My car is at 9400ish mi, after 2000 mi my oil is really low. I scheduled an appt with Conti for an oil change and Phil said he'd have the guys check it out. I took my car in 2k mi ago and they said that my oil was almost dry and I should be more careful. i had just bought the car used and it was my first time taking her in. I'm thinking about switching to synthetic, what you guys think? My cousin said it was because on a bad break in and I should look at my pistion rings? :confused:

oh I'm pretty sure I saw Jerry there. I would have said Hi but I had so many things running through my mind that I didn't think about it till after I had left.

it most likely was from a bad break in. i found that breakin the car in hard works a lot better then doing what the manual says. i had a 02 wrx and i did the manual thing and it ate oil. then with my 05 STi i broke it in hard, and never had a problem with it.

i don't think synthetic makes much of a difference. i tried royal purple, and it did nothing like all the advertisements said. and i think my car was down 2 quarts at my last oil change. if you read up on www.iwsti.com, i think a lot of STis are burning oil. just check your oil while filling up and add accordingly.

since you bought it used through, there is no way of knowing how it was broken in, its possible the previous owner drove it hard, or not so hard.

well it could be a lot of different things. As we all know the STI's have had some issues with oil consumption. First thing it could be is from improper break in. Subaru isnt kidding to you when they say baby for the first 1000 miles. It's so the rings can seat properly. If they dont well then expect to go through lots of oil..... Seconed thing is from having sythetic being put in to early. Once again this has to do with the rings being seated. The synthetic just slips right past the rings and gets worse and worse as time goes on. As all i can say is take it into subaru and have it looked at. You should have no problem as your car has never been modded at all. Im sure Jerry will touch on this subject as well.

Synthetic has never been put in the car yet. What mileage should i start? Also there has only been 2 oil changes both done by certified subaru techs.

I think the folks that go by that average around the "not before 10K", don't they? How much after usually varies per person.

For Subies, I can only speak of my own. I changed the oil when I was told, broke it in like I was told to, and didn't switch to synthetic until after 11.5K.

I chose Royal Purple too, at others' suggestions (after asking about it all over). I changed the motor, tranny and rear diff at the same time. I don't know what the advertisements said, besides the whole "release more horsepower" junk, but for me personally I noticed slightly better cold starts from the engine, much better cold shifting in the tranny, and pretty much nothing in the rear diff (kinda hard to specify the benefits of that one!)

I will note that when I first changed the rear diff, while long before the suggested mileage, what came out was sludge and the magcap had a ton of junk clinging to it. This was the factory stuff. I put the RP in there and then changed it a year later, just to see if it was as bad, and the oil was still purple (meaning not super dirty) and the cap was clean. Tranny was fine, and so was the motor. For what it's worth, my car isn't hardly eating any oil, both before synth and after. But if you have a leak, don't make the switch--the viscocity of the synth will leak through even worse.

Anyway, just my input in layman's terms--hopefully once you figure out what (if anything) is wrong, that might help you decide on what to do next.

Hope all goes well!

I have heard that from the F point to the close to E point on the dipstick is only half a litre difference. This is what the mechanic who does my engine oil change for me. I used to think that my car burns a lot of oil too. But of course, beat on what I said because I don't have prove on this yet.

I wouldn't worry about it if the oil was like half. I mean it was really low, I think it was below the E.

First off ... add some oil if its low.

How much oil are you adding?

Another Nasioc member showed me his car was going through the oil. Black oil would pour out of the intercooler. I don't think that is normal. Also, have you put your car up and looked for leakage. My wrx had some leaks that were recently repaired. A vehicle doesn't have to be dripping onto the driveway to be losing oil fast enough to become a problem.

One car I used to have (79 celica) consumed about a quart every other tank of fuel? Don't know if that matters but why not check the oil and add a little when needed? If its burning a little ... add a little. If there is a leak ... get it fixed and in the interim ... add oil more frequently. Have Jerry, Conti, Specialized Import Auto, or some one check it out.

With respect to synthetic vs normal. I run synthetic and don't recall when I made the transition. In cold temps synthetics have better properties. Anchorage may not justify the use of synthetic but I run it anyways.

well as a canadian, I had him buy a litre of oil to put in to top it off as it was right at the L mark. But you guys call it quarts here or something? I don't know who the boss has working with me next saturday but if its Jerry give it a good look over.

...a litre of oil...


"Yeah, do we have 'Aliteracola'?"

a wrx holds 4.8 qts, if you drain it hot;)

if it has 3.8 qts in it, 1 qt low, it will be off the bottom of the dipstick, which is well below the low mark.

i think the low mark is about 1/2 a qt.


many customers have checked their own oil, seen it off the bottom of the dipstick :eek: and added 5 qts to fill er up, and then drove to subaru blowing oil all over the place cause it's 4 qts overfull lol. when they pull in its in a cloud of smoke :D

well as a canadian, I had him buy a litre of oil to put in to top it off as it was right at the L mark. But you guys call it quarts here or something? I don't know who the boss has working with me next saturday but if its Jerry give it a good look over.
a liter is a little different than a quart.

1 L = 1.0556 Qt

I doubt the 5% would be that much of a difference when it comes to smaller numbers.

many customers have checked their own oil, seen it off the bottom of the dipstick :eek: and added 5 qts to fill er up, and then drove to subaru blowing oil all over the place cause it's 4 qts overfull lol. when they pull in its in a cloud of smoke :D

That has to be insanely bad for the engine, people actually do that?

people do wierder things than that...

once i had a guy ask me if i could tape up the leak in his water pump...

once i had a car with a baby ruth candy bar in the gas tank, ruined the tank, pump, filter...

could it be the filter? that is what i have :mad:

could it be the filter? that is what i have :mad:

Well that would in most cases cause drips... but I don't believe he has any visible leaks. Jerry is working this saturday so we'll look it over.

While my car is NA, it's going through a little oil as well. I checked it monday evening, and there was only oil at the very tip of the dipstick. I added about 3/4 of a quart to get it between the Low and Full lines. The car has 2700 miles on it, and it's going into Conti Saturday for it's first oil change. I hope the oil consumption simmers down over time. :(

My old 2.2 leaked oil, and I didn't have to top it off at all between changes. :lol:

So, whoever works on my baby tomorrow, give it some good love. (It's slated for a block heater install too)

I was just surprised to see the oil low like that. No leaks that I can tell. Do the 0-15 degree days make the car burn oil quicker?

going through oil as well? Well Jerry isn't working but I'll have the other guy working to check it out and if we need to, I'll start an oil consumption chart like I have for LiLpNoY

Man i need to start keeping a eye on my car know.

Yeah, I was probably down a quart. I was pretty surprised.

I hope some new oil will help, who knows how long that first batch of oil sat in my car before I bought it.

I was planning on having the first oil change done by you guys anyway, since I want the block heater. But now it seems like a good idea, see if you guys notice anything weird.

Otherwise, the car's been good. Got 22 mpg on my last tank. Running fine. Others on Nasioc have said that new subaru's use a lot of oil for 7-8k miles.

:confused: