Want to buy a 2015 Outback or Forrester, do these cars burn excessive oil???? I know Subaru has a class action lawsuit concerning burning oil
10 Answers
Apparently, a small percentage of cars do burn oil in varying degrees. I would definitely recommend the CVT transmission for this vehicle. I think it runs a little smoother and you won't over rev the engine.
I think that you should test drive each, they are different cars and have different driving dynamics. The Outback is in my opinion a little nicer car, really a large station wagon. The new Lineartonic CVT is very smooth and responsive and the Four is more than enough for me.
Yes, many of them do burn oil. I would avoid until they get it resolved.
Bob, I've been told that "boxer engines " tend to burn more oil than other engines, but, I have not experienced that with my own car. Have you ever heard that?
Boxer engines due to their layout can have extra oil sit in the cylinder upon start up and during running. Gravity drains this extra oil out in a conventional style engine. It takes a very good set of piston rings to control this oil. Boxer engine, I think is a good design as Porsche, Subaru, Honda Goldwing motorcycles and many aircraft engines use this configuration. The trick is to control the oil. It takes the right rings, the correct cross hatch pattern in the cylinder, the proper clearances and the correct engine oil.
Bob, thank you, that is an excellent answer. You seem to know a lot about cars. I was wondering if might have an idea on why only Subaru and Porsche use the boxer engine design. I agree completely that I think these are extremely well designed and smooth running at idle and responsive motors. I think, but, it's only a guess that other car manufacturers don't use them because of the higher manufacturing costs. They have two separate heads and could be a more complex engine to build. But, there's legions of people out there with Subaru cars going 200,000 to 300,000 miles and are in the Subaru high mileage club. You probably know that all cars can burn some oil and it's the owners responsibility to check this especially with older cars, much like checking your tire pressure, which many people ignore. I think a lot of people these days rely too much on automatic stuff and think that things will just take car of themselves. That just doesn't happen. You've got to be vigilant about all these matters. Hey, that's how I was able to keep my 1995 Honda Accord going fine for 20 years with almost 150,000 miles. That's not an automatic thing you know. ---Mark
Porsche still uses them cause I'm pretty sure a conventional engine would not fit in the same space where the Boxer style engine resides. Subaru? Not sure why they are still using the Boxer style. I think they cost more to produce and pretty sure the clearances need to be more exact than in a conventional "V" or inline engine.
TheSubaruGuruBoston answered 9 years ago
They burn excessive 0w20 synth oil, noy 10w40 dino. Speccing ultra-thin oil in a boxer engine, where the pistons sit IN the damned stuff instead of relying on splashing was a ridiculous mistake. Note that Ferrari also uses a horizontally-opposed motor. The genesis at Fuji Heavy Industries had to do with aircraft experience and the need to develop high torque rugged motors for industrial apps...NOT AWD.
