Have you tried stepping up to a thicker oil to see if that helps reduce oil consumption?

 

Don't quite understand your post. On one hand you say the car doesn't feel reliable, on the other you say it still feels too new.

I personally would not spend $6k to replace the engine on a 7 year old vehicle. I might roll the dice and gamble $2-3k on a used engine.

 

Determine what your threshold for a replacement engine is. 2-3-4000, whatever.
Contact Subaru corporate and see if they'd be willing to help on the bill since you do have documentation of increased oil usage during the lawsuit period, but not enough to justify a replacement at that time.

Otherwise, as suggested a thicker oil could slow down the burn rate. Different brands of oil can also affect burn rate.
I am a bit surprised at 1qt/600mi you are not fouling sensors and plugs already. That is one of the downsides of continuing to burn oil.

 

It is a shame that your dealer did not become your advocate with Subaru America to get you a short block replacement during the extended warranty period. I wonder if the result msg have been different if you had been more assertive?

At 170,000 miles you will be expecting to replace wheel bearings shortly and maybe some other items.

If you have had oil burning for 7 years the Cats may also be near the failure point and they are a couple of thousand dollars.

I would firstly ask Subaru America if they would help with the cost of a replacement short block as you are a very loyal Subaru customer. If they are not willing I round be inclined to install a good used engine, if I could find one or continue on adding oil as you now are and while you save for a replacement vehicle.

Seagrass

 

I'm just wondering if it's worth it to put a new engine into a car that has 170k miles on everything else? I take good car of my car and I was hoping to have this until at least 300k, another 5 years at least.

Just not sure what's the best thing to do. Appreciate any insight or advice. Thanks!

No way would I personally do that. There is so much wear and tear already on a vehicle with that high of mileage. What other recent repairs and maintenance have been completed?

At 170k miles you are looking at a potential long list of significant and expensive repairs. Subarus are NOT cheap to repair.

• CVT and/or torque converter issues
• wheel bearings at $700/each (dealer)
• timing belt
• oil pan gasket
• struts/shocks
• brake caliper/rotors
• head gaskets
• oil pump
• drive belts
• struts/shocks
• etc...

 

No way would I personally do that. There is so much wear and tear already on a vehicle with that high of mileage. What other recent repairs and maintenance have been completed?

At 170k miles you are looking at a potential long list of significant and expensive repairs. Subarus are NOT cheap to repair.

• CVT and/or torque converter issues
• wheel bearings at $700/each (dealer)
• timing belt
• oil pan gasket
• struts/shocks
• brake caliper/rotors
• head gaskets
• oil pump
• drive belts
• struts/shocks
• etc...

I don't think that engine is prone to head gasket failure. There is no timing belt. Oil pan has no gasket and probably isn't leaking. At 170k the brakes/rotors have likely already been done. I wouldn't touch the oil pump personally. Wheel bearings are what they are but $700 a corner is outrageous.

Most of what you mentioned would be done with a new engine anyways so I'm not really sure what your point is. The CVT isn't a necessarily a foregone conclusion. Struts cost far less than people think too.

It's still a good car. The high oil consumption could be slowed down with some thicker oil and there are other options as well that could be tried before pulling that engine out.

I may be biased because of how I'd turn a car like this around but it's certainly not ready for the crusher... unless OP lives in the salt belt of course.. how anyone works on those things is beyond me.

 

Before testing the advice to use thicker oil, make sure you do your own due diligence and research that change.

There was a time when it would not be a big deal. It can be a big deal in modern engines that use oil pressure to activate the variable valve timing. In some vehicles it can actually trigger a check engine light.

 

Here's my take. I repair as well as buy sell Subarus all the time. The FB engine is a good engine with limited issues. Mostly minor things pop up like battery, coolant hoses, corrosion on the cables depending on the environment the car was in, the CVT valve body, but if your at 170k then the CVT issue has been fixed prior or whatever your doing is keeping it happy, so keep doing it. The replacement blocks are not using oil. We've had 10 engine replacements with Subaru and they've all been great.

There's no timing belt to replace regularly.
There's no head gasket issue to deal with.

The only thing that will change with an engine replacement is you will not be paying out for oil refills every 600 miles as long as you keep with the maintenance schedule. You'll have plugs, hoses, battery on intervals like normal.

There is no reason your car can't last past 300k miles.

Things wear out like brakes, suspension parts, but you'll still have that with a new car.

My suggestion is to weigh the new car cost with engine replacement and coming repairs it may need, $700 for a wheel bearing is ridiculous, and decide how you want to spend your money.

