As I mentioned in a previous post, the lease on my 02 WRX wagon is coming up in about 6 months. I'm deciding what to do.
I am concerned about oil consumption; it seemed rather low when I took it in at the last service, - but according to the the tech's report, it was about 1/2 a litre lower than it should ideally be. That doesn't strike me as a horrifying amount.
But I want to measure this _my way_ as well. In this case, my way is - check the level when the motor's cold right after servicing, and monitor it every week or so until next service.
This sounds like an elementary question, but how many litres (or quarts or whatever) of oil are between L and H on an 02 WRX dipstick?
I posed this question to the service manager at the dealer, and got a pretty mushy answer.
I'm hoping someone here can help me find a clearer one. I only trust these folks 'so far', and want to find as much information on my own as I can.
Conventional practice is to have approx 1 qt/liter between the marks. Most manufacturers today seem to stick with this figure, though it hasn't always been so. Does your car have an owners manual? It ~usually~ tells you, though not always!
As for measuring consumption, as long as you have a reference point to start with--full, half way down, whatever--all you have to do is measure how much it takes to return the level to your starting point. You can be "close" using the marks on most oil containers, or a bit more "precise" and use a measuring cup, though it's not THAT important for most of us! Oil consumption, like fuel consumption, is most easily judged as an average due to a variety of driving conditions...
With my 02 OBS, whenever I had the oil changed, except at the dealer, I was always told it came in low. The owners manual states the oil capacity is 4.2 qts and they were putting in five quarts. Make sure that is not happening to you. I started leaving a post-it note on the dash about the oil and the tire pressure, along with the owner's manual on the passenger seat, if they wanted to look up the info themselves. As to the tires, they always filled them to the limit listed on the tire, which was off quite a bit from Subaru's recommendations. Also, the front and rear tires had different pressures.
Thanks, Stacey. In this case it is the dealer doing the work. I can only assume they're putting in the correct amount, but have yet to receive the bill for this last service, so I don't have any specific numbers.
I also have yet to establish whether or not burning 1/2 a litre of oil over 6000kms (which is about a pint over 3700 miles) is normal, or indicates a problem.
Assuming the dealer has not been overfilling it, and assuming I don't drive like a madman, at 5000rpm all the time (which I do not)...
I don't have it in front of me, but I did see a post from another (I think) WRX driver recently, who claimed that his vehicle consumed _no_ oil between servicings.
If this is so, and there's nothing amiss with my vehicle, would driving style (default gear/rpm, engine braking, etc) possibly add to oil consumption?
Since my lease is about to come due, I'm really getting semi-paranoind about any little thing that could indicate an issue with my car. ;)
A half-litre per 3700 miles is very good and very close to not consuming any. There's even an argument that all cars consume oil and if the oil level on the dipstick doesn't change, the oil is being replaced by water or gas, which is a worse situation.
I'd be more troubled with a car that didn't show a slight drop in oil level between changes.
Running a very light weight oil or lots of fast, high temperature driving might affect the oil consumption, but again, it's not a worry at the levels you're seeing.
No problem! I wish I had ANY engine that used that little oil, even when brand new! This is strictly a YMMV issue, but I figure 1 qt/3000 mi (a little better than twice as much oil consumption as you've reported) is a "reasonable" across the board average for MY engines and driving style...
First thing to determine whenever one sees such a report is the definition of "no oil consumption." Many drivers feel that if the level remains between "full" and "add" within an oil change interval (OCI), their engine is using "no" oil.
Next thing to determine is the credibility of the person making the report. When's the last time he checked his oil? How does he check his oil? (For example, if I check mine "cold" and it's "full," it will register around 1/4 qt "overfull" when hot. So if it's "full" when cold, then some miles later it's "full" when hot, there's really a quarter qt difference.)
Then find out what OCI the person's using. It's not unusual in my experience to see oil consumption rates start to increase more rapidly after 3-4000 miles than before that mileage. So a guy MAY not see any visible consumption if he changes every 3k miles, but if he stretches his OCI to 6k miles, he MAY see a noticeable increase.
Finally, who did the last oil change and how full did they leave the engine? The fact the dealer did the change does NOT guarantee the proper amount of oil was put in. People are constantly asking about an "overfull" condition their car returned from the shop with: it's hardly unusual to see at least ~some~ overfilling since so many cars today don't take "even" qts or litres. I'm told some shops actually overfill a bit on purpose to help create a "safety buffer" for those guys who never check! I know I've seen some overfilled by AT LEAST a full quart! That driver could go a LONG time (assuming no other negative issues arise from the overfill), even with "normal" oil consumption, and still be at "full" or above... could be confusing!
And, yes, your driving style definitely affects oil consumption. For example, I live at the foot of the mountains AND the edge of the desert at the same time (the joys of living in inland SoCal!), and my normal "winter" driving is pretty much on flatland freeways toward the coast, while my "summer" driving involves lots of mountain miles and some HOT desert trips. I often see a BIG difference in consumption between the two times of year (which is why I mentioned "average" consumption in my other post.)
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