NAPA Synth 5w30-5500 miles - 02 Subaru Outback H6

[meborder]

here's another UOA of NAPA Synthetic.

All commuter miles. bitter cold starts and some idle time warming up. all highway miles, no short trips. puroilator oil filter.

any insight is appreciated.

as with the expedition, i will not be using this oil again just based on how the car behaved with this oil.

there was no noise or consumption problems in this vehicle, but the oil level continually got higher as the OCI progressed. was well over 1qt overfull by the end of the OCI. NEVER had a problem with this car before.

will check as the current OCI goes on. switched back to using my usual Trop Artic after this NAPA experiment.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Rising oil level is a bit of a weird one, that would be some outrageous fuel dilution if it's not a headgasket leaking coolant...

 

[fdcg27]

Your experience of the oil level increasing over the course of this OCI is a strange one.
Wear metals numbers look good for the miles run, and there is nothing in this UOA to indicate either abnormal fuel dilution or coolant leaking into the oil.
Did you add any oil over the course of this UOA?
If not, it's often hard to get consistent readings on the dipstick of a Subaru.
I know that for the three we've had, the OMs recommend running the engine to operating temperature and then checking the oil five minutes after shutdown.
Even then , it can be hard to get a consistent level reading.
Just a thought, since there is nothing in this UOA to suggest that anything is contaminating the oil beyond normal levels of wear metals and slight fuel dilution.

 

[bourne]

Rising oil level means either gasoline or coolant is mixing in with the oil. You should get that checked asap. No oil that I know of increases in volume by a quart over an OCI. ( I know there is expansion, but that will not account for the amount you were overfilled by ). Also when you do find out the cause of the issue, its not the oils fault, but a part failure.

 

[meborder]

i agree that a rising oil level really should have nothing to do with the oil.

what's odd is that i've never had this happen in all the miles we've put on it (got it with roughly 60k on the clock).

no oil was added during this OCI (or any other for that matter). When i checked the oil at 3k in, the oil level was over full. I did stab it several times because i couldn't hardly believe my eyes. by the end of the OCI it was even more full than before.

this was the main reason i did a UOA on this vehicle. i was almost banking on fuel dilution. didn't figure on coolant as it didn't have the other tale-tell signs of coolant in the oil.

had considered the fact that i accidentally over filled it, but thats simply not very likely. I bought 6 quarts of 5w30 and 7 quarts of 5w20, and nothing else that trip. and i ALWAYS double check and count the bottles at the end of an oil change .... it is possible that i loused it up, but highly unlikely IMO. Had i added too much to the subaru, i would have been short for the expedition ... so two chances to catch the error.

truly odd indeed.

the UOA does not indicate fuel dilution, to the best of my novice level of knowledge.

 

[fdcg27]

If the oil were 15-20% fuel, I'd expect to see higher wear metals, especially bearing material, as well as dramatically lower viscosity.
We don't.
If the oil contained the same proportion of coolant, I'd expect much higher wear metals, especially from the bearings as well as much higher sodium and postassium.
We don't, and I know that you already know that this oil uses sodium as a part of its add pack.
What's really going on here?
It would be interesting to know exactly how much oil the OP put in at the start of this OCI and exactly how much he drained out, as well as whether there were any adds.
I agree with you in that whatever happened here has nothing to do with the oil used.

 

[k24a4]

Was the Outback perfectly horizontal when you checked the level? Even slight variance cause my readings to be off. Car has to be perfectly level in my experience.

 

[meborder]

was as level as any of the concrete at our place is. was in my new garage, which other than a gentle slope to the back wall for drainage ... is as good as it gets.

did not measure what came out ... never have, probably never will.

i just know it appeared to be about a half quart over mid way through, an appeared to be nearly a full quart over at the time of change.

no adds during the OCI. didn't want to add to what was already over full.

i've never had to add oil in between changes with this car. usual OCI is 5,000 +/-

i'm fairly confident that i didn't add to much. it was cold and miserable, but i separated the 5w20 from the 5w30 before the change. i put the 5w20 in the back of the EX and carried the 5w30 over to the new garage. i double counted everything, and counted the bottles as i added them to the crankcase. then lined them all up and counted them again before i started it. this is my normal routine. i also pull the dipstick and check for clean oil before start up.

not sure why it was overfull at the time of change and half way through.

i'll be checking more frequently this OCI.

