The High Oil Consumption Saga

Hey all,

I've been in Japan for the last few weeks, and although I didn't get to go to the Subaru museum (way out in the boonies), I did get to see the latest Nissan works while in Yokohama. The heads up: 1 person electric vehicles are on the way.

While I was abroad, my 2012 manual Forester was undergoing the high oil consumption test. Because Subaru owners like stories, I figured I'd put mine out here in case it helps anybody.

Repeating what I've posted about in other threads, we got the Forester new from White Bear Lake, and were quite amazed when our salesman Art told us that we needed to change oil at 7500 mile intervals. Incredulous, I went online and read other opinions, and most people agreed 5000-7500 miles was a fine number. We did our first oil change at 3500, and the rest every 7500 thereafter per maintenance specifications. It was a new car and I didn't bother to check the dipstick. We also had a baby, 60+ hours a week of jobs, and other bourgeois stuff to distract us. So it came as a surprise when one day in the winter, around 27k miles, the engine sounded pretty rough. We were close to 7500 miles, and I brought it in for an oil change.

Our mechanics at St. Croix Automotive reported that the oil case was nearly dry. They reprimanded us, and we pointed out that we didn't do anything outside of the recommended maintenance. We agreed to come in at 5000 miles at the next change. Still losing oil. Next change at 3000 miles, and I was checking the dipstick every week. Running with Mobil 1 0w-20 full synthetic, it consumed nearly 3 quarts over that span. Our mechanic recommended bringing it in for warranty.

Being halfway between the cities and Eau Claire, I opted first to give Eau Claire a shot. I called them and asked for a diagnostic on the high oil consumption. The guy told me to replace the PCV valve and go another oil change before doing the test. I hung up and called Morrie's Brooklyn Park, and they would fit me right in. Loren has been my service manager throughout, and while he was a bit incredulous at first, he's been very supportive and informative. He said that no Subaru had failed the oil consumption test since he started performing them.

Well, mine's right at Subaru's limit for high oil consumption, so we might be the first. We got it checked the day after I returned from Japan, with 1500 miles on the odometer since the start of the consumption test, almost all of it non-stop highway driving. 3/4 quart low. Loren has sent the materials off to Subaru for warranty, and now we're waiting to hear what will happen next.

The takeaway: Morrie's has been pretty good to us: even though we didn't buy the car from them, they have run the test and given us car washes for free. They listen to us and answer questions. While we're in a bit of a cruddy place with the Forester, it's good to know that a service manager is on our side and willing to support us. I've met some nice salespeople while waiting, as well. They have a strong chance of being my first call when we decide to move on our next car.

There's the story for now. I'll update once we hear back from Subaru of America with their decision. Thanks for reading!

 

Forester or Forester xt?

 

Based on the 0W20, my guess is its an NA, not a turbo. 5000-7500 is the recommended interval for oil changes, I personally like to change earlier rather than later. I would read up on suggestions for the best quality of 0w20 oil. I believe I remember hearing that the Subaru and Mitstubishi 0W20 synthetics are very good. A good resource is www.bobistheoilguy.com.

The bottom line is turbo'd or NA, the oil consumption is beyond acceptable and they should repair it under warranty.

 

should and will are completely different, we have so many people having there cars eating oil and since its not at the ridiculous threshold that Subaru/ or Acura in the majority case at BAS, we tell them they just need to add oil.. i truly hope that things go well for you !!!
on a slightly related side note. while doing an oil change were told to put 7500 mile stickers in the FB N/A motors and 6000 mile stickers in boosted FB motors.... 6000 mile intervals in a turbo motor!!!! i got in a argument about it with my service manager and decided that i wont do it and i personally put 5000 intervals stickers in N/A versions and 4000 miles interval stickers in the boosted motor. my manager doesn't condone it but i feel its better for the motor and the customer in the long run.

 

Wow thats crazy I wont even run my rotella 5w40 over 3500 miles in my wrx and wont run my brz over 4000

 

I have the same issues with my 3.6, I use to go through a quart every 1200 miles on 5w-30, now I use 5w-40 and only use a half quart every 1500 miles. I just chalk it up to driving a Subaru.

 

You may want to check this out about Subaru replacing rings for high oil consumption.
http://www.thecarconnection.com/news/1092813_some-2011-2014-subarus-to-get-new-piston-rings

Dale

 

Just to catch up:

It's a 2012 Forester, not XT.

When I mentioned the rings to my mechanic at St. Croix Auto, they agreed. Eau Claire Subaru was dismissive. Morrie's Brooklyn Park was mostly curious and said, "we've got high oil consumption, let's see what Subaru will do about it."

Thanks for the interest! Still waiting to hear from Morrie's / Subaru of America about the next step, but it's been only 2 business days since the diagnosis.

