Oil change recommendations

[ThosL]

I figured I was probably overdue on an oil change.  My 2002 Forester has around 230K miles.  I bought the Mobil 1 10-30 and the Fram Tough Guard filter.  Draining the old oil 4 quarts at most came out.  Also thinking of adding Lucas Oil Treatment.

[jonathan909]

Fwiw, I'm not picky about the oil I use in my '95-'01 cars, but have switched to Wix filters on GD's recommendation.

[forester2002s]

I use 10W30 non-synth in my 2002 Forester, and I change the oil & filter at least twice as often as recommended. Still on the original engine (but with new head-gaskets and belt etc,)

I use 0W30 or 5W30 full-synthetic in my 2017 Forester, and also change the oil & filter more regularly than specified.

I don't get too excited about buying super-expensive brand-name oil.  I just buy what's on sale, and change it sooner than is required. And I've never used any oil additives.

[Daskuppler]

I run 5w30 AMSOIL and PurolatorOne filters in all of my cars.  I've never had a problem. You can't really go wrong with the oil as long as it's a name brand.  I have heard Castrol Edge (black bottle) does better for high mileage cars than Mobil but again, change at the appropriate interval and you're probably fine.

I would not add and Lucas products.

My 02 Impreza 2.5 has 137k

'14 Forester runs 0w-20 but has 118k

87 Nissan d21 has 190k

06 Xterra is 100k

 

 

[idosubaru]

Best oil decision is to check it often. An average daily driver will have oil related issues due to low oil, not brand. 

If you really want to know send samples to oil labs and get it checked  they’ll tell you how long your interval should be for that vehicle and if there’s anything problematic with your oil choice  

Run oil not additives. 
Use Amsoil 

Or anything else - there is zero data that lightly used vehicles are dropping dead because one ran Castol instead of valvoline. 

synthetic is superior but if you’re going to change it often anyway or it’s an older vehicle that uses some oil then it’s pointless or not a good fit. 

[heartless]

oil brand does not make that much difference these days... I use cheap oil (Fleet Farm brand - regional chain) but good filters.. Wix or Purolator - Fram filters are garbage.
obviously, a synthetic would be better (even in an off brand), but if you are changing frequently or it is using oil, then it is more costly as well..

my old 2002 Forester had 285K on it when I sold it, and was still going strong..

fwiw, i also used the slightly larger Legacy filter (Purolator # 14460. Wix # 51334) fits perfectly, no leaks, no issues.

[brus brother]

It's all in the technique.

 

Edited November 16, 2022 by brus brother

[ThosL]

I pulled a couple of the plugs which looked fine but there was oil on the plug wire holders which may be the source of a leak.   I'll look around for good solutions on this.

 

Spark Plug Change...oil in plug wells. | Subaru Forester Owners Forum

Edited November 18, 2022 by ThosL

[Daskuppler]

3 hours ago, ThosL said:

I pulled a couple of the plugs which looked fine but there was oil on the plug wire holders which may be the source of a leak.   I'll look around for good solutions on this.

 

Spark Plug Change...oil in plug wells. | Subaru Forester Owners Forum

Probably the valve cover gaskets. Very easy fix.

[ThosL]

Here's one video:  

 

[brus brother]

Step 1: Install car lift

[GeneralDisorder]

We don't recommend viscosities lower than 40 for older Subaru's. The main line on the block gets wallowed out to pretty ugly large clearances and this drops oil pressure to the already narrow rod bearings. We run Amsoil 5w40 for everything under ~400 WHP. Over that we go to either Signature 5w50 or Dominator 15w50 depending on use case. 

GD

[jonathan909]

That's helpful.  Can you offer a seat-of-the-pants estimate of the mileage on an engine that would begin to qualify it for the heavier oil?

Aside from my just being a stingy and sloppy sumbitch who's fine with whatever 5W30 or 10W30 is cheapest on any given day, I'd be concerned about the heavier oil making very cold weather (-30C and below) starting a lot harder.  One of the terrific features of these engines is that they're easy to start consistently at low temperatures without plugging in, a far cry from the Detroit iron 8s of my misspent yout.

[brus brother]

2 hours ago, jonathan909 said:

That's helpful.  Can you offer a seat-of-the-pants estimate of the mileage on an engine that would begin to qualify it for the heavier oil?

Aside from my just being a stingy and sloppy sumbitch who's fine with whatever 5W30 or 10W30 is cheapest on any given day, I'd be concerned about the heavier oil making very cold weather (-30C and below) starting a lot harder.  One of the terrific features of these engines is that they're easy to start consistently at low temperatures without plugging in, a far cry from the Detroit iron 8s of my misspent yout.

Did you really mean -30 Celsius??
Having spent the longest month one weekend in Lake Placid, NY where the overnight temps hovered around -30 Fahrenheit, I feel your pain.
In the morning, the alternator screeched like a banshee in heat and the turn of the key elicited a "no-no-no-no" from the engine.
Can't imagine that the heavier weight oils wouldn't be congealed at your -30 C temps?

