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Comments
-juice
Closing in on 700 miles on the odometer. Pleasantly surprised by my first tank of gas; right at 25 mpg on with 80% highway driving.
John '03 XS
now i know after breakin the engine mileage should improve but....
maybe its the going bald tires in the back at 18k miles :P
I have 43k and they are only half gone.
John
As I was filling up my tank today, a professional looking middle-aged guy pulled into the pump opposite me with his Suburban. As he began pumping his gas, I:
squeegied roadtrip bug guts off both front and back windshields
reholstered my hose into the pump
walked inside (from the farthest row of pumps, no less)
grabbed a case of sodas
waited for one person in front of me to pay
paid and got change
walked back outside
got in my car
As I was driving away, Suburban driver was still leaning against his rear gate, waiting for his tank to top off. This may have only taken me all of 4 or 5 minutes, but it must have seemed like a lifetime to him. I noticed him eyeing my smaller, quicker, more economical ride as I passed by. Should've given him the name of my Subie salesman . . .
Now I wish I'd stuck around to see how much the $ meter read on his pump - but I didn't want to be that late for work.
Well, instead of my breaking it, their mechanic broke it. They gave me a loaner and ordered the part. That was on Monday. Tonight (Tuesday) I picked up the car, and they warranted they entire deal. Cost to me was $0.00.
They also agreed to warrant the intercooler hose that had the foam saturated with oil from a loose clamp at the turbo output. The foam wrap was also drying out and getting flaky from the heat soaks.
Basically I paid $60 for the transmission drain and fill, but got over $300 of work done for free under warranty.
There are times I love my dealership.
Larry
In fairness, though, Subaru should put a bigger tank in the F-XT. Lucien says he fills up every 230 miles. A little more range would be nice.
-juice
Oh, without a doubt. My previous car got 340 miles on a 11.9 gallon tank*, whereas so far I'm averaging about 240 miles before the fuel light goes on in the FXT.
I wouldn't mind paying a little more at the pump to fill a tank that was a gallon or two larger (it's gas I'm going to have to pay for anyway) if it meant I could go an extra couple days between fill ups. The only drawback would be the slight weight increase, but probably not significant enough to really notice.
*In fairness, though, my last car wasn't nearly as fun to drive.
Doug
Also, got a ride with my wife yesterday in her 99 Legacy L yesterday, she showed me the noise her car makes ONLY when its' raining. When she puts it in drive, from the center of the car there's a sound I can only describe as dice rattling in a plastic cup. Just the one time. Any ideas ?
Even our Legacy has a 1 gallon bigger tank, and the extra convenience is nice.
-juice
-Dennis
Chuck
Thank you for contacting us.
We hope that you are enjoying driving your Forester XT. As for the use
of synthetic oil in your vehicle, this is your decision. Our Technical
Services Department advised that if you do decide to use synthetic oil,
that you always use it because your engine will become accustomed to
it. The same goes if you decide to use 'regular' oil.
We recommend that you first change the oil in your Subaru at 3,000
miles or 3 months, whichever comes first. We STRONGLY recommend that you at
least wait until the break-in period of 1,000 miles is surpassed.
The break-in period of the engine requires that a given amount of
friction exists between components. The piston rings need to rub against the
cylinder wall to break-in or finely tune the machine mating between the
two metal parts. To properly seat all mechanical components, a certain
amount of friction is required between the metal parts. Since synthetic
oil has a lower friction rating than regular oil, we recommend that
Subaru owners wait until after the 1,000 mile break-in period to switch to
synthetic engine oil.
Synthetic engine oils can be used in our engines if the user follows
the engine oil recommendations prescribed in the Owner's Manual. Subaru
has not tested the compatibility of all synthetic oils with engine
seals, but the petroleum industry does adhere to standards for the refining
process which meet Subaru requirements. Subaru does not guarantee the
performance of any brand of any engine oil.
Engine Oil Guidelines: - only use engine oil that meets or exceeds the
API classification designated in the Owner's Manual for the vehicle -
only use engine oil that meets the VISCOSITY requirements for the
ambient temperatures under which the vehicle will be operated as outlined in
the Owner's Manual - THE ENGINE OIL MUST BE CHANGED AT THE INTERVALS
SPECIFIED IN THE WARRANTY AND MAINTENANCE BOOKLET FOR THE VEHICLE. SOME
SYNTHETIC OIL REFINERS RECOMMEND EXTENDED OIL CHANGE INTERVALS. SUBARU
DOES NOT RECOMMEND ANY DEVIATION FROM THE SPECIFIED INTERVALS IN THE
OWNER'S MANUAL.
If we can be of any other assistance, please let us know.
Best wishes,
The 10,000 mile thing comes from 1) SoA when the WRX first came out and 2) Dozens of used oil analyses that show that Subarus take a long time to break in.
It's fine to change at 1,000 miles, but if you're running a 30 weight it will not remain a 30 weight more than 2,000 miles or so due to the wear metals shearing down the oil viscosity. SoA has 5W30 put into our cars from the factory? Is that the ideal oil for all cars in N. America for all driving conditions? No, it's "preferred" for fuel economy.
Amsoil is a thicker and more shear stable oil than the more common Mobil1.
-Dennis
-Brian
Depends what you mean by no issues.
Are you switching to M1 10W30 for the winter because it's actually thinner than the 5W30?
-Dennis
-Brian
But, I have the 2.5 NA engine YMMV.
John
A lot of WRX owner's on nabisco are saying that their cars are using oil with M1 5W30. They're just looking at the oil filler cap and going with 5W30 instead of going with a thicker oil like the owner's manual states depending on the conditions.
