I totalled my 04 WRB WRX last november and now currently own a brand new WRB 05' WRX. So I have the chance to start on a clean slate. I am in the break in stages of the car as I bought it new. I kept it under 5k for 1k miles and now currently have 1100 miles on the car. My dillema is when to do the first oil change and what to put in next. I know this has been discussed, but everyone's opinions(no hard evidence) equate to a coin toss(50/50).

My first question? when do I perform my first oil change? 5 minutes ago I read on clubwrx.net that Subaru puts "breakin additives" in the factory oil and you should do the first oil change @3k miles(???). Some people have told me change it at 100 miles, 1000 miles, 1500 miles, and so on. CLEARLY, there is no hard evidence on what to do.

Second, synthetic or not? I was putting synthetic in my 04' WRX because I thought it was "better" and mainly for a piece of mind. But, it is so freakin expensive. So i am debating whether to continue w/synthetic. I was told synthetic basically allows you to go longer between oil changes. If that's the case, wouldn't I be fine just changing the oil every 3k miles w/regular oil?

From what I have seen, most people recommend a first oil change between 3000-4000 miles. Synthetic can safely be added by the second oil change, rather than putting it in at the first oil change.

The manual and the dealership will tell you very specifically to change oil the first time after 3000 miles. This is because you need to keep the original oil in the engine for that long to allow the parts to wear into each other. That's what breakin is all about.

My dealership recommends Castrol Syntec Blend 5W30 for my car. That's what I have used in the last two oil changes and I'm using less than 1/2 qt. of oil in the last 5000 miles. I have about 10.5K miles now and am getting ready to change again. I'm going to do 4 to 5K mile changes with Syntec blend.

If you're going to change your oil yourself I'd highly recommend a Fumoto Oil Valve to replace your drain plug. It makes changing oil a snap...

Rocket's two cents... :)

never hurts to change your oil earlier....i would suggest between 1000-2000. If your motor were going to wear that much that you should wait until 3000 to change, we have some more serious issues here.

As for the synthetic, it is really just the fact it is a better oil. I would still recommend changine it about every 3K, as turbo cars dirty oil very quickly. I really don't think it would hurt to run regular oil in the car...or suby would recommend it.

JMO

Billy

mobil 1 full syn at 1k miles

I use straight up dino oil. I change it so often, there is no need
to spend the extra money on synthetic.

First oil change was at 3000. I used dino all the up till 10,000 miles then switched to full synthetic. Car seems fine, and I barely burn any oil. Maybe half a quart MAX between changes. I change it every 3000 miles.

Edit: I use Royal Purple Synthetic

I have Mobil 1 5w-30 and Mobil synthetic ATF after 3000 miles.

Once you've owned a few performance cars, you'll notice all their oil caps specify Mobil One Fully Synthetic. I changed my WRX at 2K, put in 5W30 M1, and have never looked back.

Only way to go. I even use it in my lawnmowers and generators. Cheap insurance, really.

change to Red line synthetic oil on my 3rd oil change(9800 miles)

Once you've owned a few performance cars, you'll notice all their oil caps specify Mobil One Fully Synthetic. I changed my WRX at 2K, put in 5W30 M1, and have never looked back.

Only way to go. I even use it in my lawnmowers and generators. Cheap insurance, really.

Cheap insurance against what may I ask? If you are changing every 3k, you think their is an advantage over dino oil? How exactly is syn insuring you?

what wat till 3k thats what iam doing

Insuring the engine has the best possible protection at all times. Starting, hot weather, if it's a quart low.

It's just good practice - synthetic oil makes a difference, or they wouldn't charge more for it. Amortize the cost of the oil out over the life of an oil change, and it's insignificant, compared to any other cost of owning the vehicle.

BTW, if you're changing more often than 4-6K, you're wasting synthetic, so you can double your change interval if you're changing 2-3K like some I know. Same thing as getting the oil for half price.

Ever seen the inside of the valve covers after 80K or so of dino? Yuck!

