Hello from Mi with a question

[Ironhorse2022]

Hi everyone,

 

Never owned a Subaru before. I'm looking for a safe, reliable first car for my daughter (16). I had narrowed it down to a forester and a crv, but just recently learned about the excess oil burning issue with 2011-14 foresters which are the years I'm looking at. Will probably end up with a 2010/11 w 80k miles based on our budget. What advice can u give me regarding buying a forester with high oil consumption? What % of vehicles are actually affected? How good is Subaru about replacing engines once they fail the consumption test ? Thanks for the help.

 

John

[matt167]

Dealer told me that the majority of the faliures were manual transmissions.. Once they pass 1qt/ 1,200 miles, They contact Subaru for warranty and it's pretty painless. They will even pay for/ provide a rental and they are now covered to 100k miles

[Numbchux]

FYI, I work in the parts department at a Subaru-only dealer.

 

 

A lot of these were being replaced under warranty for many years. But because of a class-action lawsuit early last year, all effected cars are covered right now (one year from the notification date, I believe, which was last March or so), regardless of mileage. And up to 100k miles regardless of time (although from what I understand, salvage-titled cars are not). There are very rarely any cost to the customer, the only even remotely common, or large, expense sometimes added on is a clutch kit (if applicable, obviously), as it requires zero extra labor to put a new one in. But that is always done with the customers permission up front.

 

I couldn't tell you what the percentage is, because there are a lot of these cars on the road up here, but we are also replacing a lot of short blocks. I can also tell you, there seems to be little or no pattern to which cars are effected. No production date, or anything like that, they just have to be tested. My mom's 2012 Impreza uses almost zero oil, and so does my friend's 2013 Forester.

 

 

A 2010 would have the EJ25 engine, which had head gasket issues, being the second-to-last year of that engine, they are much better than the early ones, but still something to watch for. And definitely not covered under warranty.

 

 

 

 

All that said, if everything else was the same (trim, transmission, condition, price, etc.), I would definitely take the 2011 over the 2010. I do think the FB engines are better than the EJs. It kind of sucks that they require synthetic oil, as that double or triples the cost of an oil change.