Here's my fact.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39983

-alex

LOL at the Service adviser here trying to sell oil change. It is not working buddy. You only have to go with the "original" factory service interval. Glad i don't work in the service department. Otherwise i probably ended up as a greasy motherfucker as well.

O damn shots fired !!!

I'm not doing them at 11K. I'm doing them on the 7500 mile intervals that Subaru recommends. The point of my comment on the TBN results is that doing them at 4000 is a complete waste of money.

If some people want to service their car earlier than specified by the mfg, I say let them do it. Peace of mind to some is well worth the cost. It's not like doing an oil change will cost you an arm and a leg. It's fairly inexpensive imo.

Never, ever quote anything from this or any other car forum as "fact"! Opinion, non confirmed information, theory, just about anything but "fact".

Nobody's stopping him.

6 Quarts of quality fluid plus an oil filter around $50 in my experience, a shortened interval from 7.5k to 5k results in 2x extra oil changes over the first 5 years of average driving (60k miles @ 12k miles/year), so about $100.

I don't know about you but $100 and data supported peace of mind wins out over not having $100 and anecdotal peace of mind.

Since I plan on owning this car until it dies and becomes not worth fixing, lets call that 200k miles, that's 40 oil changes to 26.67 (we'll say 27) so at 13 oil changes that's $650, subtract the cost of ~3 oil analysis at $25/each at ~50k/~100k/~150k miles that's an extra set of sticky tires in OEM size or lowering springs or camber plates or an OFT. Bump the interval up to 10k as supported by numerous Blackstone analysis on several cars and save $1,000 over 200k miles.

No it's not breaking the bank as most everybody here is plunking down for a >$20k car but given what we know now, how conservative most OEM's are on their recommendations, and with some claiming 15k+ is fine, it really is throwing money away.

Measurable data is fact, data supports claim, claim is fact. I'll take that over an unproven anecdote like someone is guaranteed to post before this thread drops off the front page any day of the week.

Also it's been too quiet around here.

What does the MANUAL say?

Some older people will say that you need to do oil changes every 500 miles within the 1,500 mile period. That's 3 oil changes before the standard scheduled oil change. They say it's to ensure that the metal shavings from the break in period is removed. I followed that advice once and learned that that was the old school way of thinking.

I had my first oil change done at over 800 miles, thinking that I should have had the oil change done sooner. No shavings were found, nor was there any shavings on the magnetized bolt plug.

Point is older engines may need oil changes sooner than newer ones, but the newer engines are obviously manufactured differently and even improved (though I'm sure it's also the oil, as well) to require oil changes less frequently.

So, yes. I'll be following the 7.5k intervals for oil changes and regular service.

I think you could even be hurting the engine since you'd be draining the factory fill before the engine is broken in, and that oil has higher concentrations of anti-wear additives.

I totally agree with this.
Except... some of the "measured" data on forums is dubious at best and disastrous at worst case. Just look how many (most?) of the polls on here are worded in such a way that skews the results. If you use that "data" you could have horrible results. We also need to consider how many of the self proclaimed experts we have seen on here and think how much you would trust their "data" and claims (almost anybody with Uber in their user name for example). There are maybe 10 people on here that I personally would take at their word and the rest I would independently verify every single "fact" that they present even if backed up with reams of data.
The problem with newer or inexperienced guys is they can not always see through the fog of bull shit that gets posted, may very well pick the wrong source for their facts and end up with issues.

Being one of the older guys and having watched the even older ones do this I can completely vouch for it. The sad part was that many of the people doing those 500 miles oil changes figured they could save some cash and put the cheapest oil they could find into their brand new cars. Many even had odd theories about what the viscosity should be ( based on the even older guys theories) so not only did they change the oil for crappy grocery store stuff they also used the totally wrong grades.

There are varying degrees of "old school" thought. I drained and replaced my factory fill at 4000 miles, then went on the 7500 mile schedule thereafter. According the the oil analysis from Blackstone, that first fill had a relatively high concentration of metals from break-in. Not shavings, but suspended metal particles. While I think the oil could likely handle it and doubt it was all that bad, I doubt it was particularly good for the engine either.

A shorter interval than that would have been overkill, but I still think I did the right thing at 4000.