Royal Purple my son

I have actually done quite a bit of research on this over the past couple years, especially in the past year. I would do your first oil change fairly soon. I highly doubt Subaru puts in special 'break-in' oil...what would that even be? I changed my oil early on, and often...and had fine metal shavings in the oil. At the same time, my dad had bought a new Yukon...you should have seen the metal chunks on the drain plug magnet (subarus do not have this). Do not switch to synthetic for 7k-10k miles. If you like to push the car towards redline fairly often, do switch to full-synth, if you don't do much 'spirited driving,' a good dino oil will do. But do one or the other, full dino all the time, or full synth all the time. Do not use mobil 1 full synth (5w30 at least). I, and numerous other people, have experienced it's weakness to shearing. People have commented on recieving good Used Oil Analysis results from Castrol GTX and "German Castrol." It is expensive, but I use Redline due to the ingredients (base stocks) they use. I have no doubt that full-synthetic oil is far better than dino oil.

This is just me, but on a tight budget, I would rather see a good dino oil changed every 3000 rather than a full-synth every 6000. Oil is one of, if not the most important factors in engine longevity...it actually serves a lot of purposes.

Do not use crappy/cheapo oil.

Here we go again. Everybody hang on. :lol:

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=499177
Unabomber takes a lot of time to write these FAQs, the least you could do is read them.

With an '05 leftover purchase I would change the oil at 1,500 with Valvoline dino oil since that is supposedly the factory fill. I bought my '04 in May '04 and it had a build date of April '03, which ment the oil was already a yr old and you should at the very least change your oil every 6 months. So i changed it at 1,500 with Valvoline dino oil. I went full syn M1 5w-30 at 7,500 and did a syn blend before going full syn. I change my oil every ~4K so I think M1 5w-30 is fine for my drain intervals.

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=499177
Unabomber takes a lot of time to write these FAQs, the least you could do is read them.


+1. Beats the heck out of, "I think that..." and other "out of my butt" responses.

I wont run syhtetic till 15,000 plus, if at all.

IT's not really worth the extra money imo.

this thread blows. Figures, it was moved from General Community.

1) there's no such thing as 'break in oil', though a dealer will tell you otherwise.

2) STiRocket, your dealer recommends Syntec Blend because that's what they carry. your dealer doesn't know **** about oil. Synthetic blends are stupid; please, tell me how much synth is in your castrol there. Read the label. That's right, it doesn't say because there's a minimal amount, like 5-10%. If you want a blend for some weird reason, make your own, 2 quarts of GTX, 3 of Syntec, or however you wish.

3) awesome2.5rs, turbo cars don't dirty oil any quicker than any other car. They can shear oil quicker, or cause other heat related problems, but subies are pretty easy on oil in general, even the turbo ones

4) antidote11, it has nothing to do with how often you change it. A synth will protect better than dino most always. As long as a good synth is being run in the interval suitable for your car and that oil, say 7500 miles, the synth will protect better than a dino at 3000, all other things being equal.

5) Shemoves, I'd rather see a good synth run 6k than a dino run 3k. Why? Both are likely within the range suitable for the oil and the car, only the synth will be protecting better, as I said above.

6) unabombers FAQ's in general are awesome, but I disagree with much of what he wrote in the oil FAQ's. Sorry. Go to www.bobistheoilguy.com for the cutting edge of consumer oil info.

7) parker, even though subies are easy on oil, most of us drive hard, and a good synth will help your engine last.


Look, guys, if you are leasing your car or won't keep it past 50k miles, put Walmart Supertech dino in and run it for 7500 miles, because the manual say its OK. You're never going to see the consequences of doing that, because some additional PPM of wear won't take their toll until the car hits 180,000 miles (or something).

If, however, you plan on keeping your car until it dies, and you want to protect your engine to maximise your investment, then use the best dino you can, and enjoy the superior protection and long oil change intervals.

Simple, really.

For whatever little it is worth...here is what I did and the results so far:

With one exception, I followed the break in procedures, keeping the revs under 4K rpm's for the first 1000 miles, being sure to vary the rpms and load once up to temperature.
I did my first oil/filter change at ~2K miles with dino. Then followed the severe service (3,750 mile changes) with dino until 9,500 miles. At that point I switched to M1 synthetic which I change every 3,750 to 5K miles.
My engine has never used any perceptible amount of oil and she regularly sees WOT. Runs as well, if not better than new. I'm at 71K miles total.

I was told synthetic basically allows you to go longer between oil changes.
Theoretically yes, realistically no, in a lot of cases.

