Oil for 2010 Forester?

[LoneRanger]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: BJD78
I have a 2010 Forester 2.5 with 4EAT. The OM clearly states that 5w30 is the preferred oil.
Do you know what "preferred oil" statement REALLY means?

The Ej can run on a 40 or 50 in the heat though it is not usually needed.

Per Manual. IIRC the capacity is 4.2 LITRES which is a bit over 4.5 QTS.

Topping with a 10w30 FLEET oil ( Like Rotella Tripe protect DINO 10w30 or a 10w40 Mobil Clean is good.

This engine has a TSB on oil burning due to a improperly machined valve guide pilot holes.
The CNC drilled a hole and then drilled a hole and reamed it just less than 1 cm away making a "B" shaped hole.
Whoops .. Good QC at the engine plant

Gotta ship $$ dollars $$ or the mafg manager gets no bonus - or worse!

My wife had one of those and the thing ate oil and smoked out the tail pipes.

LoneRanger has a good one. This is a GOOD car and engine. Better than the newer ones.



Do you have the TSB number because I've never seen or heard of that defect, the TSB, or an issue with 09's and 10's consuming oil. I can't find anything about it in a google search, it only pulls up the 2011- 2015 model years for oil consumption.

 

[KL31]

I would have went almost any oil if it was not showing on the dipstick... 15W40 wouldn't hurt it at all unless it's super cold.

Could make a meme of this guy:

Refuses to top up with oil that's acceptable but not "preferred" in OM
Drives with low oil instead...

 

[BJD78]

"Do you know what "preferred oil" statement REALLY means?" The OM for my 2010 Forester states that 5w30 is the preferred oil. That is what it means. If you wish to read into that statement fine, but I use what the OM recommends 5w30 and the oil level stays good. "preferred oil" means just that and in the case of a 2010 Forester that is 5w30. I suppose you could call Subaru if you wish and tell them that their own recommendation straight out of their OM stating that "5w30 is the preferred oil" does NOT really mean that. Meanwhile I will keep the TSC dino 5w30 in it and run it until I trade or sell it. The OP asked what the preferred grade was for a 2010 Forester and 5w30 is what Subaru recommends. One can use what ever oil you want 10w30, 5w40, 10w40 or olive oil if you wish, but Subaru states that the preferred grade is 5w30 and they should know as they manufacture and test that model.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: BJD78
I have a 2010 Forester 2.5 with 4EAT. The OM clearly states that 5w30 is the preferred oil.
Do you know what "preferred oil" statement REALLY means?

The Ej can run on a 40 or 50 in the heat though it is not usually needed.

Per Manual. IIRC the capacity is 4.2 LITRES which is a bit over 4.5 QTS.

Topping with a 10w30 FLEET oil ( Like Rotella Tripe protect DINO 10w30 or a 10w40 Mobil Clean is good.

This engine has a TSB on oil burning due to a improperly machined valve guide pilot holes.
The CNC drilled a hole and then drilled a hole and reamed it just less than 1 cm away making a "B" shaped hole.
Whoops .. Good QC at the engine plant

Gotta ship $$ dollars $$ or the mafg manager gets no bonus - or worse!

My wife had one of those and the thing ate oil and smoked out the tail pipes.

LoneRanger has a good one. This is a GOOD car and engine. Better than the newer ones.



Do you have the TSB number because I've never seen or heard of that defect, the TSB, or an issue with 09's and 10's consuming oil. I can't find anything about it in a google search, it only pulls up the 2011- 2015 model years for oil consumption.


I have it at home MAYBE. It was a group of SN. I didn't see the OP was a '10.
I was talking to EJ253 in general.

I recall adding a qt or 1.5 qt on my wife's Ej motors. between oil changes.
We all though that was due to an aggressive PCV system AND the boxer geometry.

So the OP engine may be OK without being affected by the TSB.

-Ken

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Originally Posted By: BJD78
"Do you know what "preferred oil" statement REALLY means?" The OM for my 2010 Forester states that 5w30 is the preferred oil. That is what it means. If you wish to read into that statement fine, but I use what the OM recommends 5w30 and the oil level stays good. "preferred oil" means just that and in the case of a 2010 Forester that is 5w30. I suppose you could call Subaru if you wish and tell them that their own recommendation straight out of their OM stating that "5w30 is the preferred oil" does NOT really mean that. Meanwhile I will keep the TSC dino 5w30 in it and run it until I trade or sell it. The OP asked what the preferred grade was for a 2010 Forester and 5w30 is what Subaru recommends. One can use what ever oil you want 10w30, 5w40, 10w40 or olive oil if you wish, but Subaru states that the preferred grade is 5w30 and they should know as they manufacture and test that model.


