oil consumption

[TBone7281]

I know from just cruising through NASIOC and the like over a number of years that Subaru's turbo engines tend to eat oil at a ridiculous rate, but what is everyone's experience on here? I'm in the middle of hopefully fixing some of my WRX's oil appetite. The valve cover gaskets on both sides have apparently been leaking for a long time. I re-did the passenger side a week or two ago and didn't even realize that the valve cover was metal until I cleaned it off. I've just assumed it was black plastic for years.

[Rodeheaver's]

Call Moore Performance, those guys are gurus with Subarus.

[TBone7281]

I meant more like "how much oil is your car going through" than "how do I fix it". The general consensus seems to be that there isn't a particular way to stop the overall oil loss in these engines, it's just part of the deal.

[SlowSix]

My ej22 goes through like a quart a week, but it needs cam seals bad.
Subaru's are pretty notorious for eating oil though

[Dan B.]

My 2.5L Outback has 221k miles on it and doesn't gobble oil. I drive it maybe 250-300 miles a week and it may take half a quart a month......maybe. It has the head gaskets done twice.

Is the oil issue a WRX thing?

[03 OW SVT]

My 08 Legacy GT went through a qt every 2,500 miles when it got to 90,000 miles.

[somethingclever]

My 2.5L Outback has 221k miles on it and doesn't gobble oil. I drive it maybe 250-300 miles a week and it may take half a quart a month......maybe. It has the head gaskets done twice.

Is the oil issue a WRX thing?

I thought you were driving that little ranger you picked up a while back???


The oil consumption is definitely not a wrx only thing. Coworkers forester ate it up too.

[TBone7281]

Yeah, I don't believe it's a WRX specific thing. Based on the couple replies above, there are at least 3 different engines listed.

My car has the EJ20 with 175k miles. I got the car with maybe 30k miles on it and it has always gone through oil. Up until maybe 2 years ago it was needing 1/2 quart every 1000 miles. In the last year or so it has been averaging between 1 and 2 quarts every 1000 miles. (I keep a spreadsheet so I can keep an eye on it.)

The stealership at one point told me my oil filter was leaking. I sort of rolled my eyes because the car was losing oil for way longer than the time that particular filter was on it. (The oil they were seeing turned out to be from the oil cooler gasket, which is another common failure.) So I fixed that a while back and hopefully replacing the valve cover gaskets will do some good as well.

No vehicle I've ever owned went through oil like crazy so I originally thought that maybe it was an effect of the turbo (or the turbo seals going). But my wife's Saab 9-3 Aero is a 2.8l V6 turbo and that thing doesn't go through any oil, ever. Still, I came upon a low mileage take off turbo a while back for a good price and swapped them just in case the seals on mine were bad but that didn't seem to do any good either.

[cwh19]

I have an 06 2.5i and it uses oil as well. I think its just a boxer motor thing. Older Porches do the same thing.

[Dan B.]

I thought you were driving that little ranger you picked up a while back???

I was DD'ing it then bought the wife a 2010 Outback. The 2000 Outback became mine. The light blue 1990 Ranger now sets next to the 1985 387W Ranger in the garage. I still drive it a bunch when the weather is fair or I need a little truck to get something. It's just in such damn fine shape that I can't stand to drive it in the salt and slop.