Longevity of WRXs...?

Subaru's in general are just getting nicely broken in at 26k. Assuming you've treated your WRX nice, it should go at least another 150k

I _think_ I have. I am a little concerned about oil consumption; the level was rather low last service (just last week), and I haven't gotten an answer why yet.

It's mostly used for city driving. No aggressive rallies lately ;-), certainly no 'honk on the turbo and then stop the motor cold' kind of stuff.

The only thing I do which might be considered 'iffy' behavior is engine braking. I'm trying to break the habit, for the sake of the clutch and the synchros, but oh well. I don't do it all the time, but probably more than I should.

I'm also not clear if that could be a possible factor in oil consumption. The research on that point continues...

Thanks!

Still running my early car. 10 years old now. Only 70,000 miles, though. Still going strong. No real problems. Clutch replaced at 60 something, of course. Probably needs it's third or fourth set of front discs soon and another set of those sticky black round things. Drove it the other day for the first time in weeks - usually only use it when I'm going somewhere. Even on a short local hop, I was reminded what a joy this car is to drive. Never use it without getting well on boost at least once. Love it.

You've gone thru three sets of front rotors, in

70K miles??

On 2006-04-10, BD penned:

*jealous*

My WRX is almost exactly 2 years old, and over 29K miles.

Then again, a lot of those were fun, twisty curves driving to ski resorts and trailheads, so maybe I shouldn't complain *grin*

On 2006-04-10, BD penned:

I think stop-and-go city driving is considered hard usage, to some extent. Not as hard as rallies, I'm sure ...

Is engine braking considered bad for a car? I didn't know that ...

Well, I don't expect it's a _horrible_ practice, but it does work the motor and the synchros; one guy basically said to me that if you're gonna use _anything_ to slow down, why not just use the 'cheap' brakes alone, instead of adding wear on the more expensive clutch and the very expensive synchros?

Oh, I've had my fun too - nothing like taking a sharp turn and hearing the front left tire start to slip because it's almost off the ground. ;)

On 2006-04-10, BD penned:

Well, it's a different feel ... personally I like to use both. Down shifting also feels like it gives more control (less chance of slip) in rain and snow. But I didn't realize it could end up costing me megabucks.

On 2006-04-10, BD penned:

Okay, maybe I haven't had as much fun as you have =P

I suspect that it's not too bad if you rev-match reasonably as you downshift and if you don't have the clutch pedal partly down for a spell each time. You shouldn't be 'slipping' the clutch much trying to downshift smoothly, and you should rev the engine as you downshift to near where it's about to end up anyway - if you get those wrong you may cause a fair bit of wear - but with practice you should be able to downshift quickly and smoothly for engine braking. I don't go through clutch units and transmissions all that quickly but, yes, brakes are cheaper. (-:

I like being in an appropriate gear for most of the time so that I can accelerate immediately even if I didn't expect to have to. I may place more importance on that than is usual, though.

-- Mark

To be clear, I don't have any hard info on that - only opinions expressed here - which, when I think about them, do make intuitive sense.

I won't discourage you from doing as you're used to doing - but it may warrant some research to be clear on what's up.

It's the way I learnt to drive and I've always done it that way and

*never* had a transmission failure. In the days of rear wheel drive it meant that your braking was being done by the rear wheels and you still had the fronts for steering and braking should an emergency arise.

But that was in the days of drum brakes.

Slowing down using you gears means always you also have another braking system available should you need it. Slowing just on brakes, well......

Oh yeah - definitely, if I need to stop fast, I'll use the brakes plus the engine - but what that guy said in that one post does kind of stick with me. Not so much that engine braking is bad for the motor, but that it can end up using more oil than it should. Just kind of put a bug in my ear, is all...

On 2006-04-10, Bugalugs penned:

Yes, exactly. Several years ago, a year or two into the ownership of my first manual transmission car, my dad noticed that I didn't downshift. "Hey, you're missing half the fun of shifting!" Honestly, it hadn't occured to me to try. After that, I started practicing, and now I'd say that anyone who doesn't use downshifting is missing a major benefit of driving stick.

I especially appreciate engine braking when I have a lot of weight in the car, because it gives me more braking power than brakes alone. It also can feel smoother in inclement weather (although it may be that I'm slipping the clutch to acheive that; fortunately the weather's beautiful right now, so I can't test it =)).

It's not real fun until the backend is hanging out in the other lane :)

Steve

>

This is exactly what I do, and I'm still on the factory clutch of my

98 Audi A4 at 97k miles, feels like new, still. The 99 Legacy OBW, on the other hand, had to have a new clutch put in at about 79k miles. We bought the car used, so who knows how the original owner drove it, but the regular driver of the Subaru (not I) *had* a bad habit of riding the clutch. The repair bill cured that condition. :)

You do, but I agree, I love being in the "right" gear just so I can react properly. Part of it is motorcycle safety training, too, which emphasizes this point.

Bought my WRX in 11/2001 (wagon, manual). 65K miles and running great. Except recent center differential swap which was already discussed here and considered as just a bad luck, I had no other major issues. Brake pads changed at 35K and probably to be changed again in about 5K. Clutch still in perfect shape. Probably the most reliable car I've ever had in my 19 years driving career.

I think the next set will be the third set of discs, yet. One set soon after purchase and another since. This is a Rex, you know. Even someone as gently on the brakes as I am is going to wear them out in

20 or 30 thou. These things are consumables.