Buy a dozen PL14610 oil filters from PepBoys.com, about $4.80 each, free shipping. These are the best filters available and far better than the cheap OEM crap. Alternatively M1-110.
Get Mobil1 0w-20 or Quaker State or Valvoline, about $23 for a 5qt bottle at Walmart. The outback needs all 5 quarts.
Change at 500 miles, then about every 7500 miles after. If you want to know why at 500 miles, hold your old oil out in the sun and look at the metal chips. You'll be disgusted these were in your engine and the oil filter did nothing about it. The PL14610 would have caught these.
The only thing worse than Fram is K&N...
It's kinda funny the OP mentioned a Purolator oil filter part number over the OEM, because it's crap. Well, surprise! OEM Subaru oil filters are made by, wait for it, Purolator...
How do I know this? Because when I worked hauling parts for the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY, I used to pick up filters at the Denso Purolator plant, right next to the Subaru truck, LOL!
Any oil that meets the requirements specified by Subaru in the Owners Manual:
MY 2015:
API service classification SM or SN (ILSAC GF-4 or GF-5)
2.5 liter H4 engine: synthetic, 0W-20 viscosity
3.6 liter H6 engine: conventional or synthetic, 5W-30 viscosity
MY 2016:
API service classification SN (ILSAC GF-5)
2.5 liter H4 engine: synthetic, 0W-20 viscosity
3.6 liter H6 engine: conventional or synthetic, 5W-30 viscosity
Changing the engine oil and filter regularly, per the schedule specified by Subaru, is far more important than what brand of oil you choose. There is no single "best" oil.
About the oil filter, I should of clarified. I read that the gasket supplied with the oem filter enables a better seal whereas some other filter gaskets leak a bit.
I'm one of those guys who has cut open 20 different filters and examined and measured their interiors. Including flow using glycerin.
The OEM filter, if made by Purolator, is equivalent to an L14615; I'm calling for PL14610, a very different animal.
I also wrote an article on oils that, with my permission, has been reprinted by Chevron to use as a training guide for their marketing people.
I stand by my statements: mobil-1, quaker state or vavoline; PL14610 (I have one on my outback now, it doesn't leak); take your initial break in oil into the sun and see for yourself. I did. Just an hour ago.
“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” -- Siddhartha Gautama.
Do you have a reference article that substantiates your advice not to change oil until 7,500 miles? The manual says 6,000 which I think it conservative if you use a high quality filter and oil however for warranty purposes, the good book is pretty specific. If Subaru were to ever deny engine coverage for not following the recommended change interval during the warranty period, the defense of, "Cuz Mark said so" probably won't fly with them.
Fram makes the Subaru filter and their Ultra is on par with the best of the filters out there. You could run the Fram Ultra a couple of times before changing it, as stated by Motorking (Fram's Technical Director) over on BITOG.
The Subie filter is OK but there are better, especially if you wish to extend the drain interval once the warranty expires.
I read somewhere that people mess up with oil filter installations all the time, then hop on the internet to raise a ruckus about what a crappy oil filter that was.
Where did I read that?
Right there, right after I just made it up.
Over the years I've changed thousands of spin-on oil filters, of just about every brand name on the shelf, (and many hundreds of the old canister kind too for that matter) and never once had a leak due to sub-standard gaskets.
I've sure had few leaks because I mis-read the part number though, or because of some other pilot error on my part.
I bought a case of OEM filters back when Mrs gunnison got her late Gen 4 Outback and it's the same one that fits the current 2016 which replaced it, and I don't expect to get any problems at all caused by improperly filtered oil, and if you're using the same ones, you won't get any either.
The idea that Subaru engineers are so inept that they'd use crappy oil filters is just madness.
I'm not advocating that they'd use crappy filters or recommend the same to us but what I am saying is that Subaru has certain design specs and reasons for those specs that we're not privy to read. I keep mentioning Fram because they make their filters and Fram is very open about making different filters for various OEMS to whatever is specified.
Even the Fram orange Can of Death will be fine for 5k miles but not for 10k. Perhaps Subaru just wishes to have a fresh filter because the specs they have chosen don't lend themselves to confident filtering beyond 7.5k miles.
If Subaru says 6,000 miles, go ahead and do that. I've tested oil viscosities and watched how oils break down; I'm comfortable with 7,500. I'm not comfortable with 9,000. It's not a very big difference, 7,500 v. 6,000.
