[GeoJosh]

As some of you already knew, I sent off a sample of my CVT fluid for analysis.

I also sent a sample of the new, unused fluid that I got from Subaru.

Both analysis results are included below. The used sample had 51,538 miles on it and results were promising. I expect that the 100,000 mile interval will be adequate for my CVT.

Please keep in mind that I do a lot of highway driving (90%+) and am not an aggressive driver. If you push your XT to the limit regularly, please take these results with a grain of salt... yours will likely be different.

Keep in mind that there is no way to do a transmission fluid flush, so you will have to do several consecutive drain - fill - drive cycles to get the dirty oil cleaned out. Each cycle will dilute the dirty oil with cleaner oil.

FRESH OIL

USED OIL

 

[04caliwrx]

Thanks for the post josh! Was all over it on Facebook also! I'm sure 100k of how you drive is safe! I drive hard so 50k is my change for th cvt fluid

 

[SuBooneru]

Good to know. Thanks for the info! I probably fall somewhere in between you guys as far as how hard I am on the car, so I'm thinking changing it soon at 70k will be adequate. Maybe I'll try and get a sample of my used fluid to see how it compares to yours Josh.

 

[Rand]

Quite Interesting, thanks for taking the time and $$$ to do this.

 

[warren561]

Thanks for posting this.

I wonder how this would turn out for the non-XT (non-High Torque) CVT...

 

[Athens Turbaru]

Nice. Thanks for sharing this info!

 

[GeoJosh]

Happy to help, all!

Hopefully some people who drive their XT aggressively on a regular basis can get their samples analyzed too... I would be interesting to see how the CVT durability will be for different driving styles.

 

[bluesubie]

Wow, this stuff is very light in metallic additives. The High Performance Gear Oil is light in additives as well.

 

[DanT55]

I just had my FXT CVT fluid changed at 35k miles. $180 from the dealer. It was dirty looking for sure but as we all know may still have some good life left. Going to send for testing so we can get some more data points. I was running a Cobb AP since the engine was broke in and had some pretty good pulls on it. Once I get the results I will share.

DT

 

[Eddie Spaghetti]

Looks like I better start saving up for the 5 gal pail of Orange oil that we have to buy from the Suby dealer,I have thought of using the Red line stuff,I would like to see what their CVT ATF has in it for chemicals! ed

 

[JSoobie16]

The numbers look great. Thanks for taking the time and spending the money! There's still a lot of unknowns though, as in does the ~50K mile CVT fluid still have all the magical properties that is does when new. You'll never know.

I'm still one for an old fashion pan drop where applicable. The 2-3 late model Subaru CVTs I've seen posted on the interwebs with the pans off had a fair amount of glitter and discolored goo in the pans.

 

[SJ13XT]

FYI
I sent your new oil sample over to compare as a base line.
This is from an Australian spec
I do not launch or flog it , I use it for towing aprox 1T boat ( 2200 pounds )

 

[bigfella]

FYI
I sent your new oil sample over to compare as a base line.
This is from an Australian spec
I do not launch or flog it , I use it for towing aprox 1T boat ( 2200 pounds )

Would you mind sharing what fluid you ended up replacing the factory fill with?

Cheers