Your mileage may vary

[Al]

I bought an Outback H6 for my wife to replace her old Outback. She
doen't put much mileage on it. When we traded in her old Outback, it had
only 56K miles on it after 7.5 years.

The point is, we keep getting harrased by our dealer to come in for
service on "their" schedule. He seems to think we are putting 12K miles
a year on the beast. OK, so I can ignore his missives. But what effect
will this have on my warranty? Will he claim I am not following the
maintenance schedule?

What should the maintenance schedule be on a low usage Outback H6?

Al

 

[MDCORE]

This should have NO effect on your warranty. The warranty is for 36,000 miles
or 3 years- whichever comes first. Just do the services at the required mileage
intervals- which is not needed to be done by a dealership. Just keep records of
having the work done.

Duke
'01 black VDC- 61,000 miles in a little over two years and rollin'

 

[Alan]

X miles or 3 Months (regardless of mileage) is the usual interval for oil
changes.

 

[Julian Serles]

Alan, you've been brainwashed. The official Subaru of America Maintenance
Schedule says oil change intervals are at 7,500 miles unless you qualify for
the "extreme driving conditions" which are also detailed in that same
schedule.

Al, as long as you follow the official Maintenance Schedule that's in your
manual, you are fine as to keeping your warranty valid. And when you do take
it in to get service performed, make sure they are performing service
according to the MS, not according to what the dealer says needs to be
changed.

Julian

 

[Frank Logullo]

I bought an Outback H6 for my wife to replace her old Outback. She
doen't put much mileage on it. When we traded in her old Outback, it had
only 56K miles on it after 7.5 years.

The point is, we keep getting harrased by our dealer to come in for
service on "their" schedule. He seems to think we are putting 12K miles
a year on the beast. OK, so I can ignore his missives. But what effect
will this have on my warranty? Will he claim I am not following the
maintenance schedule?

I have a friend that says cars are like people, its not the mileage but the
age.
But, I'm with you on this. I do my own oil changes and keep records. I
won't go 6 months without an oil change and may change at 2,000 miles if
that is the difference in 6 months.
Frank

 

[Alan]

Almost everyone qualifies for extreme driving conditions (except the old
ladies who only drive the car to church on Sunday). Most manufacturers today
claim that 7500 is the oil change interval, but they do that to keep down
the projected maintenace cost, which a lot of people research on the net
before purchasing a car. Or maybe I've been brainwashed

 

[Edward Hayes]

The only ones harking 3000 mile oil changes are dealers and oil change
places. Most manufactures including Subaru (7500 mile) recommend 7,500 to
10,000 miles oil changes except under very rare driving conditions like
driving in downtown Chicago in the summer or trailer pulling. I do some of
the both so I change my Subaru oil & filter at 5-6,000 miles. Too many
people on this site and myself have had the oil analyzed at 3000 and 7,000
miles and there was NO significant difference. All the tests were rated
excellent. eddie