Answers to the questions:
1. What kind of vehicle you have: 2004 Subaru Outback 3.0l H6, 68,000 mi.
2. What your owner's manual says: 5w30 ILSAC GF-3, API SL
3. Where you live: Baltimore, MD
4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?): pretty easy; not very hard on the gas pedal most days
5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?): take the train most days, but when I don't, I have a 38-mile round trip commute to work. It's about 60-40 highway/city, but sometimes the highway is worse than the city (D.C./Baltimore traffic...). Weekend driving is 50-50 city/highway.
6. Whether your car has any known problems: none that I know of, the H6 isn't known for HG issues.
Notes: I bought the car from my parents 3 years ago (they used Valvoline WB 5w30 exclusively with 3000 mi. OCIs, according to their dealer receipts), and it's seen a steady supply of 5w30 synthetic with 7500 mi. OCIs since I bought it (mostly unknown dealer bulk, but after moving into a house with a driveway, I did my first DIY change in December -- Castrol Syntec 5w30 and a PureOne filter).
My next 7500 mi. OCI is coming up probably in April or May, and I have two options in mind: GC 0w30 or PP 5w30. The 5w30 Syntec hasn't been great in the winter; cold startups sound noisy to me. Would GC help with that, and would it protect effectively in the hot, humid mid-Atlantic summers? I know I can't go wrong with PP, though, so which do you all recommend? If there are other options you all recommend I'm open to those as well.
1. What kind of vehicle you have: 2004 Subaru Outback 3.0l H6, 68,000 mi.
2. What your owner's manual says: 5w30 ILSAC GF-3, API SL
3. Where you live: Baltimore, MD
4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?): pretty easy; not very hard on the gas pedal most days
5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?): take the train most days, but when I don't, I have a 38-mile round trip commute to work. It's about 60-40 highway/city, but sometimes the highway is worse than the city (D.C./Baltimore traffic...). Weekend driving is 50-50 city/highway.
6. Whether your car has any known problems: none that I know of, the H6 isn't known for HG issues.
Notes: I bought the car from my parents 3 years ago (they used Valvoline WB 5w30 exclusively with 3000 mi. OCIs, according to their dealer receipts), and it's seen a steady supply of 5w30 synthetic with 7500 mi. OCIs since I bought it (mostly unknown dealer bulk, but after moving into a house with a driveway, I did my first DIY change in December -- Castrol Syntec 5w30 and a PureOne filter).
My next 7500 mi. OCI is coming up probably in April or May, and I have two options in mind: GC 0w30 or PP 5w30. The 5w30 Syntec hasn't been great in the winter; cold startups sound noisy to me. Would GC help with that, and would it protect effectively in the hot, humid mid-Atlantic summers? I know I can't go wrong with PP, though, so which do you all recommend? If there are other options you all recommend I'm open to those as well.
Last edited: