[snaps]

I have a 2002 Forester, mostly city driving with the occasional 300 mile trip. How often should I have my oil changed? I normally rely on my repair guy to tell me this stuff, but he's become so popular it's difficult to get in touch with him.

 

[Robster]

What does your service manual recommend?

 

[2.5x_sleeper]

@snaps the Subaru recommended scheduled maintenance can be viewed here on cars101.com - 2000-2009. :wink:

How many miles do you drive in a year?

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]

 

[cdherman]

Note that the current Subaru recommended oil change intervals is not necessarily what is in your original owners manual. The screenshot above looks to be taken from subaru usa recently. The fine print says that for totally normal driving, you can change oil every 7500 miles or 6 months in the non-turbo engine. But the list of things that constitute severe service and thus, 3750 oci is long and includes city driving, frequent starts and stops, short distances etc.

So practically, the conservative rec is 3750, or every six months.

Now, if the engine does not leak oil, does not burn much oil and lets say, you average 8,500 miles per year, then I would have no fear at all going every six months (and thus every 4,250 miles more or less, for instance).

And, should you really hate changing oil, or perhaps have environmental considerations, then the whole discussion of using full sythetic, extended oil change oils, like Mobile 1 12,000 opens up. I am going that route in my newer Prius, but scared to consider that long an OCI in an old Foz.

 

[UhOh]

I'm original owner to '99, A/T, with 231,000 miles, good condition - but I don't want to be faced with major fix-it issue in such an old car.

I have a 2002 Forester, mostly city driving with the occasional 300 mile trip. How often should I have my oil changed?

First off, find what brand and flavor of oil your mechanic has been using and stick with it (shows on service receipt or oil change sticker); don't change from regular oil to synthetic for example. The engine oil seals and gaskets are long since adapted to a particular type of oil chemistry, so don't try to 'improve things' at this age.

Your mostly short drives are what the manual calls 'severe driving conditions,' usually calls for changing oil 2x as often under these conditions. That's my type of driving also.

So how often to change? - I change my Subie's oil/filter twice a year, using regular 5w-30 oil, probably every 2500 miles, by mileage, if it goes on a rare trip.

Hope this helps you.

 

[adc]

as long as you keeptheoillevelneat thefulllineyou can easily go 5000K miles. But again you must keep the level up.

You can honestly go much further under those conditions but best to be a bit conservative.

 

[snaps]

Thanks for all the advice, guess I'll find out what oil my mechanic used and take it from there.

 

[2.5x_sleeper]

@snaps I'm retired, so I don't drive as much as did when I was working. Last year I drove a touch over 1000 miles.

My '07 FSXT has a touch over 28K miles. I change the engine oil & filter once a year. :wink:

Bobby...

['07 FSXT MODding Journal] ['03 X MODding Journal]

 

[frijoles]

08 fxt at 193k miles
I usually do 3-3.5k.

i Juuust did my oil yesterday at 4.1k to pull it further.
Yikes. The oil was like water. really didnt think it would change so much adding 500 miles?? buuut i guess the last time i did change it was ~5 months ago, since i decreased my daily mileage. I do use motul 8100 x clean 5w30, which is on the lighter side.
I used t6 when i first got it, but i felt like on cold nights ~40', the engine struggled to turn.