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2010 Outback Oil consumption

11K views 18 replies 6 participants last post by  SubaruScott 
#1 ·
Over the last year or so my 2010 Outback 6spd seems to have progressively consumed more oil between oil changes. Since buying it new I have almost always had the oil changed at the dealer with regular non-synthetic around 3000 miles. I would say that after about the second year of ownership I would always be down about a quart around 3000 miles, which is not desirable but I didn't see it as a reason to complain. I started commuting over the last year for school and have been putting more miles on than in the past (just hit 70,000 miles) and switched to full synthetic to try to give myself more time between oil changes. Since my last oil change I have had to add 2 additional quarts of Mobil 1 and I am currently down almost an additional quart with about 500 miles left until I hit 7500 mark (almost 3 quarts total). I have crawled around the car and searched for leaks and things look good, I am pretty convinced it is burning oil in some form or another. After a little bit of reading about the class action suit over so many models from 2011-2014 experiencing problems with oil consumption I am worried about getting the runaround from the dealer. My 2010 Outback is supposedly not affected by this piston ring problem that has been an issue with a lot of their cars, and I still have 10,000 miles left on my gold plus extended warranty. I'm calling the dealer today, does anyone have any advice?
 
#2 ·
Check/change the PCV.
 
#5 ·
Agreed, I have noticed across several different vehicles (not just Subaru) that Mobil1 tends to get consumed faster. Consequently, I never use Mobil1 any longer. There are better motor-oils available.

Lets not forget that Mobil changed the formula for Mobil1 several years ago to use lower-cost basestock. This change was not for the better!

For synthetic - Castrol "Edge" is one of the better motor-oils out there at a reasonable cost. Even my local Subaru dealership uses it.
 
#6 ·
So I checked the PCV valve, and at first I thought it was bad because it did not rattle when I shook it, but upon further inspection it seems to be spring loaded so it never rattles when shaken. I pushed in the center and it opened right up with little resistance. Newer PCV's must be slightly different than the old ones that I am used to. I did not see a build up of oil anywhere near the inlet or outlet. The new PCV should be here by Wednesday and the dealer said they would do a consumption test. It basically just sounds like they are going to do an oil change and then check the oil level again at 1200 miles, doesn't sound too in depth but they still want 100 bucks. I'm going ahead with it anyways because at this point the PCV looks fine. I really hope they figure it out because I don't want to have to fill up a 5 year old car with 3 quarts of oil between changes.
 
#8 ·
Huh, I've never heard that synthetic burns faster. I would naturally assume the opposite is true due to the qualities of synthetic vs conventional. Even when I was using conventional I was still consuming about a quart after 3000 miles a couple years into ownership.
 
#9 ·
I'm not going to claim to be any kind of petro engineer, but it makes sense to me that a substance which flows better is going to leak better. Burning oil is just a different kind of leak- leaking from one part of the engine to another, which is coincidentally a place where burning happens.

Beyond that, I've directly observed this in action on my old VWs.
 
#11 ·
So I am currently going through the oil consumption test with the dealer. I had the oil checked at the 1200 mark and they measured it as full. I checked it on my own and it does not seem quite full... Getting an accurate reading on the dipstick on this car is actually more difficult than it sounds.

If the dealer is only checking the dipstick in-between 1200 mile intervals it may be hard to convince them that they are measuring it wrong (or maybe I am). I have read that pulling out the dipstick for about 5 minutes will help to get a more accurate reading. As of right now it always reads higher on one side of the dipstick than the other, and the low mark is still pretty hard to distinguish. Any tips for accurately measuring the oil level with the dipstick would be appreciated. I have never had a car that gives oil readings that are so hard to interpret, but I have never had a car with a boxer engine before.
 
#14 ·
So after going through the first "oil consumption test" where they have you bring it in and check the dipstick every 1200 miles, they want to do it again. I have been checking the oil level in between each fuel interval, and at the first fill-up I noticed that the oil level was slightly above the notch mark when the engine was hot (I'm starting to get suspicious). I took it in at the first 1200 miles and they said it's still full (it was right at the Full mark while hot), come back in another 1200. At the second 1200 interval it was slightly below the Full mark while hot, again they said it was full (I'm starting to wonder about this place). By the time I had reached 3900 miles it was low enough to throw the low oil level light. They drained the oil and determined that it was down 2 quarts, which is right in line with what I had experienced (3 quarts to 7500 miles).

I am giving them the benefit of the doubt, so I am going along with them at their request and doing the oil test again. I just completed the 2400 mile interval and it has happened exactly the same as the last time. I have been monitoring the oil level much more closely this time and I told them where the oil level was when I came in (slightly below the Full mark while hot). The service advisor came back and told me it was full, I disagreed so she had me come back to the maintenance area and talk to the mechanic who had taken the reading. He showed me a dipstick with an oil level slightly below the F-mark and he told me it was full. I told him no, it was full when it was above the notch like I had received it after the last oil change when the engine was hot. Neither him, nor the service advisor had a response to that.

There is a pretty substantial margin between the notch on the dipstick and slightly below the F-mark. From my understanding the F-mark is only used when the engine is cold, the notch should be used otherwise. Either way, they left the annotated oil consumption test as "full" after I left and told me I could come back after the next 1200 mile mark. I am starting to get aggravated. If you take the measurement while the engine is cold it is about half-full after 2400 miles, and that is considering they slightly overfill it each time I have been there. My warranty will be up shortly after the next interval and I am worried they will give me the runaround (they haven't done anything else to suggest otherwise). I reached out to the Subaru dealer services department and told them my experience so far. They said they will contact the dealership and get back to me by the end of the week. Otherwise, I am going to try to get my warranty extended, I was really hoping to not have to do that.