Sorry I missed the key line that for ALL most all US sold vehicles the MFG is REQUIRED to list the F.E. oil used to attain CAFE mileage. And then follows additional verbiage about stress and towing and heat requiring a higher grade to prevent engine damage.

So if you HAVENT learned to read between the lines, you better start now

I Didnt and lost more than a FEW engines unnecessarily on ILSAC low HTHS oil. That's why I joined here to find out WTH is going on will something seemingly so benign.

 

[bluesubie]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted By: BJD78
"Do you know what "preferred oil" statement REALLY means?" The OM for my 2010 Forester states that 5w30 is the preferred oil. That is what it means. If you wish to read into that statement fine, but I use what the OM recommends 5w30 and the oil level stays good. "preferred oil" means just that and in the case of a 2010 Forester that is 5w30. I suppose you could call Subaru if you wish and tell them that their own recommendation straight out of their OM stating that "5w30 is the preferred oil" does NOT really mean that. Meanwhile I will keep the TSC dino 5w30 in it and run it until I trade or sell it. The OP asked what the preferred grade was for a 2010 Forester and 5w30 is what Subaru recommends. One can use what ever oil you want 10w30, 5w40, 10w40 or olive oil if you wish, but Subaru states that the preferred grade is 5w30 and they should know as they manufacture and test that model.


Sorry I missed the key line that for ALL most all US sold vehicles the MFG is REQUIRED to list the F.E. oil used to attain CAFE mileage. And then follows additional verbiage about stress and towing and heat requiring a higher grade to prevent engine damage.

So if you HAVENT learned to read between the lines, you better start now

I Didnt and lost more than a FEW engines unnecessarily on ILSAC low HTHS oil. That's why I joined here to find out WTH is going on will something seemingly so benign.


Probably not as important in an n/a engine as it is in a turbo (unless you drive like ARCOgraphite

) but this is in the 2010 manual and pretty much every Subaru manual in N. America:

Quote:

Engine oil viscosity (thickness) affects fuel economy. Oils of lower viscosity provide better fuel economy. However, in hot weather, oil of higher viscosity is required to properly lubricate the engine.


If the guy mentioned in the OP would’ve checked his owner’s manual, he would’ve seen that up to a 50 grade could have been used.

 

[kaesees]

Originally Posted By: AZjeff
It sounds like this engine doesn't have the rep that some Subies do for oil burning.


Just for reference, it's the later FA and FB engines that sometimes have oil consumption issues. The EJ25, if it's going to have problems, will have head gasket issues (although by 2010 they mostly had those sorted out - it took them a LONG time to get it right, though). The glorious EJ22 was bulletproof, but sadly didn't produce enough torque on the low end for American consumers. None of the Subaru boxer engines are exactly torque monsters on the low end in a normally aspirated configuration, though the recent twin-scroll turbo setups (FA20F, FB16DIT) have fantastic wide powerbands with loads of low-end torque.

 

[BJD78]

(So if you HAVENT learned to read between the lines, you better start now)

There are NO lines to read between, the 2010 OM for Forester leaves no doubt as to what the preferred oil grade is, and that is 5w30. But read between them if you wish, no one is stopping you. All I pointed out to the OP is what the OM stated. What type of oil "can" be used and what Subaru's preferred oil is are 2 different things Sure there is a chart and several grades can be used depending on climate and use ect,you can put no oil or olive oil in the sump for all I care, but the preferred motor oil, per Subaru is 5w30 and that is a fact that reading into will not change. Bye now!

 

[BJD78]

"If the guy mentioned in the OP would’ve checked his owner’s manual, he would’ve seen that up to a 50 grade could have been used." Exactly, when one is critically low on oil and can only get 50wt or straight 30wt or 15w40 ,then dump it in, any oil is better no oil. Save that engine and change to the proper grade and weight later.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: BJD78
There are NO lines to read between, the 2010 OM for Forester leaves no doubt as to what the preferred oil grade is, and that is 5w30.

