Oil usage/burning on new Subaru

Asked by jackharter Dec 17, 2014 at 05:42 PM about the 2014 Subaru Outback

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I have a 2014 Subaru Outback. It has 8000 miles and is ready for its first oil change.
However, a week or two ago the oil light came on and it needed a quart of oil. I have a
1988 Mercedes and it does not use a quart of oil

14 Answers

86,105

There's a Subaru service bulletin out there, see below, hope this helps. Oil control piston rings is the root cause The excessive oil consumption problem appears to be with "unanticipated wear of the oil control piston rings as the root cause of the oil consumption defect." Subaru is aware of the problem and says all of these affected models should still be covered under Subaru's powertrain warranty. If you own a 2011-2014 Forester, 2013 Legacy and 2013 Outback, with a 2.5-liter engine, and 2012-13 Impreza and 2013 Crosstrek, with a 2-liter engine and are experiencing these oil consumption issues, you can contact your nearest Subaru dealer for more information. http://www.torquenews.com/1084/subaru-sued-over- excessive-oil-consumption-your-car-list

10 people found this helpful.
86,105

Isn't the first oil change supposed to occur earlier than 8,000 miles? How's your car holding up?

2 people found this helpful.
86,105

As a point of information, not all newer Subaru cars burn oil, see this, http://www.subaruoutback.org/forums/138-gen-5-2015-present/221146- oil-consumption-survey-2015-a-4.html

4 people found this helpful.
90

I have a 2014 Impreza and the same thing happened to me when I had just bought it. Just happened to me again at 31000km. Not happy.

2 people found this helpful.
86,105

Not Impreza 2014 and Jack Carter- are your cars manual transmissions or automatics? Just curious.

2 people found this helpful.
90

Markw1952... I guess you do not remember your internet lecture to me about how superior automatics were to my standard transmission...?

86,105

No, sorry, so many threads on this forum. Enjoy your manual transmission, hope it works well for you. I've just had too many negative experiences with them compared to automatics and I learned how to first drive on manuals and had plenty. Two cars, with over 100,000 miles each. One transmission went out and the other one needed a clutch replaced. All very expensive mechanical work. I'm just saying that, I've had better luck with the automatic transmissions.

3 people found this helpful.

If your car went 8,000 miles and only used a quart of oil then you have a good one! Mine is using about 8x as much! You should be changing it every 6,000 miles though.

86,105

My car used a small amount of oil once while pulling my trailer in Sequoia Kings Canyon up the mountain pass, pretty steep road. Otherwise, I don't see any consumption. I'm talking less than a half a quart. It was extremely hot as well. I'm sorry to hear about your problems and would advise you to contact Subaru of America, and your dealer for the oil consumption test. The problem is with the newer designed engine, the FB series. My car has the older EJ 25, phase 2 engine.

2 people found this helpful.
48,050

JACK, Ignore the other comments. The problem is that Subie's switch from thicker dino oil to ultra-thin 0w synth can't stay in the horizontally-opposed pistons that "wobble" when warming up. Your story is a repeat of many since 0w20 synth was introduced. Aside from SOA new car recourse, I strongly suggest you switch to 10w30-40 dino oil, and check it MONTHLY. Change it every three months, regardless of mileage, as it gets dirty from cold starts, not mileage or time. But if SOA thinks your rings are actually "defective" then get them to give you a new motor...or at least a block carefully glued to your heads. Push SOA hard if you have to.

5 people found this helpful.
48,050

I'll update this to state that I've been providing 5w30 synth (usually Mobil1 when on sale at Costco) with all my sold 2013-2016 2.5i to date, with NO complaints of consumption. That said, there seems to be a population of incorrectly bored cylinders...perhaps solely in the Forester production in Japan; I've yet to see it in the Indiana Legacy/OB specimens I've bought for clients. Further, I noticed that the 0w40 Mobil1 spec I use for my Cosworth Miata, which supposedly protects better on winter cold starts AND high temp running, has a far thicker viscosity at ambience than others (reminiscent of good old 20w50), suggesting that it might stem losses through rings even better than "lighter" lubricants. I would recommend 0w20 or 5w20 only for use in sub-zeo F environments. 20W flows like urine at running temp!

7 people found this helpful.
50

I have a 2014 outback. It has always burned 1qt every 1000 miles. I have taken it to the dealer many times over the years. Every time their response was that this within normal consumption. From day one of owning this vehicle I let it warm up fully before driving, change its oil regularly etc. but still this. I have lost faith in Subaru. Why do they not stand by their products and fix the problem?

5 people found this helpful.

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