What a lot of people leave out is the importance of using the proper viscosity for your driving conditions. M1 30 weights are on the thin side and are not ideal with all applications. They even recently increased the viscosity of their 5W30 to be thicker than the 10W30. M1 works great in some cases, but was too close to a 20 weight for comfort in my case.

I've changed the oil at 3,750 on three Subaru's but wouldn't do it again because now I know that 30 weights shear down to 20 weights pretty quickly during the first 10k miles of life due to the wear in metals that are part of normal break-in.

Your best bet is to do an oil analysis on a oil you would like to use instead of getting a lot of bad advice. :D I use German Castrol Syntec 0W30 and have oil analysis results that show it's no problem running it for 7,500 miles in my FXT. The viscosity after 6k miles of use is actually thicker than any M1 30 weight in virgin state.

-Dennis

Cheap insurance against what may I ask? If you are changing every 3k, you think their is an advantage over dino oil? How exactly is syn insuring you?

Against high oil temps, mainly. If you run track days, your oil gets OMFG hot. If you drive in a spirited manner longer than a few minutes, you might feel better with synthetic as well. I don't run track days and I drive like grandma, but it sure makes me feel better to run synth :)

My dealership recommends Castrol Syntec Blend 5W30 for my car.

I think if you read the Bobistheoilguy forums, Castrol in the USA is the same as buying oil at Wal-Mart. You don't know who made it because Castrol doesn't do any manufacturing in the USA, they just buy from suppliers and relabel.

"German Castrol" is made by Castrol and is, from what I hear, a very good synthetic. My friend owns a BMW e46 M3 and he is only "allowed" to use some 0w55 Castrol from the dealership at $20 a bottle.

Oh, and don't buy synth blends. How much is actual synth? If you must blend, blend your own by mixing bottles yourself.

poison = my god. lol He's right, I worked at Wal-mart TLE, Supertech SUX. It tarnishes so fast and sludges the engine really badly. even at regular interval changes.

As for What is best Synth, if you care:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was on a site for a Tuning garage in Cali. They put Royal Purple, Amsoil, and Mobil 1 against each other.

In order best to least:
1. Amsoil
2. Royal Purple
3. Mobil 1

They used 3 engines from 01 Camaro SS, all during break in period. They were supposed to run the engines 18,000 miles without changing oil, only filter.

Mobil 1: It tore the metal particles away from the engine more than the other two, much more. Levels of metals in oil from 3k on was much higher, specifically copper and nickel. It was still pulling more metal at 15k. They were forced to change oil early because it was at the point where metal concentration could cause damage to engine.

Royal Purple: Did well through all levels. If I recall correctly, it pulled more metal than Amsoil after 3k mark, but did well overall.

Amsoil: Was best from start, but was similar to Royal purple until 3k. then the extended protection was better. Amsoil is best for people who don't like changing oil.

The site is no longer unfortunately. I tried finding it, said could not find server. I had the link saved from my 240SX days.

BTW, I use 5w30 Royal Purple, and stock filters. I had SOME oil consumption up until about 21k. Now it doesn't consume any oil. (Synthetic molecules are smaller than Dino oil, so it slips past rings easier. Small synthetic consumption even on most newer engines are still common. -Site info)

And Dino oil does not do as well as synth no matter what. Synthetic oil is a smaller molecule, engineered to lubricate and protect, where as dino oil relies on refining natures product, and nothing else. I run Royal Purple and have had no problems. More expensive, but I plan on running an effecient, well protected boxer 4 until atleast 300,000 miles :P

amsoil all the way

The rings used these days break in and seat within 500 miles.

synthetic yeh!!!!!

I'd change it now - stay conventional for 6 to 10k miles, then go synthetic.

Yay...

poison = my god. lol He's right, I worked at Wal-mart TLE, Supertech SUX. It tarnishes so fast and sludges the engine really badly. even at regular interval changes.
LOL, Supertech conventional isn't as bad as you make it out to be. In fact, on the east coast of the U.S. the Supertech is actually manufacturered by Mobil (it's made by WPP for folks out west) and many guys on BITOG feel it is a decent conventional oil for the money. It has to pass the same tests as any other API approved oil and is just fine over a normal oil change interval. Would I use it in my STi...no. Would I use it in a N/A Impreza...yes.