2013 BRZ oil consumption
 

what is normal oil consumption for a BRZ? i hear some people talking about 7k+ interval oil changes. Is that without topping it off? for me at 3000-3500 miles the dipstick gets very low. should i just stick to 3k intervals? i set up an oil consumption test with dealer i will return in 1200 miles returning car stock. could my engine be prematurely failing? it's flash tuned with a uel header since 12k miles nothing else, it's at 27k miles now. Has always been dealer maintained have all records showing the car has never been neglected with it's maintenance. I have never over revv'd the car, i hear this is a common engine killer. Also could a compression and leakdown test with good results and still have something broken and or prematurely worn with the engine? The consumption started at around 17k miles

:slap: snap out of it, Project N64.

I'm ah feared you are trying to compare red apples to green apples. Oil consumption usually has little or nothing to do with oil change interval.

I understand is that adding a quart of oil between 7,000 mile oil chances is not unusual for this engine. My 2013 FR-S takes about 1/2 a quart between oil changes.

I suggest you just follow the oil change recommendations in the maintenance manual and add enough oil between oil changes to keep the line on the dipstick near the top hole.

Now, relax and take a nice Sunday drive … :thumbsup:


humfrz

I have 0 oil consumption and I do oil changes at 7.5k .. sometimes a little higher. I think one time I unknowingly waited until 10k.

edit: im at little over 79k

I typically burn half a quart to a quart between oil changes (~5k miles). The top hole on the dipstick to the bottom hole is a quart. This is normal, modern engines burn oil on purpose.

While it would be a bit odd for an engine to suddenly behave differently, it could be that you just started noticing at 17k? Perhaps your driving changed a bit (different commute, more aggressive on throttle, etc)?

Also, it's entirely possible the dealer filled it half a quart less than maximum for one reason or another. Oil fill isn't the most precise of measurements.

I've have no oil consumption issues in my FA20 or my EJ25.

Both were broken in hard though.

If your overly concerned you can fit a "good" baffled catch can and see how much blow by you have.

If you have alot, I would then look at a compression and leak down and go from there.

Be aware that doing a comp and leak on a boxer is a royal PITA.

If your not concerned, just keep topping it up.

Thanks for the responses everyone. The car isn't driven really hard or abused. I find it very odd that plenty of people are reporting zero consumption, i understand there are plenty of factors but with me ending up low on the dipstick at 3-3500 miles i think there is something wrong (i could be wrong). I check the oil every few times i gas up. Has been confirmed to have no leaks before this consumption test. Service adviser even told me brz's aren't known to be consuming oil. Guess compression and leakdown is way to go if there's excessive oil gone.

Same brake in method in my last two Subarus, no oil consumption at all!

I did 10,000 miles on my last oil change, added no oil that entire time, and the dipstick had only lost about 1/4" of oil.

Have you checked the cam plate or anywhere to see if your car is leaking oil externally? Seems like a common sense thing to do. Clean the grime underneath the car (including around your oil pan) and next time it's on a lift, see if there's oil dribbling

Dealer did a full inspection, I made it very clear it was consuming oil they said there's nothing visable even under the car. I have looked all over the engine bay, even cam plate area because I even heard there was a tsb for it.

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I'm just shy of 16k miles on a 2017 BRZ, most of that has been on back roads or on track (e.g. at high RPM/high load), and I have had no oil consumption whatsoever. I check my oil every time I fill up just in case, but it's always held to the same mark every time. I change the oil every 3k or 3 track days.

Yeah I figured you had, wondering if they actually put in the effort to really LOOK. As stated previously, unless you're billowing blue smoke, I wouldn't be terribly concerned, it happens in most engines but usually not this extensively. A quart is an awful lot. pull off your intake and PCV hoses and look for oil in there

All engines consume oil. Some more than others. Just because it uses a little oil is not a indication that it is worse shape than one that uses less. Power seats rings. If they put to much power to it early and overheated the rings you are screwed, nothing you can do but live with it. If they just did not seat good you could get them to seat a little better by running the engine hard.

