Subaru Syn 5w30 - 5221 mi - 2011 Subaru WRX

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Decided to get a UOA on my 2011 WRX at ~15k miles (fourth fill, I did the first at around 1500 miles, the second at around 5000, and around 5000 mile OCIs since). My goals here were to establish a baseline for future UOAs and to gauge how well the oil holds up to 5000 miles OCIs -- the new factory recommendation is 7500 miles on synthetic but that seems too long to me and I wanted to see whether 5000 miles would be conservative or not. Looks somewhat conservative I'd say, but I still don't think I'd want to do 7500.

The car has had Subaru branded 5w30 syn with OEM filters (Honeywell) every OCI. At my dealership, this oil is essentially the same price as the normal price for a decent synthetic at local stores. That, combined with the fact that the OEM filter tends to be recommended (high bypass valve spec) and dealership receipts are probably convenient if I need warranty work made me decide to stick w/ the Subaru oil. After this analysis I'd say I'm comfortable with that choice!

My commute is mostly highway so the car generally gets good and warm, but I'm not shy about the throttle after it's warmed up, and the turbo gets a decent workout on a long steep grade every day. I've gotta say this is better than I was expecting for a turbo engine at only 15k miles. There's a lot of talk on Subaru forums about how 5w30 energy conserving oil isn't good enough for these cars and lots of talk about running Rotella T6 5w-40 (which is not technically allowed by the owners manual anymore) but it looks like this oil is doing fine for my situation.

WRX1.png
 
Should push for XW40 weight oil. This 30 grade stuff is too light look at the single digit wear numbers that light stuff is destroying your engine!
 
Originally Posted By: chubbs1
Wow, have to say this looks like it's gonna be a great engine for years to come! Really NICE, thanks for the UOA.


+1 I was expecting to see wear above the uni avg since it only has 15k. But it seems to have settled in nicely, might even tick down a ppm here or there.
 
Looks good. Those numbers look off though. The Calcium and Zinc are too high. Blackstone error again? I would assume this is a SN rated oil now?
 
Originally Posted By: Finklejag
Looks good. Those numbers look off though. The Calcium and Zinc are too high. Blackstone error again? I would assume this is a SN rated oil now?


I can verify when I get home but I'm pretty sure it's still SM (on the bottle at least). Are you saying you'd expect the Calcium and Zinc to be lower if it were SN?
 
Zinc can't be higher then 868 in SN oil. The few Subaru 5W-30 UOA's I have seen show the Calicum around 2200-2500, and Zinc 900
UOA

blackstoneuoae82209copy.jpg
 
Confirmed this is still an SM oil (the bottles I have, at least). The Edge 5w30 I drained from my friend's Mazdaspeed3 ( http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2682301#Post2682301 ) is an SN but it still has 940 PPM zinc in that sample. The calcium and magnesium numbers are pretty different between the two oils, though. Mine looks pretty much like the other ones you posted in that regard (calcium, zinc, magnesium).
 
Originally Posted By: dave1251
Should push for XW40 weight oil. This 30 grade stuff is too light look at the single digit wear numbers that light stuff is destroying your engine!


I know! I was thinking more along the lines of 10w60 though!
 
Now THIS 5W-30 is a "light" (read as "good!") oil but some other 5W-30's are all "too heavy" (read as "bad!")...

According to some.

Cheers!

p.s. Great results, though.
 
Yes, very good results for the Subaru oil IMO. I've seen an n/a Outback uoa where the oil was already spent at less than 4k miles. It will be interesting to see trending data if you continue to do uoa's because there are only a handful of people running Energy/Resource Conserving oil and not more than two or three consecutive uoa's, IIRC.

If the zinc numbers are off, hopefully the good wear numbers are not!

Good luck!

-Dennis
 
Originally Posted By: bluesubie
It will be interesting to see trending data if you continue to do uoa's because there are only a handful of people running Energy/Resource Conserving oil and not more than two or three consecutive uoa's, IIRC.


I think I know what you mean, but I'm sure the vast majority of people with these engines are running energy conserving oils, even if they don't know it. Just not getting UOAs
smile.gif
Maybe I'll try to get a UOA every 10 or 15k miles.

I'm still not getting the fuss over the zinc though. It looks fairly high in the other UOAs too although admittedly only over 1000 in the older samples.
 
Originally Posted By: rationull
Originally Posted By: bluesubie
It will be interesting to see trending data if you continue to do uoa's because there are only a handful of people running Energy/Resource Conserving oil and not more than two or three consecutive uoa's, IIRC.


I think I know what you mean, but I'm sure the vast majority of people with these engines are running energy conserving oils, even if they don't know it. Just not getting UOAs
smile.gif
Maybe I'll try to get a UOA every 10 or 15k miles.

I'm still not getting the fuss over the zinc though. It looks fairly high in the other UOAs too although admittedly only over 1000 in the older samples.

Yep, I agree. Lots of folks running EC oils that get their cars serviced at dealers.

I think the fuss is that Blackstone has developed sort of a reputation of zinc levels testing different than they actually are. Over on the Outback forum I pointed out in a uoa thread that someone's RT6 zinc and phosphorus levels came back too low. They had it retested and the additive levels came back 10-20% higher across the board. In your uoa, the zinc is actually higher than allowed so either the uoa is off or there's too much zinc in the oil.

-Dennis
 
Originally Posted By: bluesubie

In your uoa, the zinc is actually higher than allowed so either the uoa is off or there's too much zinc in the oil.


Mine is too high even for an SM oil, or just for SN?
 
Both. It's closer to Rotella T6 than it is to the maximum allowed for an SM/GF4 5W-30. The factory fill Idemitsu does have a more robust add pack but I doubt the factory fill oil made its way to your dealer.
smile.gif


-Dennis
 
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