Me, I'd put the engine in. I have a Forester S Premium now that has 192k miles on it and will get an engine next week and keep rolling. No reason the car won't go another 190k+. (It experienced a water pump fail due to a cheap timing kit and it came with a no name pump. Belt slid, jumped, and did a lot of internal damage. Funny thing is that a week ago I had an STI that had the same issue with a cheap kit, only the owner payed attention to the car and caught it before the belt jumped. That would have been expensive to repair.)

 

I have seen a lot of FB engines, in doing service, checking them at the auctions and individual sales, in all models. Probably 1/2 had over 100k miles. Not once have I seen a HG leaking.

I went through the HG Failure Log thread and there is one post about an FB.

The H4 EJs, it's a given to see oil on the HG seam, on the exhaust, blown back on to the engine cradle and rearward. It's on my list of checks. If I don't see the rivets in the HG, I get under the car.

 

I have a 2013 2.5i Outback which I purchased brand new 7 years and 1 month ago. It currently has 161k miles on it. A few years in it started having oil consumption problems where I was adding 1 qt of oil about every 1500 miles. That dipped to 1200 around the time the class action lawsuit came out, which was around 95k miles for me. I took it in for the test and although I was consuming oil, it wasn't within the parameters of the lawsuit so I didn't qualify for the short block replacement. Over the last year or so I've been needing to add oil about every 1,000 miles. Then recently, about a few weeks ago, it dropped rather drastically to 600 or 700 miles. That's happened twice now - I'm still keeping track.

Also, I had a knocking in my engine around the same time the oil consumption test was happening, around 98K miles. The noise happened mostly when I accelerated but especially when I was going up a steep incline. The conclusion to that was something I can't repeat back, something about the pistons and that there was no harm to my engine, just an unpleasant sound.

I am not a car person, so I don't know anything about car things. I talked to my partner and called my mechanic to ask some questions now that this oil issue seemes to be getting worse. I realize I could keep running the car and putting oil in and it should last me ok, but it is really inconvenient and doesn't feel great, doesn't feel reliable, and makes me question what future problems this could cause. Not to mention, the cost of the oil.

Anyway, I paid off the car a few years ago and have no intention of having another car payment. The next time I purchase a car, it will be for cash. I wasn't planning on purchasing a car anytime soon though. I would want something after 2016, something similar to what I have, so I'm looking at a vehicle in the range of $17-25k. I could save for that within the next year, but I don't really want to spend that money on a car right now. Mine feels too new and we have other financial priorities we want to tackle. So I called my mechanic and the dealership to see what it would cost to replace the engine, and it appears I'm looking at anywhere from $5k - $6500k. Still a good chunk of money, but much less than a newer car.

Has anyone had a short block replacement, and how has it been? I'm afraid the new engine will have oil consumption issues too, but I haven't been able to find anything on the internet about that.

If I do replace the engine, it won't be until this summer, so my car will probably have around 170k miles on it by then. I'm just wondering if it's worth it to put a new engine into a car that has 170k miles on everything else? I take good car of my car and I was hoping to have this until at least 300k, another 5 years at least.

Just not sure what's the best thing to do. Appreciate any insight or advice. Thanks!

My issues and experiences are exactly the same as yours, The dealer Autobarn in Countryside, IL told me to just add oil and they aren't going to help me with any recourse. Unfornturnitly for them, I can't recommend another Subaru to anyone that asked me about my car or personal thoughts. I either have to replace my engine or buy another car that I didn't want to do at this time.

 

Try contacting Subaru of America directly. Individual dealers can have have wildly varying responses (they are staffed by real people, after all), but there are many cases where SOA has provided partial or full offset of the cost of repairs, even when a car is outside the warranty period/miles.

 

Hi Rymar
I took your advice and called my dealer. I explained my car problems and I asked if there is a repair. The service manager said I can replace the block for the price of $7,500 to $9,000.00. I mentioned I bought the car from them, are there any discounts. He proceeded to tell me if I brought it up sooner, that’s where I stopped him and told him it was serviced by them and much earlier. I proceeded to tell him I am no longer going to buy a Subaru. Once again, not a promising response from them.

 

This vehicle is a P.O.S $8600 for CVT Transmission $700 for wheel bearings $7500-$9000 for engine crush it after removing C.Cconverter Battery Tires it’s redickulious Subara would put something like this on the market I would never step foot on a Subaru lot again unless they replaced this POS with a new model for free this car is a total bust and a POS