If you dont get good ring and bore seal initially when breaking in the engine then you've missed the boat.

Running the engine hard will not fix the issue after the fact.

Light reading > http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

https://www.enginebuildermag.com/201...the-right-way/

Unless you build the engine yourself, this is all academic. With a new car, the engine will have been started several times before it reaches its final destination.

Initial starting does play its role, but the benifits are still available for a few heat and load cycles even if the car has a couple of km on it.

From picking the brains of engine builders over the years I've learnt you need the engine at operating temps and under full load, before too many heat cycles and/or km.

I acknowledge this is a "can of worms" topic, I'm only putting forward what I have learned and what processes I use to break in a new engine using, what I believe are, sound engineering principles.

I've used this method on all new vehicles I have purchased and any engines that I have had built for me, cars and bikes included.

I'm no engine builder or mechanical engineer, but to me, the proof is in the pudding.

I have mixed feelings about the technique and zero experience so, no argument from me.

Given a proper build, at worst it would do nothing. Seems like a no-brainer to give it a go.

I did a semi-hard break in .. occasional red line pulls.

But I'm seeing a lot of stuff out there advocating against hard pulls. so ... I don't know.

I guess it worked out for me, but that's pretty meaningless anecdote - more likely I got lucky with the engine block manufacturing process.
(Hopefully the recall work on the springs don't mess things up)

How many people advocating against it are engine builders?

Metallurgy and oils have come along way.

More than materials and lube, the main advance in play here is the manufacturing process.

Break-in is to give the parts that aren't supposed to come into contact a chance to rub against each other and wear down until they don't. Not much need for that anymore, not unless the build was for shit in the first place.

I believe it's still needed IOT ensure the ring and bore, ummm, leave a spot for the oil to sit on the surface of the bore to lubricate the ring and bore.

Other wise the hone gets screwed up and there is glazing on the bore, which will cause blow by.

It's more technical than my uneducated rambling though.

There's some good engine building sites that can relate it better, they even have pictures taken with microscopes that show the difference between what constitutes a good lubricated seal, and a poor one, and they explain how the different break in methods affect the bores.

The advancements in the honing methods now are also a good read and very enlightening.

This was one of the few pretty convincing things I remember off the top of my head

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oklqJnm7_TY[/ame]

I read the same article from mototune back in 2003, since then I follow succesfully their guide and although I rev the cars during brake in period I try to not be too hard, just in case, I change the oil after 150-200 first kms with semi-synthetic and again at 1000kms with normal synthetic I use!

Mine never burnt oil despite track use. Though i changed it often/low miles due to track use as well.

As I stated, it's a can of worms, I've seen a few videos of that guy, he seems pretty switched on, and does point out some good info, but, bringing up the operator manual for how the factory recommends, there is alot of conficting evidence IRT that.

A manufacturer isn't going to state that to break in their engine the owner needs to get the car up to operating temps and do multiple high load runs, ensuring to let the car cool between runs, all within the first 20km.

I can see it now, "sorry officer, I was only breaking in my engine the way the manual told me".

And a hard break in isn't thrashing the car, it is upping the load gradually, load does not equal high rpm, it does mean that you will see some high speed though, which may interest the local constabulary.

Anyways, I've put my views and findings of this subject out there, not everyone will agree, which is fine.

But, if anyone can prove with a leak down test that a soft break in is better I will revisit my findings, at this stage, for me at least, a hard break in gives better results.

https://youtu.be/4gazNwzC4H0

Oh yeah, I'm well aware of how controversial this topic is.
I also found this video of his to be really interesting.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C9Ie4BcYew[/ame]

I have been carefully tracking my oil consumption
 

I have been carefully tracking my oil consumption on my 2017 86 Automatic by observing how many quarts of Mobil-1 I have gone through topping up over the last 2.5 years and 27K mi. My car uses exactly 1 qt every 12,400 miles.