[jonathan909]

28 minutes ago, brus brother said:

Did you really mean -30 Celsius??
Having spent the longest month one weekend in Lake Placid, NY where the overnight temps hovered around -30 Fahrenheit, I feel your pain.
In the morning, the alternator screeched like a banshee in heat and the turn of the key elicited a "no-no-no-no" from the engine.
Can't imagine that the heavier weight oils wouldn't be congealed at your -30 C temps?

Yes, I actually meant that - and while we're not Winnipeg aka Winterpeg, we do get spells of -40, where C and F converge.

That's why we're so pleased with Subi performance overall in that respect - with a not-terrible battery in the car, we can usually start down to -30C without plugging in the block heater.  It's not happy about it, but it starts.

Trivia:  I'm from a town a couple of hours south of here called Pincher Creek - it's just north of the Montana border.  This is the sort of thing we get in the winter - record-setting slew rates:

https://globalnews.ca/news/4835093/temperature-change-swing-canada-january-10-pincher-creek/

[GeneralDisorder]

We put 5w40 in literally everything that's out of warranty. Not just high mileage cars. Having rebuilt hundreds of short blocks and measured the main line clearances and compared the differences in bearing width of something like the 4G63, 2JZ, or the 1UZ - I can say that Subaru's are inadequate in this area and a higher viscosity to keep the oil from being squished out of the bearing interface is needed for hard use cases and longevity.  

I have not had any customers report their mileage has changed with any of the oils we use (40 or 50). I don't believe that the difference is even measurable in the real world.

For those temps I would seek out a 0w40 and run a block heater and battery blanket. 

GD

Edited November 20, 2022 by GeneralDisorder

[heartless]

on pretty much all my older Subes I ran 10w30 in the winter - Yes, it can get damned cold here in WI, too.. -15 to -20F is pretty common through Jan & Feb, and lower than that happens regularly during that same period. Coupled with high winds, yeah.. not fun.

ran 10w40 in the summers when heat was a factor...

never started running anything else until this most recent Forester that specs 5w30...

[moosens]

You folks find those weights commonly? 5w40 and 15w50 ? 

Maybe my aging eyes again but I don’t see those here in CT. I’d definitely go for the 5w40 since I’m pretty close already in the summer. 
 

Haven’t met Thosl yet but I’m just up the road a bit. Same temps. Just more corruption in my town. 
 

Edited November 21, 2022 by moosens

[jonathan909]

But really great milling machines.

[heartless]

12 hours ago, moosens said:

You folks find those weights commonly? 5w40 and 15w50 ? 

those two, not so much.. the 5w30 is pretty common tho

[moosens]

18 hours ago, jonathan909 said:

But really great milling machines.

Long gone from Bridgeport.

Even if it weren’t from my home town I’d say the Bpt. Miller stands above the rest with the J head. How many small time operators made dreams come true. Including my uncle who’s NASA parts he made in the 60’s and 70’s are still in space. 

[jonathan909]

Man, you're killing me.  An old J-head with a motor drive on the table, and I'd be as happy as a baby in a barrel of tits.  We don't need no steenkin' CNC.

I did nine years (part-time) in a shop in SF where that mill was the centerpiece.  I didn't get to use it much myself, and we didn't send anything into space, but the work we did blew minds (very weird story).  I loved every minute I spent in front of it and can't wait to find the right one.

Edited November 22, 2022 by jonathan909

[idosubaru]

On 11/22/2022 at 12:44 PM, moosens said:

Including my uncle who’s NASA parts he made in the 60’s and 70’s are still in space. 

It’ll still be there when you and I are gone too. His are out of earths orbit or old ones in orbit gradually descend and fall to earth in 200 or 2000 years, they don’t get deorbited like modern satellites!

[GeneralDisorder]

I'm an Amsoil dealer and use Amsoil exclusively on all oil changes. 5w40 is a Euro blend (neither the car nor the oil are allowed to know this), and 5w50 is a signature blend. 15w50 is a Dominator racing oil. Yes it's expensive. No I don't care and don't offer a "cheap" option. I would rather not do a ton of oil changes and I'm not into loss leader marketing. You want your oil changed by us because you want the best and a real mechanic to do it and do the included inspection. If that's not of interest to you then you likely wouldn't make a good customer which is fine - I'm also that guy that doesn't make a good customer for my business. If I can do it myself I'm going to obviously. 

GD

Edited November 26, 2022 by GeneralDisorder

[Daskuppler]

4 minutes ago, GeneralDisorder said:

I'm an Amsoil dealer and use Amsoil exclusively on all oil changes. Yes it's expensive. No I don't care and don't offer a "cheap" option. I would rather not do a ton of oil changes and I'm not into loss leader marketing. You want your oil changed by us because you want the best and a real mechanic to do it and do the included inspection. If that's not of interest to you then you likely wouldn't make a good customer which is fine - I'm also that guy that doesn't make a good customer for my business. If I can do it myself I'm going to obviously. 

GD

What's your thought on Amsoil CVT fluid?  Is it better to stick with Subaru for this application or is Amsoil equal/better?