 

This is sad for you, glad Subaru is being helpful so far.

Of note though is that this problem seems to be one of the first serial problems with the FB series engines. I have seen a few of these and they are well engineered otherwise...but there is always something.

A corollary to these FB engines is a similar ring problem on the EZ series engines; while less produced they had a serial problem with rings too that didn't end up as a recall.

Silly Subaru...

Also interesting, but just conjecture on my part, is I feel like post Fukushima there have been Japanese manufacturing bumps in the road; of which Subaru seems to have also had trouble with too. Probably just me saying stuff to say stuff, but I would be pretty scheched out too if Monticello was melting melting down in our back yard...yowzers.

 

ive replaced 2 short blocks so far for oil consumption issues. a few others have replaced rings for the same issue. its a super common issue lately. being its a 2012 you could probably get a new short block if they decide to fix it. good luck

 

Nice conjecture! The Subaru plant is about 150 miles from where the Fukushima power plant melted down, but I see your point. The more I pay attention to Subaru as a company, the more I believe that they're focused heavily on the Western markets. In Japan, I saw a fair amount of Crosstreks cruising around, as well as a few STI/WRXs, but very few other models. I saw far more Peugot than Subaru. So, I wouldn't be surprised (conjecturing here myself) if Subaru actually redoubled efforts to win over the American market--thus the success of the Forester and Crosstrek since 2013.

Maybe more pertinent to the Fukushima question would be Subaru's effort at "green manufactuing," given that Japan has flip-flopped a few times on whether they will continue nuclear energy in the future. Huh. Your conjecture has given me some stuff to look into!

But as long as the words "unintended acceleration" don't appear in Subaru reviews, I think they'll be happy with whatever other minor issue appears.

 

I'll just leave this here.

 

As a small preview, after a long line of phone calls and re-scheduling, my Forester is heading in for a full engine teardown on Monday. The short story of it is that my service associate, Loren, is no longer employed at Brooklyn Park, and it seems my paperwork got a bit lost in the shuffle. I directly called the service manager, Joe, and he got a lot of stuff sorted out, and I'm getting a rental car paid for by Subaru. He apologized for the department dropping the ball on my case and has done a good job of recovery. The other service associates I talked to were fine, but as they had no familiarity with my case, they mostly provided vague answers. I guess it's a lesson in going to the manager as soon as possible when a concern arises. I'll update more once warranty repairs are done.

 

Another update:

The Forester has been in Morrie's Brooklyn Park for 5 days and will likely be picked up Tuesday. The parts they order to fix the Subaru were not delivered in full and have delayed the repair for 2 extra business days. It will have been in the shop for a total of 7 business days by that point.

The high oil consumption was caused by the standard TSB issue: oil getting into the gas mixture in the pistons. I'll get a full list of what they replaced later.

Luckily, as noted above, I talked to the service manager Joe about my concerns with getting tossed around between service assistants and none of them quite knowing the extent of the work needed to be done. Joe got me a rental car arranged, which has been a life saver, as my previous service assistants had not offered this and assumed the car would be finished in 1 business day. Through Enterprise, they rented me a Chevy Equinox. It's nice to get a size-for-size replacement; I was fully expecting to be chugging to work in a cheapo Kia Forte or similar.

For what it's worth, the Equinox has a spaceship's-worth of buttons to operate the radio, has wheel-wells in the cargo space of enormous size that render the space as small as that of a hatchback, and accelerates awkwardly. It does ride smooth, though. It's not a *bad* car, it's just not my car. If anything, it's made us more certain that we love Foresters.

The overall takeaway of working with Brooklyn Park so far? Initiate everything. They have generally been polite (and I've talked to 5 service assistants now), but their communication system is antiquated and many of their employees seem overworked. Every time I call I state my name, my issue, my service assistant's name, and be patient. Don't call them when you're in a hurry--give them some time and they'll sort out the details. It's hard to say whether I would give them a 3 or 4 out of 5 ranking: they forgot about me, had inexperienced staff handling my issue that took 4 phone calls and an hour of talk time to sort out something as basic as whether I could get a replacement vehicle, and now I'm waiting 2 extra business days for parts that weren't fulfilled (but I'm not sure if they can be responsible for this last aspect).

 

For anybody wondering what happened with my 2012 Subaru and it's high oil consumption, Morrie's Brooklyn Park did a lot of fixing, and while it took a long time (3 times longer than predicted, although they paid for my rental car), everything seems to be fine. We're 2k+ miles since the repair and it has lost no oil. After getting the car back, I made sure to drive it fairly hard (65-70mph for long stretches, hitting 80 when I could).

Here's the full balance of repairs:

 

Congrats for getting it taken care of under warranty. Sorry it happened to you. Hopefully you dont run into any future issues.