I have a 2012 Subaru Impreza. Just as it hit 3000 miles I got an engine oil low light. It was down a quart. I brought it to the dealer. It was early for an oil change but they changed it. I was told to bring it in for an oil usage check ever 1000 miles for a couple of times. Nothing unusual was found. Today at 8500 miles I got the light again. It was down a quart. I have an appointment at the dealer for tomorrow. So you car experts, what could be wrong? Did I get a lemon? It is not leaking oil. No drops in the driveway. No wetness on the seals and gaskets. I’m worried.
Oh I guess I forgot to mention I did add a quart when I got the warning light both times. I wouldn’t drive with that light on.
You made it from 0-3000 miles and were a quart down, then from 3000 to 8500 miles for a quart.
You consumed a quart at 3000 miles initially and then at 5500 miles.
Is that bad? I don’t know, how long do you like to go between oil changes? I think the initial 3000 mile one can be disregarded as break-in and the 5500 mile one be taken a bit more realistically.
At a time where I did a a lot of long distance driving regularly I changed the oil every 10,000 miles (full synthetic), at about 7000 I needed to add a quart (which was about every 3 months). So 5500 does not sound unreasonable though somewhat higher then I had.
Also was it a low oil level light or low oil pressure light? Really it’s the difference of a gentle reminder to check the oil level before damage occurred compared to letting you know that expensive damage is occurring now perhaps you should consider stopping the engine and attending to this condition unless you have a boatloat of cash burning a hole in your pocket.
Oh no, has Subaru gone the idiotic dipstick-less route too?
But, yeah, like Kanicbird says, a quart of oil over 3000 miles maybe isn’t what I’d like to see in a new car, but it’s nothing to worry about. A quart of oil over 5500 miles is downright normal. I wouldn’t worry about it unless it’s consistently using oil at closer to that 1qt/3000 miles figure. Of course, if only they provided some way for the owner to check the oil level you wouldn’t have to wait until it trips the sensor, but that’s just silly.
Also, not to worry you, but traditionally the level of oil consumption that will justify a warranty claim is an absurdly-high 1qt/1000 miles. I would definitely be pissed if I had a relatively new car that burnt that much in this day and age!
You bought a Subaru. Subaru is not Honda or Toyota, you have a car that burns oil.
I’m not talking about oil changes. That is recommended every 5000 miles for this car. It only takes synthetic. I have never had a car that burned oil. My last car was a Mazda Protege. Never put a drop of oil in it outside of oil changes in 130,000 miles.
It was the oil level light not the pressure light.
Yes it has a dipstick. No I have never had a car that burned oil so much that I had to worry about checking that much between oil changes. And yes I’m pissed that my new car is doing this. If it was an old worn out car I would just deal with it.
No one at the dealer seems to think this is normal for Subaru. The salesman was surprised. The mechanic was surprised. The service manager was surprised. It’s obviously not something they deal with all the time. They keep having me come in and they are spending time on the car and giving me a loaner without me paying a dime. They are wasting their money if they know the answer is a shrug of the shoulders and " You bought a Subaru."
My last Subaru did use 1 qt between changes about 6,000 mi intervals. No real problem with it. My Mitsubishi uses about 1 qt in 7,000 mi. I usually change about the time the oil is a qt low.
I wasn’t able to find any credible link to back up the implication that Subarus suffer from quality issues relative to Hondas or Toyotas; just the opposite, in fact:
**Consumer Reports ranks Honda, Subaru as top makers
**
Yes I did research before I bought it.
I’m with the others, what did you mean by this? Subaru’s are quite dependable and have some of the highest resale values of any make.
(Might be defensive as I just turned 240,000 miles on my 2003 Forester)
To the OP, there’s no way that’s normal. Even my nearly-quarter-of-a-million mile Subaru doesn’t go through oil like that.
head gasket problems are known, for one thing. And quoting resale values doesn’t say much, German cars have high resale values even though their long term durability/reliability is in the crapper.
And you did this without repairing or replacing anything?
I agree with you that the reliability of Subarus has been massively overstated by their apologist owners in the past, but over the past 5 years or so they do genuinely seem to have gotten better.
Oh, and yes I have many friends like this.
“Hey check out my unstoppable Subie! It’s got 300,000 miles on it! Only had to replace the engine twice and do the head-gaskets every 50,000!”
I disagree. It is not uncommon to use some oil during break-in. I’d only be worried if it continued after the 3000 mile mark.
For comparison: I have a Mustang where the oil level was down 3/4Q at 3000 miles. Did the first oil change and 2000 miles later the level is still right at the full mark.
Note: I only do the first oil change @3K. After that I follow the oil life monitor which lets me go about 7K miles between oil changes. Don’t want to give the impression I’m one of the “3K mile oil change crowd”.
Brake pads and tires. Spark plugs three times. Thermostat once. A small aluminum heatshield broke off of the underside last year, but I riveted that back into place myself. That’s it!
I have heard of the head gasket issues, but it hasn’t hit me. I think that is more common in 2002 and earlier models. Even if I did have to replace the head gasket at this point, I think the old one has done an admirable job.
That’s the problem, it has continued after 3000 miles. No word from them Saturday. Hopefully I’ll get an answer on Monday. Meanwhile the free new Forrester they gave me works great.
As for a reason for high oil consumption.
- Defective oil rings.
I had a Buick years back that had premature oil ring failure. - Defective plenum gasket.
There is engine knocking (pre-ignition) associated with this but there are also sensors that could be dealing with knocking also.
Good luck and keep us updated.
I will thanks. Got the call this morning but it wasn’t very helpful. No leaks as I already knew. So far they have not found any problems. They are still looking and have a call into the corporate office to see if there have been any reported similar problems.
I have a 2012 Subaru Impreza that I bought brand new and I am at 19,000+ and the oil light continues to come on. I keep taking it to the dealership and they say I don’t have a leak but I am not sure why the engine keeps loosing oil? The dealership can’t seem to figure it out either. I am curious as to what corporte office is saying out it? I love the car but am concerned about it. I had a honda before and it had about 212,000 miles on it and I never had to put oil in it or had the oil light come on but I changed it at every 3000. I’m just hoping they can figure it out before my warrenty is up.