Which 5w-30, as in which HTHS regime? Note that engines have to work in various climate conditions, various driving habits. I'd say that Subaru made something pretty amazing that it requires one SAE grade across all conditions. Now, what would Subaru say to do if the ambient temperatures were at -40 or below for an extended period, which is outside of 5w-30's comfort zone, as it were, according to SAE J300?

I'm not saying you can't use one SAE grade across almost all conditions an ordinary person might encounter. I do it all the time. I don't do seasonal oil changes. That doesn't mean that only one grade can work or should work.

 

[BJD78]

(So if you HAVENT learned to read between the lines, you better start now)

There are NO lines to read between, the 2010 OM for Forester leaves no doubt as to what the preferred oil grade is, and that is 5w30. But read between them if you wish, no one is stopping you. All I pointed out to the OP is what the OM stated. What type of oil "can" be used and what Subaru's preferred oil is are 2 different things Sure there is a chart and several grades can be used depending on climate and use ect,you can put no oil or olive oil in the sump for all I care, but the preferred motor oil, per Subaru is 5w30 and that is a fact that reading into will not change. Bye now!

 

[Garak]

Why is it preferred?

 

[BJD78]

Call Subaru and ask them. I would guess that the engineers and designers deemed it to be so based on testing. At any rate that is what I use and do not really care what any other Forester users put in their engines, I know what I use and that's good enough for me.

 

[Garak]

We don't know that an engineer deemed it to be so. We know it's in the manual, and we don't know why. We can speculate, and some of that includes CAFE, making things simple, or marketing because for years a 5w-30 has been the "simplest" oil to find here and not get wrong.

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: BJD78
Call Subaru and ask them. I would guess that the engineers and designers deemed it to be so based on testing. At any rate that is what I use and do not really care what any other Forester users put in their engines, I know what I use and that's good enough for me.


The 5W-30 grade is listed in the OM as "preferred" only because that's what the car was EPAed on.
The engineers and designers you cite then went on to recommend just about every grade you can think of for this engine.
I typically use something a bit more robust in our '09 Forester than an ILSAC 5W-30.

 

[BJD78]

The OP asked what the preferred grade was ... I gave him the answer which is verbatim out of the OM. OM does not state anything about the EPA tests , it states the preferred oil for 2010 Forester is 5w30. I fail to see why this is so complicated, that is what the OM states. Obviously there are a range of other grades that can be used depending on application, but OP did not ask about that. Anyway use what you will, For my use 5w30 is Robust" enough. LOL!!

 

[fdcg27]

The flaw in your reasoning is that Subaru also went on to provide a temp/visc chart allowing for a number of thicker grades and even recommended SAE 30, SAE 40 or 20W-50 for unspecified "severe" conditions.
If an ILSAC 5W-30 were all this engine ever needed, then why do you suppose Subaru went to the trouble of recommending other, thicker grades?
The only reason that an ILSAC 5W-30 is listed as preferred is to provide for the best possible fuel economy, which sucks with these cars anyway.
I mainly ran GC when the '09 was young but also did of few runs of Valvoline Synpower in a thirty grade. I posted a UOA of the third run of Synpower, and it was uninspiring in both metals levels and residual TBN.
The Valvoline showed no better fuel efficiency than did the much higher HTHS GC, so there was really no upside to using it.
I'll note that nowhere in the OM did Subaru recommend a 0W-30 grade oil, but a little common sense leads one to conclude that an old school Euro spec oil was considerably more robust in every way than an ILSAC 5W-30 and probably better suited to the 7.5K drains Subaru then recommended.

 

[BJD78]

Again, use what ever oil you will. Bye now!!!

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: BJD78
Again, use what ever oil you will. Bye now!!!


Agreed!
You want to use the cheapest oil you can find?
Why not?
Your money and your engines.
Don't be telling others that your choices are somehow appropriate when you have no basis for that claim, though.
Bye now to you as well!!!!

 

[BJD78]

(Don't be telling others that your choices are somehow appropriate when you have no basis for that claim, though)BTW I never tell anyone what to use in their vehicles.Last I checked this is America and you can use whatever you want , the cheapest oil or the most expensive , makes no difference to me. "my money my engine" That is 100% correct nd my engines have done quite well on what I use , thank you. And my engines have done very well and spending more money on more expensive oil would not have made any difference. All I did was answer the OP's question and I make no apologies for it. Good day!