Mobil1 recently made the 5W30 thicker than the 10W30.
-Dennis
-Dennis
But, isn't it the other way around? Thinner oils get burned up faster than thicker?
John
-Brian
-Frank
That's a common belief but is not necessarily the case.
Here is a quote from Advance Auto Parts' web site:
"SAE 30 is SAE 30 no matter what the "W" prefix number is: 0W, 5W or 10W. This viscosity in centistokes (cSt) @ 100 degrees C is with the minimum of 9.3 cSt and a maximum of 12.5 cSt.
http://www.advanceautoparts.com/english/youcan/html/ccr/ccr20010101ov.html
According to the Product Data Sheets on M1's web site, the 5W30 is 11.3 centistokes at 100C and the 10W30 is 10.0 centistokes. An oil can be anywhere from 9.3 to 12.5 and be called a 30 weight. At 40C the 5W30 is 64.8 cst and the 10W30 is 62 cst's.
Another belief is that 0W30 is too thin. German Castrol 0W30 is 12.3 centistokes at 100C. Science, magic and elves.
-Dennis
Maybe just Science and magic elves
I put in some fresh 5w30 M1 with the new white Subaru oil filter 15208AA09A (thanks to Peaty). That new filter is a tad taller than the previous black one 15208AA100. 5 quarts with filter still? Also, apparently there's a batch of the new filters that can cause some seepage. The suspect filters have the new part # and a F08 F09 or F10 stamped on the filter base. My parts guy mentioned this as well and we verified that my filter was ok (it had F07).
-Brian
-Dennis
I checked my receipts for the last filter - the old model # for the turbo - and it was about $1 less than this new filter.
-Brian
Jim
They were only out for a couple of weeks then there was a recall due to a leak with a few batches. The new filter number is 15208AA09A .
-Dennis
All of the suspect new filters have been (or should be) out of stock now.
-Brian
-Dennis
Granted it is 85% hwy, but this also includes a good number (10? 20?) of high revs from stops and also during passing.
Sorry to fill up space gloating, but this kind of mileage is beyond anything I could have expected when I purchased the car!
Now toss this in with tanks of 25, 26, 21, and 19 mpg, and the picture is a little more clear. Today though, I'm very very happy with the FXT.
In other news, I'm considering naming it Barry (after Barry Allen, The Flash's alter ego).
The suspect new filters have the new part# (white filter) but the filter has a F08 or F09 or F10 stamped on it. My new white filter had a F07 on it, so it was fine.
However, if you have a fresh black filter, you can still use it.
-Brian
Be careful with high mileage posts here. Only a few of us pre-06 owners have broken the 25 mpg barrier and get flamed for not being truthful, exaggerating or not calculating correctly. :rolleyes: :P
I got 27 mpg (highway, of course) on a few occasions including with a loaded Thule box on top. That stopped when I switched to heavy 17's and 225/55 tires. I can squeeze out 24 though pretty regularly on trips when I'm easy on it. That's usually when I'm out of the most densely populated state in the country though.
-Dennis
Sadly (and a little red-faced), I'm here to report that I should have been more careful . . .
I did the division 2 or 3 times just to be sure before I boasted about it, because it seemed impossible. 269.8 miles on 9.17 gallons of gas. Or so I thought.
Long story short, I got in my car to go to work this morning and noticed that even though I stopped yesterday evening on my way home .8 miles from my house, my tank was only 3/4 full. Apparently the pump shut off before my tank was completely full, and being the good owner that I am I didn't squeeze it a few times trying to force feed it more gas.
So I stopped at the same station this morning and ended up adding 3 more gallons.
Sorry to all.
The '06 Turbos do have a highway of 26 mpg, only 2 less than my '03 XS. Since I occasionally get 30 mpg on a tank, it wouldn't surprise me that the XT could get 28 on conservative highway driving.
John
I've achieved 26 on probably 90% highway driving.
I agree; if I tried I could probably squeeze out 28-30. I could probably also get around 15 mpg if I worked really hard at it. The first would be boring but thrifty, the other would be a blast yet costly. For the most part I try to balance out the left and right brains.
Any recommendations on when to get my first oil change? I seem to remember the salesman (who now works as service manager) recommended I split the difference on the first two scheduled services (3750 and 7500 miles), come in at 5000 miles and do the oil and rotate the tires all in one fell swoop. This guy has been working with Subaru for about 6 years (back and forth from sales to service), however I have noticed that some of you might have changed the oil after the first 1000 miles - am I correct?
There is a guy in TX (another forum) and had the factory oil analysed at 1,000 miles. The lab thought that he made a mistake on his form and that he was running a 5W20. The metals sheared the oil down to a 20 weight. I would definitely not go past 3,750 miles on the factory oil.
Subaru doesn't use a break-in oil so no harm, no foul. I've read in numerous places that they use Texaco Havoline 5W30 in the U.S. That's a great conventional oil with lots of moly.
-Dennis
He's very happy with the set up and I liked it when I drove it. That's the route I'm going. I would go with just changing the pads and lines. That's the best brake bang for the buck, IMHO. If you want the "best" brakes, go with four or six pot calipers and big rotors for about $3-4k.
AZP Installs - has a few different packages to give you some ideas on pricing.
-Dennis
Pads some times last a lot longer than 26k. I'm still on my originals, with nearly 80k on the clock.
Just did the pads on my Miata, so I feel confident enough that when the time comes, I'll do the Forester myself also. But they're still good.
-juice