'14 XV Crosstrek / dealer 0w-20 / 4925 mi / 1yr

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This is for my dad's Subaru XV Crosstrek. He uses it for a short (~8 mile) commute, but it also sees longer highway trips every few weeks. He has the oil changed and all services done at the dealer for their records, though now that it's out of warranty that may change. Factory OCI is 7500 miles or 6 months, and we wanted to see if we could stretch that to one year. Looks like we can just make it. I don't know for sure what TBN the Subaru synthetic oil starts with, though I saw a VOA from 2012 that showed a TBN of 8.6. Iron is likely from the number of cold starts and shorter trips, especially in the winter. The car does not get driven very hard at all.

Next sample will likely be in one year and another 5k ish miles. What are your thoughts?

 
Subaru has since backed down their recommended OCI to 6K, maybe to better protect the timing chain with the thin grade recommended.
I don't think you'd see any problems with a year and 5K even though the time interval would exceed what Subaru recommends.
Oil can't tell time AFAIK and I've often thought that the time interval recommendations are made just to ensure that the oil gets changed on some reasonable basis since many owners seem to lose track of miles run, although this is the real purpose of the Trip B odo.
 
Originally Posted By: VeryNoisyPoet
though now that it's out of warranty that may change.
Your warranty is still ON, at least the "big parts", the Powertrain Warranty is good til 5 years or 60k miles. Near the end though.
Originally Posted By: VeryNoisyPoet
Factory OCI is 7500 miles or 6 months, and we wanted to see if we could stretch that to one year.
You're a good candidate to use Mobil1 Annual Protection for 1 year, available at Walmart, a great oil.

Your TBN does seem a tad low for only that many miles, but nothing to worry about. Also, you can't do anything about the high-ish iron PPM, no antidote.

You do have to be careful on those Subarus to use only a Subaru OEM oil filter or a Wix 57055 or NAPA Gold 7055, since they all have the desired high bypass pressure threshold.
 
Yes it did the time and distance fine, but with a finishing TBN of 1.6 then I would keep it to 5k miles, or maybe try a different oil to see if the TBN holds up better.

If it were my car I would be tempted to try a good quality 5W30 once out of warranty.
 
Why go to the expense of AP for a year and 5K when Mobil warranties AFE for 10K and a year?
 
[/quote]

You do have to be careful on those Subarus to use only a Subaru OEM oil filter or a Wix 57055 or NAPA Gold 7055, since they all have the desired high bypass pressure threshold.

[/quote]

That's interesting and I had not heard that. A quick search pulled up a couple of bitog threads with plenty of bickering. Imagine that.

Could you elaborate on your statement?
 
Originally Posted By: Ausfahrt

That's interesting and I had not heard that. A quick search pulled up a couple of bitog threads with plenty of bickering. Imagine that. Could you elaborate on your statement?
I'd skip any "bickering" you see, and just go with what Subaru engineers recommend, which is high-pressure bypass threshold. Some oil filters will physically fit, but don't have the right pressure bypass.
Few oil filters have the right one, and I recommend you side with Subaru engineers and use the OEM Subaru dealer oil filter, or the good Wix or NAPA Gold oil filters which do meet the spec.

GM, like Subaru before it, started to recommend a similar high pressure bypass threshold, for almost all their engines. GM issued a rare official statememt:
All the gory details are at https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/att...f-pf64-pf48.pdf
Subaru engineers' reasons have more to do with high oil flow rates, although some of the official GM reasons may also apply to Subaru engines.
 
Originally Posted By: oil_film_movies
Originally Posted By: Ausfahrt

That's interesting and I had not heard that. A quick search pulled up a couple of bitog threads with plenty of bickering. Imagine that. Could you elaborate on your statement?
I'd skip any "bickering" you see, and just go with what Subaru engineers recommend, which is high-pressure bypass threshold. Some oil filters will physically fit, but don't have the right pressure bypass.
Few oil filters have the right one, and I recommend you side with Subaru engineers and use the OEM Subaru dealer oil filter, or the good Wix or NAPA Gold oil filters which do meet the spec.

GM, like Subaru before it, started to recommend a similar high pressure bypass threshold, for almost all their engines. GM issued a rare official statememt:
All the gory details are at https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/att...f-pf64-pf48.pdf
Subaru engineers' reasons have more to do with high oil flow rates, although some of the official GM reasons may also apply to Subaru engines.


The bulletin linked states at the bottom that aftermarket filters must match those specs. I don’t know why only some filters would match and others not?
 
Originally Posted By: Gixxer46
The bulletin linked states at the bottom that aftermarket filters must match those specs. I don’t know why only some filters would match and others not?
Historically, bypass pressure thresholds have been lower for most engines, so the oil filter makers got into a habit, momentum kinda, of continuing to make the same old oil filters, reluctant to do something new, and they hoped nobody would notice. They were right about most people being ignorant of it.

And, visible engine failures due to using the wrong oil filter (bypass problem) would be very rare, so the filter makers don't give a rat's patoot.

Wix (same as the NAPA Gold clone) did update at some point, and I've heard Fram is finally thinking about it when they get around to it. Others, mixed.
 
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