2015 Subaru Legacy: Reliability?

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Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Originally Posted By: billt460
My neighbor has a new Forester, (leased). The other day I was walking the dog behind her when she started it. A nice little puff of white smoke came out of the exhaust. I don't think it has 3,000 miles on it.


White smoke is not oil. Can be water from condensation in the cat, or coolant but if coolant it won't just stop. Happens on all makes of vehicles on startup. Normal.


It's oil. I could smell it.
 
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Originally Posted By: billt460
Why does Subaru have so many piston ring / oil burning related problems?


Many manufacturers had issues.. Why did GM have engines eating pistons? Honda VCM, Honda transmissions a few years ago..

The answer is the search for efficiency and MPG.

extra low friction rings and horizontal cylinder bores are a little bit different than your regular inline-4 as well.

the problem is not every vehicle..cough ford focus automatic transmissions I'm looking at you..

Honestly I'd take burning 1qt of oil in an OCI(FB25) over head gasket problems(ej series) and a dash of 15-20% better mpg.

Its not that hard to add oil.. the major issue was no oil level sensor until 2014 in foresters.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Why does Subaru have so many piston ring / oil burning related problems?

Low-tension rings and CAFE-mandated 0W-20 oil. I'm running M1 5W-20 in a friend's '12 Forester to see if that solves his oil drinking.

The funny part is his mom's car, bought the same day as his isn't using that much oil but I'm keeping tabs.
 
Why is this thread so wide? Is it just me?

I have to zoom in and scroll left to right a significant mount to read posts in this thread. I see that this happens every so often. Glitch?
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
Originally Posted By: billt460
My neighbor has a new Forester, (leased). The other day I was walking the dog behind her when she started it. A nice little puff of white smoke came out of the exhaust. I don't think it has 3,000 miles on it.


White smoke is not oil. Can be water from condensation in the cat, or coolant but if coolant it won't just stop. Happens on all makes of vehicles on startup. Normal.


It's oil. I could smell it.


What did it smell like?

I would think that it would be tough to smell oil over the cold-start fuel enrichment, unless you had your face right at the tailpipe.
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Why is this thread so wide? Is it just me?

I have to zoom in and scroll left to right a significant mount to read posts in this thread. I see that this happens every so often. Glitch?


Because of the huge links in the below post from page 1(links deleted). I notified the mods and asked them to shorten them.

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
New one looks like a Ford Taurus.

I'd be in one if it came with a 6 speed MT.
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
I hate to break it to ya but Being from Tennessee and VA doesn't mean it won't be a rust bucket! I just moved from VA and I can assure you they heavily use the brine solutions on the roads in winter which destroys vehicles twice as fast as standard road salt!

Subaru's seem very prone to rust anyway but I doubt a 2015 is too bad yet...

Anyway, we have any 08 Legacy GT and love it, awesome little car with plenty of pep, but be warned, maintenance on them costs a good bit more than your average Honda or Toyota. I put Subaru in with VW/Audi on maintenance costs but much more reliable!



I'm just going by the rust free condition my vehicles are in and the condition my friends vehicles are in. I even had a 99 Tacoma that I sold to my brother in law a few years back that to this day is still rust free.....even the frame!
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Anyway, thanks for the replies and opinions. I think we are going to pass on the Legacy for now. Will probably end up getting a new one in a couple years.
 
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Originally Posted By: KCJeep
Originally Posted By: racin4ds


Anyway, we have any 08 Legacy GT and love it, awesome little car with plenty of pep, but be warned, maintenance on them costs a good bit more than your average Honda or Toyota. I put Subaru in with VW/Audi on maintenance costs but much more less reliable!



Fixed it for ya!
laugh.gif


Seriously not surprised you are happy with your 08, but Subaru quality seems to have gone down the toilet. We have 5 or maybe 6 at work (well did have) all 16's and 17's, and they have been so problematic we already traded two off at 30k miles when we originally planned to keep them for 100k.


What problems were there with the Subarus at your work?
 
Originally Posted By: nthach
Originally Posted By: billt460
Why does Subaru have so many piston ring / oil burning related problems?

Low-tension rings and CAFE-mandated 0W-20 oil.


My new 2018 Toyota runs 0W-16 and it doesn't burn a drop.
 
Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
What did it smell like?


It smelled like burning oil.


Burning oil is a very potent odor. Very easy to detect. Those VOCs are detectable in minute quantities.

If Bill says he smelled it burning oil, I don't doubt it.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Why is this thread so wide? Is it just me?

I have to zoom in and scroll left to right a significant mount to read posts in this thread. I see that this happens every so often. Glitch?


Because of the huge links in the below post from page 1(links deleted). I notified the mods and asked them to shorten them.

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
New one looks like a Ford Taurus.

I'd be in one if it came with a 6 speed MT.


Genius, thanks!
 
Originally Posted By: john_pifer
If Bill says he smelled it burning oil, I don't doubt it.


With todays high emission standards required to license vehicles, it is uncommon to see oil burners. 40 and 50 years ago it was a different story. Seeing cars belching blue white smoke out of tailpipes was very common. I can remember sitting behind them at stoplights, getting gassed out, smelling the pungent odor when you had your windows rolled down in the Summer. It's almost like smelling a dead body. You never forget the odor. That Subaru was burning oil.
 
Heh, was driving down the highway today when I got a whiff of gas/partially burnt gas. Oh no, has the flexpipe gone again? Nope, just a late 90's pickup up ahead of me. Like a mile ahead, and I was still smelling him. Had to put it onto recirculate when I got within a hundred yards. [I suspect dead/gutted cat and something amiss, had to be rich and/or dead cylinder. But he was doing regular highway speed, so not running too badly.]
 
The Legacy is a nice car if you're in the market for something like a Camry, Accord, Sonata, Altima, Fusion, Malibu, etc..etc.. BUT want/need AWD. If you don't need AWD, I don't see the point.

I leased a 2012 Legacy 2.5i and liked it. Certainly didn't love it. Too low to the ground for my liking. The seating position was too low and I too had the weird steering and wander from new, until the point I turned it in.
 
Originally Posted By: gathermewool
Originally Posted By: dogememe
Aunt's 2015 Subaru 2.5 burns about a quart or two between oil changes. Otherwise she loves the car. No input on the CVT since hers is a manual but from what I've read on here and elsewhere their CVT seems solid.


The manuals are know to burn more than automatics. This wasn't always true, but starting with the 2012 Impreza, it has been.


Manual transmission subarus are extremely low geared. My 2018 Forester has 4.44 gears. On the highway it just screams. The CVTs (pretty much exclusively used with the FB/FA engines) turn much lower RPMs on the highway and the FB engine likes that better.
 
That’s always been the case, as far as I know. My 06 WRX and 08 STI screamed, as well, though the STI was annoyingly loud, especially when combined with all other road noise intrusion.

Now that I think about it, every manual I’ve driven in the past 20 years (small cars and trucks) has been over 3k RPM at over ~65 MPH. 3200 RPM @ 65 MPH rings a bell for both of my previous MT Subies.
 
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