xfile said:
change? Also, any recommendations on after market filters and oil
products would be great!
Hi,
Oil filters: OEM first, followed by Purolator (they make OEM for Subie
USA), and the Wal-Mart Super Tech (made by Champion labs, who also make
the Bosch brand in the US, Mobil 1 and a host of others) have all worked
well for my old Loyale. I've used the orange Frams on a host of
vehicles, and as evidenced by the 250k miles a friend is about to see on
his Toyota truck, they filter just fine. However, I did experience some
oil pressure drops when I tried 'em on my Subie. Wix/NAPA Gold have been
excellent choices on the vehicles I've used 'em on, but haven't tried
'em on the Subie.
Oil? Might as well ask "blonde, redhead or brunette?" Whadya like and
what's your budget? You'll get ALL kinds of opinions on both subjects,
and I'll bet a dollar nobody can put some definitive numbers on what oil
REALLY works best (outside of the labs, and the fact filters "Meet Mfr's
Warrany Requirements" and oil meets the mfr's suggested API or other
specs tells me they know far more about what's important than we're
party to!) I've run MOST of my vehicles, Subie included, on Castrol GTX.
The Subie's down now, but had 360k miles when it pulled to the side of
the road the last time, and the failure wasn't oil related. The friend's
Toyota truck mentioned above has been run on Chevron Supreme. My Camry,
which had 214k "babied freeway" miles when I got it, lived on Pennzoil
all that time, though I've switched it since.
And just for giggles, here are the general change intervals: my Subie,
3k mi; my Camry, 3750 mi; friend's Toy truck, 5k mi; my Toy truck
(below), 3k mi. Filters were always changed at each oil change, too. Of
course, I could toss a wrench in the works and describe the Subie a late
friend had: it had 240k miles when she passed, and she put in whatever
kind of oil the supermarket, drug store or 7-11 she was close to had
whenever it was a coupla quarts low, and changed it religiously (every
time it had been pitch black long enough she got tired of her
girlfriend's hubby nagging her!) As far as I know, several years later
that car's still going somewhere!
Mobil 1 is often suggested, if you want to spend the money for an
unknown amount of "improvement." Not knocking it, I'm just thinking out
loud "I know it won't hurt, but how much will it help?" Currently, I'm
running Wal-Mart's Super Tech "Full Synthetic" (we're not going to argue
the semantics of what IS or ISN'T truly "synthetic") in both the Camry
and a Toyota pickup in an experiment: it's about the same price as GTX
locally, so it's no big deal on cost. The Camry has shown NO measurable
change, in oil consumption, fuel economy, etc., but the stuff does seem
to be doing as most synthetics and cleaning things out a bit, judging by
how quickly it becomes discolored compared to dino oil. The Toyota truck
has shown a slight decrease in oil consumption. SLIGHT! (But that can't
REALLY be attributed to the oil alone: the vehicle had 63k miles between
12-31-87 when it was purchased new, and 12-31-05 when I purchased it
from the widow of the original owner. Typical "drive 2 miles, park 2
days" usage so many of our local senior citizens show. Since then, it's
had about 12k miles, so it's easy to see how just blowing some of the
spiders out COULD have an effect!) No significant change in fuel economy
has been logged (and I keep GOOD records of that.) I recently pulled the
valve cover and there IS evidence of varnish disappearing. Like the
Camry, this truck lived on Pennzoil before I got it, and I would suggest
both engines have a bit more varnish than my "Castrol engines" though
not as much as "Valvoline engines" I've looked inside. Even so, I've
seen no real differences in wear or oil consumption between the
different brands.
So what it really boils down to is this: whether you go to Wally World
and buy one of their house branded $2 filters and their house branded
oil, either dino or synthetic, and change every 3k-4k miles or so, or
spend all you want on a Mobil 1 filter and Mobil 1 oil (or other high
dollar oil and filter) and change at WHATEVER intervals you feel
appropriate (remembering that for a vehicle under warranty, you've GOT
to follow mfr's recommendations no matter what you're running), or split
the difference anywhere in between, I'll bet my other dollar you'll
never be able to document any REAL statistically significant differences
in performance well enough to state for certain, "Yup, it's definitely
THAT oil that makes the difference!" It's just a matter of your "feel
good quotient."
Of course that last statement will bring on all kinds of argument, so to
quote the fellow (retired automotive engineer) who first introduced me
to synthetic oils, bypass filtration and a coupla other things back in
the mid-70s liked to say, "Show me your numbers, and we can talk!"
Rick
)))))