Oil filters leak because they don't fit properly. There's a large nut on the Subaru oil filter nipple and I had some concerns about the PL14610 sealing properly. I put it on, left the hood open and idled the car for 10 minutes to double check.
Engineering is about making compromises between cost and function, otherwise we'd all drive a Bentley Turbo R. The stock filter lets through 20 times as many 30 micron particles as the PL14610. Since the basic engine tolerance is a thousandth of an inch, which is 25 microns, this is a big deal. A 30 micron particle can get between your piston and cylinder wall and scratch both at the same time.
btw, there are three of us here in my office right now with engineering degrees from top 35 schools, and not one of us has ever heard of a class in oil filters. And furthermore, the oil filter is perhaps spec'ed by an engineer, but there's some purchasing agent that gets a good price and buys 50,000.
You may want to check your info. According to the Purolator site the Gen 5 2.5 uses a PL14615 - or a L14615 - which has a 20-30 psi by pass valve - Subaru requires 23.2 psi. Go to their site and plug in the info to see what comes up if you're skeptical.
The PL14610 only has a 14-18 psi by-pass valve and, according to several sites fitment info like Amazon, won't work in a Gen 5 2.5.
ok, guys, I dragged my OEM filter out of the trash and cut it open. I expect Subaru buys filters from several suppliers so I can't guarantee your filter is identical. But this is what came on my car. I've cut open a lot of filters, and it's instantly obvious to me what this one is.
Anti-drainback valve: plain silicon rubber, not nitrile. Small sealing area. Possibility for failure or poor seal, which means the junk filtered out of the oil gets dumped back into the engine, is significant. In short, cheap crap.
Bypass valve: hard plastic valve with a spring. The spring is ok. The plastic part is cheap junk with a suspect seal.
Filter element: paper, non-synthetic, cardboard end caps instead of metal. Complete garbage. Let your car sit for a couple months, there's a very significant chance the cardboard swells up and disintegrates, putting little cardboard bits into your internal oil passages. A quick and painless engine death. It's happened, it's gonna happen again.
This is a Fram filter. No one else builds 'em like this.
Mark, in those photos, is the Pure One the PL14610? To the eyes of this software guy, the Pure One seems like it would do a better job of keeping oil in the filter.
Can you tell me what a bypass valve is for? And what the rating means? And why 23psi is superior to 16psi?
The bypass valve is to allow unfiltered oil to bypass the filter element entirely in the case that the filter element gets too clogged up to pass oil, or it's so cold out that oil won't flow through the element.
We use 0w-20 oil, it flows nicely down to about 30 below zero. That's really not an issue for us. It would be if we were living in the Yukon using straight 40 weight oil on a winter night. But none of that is true for us.
If the filter element gets clogged with particles, either it hasn't been changed in about 250,000 miles or your engine is already coming apart and shedding major metal into the oil system. Either way, the bypass valve setting is really not your critical concern.
If the bypass valve ever trips then a bunch of garbage stored in the filter element goes into circulation; this is a very bad thing. You *really* don't want your bypass valve to trip. But then with 0w oil and regular filter changes, it never will.
The Pure One has a low bypass setting meaning it's easier to trip in extremely cold conditions or heavily clogged conditions. I'm unconcerned about either.
If you are concerned, use the PL14615, which has the higher bypass value but also has about 25% less filter element area. Which means it's 25% easier to clog up that element or overwhelm it in cold conditions.
I understand the points you're making however all of us routinely do things outside of the way the car rolled off the factory floor.
There are countless threads talking about how people want to get rid of their OEM tires for longer lasting, quieter and better performing ones and we don't bat an eyelash when the topic comes up. Floormats, swapping filament for LED bulbs are other examples as is improving on the stereo or the speakers as instances where deviation from Subaru is perfectly understood but somehow, when the topic of filters, oil and change frequency comes up, there is a great rush to defer to Subaru.
If Subaru specs their filter to last until it reaches 6k miles, then the factory filter is perfectly suitable for Subaru's purpose but also consider that you can use a different filter and perhaps, through UOAs, determine that your engine is perfectly fine running to 7,8 or perhaps 10k. Wouldn't you agree that a UOA has significant relevance to that determination and that a UOA is actually the best way to determine the condition of an engine and the oil?
If I were to use M1 5w-30EP that is guaranteed to last for 15k miles in normal driving, wouldn't it appear that tossing it at 6k is kind of a waste? Same with filters.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm not arguing that Subaru consumables are superior to all others, I'm arguing that they're perfectly satisfactory and that there are no empirical studies showing measurable improvement in performance or durability due to using any aftermarket products.
