Which oil next? Experiment on 2018 Outback

[Glenda W.]

Have you checked the PCV valve? Also I'm curious what oil temps you commonly see? I do find with ours it doesn't take much increase over the 1600-2000 cruising rpms to get the oil in the low 220's F
With the dealership 0W20 mystery oil I did see lots of varnish under the fill cap with 6k mile OCI's for the first 8 changes, then I switched to mostly PP Euro 0/5W30 which hasn't removed the varnish that I can see, but is probably better oil I am assuming. I put in 5l and usually seem to drain about 4.4l in a 6-7k mile OCI.
It does get driven fairly hard by my wife, and with the cruise on, it sees a bit of 3k rpm engine braking. I guess in the mountains you could see 4k rpm engine braking for miles at a time if you use the cruise control?
I can't say I've noticed more or less consumption in the 60k miles I've been changing it, but I haven't been recording or measuring carefully.

PCV always changed on time. Summer oil temps over 230.

 

[tired]

good point to notice, Valvoline is fully rated SP,GF6,and dexos gen 3,,find it hard to believe it caused any problems as previously stated in other posts, and many other brands are same rated oils, Rember to use proper oci and you should have no issues with any oil providing its has correct license's and approvals and using correct viscosity's, Mobil 1 is not the only oil on the market that is good.

I think the very thread that you're replying to here is evidence that this isn't always the case. Glenda detailed the car's history in the OP here.

Here is someone running only AMSOIL and HPL and still developed an oil burner.

I'm personally trying to figure out the right answer myself. And I used to believe the same: change your oil every 5k/6 months with an oil meeting the spec in your manual, and you'll be fine. I'm learning here, that's not the case.

 

[ltslimjim]

It will be interesting to see if the consumption remains stable or even improved further on the ESP.

Oil isn’t just oil. Depends on the demands of engine and conditions seen!

Much like there are minimum acceptable levels, maximum allowed standards etc for a specific API test requirement; we only know a passing grade based on approvals. What is not clear is how well an oil does comparatively when stressed based on the approval. Even in specific testing there can be vastly different results, but both get a passing grade. You won’t know if “passing” is “good enough” until it’s stressed past its limits. Design flaws of an engine coupled with severe service conditions are a recipe for finding out how quickly those limits can be reached.

 

[notharry]

M1 EP HM

On our Pacifica, I switch to that in 0w20 from PP 0w20 and saw a significant decrease in oil consumption. It used to use 1qt/4000-5000, after the switch it used 1/2qt over a 10000 interval. The level on the stick didn't even concern me. I wouldn't have believed it from an internet story.

Thread '1st Run of M1 EP HM 0w20 - '17 Pacifica'

Apr 22, 2024

2017 Pacifica
3.6L Pentastar
~104,000 miles currently

Brief history: I have used PP0w20 at OLM intervals (approx 10k) since we got it at around 40/45k. Past life was a rental iirc. Over the last several oil changes, It would use 1qt/5000 miles

Don't remember exactly why I made the change. I think I was kicking around switching from PP 0w20 to HPL 0w20 or 5w20 to see if it would clean up the oil consumption (a stretch I know, but why not experiment when it won't hurt anything). I know I went with 0w20 over 5w20 to not make too many changes at once. So it was just an oil type change, not a...

• racer12306
• Replies: 20
• Forum: Passenger Car Motor Oil (PCMO) - Gasoline Vehicles

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