-70mph on a 55mph speed limit. Rarely go higher than that.. I usually only accelerate occasionally hard when merging onto the highway. Other than that, I rarely speed.. if any at all.
5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?) weekdays, I drive a mile to the train station and back. Occasionally I drive it around at night. Weekends, I take a 60 miles drive out and back.
6. Whether your car has any known problems. - I certainly hope not! haha the previous owner has been using Royal Purple every 3-3.5k miles 10w40 for summer, and 10w30 for winter.
Hi everyone! I came across bobistheoilguy.com from legacygt.com's thread. I wanted to find out and learn more about how i can take care of my car, and any input and advices will be greatly appreciated.
the car currently has 41k miles, and has royal purple 10w40 in it. I realized after reading the articles that maybe I should move to 5w30 or 0w30. I asked my mechanic briefly what oil I should use after I told him that the previous owner has been using 10w40..and he suggested that my car maybe burns too much oil? . . . I have no idea what that means.
Anyways, just wanted to get acquainted with whoever on this site and looking forward to hearing from you! Thanks!
"what oil should i use?" :)
- Thread starter gnod85
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Hi.
You are fine with sticking to the Royal Purple is that is what you prefer.
3000-3500 mile oil changes with that oil is, in my opinion, a waste of money because the long oil change intervals that are allowed by high quality synthetic oils pretty much goes out when you drain it that early. Unless it makes you feel better to stick with this regimen, you can easily extend that by at least double.
What articles have you been reading that recommended "moving" to an XW-30 oil? What does your owner's manual recommend? I suggest following the manual's recommendation, unless you feel like you need to go on a different tangent.
The mechanic is surprised that you run a higher viscosity oil, or the previous owner has been. Common conception is that a higher viscosity oil resists burn off. This is not entirely true to an extent, but in certain cases, a higher viscosity oil will help with maintaining compression due to piston or bore erosion.
Anyways, I do not know what your manual recommends, and at what time to change your oil, but synthetic or mineral based...it really depends on how you drive and what you expect from your oil. If you like to drive hard and in demanding conditions, and like to extend your oil changes...sticking with Royal Purple is a good, but expensive, idea. You can try a synthetic HDEO such as Rotella 5W-40. It goes for 16 bucks a gallon at my local Wal Mart. An excellent oil. HDEO stands for Heavy Duty Engine Oil...the preferred acronym for "oil for diesel engines."
If you are interested in dino oil, there are plenty of oils that are great. Pretty much all of them meet API standards and you will be good to go.
I personally use a variety of different oils, whichever is on sale when I go out to buy it really. I use 2 oils of different grades: 10W-30 and 15W-40. The 10W-30 goes into my Acura NSX, and the 15W-40 (Mobil Delvac 1300...a mineral/non-synthetic HDEO) goes into my Tacoma truck, MR2, and ZX-10R motorcycle.
So yeah! Have fun. You will be fine with pretty much any brand that makes you comfortable. Considering your listed driving habits and conditions.
WOW - thank you so much for that thorough response!
I read bobistheoilguy.com's chapter's 1 - whenever it ended. Basically the biggest thing that I got from his articles was that it's important to keep in mind that the oil viscosity is the highest when the car is initially turned on - I guess that's why I wanted to go with either a 5w30 or 0w30.
I think the only reason that my previous owner was a bit strict with frequent oil changes was because of the common turbo failures in the '05 subaru models. He didn't want to risk anything and insisted that I do the same.
Btw - what exactly happens when a car burns a lot of oil? What does is mean? .. haha
The original manual recommended synthetic or regular motor oil every 6k miles - after the turbo issue was discovered, they recommended full synthetic every 3-3.5kmiles.
The Royal Purple is full synthetic correct? For some reason, the "Synerlec" sounds like it's a synthetic blend...
anyways, thanks again for your response. Loved it!
What oil do you want to use?
