oil filter and coolent?

[Roger Stokes]

Hello,

What brand Oil,and oil filter and antifreeze coolent(I have the additive from Subaru) are as good as Subaru brand? And also the spark plugs? I have a 2001 forester.

Thanks,

Roger

[porcupine73]

Hello. I don't know necessarily if they're 'as good as Subaru brand' (which Subaru doesn't actually make anyway; it's just private labelled), but for oil filters Wix (aka Carquest and Napa Gold) are generally good quality (though on aftermarket oil filters the bypass pressure is usually less than the Subaru spec of around 23 psid).

 

For coolant, if you're talking the older style Subaru coolant, usually I use the BASF formula G-05 (licensed to Zerex and maybe others). Also Zerex in the last couple years has come up with an 'Asian' coolant that might be an even better match. I wouldn't run dexcool or dexclones. Unless you have a newer model Subaru that calls for the 'Super Coolant', which may very well be a Dexcool clone, but it's hard to tell since the MSDS just lists the inhibitors as 'trade secret'.

 

For oil, there's got to be dozens of choices out there. Just make sure it meets the requirements in the manual, be that API S something or ILSAC. I'd avoid the dollar store oils, because Lubes and Greases did an article on those some time back and many of them came back out of grade.

 

For spark plugs, NGK is a good choice for that soob. The copper V-Power's work great if you don't mind changing them say every 20k miles at the most. Denso's may work well too. Have seen some posts in years past about issues with the Bosch+4's in soobs.

[AWDfreak]

Hello,

What brand Oil,and oil filter and antifreeze coolent(I have the additive from Subaru) are as good as Subaru brand? And also the spark plugs? I have a 2001 forester.

Thanks,

Roger

 

I called Subaru of America Customer Service, and my 1999 Subaru Legacy Outback came with Havoline (Texaco?) 5W-30(?) motor oil from the factory.

 

So if you want OEM quality, any of Chevron/Texaco's newest oils will do.

 

 

Oil filter manufacturers that provided Subaru of America OEM filters include Toyo Roki (not a typo, the black oil filters which are somewhat highly sought after), Purolator (the white oil filters), and Honeywell/FRAM (the blue oil filters).

 

Toyo Roki and Purolator make high quality stuff already. However, if you do buy Honeywell/FRAM, make sure it's at or higher quality than the "Tough Guard" line of FRAM products. If you don't buy OEM oil filters, most likely it won't have the "special" Subaru-spec bypass valve setting.

 

 

I'm not so sure about the coolant issue. The post above mine is very helpful.

 

 

I was always under the assumption NGK was the OEM manufacturer of both the spark plugs and spark plug wires.

[idosubaru]

Follow your owners manual for all of the above.

 

Won't notice any real world difference brands here. Personally, I stray away from the cheap oil and FRAM filters which are known to end up in autostore displays cut in half to show their sweet cardboard internal parts.

 

As for plugs, I think stock NGK's are often preferred for Subaru's, again I'd stick with stock plugs.