Engine using oil

[Cassone]

Hi

I own a Feb 09 2.5i liberty has done nearly 60000kms mostly traveling between towns in rural NSW.

Owned the car since new and it seems to be getting worse as I noticed it was using oil around the 30000kms mark if not a bit earlier. It had its last service in August at about 52500kms and I checked the oil a month ago and noticed that it dropped to below halfway mark so took it the local subaru dealer also who I bought it off. they said as long as it stays between the high and low mark its fine and they put me on a monitoring program where i would come back in a month and get it checked.

Today I took it back again as it has been just over a month and the car has done about 1700kms since this time last month. Dealer checked the oil and saw that it had dropped to nearly the low line but the more we left it to cool down the lower it got and after about 15 mins of cooling down it dropped to below the low mark. Head service advisor said that the engine takes about 1 litre of oil and will use that same amount every 10000kms also a subaru standard apparently. So it was filled with 750ml of oil which brought to around the 3/4 mark.

Just wondering what anybody elses thoughts on this situation is or if anybody else is or has been through this.

Thanks in advance

[Dropz]

Subaru specs say you can use upto 1L per 1,000 or 10,000km (I forget which) and its normal, which is absolute bullshit.

If the oil level drops whilst the car is turned off it is most likely valve stem seals. Which requires the heads to be pulled off to replace.

[Cassone]

Yeh great thanks for that

Its obviously used the litre within the 10000k's so straight away should be a warranty issue... we will see what happens at the next service... warranty runs out on 1st April 12...

Also getting new grill under warranty due to bubble in the chrome and my speedo was out by 7k's @ 100km/hr but once again still in spec to subaru standards... thats 3 things...

[mincedmeat]

Apart from the run in period about 5000km, your engine shouldnt use any oil at all. I would get a second opinion from another subaru dealer.
It sounds to me like the car wasnt run in properly. Make sure you get this sorted while it is still under warrenty. In qld when you buy from a dealer you get 3 month stat warrenty were they have to fix everything.

[Cassone]

not run in properly?

closest other dealership is 200k's away and I dont trust them one bit, had problems with my mazda sp20 which i also owned from new and went through a heap of warranty issues with plus they did not do half the things they should have done after i had an accident in it and left side of struts pretty much should have been replaced but werent until we noticed that the wheel alignment could not be done properly...

Think the liberty might just go up for sale as soon as warranty is up... in need of a 4x4 ute anyway

[Dropz]

The speedo being out is a normal thing across the board with new cars now to stop people speeding.

[Cassone]

oh well i have tried to fix the speedo problem with higher profile tyres now only 3 to 4 k out at 100k's

took the liberty in for a new grill this morning and got given a fact sheet on subaru oil use basic standard is apparently up to 1L to 1000k's... WTF... what decade are we in these days...

[Dropz]

Yeah, I thought it was that. Ridiculous. You'd have changed the oil twice between services of it used that.

[Nipple06]

Yeah, I thought it was that. Ridiculous. You'd have changed the oil twice between services of it used that.

Yer I have the same problem with mine. Mine was in the mechanics and he said leave it for a day or 2 and start it and blows some smoke ...
But because oil is cheap just keep your eye on it. Mine uses about 1l every 2-3 thousand kms i just do more regular oil changes