 

[bigt61]

Got any buddies who know you're an oil nerd and might be messing with you? Watch for the YouTube video of you checking the dipstick a few times and shaking your head.

 

[901Memphis]

Someone's adding something to your engine. No coolant, no fuel, no other explanation.

 

[Wheel]

Is the Expedition reading high too ? Something really seems odd about this. Did anything happen to the dipstick that might make it mis-read ? I've seen handles crack and let the stick ride too far down.

 

[chrisri]

My father loves to check oil level and add a bit after few beers.

 

[meborder]

i suppose anything is possible.

i will say though, anyone willing to drive 30 miles out to my place, drug the dogs to keep them quiet, and take the risk of finding out what kind of loaded gun i keep behind the door, all for the pleasure of pulling a prank deserves a great deal of respect.

it's the wife's car and she parks in a secured lot at work (have to check in with a security guard to get in) other than that, it sits at home tucked away in a garage.

while pranks at my work are somewhat common place, especially when one gets a new car, pranks at her work are almost non-existent.

just a very odd occurrence, to be sure. i was almost banking on fuel dilution, but that appears not to be the case.

she's probably getting close to 1,000 miles on the new oil so we'll see if it has changed.

of course, a dipstick malfunction is always possible, but after this last oil change i checked it just before start up and it was just a touch over the full mark, same as always. So if there was an error, it should have showed up when i put a known 6 quarts into the crankcase.

is it possible that the bottles were overfilled from NAPA? wouldn't take much of an error per bottle to show a 1/2 quart over full. Course, that doesn't explain why the level continued to rise through out the OCI.

its a mystery .... prolly never know what was going on, unless it happens on this OCI as well.

 

[Merkava_4]

What you have in your engine is the new state-of-the-art self replicating oil using newly developed nano technology. With this new oil, you'll never have to add oil again; it will add itself. It wasn't supposed to be on the market yet; it somehow escaped out of the laboratory and into an oil bottle for retail sales at a NAPA store.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: bourne
Rising oil level means either gasoline or coolant is mixing in with the oil. You should get that checked asap. No oil that I know of increases in volume by a quart over an OCI. ( I know there is expansion, but that will not account for the amount you were overfilled by ). Also when you do find out the cause of the issue, its not the oils fault, but a part failure.



Coolant or fuel would show up in the used oil analysis,and none is present.
I think its oxidation and the oil is absorbing and dispersing the soot and carbon particulate,which would expand total volume........
Just spitballing.

 

[yvon_la]

I have the same issue on the truck i drive now (too much oil)but i suspect its a mistake.the way the oil gage is made ,it is easy to not fully push the gage in .

 

[ThirdeYe]

Do you think a faulty ADBV on an oil filter could cause the oil level to rise? Just a thought.

 

[SilverC6]

Does the wife drive the vehicle?

She could have stopped by the dealership/favorite repair shop and asked them to check the oil.

Otherwise, you got a bad ring or a blown head gasket.

 

[yvon_la]

No!what i meant is ,so oil dipstick yellow part are weirdly made and can just sit on the edge of the tube without being fully in inserted position .if this happen and you dont push it it first to make sure it is where it should and added oil thinking it was low or clerk changing the oil made the mistake .it would read with too much oil .very easy mistake to do on some model that are made like a female part of the tube where dipstick is going.my dd15 is like that so i have to be carefull and make sure its fully in everytime since i aint the mechanic doing the oil thing .(2 week trip so i ll let the mechanic know to make sure he watchout for this)

 

[meborder]

Originally Posted By: SilverC6
Does the wife drive the vehicle?

She could have stopped by the dealership/favorite repair shop and asked them to check the oil.

Otherwise, you got a bad ring or a blown head gasket.


Yes, the wife drives the car exclusively.

I'm the only one who works on it. She would no more ask someone to check the oil than she would check it herself.... and i doubt she even knows where the hood latch is.

I don't think she's ever done anythign with a car except put gas in them. she says that's why she sleeps with her mechanic

The possibility of a mechanical problem was the reason i did a UOA. hoping there would be some clues as to why the oil level appeared to be rising.