Either way, it is still using the same amount of oil. I guess things will just depend on how low it actually is by the time I hit 3600 miles, and how low they are willing to admit. This is where it was at while the engine was cold. It is really difficult to get an accurate reading on these cars.
 

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#15 ·
Just as a side note - the dip stick be it oil - or fuel check etc has never been a very accurate method for checking fluid levels. It never needed to be accurate given all vehicles hold more oil than what they physically need to avoid engine damage. As long as the dip stick indicates that your within an acceptable range you were fine.

Now regarding oil consumption issues the only way they can accurately sort out the use is by draining the oil and knowing how much they put in to start with. Oil type does play a role in this issue. My 2001 VW burned through 4 quarts of Mobile 1 synthetic in 4000 miles. I switched to Chevron synthetic which is a much higher quality oil than the US spec Mobile 1 sold today and oil consumption dropped to a level I can't really track.

So yes oil can have a big role in whats happening with Oil consumption issues. But there are other mechanical causes that can happen that result in oil use also. There are also engine designs that use oil at high rates till the engine is at full running temp. Some of the Aircraft engines which are highly highly highly respected engines can consume gallons of oil in a very short period if they are run hard before they are at running temp.

Oil consumption has a very WIDE range of reasons with engines and figuring out why will determine if its a mechanical issue or a non issue.
 
#16 ·
I agree that the dipstick isn't a very accurate method of checking fluid levels. The only thing is that this is the way that the dealer (and I'm assuming Subaru as well) determines your level of oil consumption. According to my dealer, Subaru defines anything over 1/3 of a quart every 1200 miles as excessive (indicating abnormal oil usage). Their oil consumption test only consists of checking the dipstick in between those intervals until 3600 miles. Maybe I shouldn't be so worried because they will measure the amount drained from the engine after 3600 miles, but I feel like I can't be too cautious when it comes what has the potential to be a major repair as the warranty is expiring. If it weren't for the fact that this is still a fairly newer car (71,000 miles) I wouldn't be so worried. Most of these miles are highway miles too, so it's not like I'm beating the **** out of this thing.

I'm not sure about your Jetta, but it sounds like something was definitely wrong with your car whether it be engineering or just mechanical issues. If it required a special type of oil maybe I could understand. Subaru doesn't recommend anything really though.
 
#17 ·
I saw the same type of oil consumption with the Mobile 1 synthetic with my 4.7L toyota V8 and the VW and had a very very very slight increase in consumption with my 93 Land cruiser when I used that same oil. I have since stopped using it and only use Chevron oils and none of my vehicles have any sort of measurable oil use. Auto Oil is a funny thing not all makers actually make quality oil the current Mobile 1 oil sold in the US is primarily not diesel or Euro spec oil which was changed a few years ago in the US is actually known to have high oil use. Its just not a very good oil which they are selling today under the Mobile 1 brand name. Its not the same stuff they sold 10yrs ago.
 
#18 ·
So I dropped off the car to have the oil changed for the last leg of the oil consumption test (3600 miles) about a week ago. They said it was down about 2 quarts so they would have to look into the problem. I just got the call today and they determined that at least one of the cylinder walls was scored (I don't know which specific cylinder/cylinders) and it was significant enough to affect the compression. They are going to have to replace the entire engine block. I don't know what the cause was, but I am so relieved to find out that they will be fixing the issue.

Hopefully the replacement goes smoothly and with no issues so I won't have to worry about it anymore. All I can say is that I bought this car with the extended warranty and I am sure glad that I did. Maybe I can get many more miles than I originally planned to get out of this car :)
 
#19 ·
So I got the car back a couple days ago and found out a few more details about the extent of the problems. The numbers from the leak down test revealed that cylinders #1 and #3 were both at 25% and #2 and #4 were both at 20%. I have the numbers from the compression test but I'm not sure what they were supposed to be for the EJ25 in the 2010 Outback. I inquired about the pistons and piston rings and the service advisor said they were ok, so they did not replace them.

I agreed to go ahead and have the timing belt replaced while they were tearing everything apart anyways. That only ran me $110, not too bad. In total, they said that it was about $7000 worth of work (parts and labor included) and I actually paid the $110 for the timing belt and the $100 deductible and that was it. They also said that the parts that were replaced have a 1 year 12,000 mile warranty from the time that they were replaced. So even though my gold-plus warranty is done in 600 miles, I will still be able to be sure that the job was done correctly and the car won't be burning oil for at least another year.

So far the car feels like it is running better than when it was new. It certainly lost a lot of power over the years. I can definitely notice a little more torque and the throttle response feels a little better. The engine isn't as susceptible to being bogged down as it was before. It used to bog down if I was in 2nd gear anywhere below 2000 rpm, I guess I just got used to it over time and would just rev a little higher and shift a little later.

I really never drove the car very hard over the 5 years that I've had it. I had 90% of the oil changes done with conventional oil at the local dealer between 3000 and 5000 miles. I only made it to the 7500 mile mark once since I've had it (one cross-country road trip). I think that I have only revved over 5000rpm once or twice (what's the point in this car?) and have never come close the the redline. I have done some light towing, but only a handful of times with a lightweight u-haul trailer at low speeds, no more than 15-20 miles at a time. Pretty much as tame as it gets as far as towing goes. I can't really explain how the cylinders got so bad in such a short period, but I'm glad that I was diligent in regards to the oil near the end of my warranty. If I hadn't been on top of it and hounded the dealer as much as I did, I would've been pretty screwed.
 
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