Wouldn't you agree that a UOA has significant relevance to that determination and that a UOA is actually the best way to determine the condition of an engine and the oil?
Sure it's relevant, and sure it's going to reveal more about the condition of the oil than smelling it or just eyeballing it.
What it might be valid to extrapolate from an oil analysis so far as engine condition is concerned is a little more problematic.
Best way to evaluate an engine's condition is to take it apart and measure everything meticulously, along with micro analysis of contact surfaces and so on.
I'm willing to bet that Subaru does both and a whole lot more besides, and with more sophisticated equipment than is available to any of us from an internet mail-order lab.
If I were to use M1 5w-30EP that is guaranteed to last for 15k miles in normal driving, wouldn't it appear that tossing it at 6k is kind of a waste? Same with filters.
If you get a lubricant related engine failure after following Subaru's recommendations, they'll fix it within the warranty period.
If you extend their service recommendations, like say to 15K from 6K, they may well be justified in denying your claim.
And if that happens, good luck trying to collect reimbursement for a blown engine from a "guarantee" written on the front of an oil jug, no matter how many purchase receipts you can produce.
OK - I usually refrain from posting to a thread once it deteriorates into character assignation but one more post as the higher pressure setting for the BPV in a OEM filter has me baffled as to why Subaru would bother if it's not really a factor in everyday driving - I doubt it's just for the few drivers in winter extremes.
I looked around on the internet - so subject to criticism - and found a post on an older Forester forum that discussed the BPV. A poster there claimed it was because of the oil high flow rate in a Subaru engine - much higher that other cars(?). The flow rate for the Outback FB engine is even higher at 58.1 qts/min at 6,000 rpm.
I'm not an engineer and I don't play one on the internet either - just an average Subaru owner who would like to better understand what's going on. I'd appreciate any feedback on this.
OK - I usually refrain from posting to a thread once it deteriorates into character assignation but one more post as the higher pressure setting for the BPV in a OEM filter has me baffled as to why Subaru would bother if it's not really a factor in everyday driving - I doubt it's just for the few drivers in winter extremes.
BTW, Lloyd, thanks for this post. I had no idea the Subaru pump was such high volume. I would have told you that you cannot trip the bypass valve unless your engine is fragging. But it turns out you can trip it at over 3,000 rpm on a cold engine on a freezing day. Your engine oil will warm up within 3-5 miles to the point where this is not an issue; until your engine warms up a bit, for this and several other reasons, don't run it up to the redline.
The oil pump output mentioned in the post - 49.7 qt/min - is speced at 5,000 rpm. I certainly never get my engine anywhere near 5000 rpm when cold. The chart you show is for some unknown brand of 5w-30 oil at 34 degrees f, we don't know which oil and they're all different. We use 0w-20 oil, which has about 40% less viscosity. Oil pump flow rates are proportional to RPM, so at idle it's a tenth as high. The filter used for these graphs apparently was 2.5" long meaning about a 2" filter element; the PL14610 is 3" long meaning about 2.5" element with about 25% lower flow resistance. The chart you show says the bypass would trip in a PL filter at about 3.5 GPM, about 14 qts/min, which corresponds to about 1,500 rpm. The PL14610 has about 25% greater filter area so that makes it 1,875 rpm. The 0w oil we use has about 40% lower viscosity so that makes it about 3,125 rpm. That calculation is all done at 34 degrees. Change the bypass setting to 23 and lower the filter area back to normal and the trip RPM is 3,600.
There you are, the higher bypass setting means you can take your cold engine in freezing temperatures up to about 3,600 rpm instead of 3,125 rpm. In normal driving, especially on a cold engine, especially when it's freezing out, I never get my engine over about 1,800 rpm. Change the temperature from 34 degrees to 50 degrees and the oil viscosity cuts in half and the trip RPM doubles to over the red line. Warm the oil up to 50 degrees with 2 minutes of driving and the viscosity about cuts in half and again the trip RPM is over the red line. Warm the oil up to operating temperature - about 200 degrees f - and the viscosity is down by a factor of 10, your bypass valve doesn't trip until about 50,000 rpm. So our entire discussion is about temperatures between 32f and 50f doing more than 3,000 rpm on a stone cold engine.
So what would your advice be to OP on this forum who insist the 0W-20 is too thin and opt for higher viscosity oils such as 5W-30, 5W-40 or even 15W-40? These are just some of the ones I've seen posted.
the filter exploded diagram clearly shows cardboard on each side of the filter element, meaning they're showing yo a picture of a Fram filter.
