Oil Thirsty Turbos!

[L-Raiser]

....I wanted to share something with you other people who are NEW to owning a Turbo to give you a heads up.

I went to check my oil today, granted I hadn't done so for a lil while...and noticed to my horror that she was almost dry!!!! She only had three mm of oil left on the end of the dipstick.

I own a 2002 WRX Impreza ( for 2yrs now) and she had a thorough service performed roughly 15 to 20,000 Kms ago. So I felt fairly confident that it was fine and happy enough, and not in dire need of any critical servicing. All my other 'non-turbo' cars never needed oil so badly. So I based my need to check oil on the experience of my previous cars. I know, I know....I realllllly should be checking my oil level FAR more often. I have certainly learnt from this! I had also been delaying my service a bit as my 100,000Km service is due now, which as you may or may not know costs a bloody fortune! so Ive been trying to put money aside for it.

When I spoke to the mechanic who did my service (he runs a shop that specialises in servicing WRX's) he told me that it is very normal for Turbo Subaru engines to use approx one litre of oil for every 10,000Kms!

I was quite shocked to learn this, I feel rather ignorant now.

Did YOU know that Turbo boxer engines guzzel a litre of oil for every 10,000kms.....????? Even new from the Factory....?

L-Raiser

[BrennyV]

Thank god you found out when you did and no harm was done. I haven’t herd that 205's use heaps of oil tho. I know the new sti 257's use heaps and also my sti 207 can suck it a little too. I always change oil every 6 - 10k depending on boost and how the cars been used.

Also wile were on the topic bout things you might not know Karen, your bug will run a cat in the up pipe (this was only bugeye wrx) and they tend to start failing around the amount of k's you have in your car. It would be a wise idea to have to check and maybe replaced with a catless uppipe. You might also throw a 'cel' if you do a 1ohm resistor in the plug will fix your cel

Brendan

[Suby Wan Kenobi]

Most turbo charged engines will use more oil that thier normally aspirated counterparts, this has to do with the engine crank case ventilation system.

[PeeJay]

I noticed my EJ20G uses more oil than my other Subarus but I thought it was because it was getting smeared all under the car! Now the leaks are gone I should go have a look see.

[Captain Obvious]

as swk said this is true, some may agree some wont but i believe a turbo motor should have oil done around every 5000k's i find both turbos i have had at 5000k's the oil is starting to turn to shit! think about oil running through an 800deg turbo can be good for it!!!

bryan

[PeeJay]

Hmmm after 1000km I had 4mm on the dipstick.

[L-Raiser]

Thank god you found out when you did and no harm was done. I haven’t herd that 205's use heaps of oil tho. I know the new sti 257's use heaps and also my sti 207 can suck it a little too. I always change oil every 6 - 10k depending on boost and how the cars been used.

Also wile were on the topic bout things you might not know Karen, your bug will run a cat in the up pipe (this was only bugeye wrx) and they tend to start failing around the amount of k's you have in your car. It would be a wise idea to have to check and maybe replaced with a catless uppipe. You might also throw a 'cel' if you do a 1ohm resistor in the plug will fix your cel

Brendan

It was recommended to me by someone a while ago that I change the oil in my WRX every 5-8,000kms. But I felt that this was excessive and unecessary, especially when a standard Oil Change ONLY costs about $140 at most service shops! But after this little experience....it has changed my perception a little.

Yeah thanks Brendan, re-up pipe, I was told at my last service by RMS, that I should change my up-pipe at the 100,000km service. Which I intend to do....unfortunately this lil mod will add anutha $600 odd to my service/repair bill. (sigh)

What do you mean by 'cel'....??? and the 1ohm resistor...? Whats a cel?

Cheers!
Regards
Kaz

[L-Raiser]

Most turbo charged engines will use more oil that thier normally aspirated counterparts, this has to do with the engine crank case ventilation system.

HMMmmm thats very interesting SWK..... I just figured it was the TURBO itself gobbling it all up....and burning it....

Curious....

Kaz

[L-Raiser]

I noticed my EJ20G uses more oil than my other Subarus but I thought it was because it was getting smeared all under the car! Now the leaks are gone I should go have a look see.

My goodness!!! Sounds like most COPS 'wet dream'.... to go over it and wack a 'canary' on your baby's windscreen (defect sticker).

Do you 'eastern staters' refer to these stickers as 'Canarys' too...???