The LGT is a turbo Sube, and Subaru now recommends 3750 OCIs for all turbos, so the previous owner was basically following Subaru's current recommendation.
With the right oil, you could go much longer.
If you check the UOA forum here, you'll find turbo Sube owners running longer OCIs with various oils.
Many have had good results with Rotella T6 5W-40.
WRT grade, Subaru allows for a wide range of weights, and 10W-40 is allowed down to -4F, so the previous owner may have simply figured that thicker was better with the turbo, and he did use an oil within Subaru's specs for the engine.
Welcome to the site, and decide for yourself after some time reading here what you'd like to use.
I can tell you that GC, M1 0W-40, M1 5W-40 and Rotella 5W-40 have all shown good results in your engine, as have a host of lighter oils.
Hang out here for a while, search the UOA forum, and decide what would work best for your engine.
I'd probably use Rotella T6 5W-40, or maybe GC, but there are other oils, like RP, that would probably also do very well.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is no one right answer, rather there are a number of oils that would work well in your app.
RP is a fine oil, although IMO it's a bit high priced for short OCIs. Many Subie Turbo owners use GC with very good results. GC goes on sale pretty regular at Pep Boys and also AZ, just watch for the sales. My mom has a 2000 Subie Turbo and I put GC in it for her and change it every 4k miles.
fdcg is right, there are a number of oils that would work well for your application, you kind of have to try a few to see if they work for you. What kind of oil do they suggest over at the legacygt forum?
Have you seen the GC thread? You can find it here
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...t=46&page=1
Welcome to the forum 
Rotella T6 seems to do amazing in Subie turbos. If I had one I'd use it in mine for sure.
The Mechanic said you are burning oil? That means while you are driving oil is basically slipping past a gasket and burning off, it is common but not always normal. If this is the case with your car, you MUST check the level every time you fill up the tank. Everyone should do that. If you have a burner, you may want to use a less costly oil like Rotella 5w40 until you can get an idea on how much you are burning.
Originally Posted By: gnod85
The Royal Purple is full synthetic correct? For some reason, the "Synerlec" sounds like it's a synthetic blend...
woww.... thanks so much everyone. this forum is serious in helping with advices! haha..
i don't think i had any preference in which oil to use - i guess i wanted to know if anyone's had any direct experience with any good oil and a subaru.
in response to chubbs reply - how do i check the oil level every time? sorry... im sure it's obvious to most on this forum.. but franky... this is my first car i bought on my own. trying to learn from ground up so i greatly appreciate everyone's patience and help.
btw - what's GC? im assuming it's a brand but not familiar with the acronyms - yet.
thanks everyone again and hope you're all enjoying the holidays.
btw - what's GC? im assuming it's a brand but not familiar with the acronyms - yet.
thanks everyone again and hope you're all enjoying the holidays.First off, the Subaru dipstick is far from ideal, although it works.
Do not check the oil at the gas station.
Check it after the thing has not been run for a while, like first thing in the morning.
I would bet that consumption is pretty low.
Your mechanic, obviously not part of the Subaru cult, inferred high oil consumption based upon the use of 10W-40.
That is probably not the case here.
Anyway, I'd check oil level pretty often until you get a good feel for the engine's typical consumption.
At its current mileage, I doubt that the engine has any noticeable oil consumption.
From what I've seen around here and on the Subaru forums you really can't go wrong with Shell Rotella T6 5w40 oil in a Subaru.
Chubbs just meant to check your oil level often. Best to check it on a cold engine, I check mine in the morning, that way you get a consistent reading for determining if your rig is using oil.
GC= 0W-30 German Castrol. See my first post for the link to the GC thread.
nice - i guess for now i will stick with royal purple 5w30 for the winter and 5w40 for the summer.. unless someone has a good reason to move to shell rotella? just don't see the point in moving from one brand to another just yet -
now in terms of oil consumption. can anyone.. point me to an article or study guide for a noob like me? :P
like what it is... why it's bad... how to specifically check.
thanks!
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