As an aside: coolant consumption is 3.7oz every 7,500mi service interval.

I was super careful during the break-in period to watch RPM's and vary constantly, and a few strong pulls (torque'y, but not high RPM) to "seat the rings" if that really does happen. The car gets serviced per book at the dealer as it's new.

I drive it only for fun on a 90 mile route mostly on hiway-1 (Calif coast) to my fav hill climb from San Gregorio to Woodside CA. I do the 10 miles in the hills at 4,500-7K RPM quite hard, very fun. The oil temp gets to about 234 deg at it's peak when I reach the peak of the mountain. The water hits 212 at most (ambient air temperature of about 85).

Scenic driving flat along the coast the oil is 196 deg and water is 190.

I also blend my stupid 91 Calif gas in Woodside with 100 oct race gas (the 76 sells it there!) to get 93 oct and watch the ignition timing to confirm it advances properly to get the most power. I use BlueDriver to monitor.

Another aside... Starting in 2017 forward, Subaru stupidly programmed the car to let the battery discharge during acceleration and stops, doing most of the charging while decelerating only. I discovered this when I parked to listen to the radio for an hour and the car would barely crank. They said it's for "economy" B.S.! This will ruin batteries faster. You can force the car to "normal charge" at 14.2V by turning on the running lights (I drive with them all the time now). Also, if you turn the fan on it will hold at 13.3V. But drive normally and watch the voltage drop from an initial 14.4 at start to around 12.1 in just a few minutes. More on this later as I'm working up a big expose.

I'm an Engineer, I like to measure things.:bonk:

Did you post this in enough old threads? Maybe you're practicing to be a necromancer?!

Nice efforts, hopefully this information is helpful to someone

My experience with dealers and fault isolation, dealers seem like they respond better to symptoms, not "possible solutions we researched through the forums :search:." In my line of work in the aircraft world, when a customer states there's a problem and we can't replicate that problem, we call it "no fault found" and end up replacing whatever the customer claims is wrong. It's a quick way for the dealer to earn a profit and a quick way for you to spend money that doesn't need to be spent yet.


Everyday I am learning how to better explain my symptoms (what the weather was like, temperature, raining, super hot out mid-day, cold morning commute). Was I driving normal, or carving the twisties? This only strengthens my relation with my dealer. They are car people too, believe it or not.

Nobody likes to be told how to do their job. The best customer service types take charge and steer the customer from solutions back to the symptoms.


"I get what you're saying, and it has potential. Let's stick a pin in that. What was happening that led you to think it might be such-and-such?"

Thanks for all the good info, thought I'd give an update. So when I took my car in for valve spring recall it turns out my cam carriers were leaking, dealer wanted to charge 900 to fix, I had them contact my third party warranty company where they ended up charging them little over 2k. Are leaky cam carriers common?

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just to toss my experience in here, my '13 FRS as over 80k on the clock and does not need any oil between oil changes. However, Im running 0w-40 mobil 1 and I change my oil around 3,000-4,000 miles or earlier if I feel like it.

First of all, no amount of oil consumption is considered "normal". Well I suppose every engine has some oil consumption, but it should be largely negligible. This is the year 2020 and no automotive company would ever tell the EPA oil consumption is "normal" lol and this has been the case for a while. Except maybe Mazda with their shit RX-8....That being said, many cars do burn oil and it seems to be common with Subaru boxer motors. My car has over a 100k miles and doesn't seem to burn any oil. I check it every couple thousand miles and do an oil change every 7k miles. I have NEVER had to add any oil except for occasional times when I do an oil change and didn't add enough oil to begin with. I have an auto which is in sport mode literally 100% of the time and I drive quite aggressive. I also run the recommended 0W20 which is thin and perhaps more likely to blow-by than thicker oils. If you are ever in a situation where you are under warranty with a car burning oil, I would make the dealer rectify that...