Maybe its just a WA thing...hehe

[Captain Obvious]

CEL it Check Engine Light for short.
and maybe every 5000 is excesive is the car it not doing hard driving, both my turbo cars were and are offroaders and doing hard runs up the beach gets things nice and hot. as i said around the 5000 mark i can see a difference in the oil and feel the difference in car, i do my own oil change and it costs around the $40 mark!

[BrennyV]

600 to supply and install a catless up pipe??! thats ritch.
Cel light is your check engine light.
i found this handy gif for ya

[Captain Obvious]

what does that do bren??

[Point]

i use penrite oils and always change it at 5000kms. on my ET Pulsar rally car it was at around 3000kms (but it spent alot of time at 7000rpm). I tried a full synthetic oil on the family 323turbo and was going to stretch it out to 10000kms, but at about 8000kms it started to run rough and blow smoke. I thought i'd blown the turbo, but an oil change fixed it up.

lets face it, oil is pretty cheap, and changing it yourself is pretty easy too. most of the crud that is floating around inside your engine can be removed by changing the oil.

[Suby Wan Kenobi]

lets face it, oil is pretty cheap, and changing it yourself is pretty easy too. most of the crud that is floating around inside your engine can be removed by changing the oil.

I agree and have a 5k rule, change at 5k always unless oil is still original colour then will go another 1k if i have too. In my Dads turbo RX as it isnt driven hard enough the oil always looks like new coming out ofter 6k.

[steptoe]

old rule of thumb was check engine oil and other important stuff every tank fill but i guess that rule was with locally made cars - but an easy one to remember

My EA82T did not appear to use a drop of oil for its first (in my care) 5000km but there is now oil in the PCV hoses that was not there before !!

[discopotato03]

$140 for an oil change ? I just did my RX and the R33 Skyline and the bits came to just under $100 . That was for Castrol Edge synthetic 5W30 for the Nissan and GTX for the Subaru , I always use Ryco filters .

The cheap and cheerful GTX was used because Ellie uses a little and that engine is due to be replaced soon .

The reason why regular oil changes are necessary is because any combustion by products (ring blow by) can only be removed by draining them out with the oil . Now an old engine is going to have more blow by than a fresh one so its going to contaminate its oil faster - so I reckon 5000's a good life in an older engine .

Oil . My finding is that my 271K old EA82T seems to like 20W50 oil better than the lower viscosity ones I tried and it runs a little cooler on it too . BTW the 20W figure in that (or any) multi-grade oil is a cold pouring index not a viscosity range . You cannot make a lubricating fluid increase in viscosity with increase in temperature . So 20W50 means a 50 weight oil with a 20W cold pouring index .
You will find that better quality oils don't burn quite as easily as cheap nasty ones .
My plan with the new engine is to run it in on the cheapest Castrol oil - usually GTX . Many I know who regularly build expensive high performance engines use this because it has a minimum of friction modifiers and they want the rings to bed in quickly . My mentor goes for a run from Sydney to Bathurst and back and then changes the oil and filter , out with the GTX and in with Castrol Edge synthetic . They use 10W60 in that RB25DET because it regularly gets worked hard and only has the std water oil heat exchanger not a proper oil cooler .
I don't agree that turbos use lots of oil , not if they're healthy anyway . Also BTW a water cooled turbo won't let its oil run at anything like 800 deg C , its bearing cartridge has quite low thermal mass compared to the water running through it .
I do agree that Sube engines have a maze of breather hoses and I reckon that's where any oil (vapor) used gets into the system and is burnt . If it worried you I suppose you make an oil/air separator and try to plumb it in - fair bit of work .

In my book a reasonable oil and filter every 5-6000 , cheers A .

[L-Raiser]

THANKS for all the feedback guys....!!

Most valuable...as always...

Man, one can learn so much more about your own car in Forums such as these.....!

Thanks to ALL who take part in keeping this Forum alive!!!!

Kaz

[julian]

Also when changing the oil, ALWAYS replace the filter. OEM filters from subaru are not that expensive and far superior to their Super-cheap equivalents. And if you hassle your Soob dealer enough they might give you a trade discount.
My EA82T gets fresh oil, filter, and sump plug washer at around 6-7000km.

[BrennyV]

what does that do bren??

gets rid of the cel when u run the decat up pipe

[Subafury]

would it be bad to skip the oil filter change if you where changing oil every 5000k and only to do the filter every 10000? to save a little $