The also brag about their "silicon" anti-drainback valve, which is the cheapest and least effective type, not by any means the best.
And they show the plastic relief valve, exactly as I found in my OEM filter. The note the pressure relief valve is there in case the element gets clogged; I have previously pointed out that if your element is clogged either your engine is already coming apart or you haven't changed it in 200,000 miles. If the former then the relief valve is not your immediate issue; if the latter you're most certainly not reading this thread.
Interesting find Mark.
So are you saying that there are better oil filters out there than the original installed by the manufacturer, or are you saying that Subaru is purposely installing these filters to grenade their engines?.
Does this theory apply only to Subaru or are other manufacturers also on a mission to destroy their brand.
Preface this is not specifically pro/con oem/AM, but a discussion.
Per the product snapshot, I find it odd in the statement the filter is made by SIA and not Honeywell (yes, the makers of Fram). Not at all to say Fram is a bad word, as they have different tiers.
Pleated var density paper... PureOne uses syn media (rated at 10K miles).
Preface this is not specifically pro/con oem/AM, but a discussion.
Per the product snapshot, I find it odd in the statement the filter is made by SIA and not Honeywell (yes, the makers of Fram). Not at all to say Fram is a bad word, as they have different tiers.
I think the article was referring to the Legacy, Outback and Tribeca being made by SIA and not the filter - could be wrong but that's the way I read it.
Since Subaru calls for 5.1 quarts on a replacement, what are the DIY folks doing? Buying 6 quarts, and adding 3.2oz to the fill?
I'm planning on doing my changes at 5K intervals, just because I've done that for a long, long time, and the odometer is a great reminder. To me, doing a very slightly more frequent change is very cheap insurance (I did 5K changes on my 02 Maxima, for 145K miles, even though Nissan's recommendations for normal driving was 7500. I did 10 more oil changes than necessary. $350. Big deal over 14 years.)
Since Subaru calls for 5.1 quarts on a replacement, what are the DIY folks doing? Buying 6 quarts, and adding 3.2oz to the fill?
I'm planning on doing my changes at 5K intervals, just because I've done that for a long, long time, and the odometer is a great reminder. To me, doing a very slightly more frequent change is very cheap insurance (I did 5K changes on my 02 Maxima, for 145K miles, even though Nissan's recommendations for normal driving was 7500. I did 10 more oil changes than necessary. $350. Big deal over 14 years.)
I just put in a 5 qt bottle and that brings the level up to the top hole on the dip stick. I'm not that concerned with an additional 3.2 oz.
I also do 5K changes as it's easier to remember plus my wife does a lot of short hops without getting my OB up to temperature especially in the winter.
EDIT - Actually my last change was a 6 mos and only 4,000 miles just to keep things honest with Subaru while under warranty.
In a brand new vehicle whose habits I'm not yet familiar with, I check the oil at a bare minimum with every tank of gas to see if it's consuming any and if so, how much.
Once I get a picture of what's going on, I monitor the oil level a lot more frequently during the first 1000 miles than I will be doing later in the game, just to be sure that I pick up on anything weird, if there is anything to pick up, ASAP.
Prevalent?
Our current car is the second Outback with the same motor. The first one burned less than a cupful of oil in the first 6K and this current one now has 3500 or so and looks like its acting exactly the same way. We've now had eight Subarus between all of us here at casa gunnison over the years, and never had an oil burner yet.
One the motor is fully broken in, and the first oil change is history, I check the oil once a week because I'm already under the hood topping off the windshield washer fluid and just eyeballing everything else anyway.
Fram has clearly stated on BITOG that what we commonly refer to as cardboard end caps is not made of cardboard. It's a composite of sorts but it is definitely isn't cardboard.
Also, the same guy from Fram said that there are pros and cons to each type spring material and the ADBV but the differences are tradeoffs.
From my own quest to gain info on the subject of filters and bypass, going to each oil manufacturer site and seeing the Cst values at 40 and 100c gives you better basis to understand oil and the HTHS value as well. Once you move your learning to those areas, it becomes easier to see how other filters may be better or how a low bypass is fine.
I think the Subie filter is for what it is but there are much better available. If one doesn't have an understanding of cellulose vs mixed cellulose/syn vs all syn, pleating and wire or mesh backing, you really aren't in a position to what's good or bad. To say, "if it's blue it must be the best" is not accurate.