I need help, i ran subaru outback 2.5 without oil

Asked by Guru675K7 Apr 06, 2020 at 08:14 PM about the 2008 Subaru Outback 2.5 i

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Hello there, i'm so worry right now because i just ran my
subaru outback 2.5L without oil i didn't notice that the car
was burning the oil because it doesn't have any kind of leak
and i was so confidence with my car maintenance cause it
just passed the state inspaction last week. So i was runnin
and car made a really wierd sound some kind of blow and
then the light of check engine was on and the cruise was
flashing and also turn the oil light and inmediately i stop the
car. i waited until the car got cold and i added  almost 4L of
oil, the lights went off, but i feel the car really slow i have to
step on the gas to make it go fast, it doesn't have any kind
of smoke coming out of the exaust. What do you think
about it? Should I change the oil and filter again to see how
the car goes? I have to mentioned that i added now to
much oil because the car was empty but went i started now
its way up the oil like a quarter up from the regular amount.

1 Answer

47,060

A half-inch above the dipstick is ok, and actually about where a 5qt fill (with filter) will sit. Your first biggest risk is that you overheated the heads, risking subsequent head gasket failure. At 12yrs old I'd have to carefully assess whether it's worth the $1.5-1.8k repair cost.... Reflush the oil only if it looks really dirty already. The second biggest risk is that you burned the rod bearings. This will be evidenced by a tapping or hammering sound upon acceleration (after warmup). Yet wounded motors can still operate pretty normally for years following this damage. Others can fail at speed when a rod blows through the block suddenly! If your wrench has been using 0w20 "modern" oil you're consuming it quickly. Switch to 10w40 as needed and good luck. Ern TSG/B

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