burning oil?

P

Paris Ligi

Hello All,

I own an '02 outback wagon with approx 53K miles on it...

The last 2 oil changes I have noticed it was about a qt low ...

I use mobil 1 5w-30 and its changed every 7500 miles per the owners manual .

The mileage is about 23.5 mpg highway...

Is this normal ? Should I change it more often? Use a different viscosity?

Thanx in advance, P Ligi
 
Paris said:
I use mobil 1 5w-30 and its changed every 7500 miles per the owners manual .

Hi,

Others may argue, but if I EVER had an engine which, once well broken
in, only used one quart per 7500 miles I'd think I died and went to
heaven.

All my engines (can't count how many) use(d) a quart between 2000 and
3000 miles under MY driving conditions. That's dino oil, and synthetic
will often use less in a tight engine, but your consumption's nothing to
worry about IMO. We've had discussions on oil consumption in the past,
and oil consumption's certainly a YMMV item, so perhaps you can google
the group and see what others have experienced.

Rick
 
Rick said:
manual .

Hi,
Others may argue, but if I EVER had an engine which, once well broken
in, only used one quart per 7500 miles I'd think I died and went to
heaven.

All my engines (can't count how many) use(d) a quart between 2000 and
3000 miles under MY driving conditions. That's dino oil, and synthetic
will often use less in a tight engine, but your consumption's nothing to
worry about IMO. We've had discussions on oil consumption in the past,
and oil consumption's certainly a YMMV item, so perhaps you can google
the group and see what others have experienced.

Yep - have to agree. My current OB may 1/2L between changes. Prev Liberty
wgn usually used half litre between changes, maybe 1L every fourth change,
even at 332,000km. That's 12.5K km changes & not synthetic. Now *two*
quarts, *that* might be a worry ... Cheers

Rick
 
Paris said:
Hello All,

I own an '02 outback wagon with approx 53K miles on it...

The last 2 oil changes I have noticed it was about a qt low ...

I use mobil 1 5w-30 and its changed every 7500 miles per the owners manual .

The mileage is about 23.5 mpg highway...

Is this normal ? Should I change it more often? Use a different viscosity?

Thanx in advance, P Ligi

If anything, better than normal. I prefer
Mobil1 10w-3 though because it seems to
mimize the valve clatter.
 
Subaru, and most other manufacturers, consider up to 1qt/1000 miles to
be normal. Actual consumption will depend on many factors, including how
you drive, brand and viscosity of oil used, and mechanical engine
condition. Some people experience no oil use at all, others well above
normal, and most are somewhere in between.
If you are still under warranty you can have the dealer do an oil
consumption test to determine if there is indeed a problem, and if they
verify it to be excessive it will be repaired.
 
My 2000 Forester consumes about 1/3 of a quart in 5,000 miles and I
get ~27 mpg on long trips while driving 70 mph. The 1,000 miles per
quart is a GM excuse for their dealers to use so they don't need to do
warranty work. Your using about 1/2 quart /3,750 miles so I see no
problem. Your gas mileage is somewhat low for highway driving so your
probable pushing it quite often. Ed Hayes
 
My wife just bought an `04 Bean and the recommendations it the manual are
out of line in my opinion.
If I remember right it recommends an initial change at 3K a second 7.5K and
the interval progressively go up to 12K @ 150K.
You would have to be mentally defected to observe even the 7.5K interval.
I know they are built with tighter tolerances, and they burn cleaner. But
rest assured they want to sell you another car sooner than later. And it
will be later than sooner if you change your oil AND filter every 4K on
average.
I do it myself and it cost less than $12 a turn buy the oil in bulk.
 
Edward said:
get ~27 mpg on long trips while driving 70 mph. The 1,000 miles per
quart is a GM excuse for their dealers to use so they don't need to do

Ed,

That 1 qt/1000 miles figure has been pretty standard on everything I've
read over the last 35-40 years... remember what the "normal" consumption
on your early Porsches was? ISTR 1 qt/500 miles on the air-cooled stuff
back when I played that game, and even early water-cooled VW engines
were "ok by the book" at 1 qt/450 miles!

Times have changed, but I certainly would like to have an engine as
tight as the OP's even today!

Rick
 
I have to agree. We bought an '04 Legacy and did an oil change at 1600 km,
and then at 6,000. It's been every 6k since then. Now, at 70,000 km, it
burns almost no oil between changes. And we had the same experience with our
Loyale. In that case, next to no oil consumption at 230,000 km when we
traded it in on the Legacy. It supports the argument that looking after the
oil is a good investment.
Cheers,
Tim
 
Paris Ligi said:
Hello All,

I own an '02 outback wagon with approx 53K miles on it...

The last 2 oil changes I have noticed it was about a qt low ...

I use mobil 1 5w-30 and its changed every 7500 miles per the owners manual
.

The mileage is about 23.5 mpg highway...

Is this normal ? Should I change it more often? Use a different
viscosity?

Thanx in advance, P Ligi


First of all your oil consumption seems to be within what is
considered normal. The change interval seems a bit of a stretch.

I think you should switch to 10w-30. Given your milage this
viscosity should be perfectly OK, if not preferable (unless you're
somewhere in the arctic).

MN
 
FWIW, I just read that BMW now uses synthetic oil and recommends 15,000 mile
oil changes. Many tests have concluded that 7,500 miles is fine, but they
are admittedly small scale. With modern manufacturing techniques (i.e. CNC
equipment, ultrasonic cleaning) I've got to believe need for oil changes has
decreased to some extent. "Break in" rules have also relaxed a lot.

Any company offering lengthy powertrain warranties would be foolish to
recommend less than acceptable service intervals. Not to mention the obvious
conflict of interest--auto shops make twice the profit with 3,000 miles
changes.

I think it's probably more important to pay attention to the oil level and
general maintenence. If you run 5,000 miles before service on low oil
(because it burns or leaks) it's worse than running 2,000 miles. The old
rules keep people alert.

-John
 

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