i did mine last sunday, borrowed a 4 poster ramp from my mate at quick fit, took me 20 mins or so and i dont have to pay for the 10/40 semi mobil one oil they sell to customers :p

i do mine every 3k and every 3rd oil change i change the filter, saved me a small fortune ;)

and the oils coming out really runny now and theres not that much dirt in it, nice and healthy!

I get my own oil . Filter from halfords. My local garage will do it for nothing but i always bung him a £10. I know garage in stoke does the job for a £5 yes five british pounds.I would do it myself if i had a ramp.lets face it undo a nut unscrew a filter not rocket science is it.FILTER £5.99 OIL £20-£25 DEPENDS ON BRAND.
YOU SHOULD OF CALLED THE POLICE BILLYTHEKID

My Local Scooby dealer does it for me with Motol M300v, I supply the oil (demon Tweeks) and works out quite cheap given the mess / time / disposal etc. :D

Midlife.....

the big end bearings in a Subaru engine are about 50% the width of a "normal" straight 4 engine because the loads on the big end bearings in a flat 4 are lower, so the crank is designed to be as short as possible to maximise the flat 4 layout advantages.

It's a sensible precaution, knowing that you have 50% less area of oil to break down when you have no oil presure, to prime the oil system.

It's a normal dealer and specialist procedure to prime the oil filter and crank the engine with the cam sensor disconected.

By all means choose to ignore this advice and precation, but its rather a stupid attitude knowing this engine layout is more prone to failure during an oil change than your average engine. Is 20 minutes extra really that much of a burden to you?

My Subaru dealer only charges £60 inc. for an oil change. It comes with a free coffee, comfy chair in the sun and the ability to drool and climb all over their cars.
Well done Westaways, Northampton.

Nick

Not if you have an import.

Takes about 0.5 litre of oil to fill the filter, and a lot of patient topping up.

Les

I've never done work on an Impreza, but I wasn't too encouraged when I opened the bonnet and couldn't even see how to reach the spark plugs. Is it done from below???

how many people out there actually do the full procedure then when they change it, any people not do it and have any problems?

Funny that, my filter is vertical so I don't loose any oil.

Dipster

Thas funny, mine hangs vertically from the bottom of the engine? So as long as you offer it up straight, then you get none, or at least very little oil falling down.

I have also been told you can develop a hestitaion problem at about 3Krpm if you start the engine up without gaining full oil saturation. The knock sensor is a microphone, and picks up the extra noise in the engine on first start up, adn suspects this is knocking and so retards the ignition to compensate. The older ECU's cannot then re-adavnce the timing when the knocking has vanished, and apparently the good old battery disconect reset will not rectify this problem, you have to have it properly reset. <- this is only what I have been told, and so may not be the gospel truth.

:rolleyes:

must have had the bottom of the last page posted while I was reading a replying.

Corrado boy, all that attention to detail and you didn't even clean the filter mating face and oil the new seal, don't forget to tighten the filter to 5white knuckles :p

Mine only charged me £95 for an Intermediate Oil change with Fully Synthetic Oil ;) Most Servicing Jobs are quite simply ;) but can be very expensive if done inncorrectly :rolleyes:.

Another Tip
Keep checking for Oil leaks :D Once the Engine gets to Temp or a few miles check for leaks around Filter/ Sump Plug again ;)

Common causes of leaks are

Sump plug left loose or an old damaged seal left on.
Oil filter left loose and not tighten up correctly
Oil Filter seal "Blown out" of seat, sometimes attributed to being fitted "Dry" or to excessively tightened up.

IMHO/IIRC

Tony

never changed oil myself as yet but im sure garage probably don't do all the steps recommended.
if you read your owners handbook for car from SUBARU.
All it shows you is usual way .
1, warm car up.
2, drain old oil
3, remove old filter
4, fit new filter
5, fill with oil

but could have step 5a missing.

5a, return car with fcked big end shells to main dealer and re-morgage house ,
place wife on game to pay bill! :D

just to say the filter on an h6 is horizontal and a bit bigger as well so you can't fill that one up. the bearings are about the same size. yet there is no reports of the bearings going on them can anyone explain why?

if your changing the oil between recomended services you could leave the oil filter and have it changed at the recommended interval as per schedule it will be fine.
powerman

If your spending £30 -£40 on oil,what is £4.50 for a new filter?

The fact that we regularly see big end related failures very shortly after a service indicates that transient oil starvation is an issue with these engines.

Did your Astra have a Subaru flat four engine in it? No?

As John says, the EJ20's design mandates that the main bearings are considerably narrower than those typically found in two litre inline four engines. This smaller bearing surface area means higher pressures, and a greater tendency for the oil film to break down if flow is temporarily cut off. Once metal to metal contact starts, it appears to be a cumulative process from there on.

Incidentally, the crankshafts on the New Age Imprezas have additional oilways in them, so it seems Subaru were aware of an issue with the older cars and took steps to correct it.

Funnily enough, it looks like a Ctrl-C of the procedure I wrote up here ;), a read of which might save some repetition on this thread. :)

Erm, nope, from the sides. Plenty of threads elsewhere on this, suffice to say though that removing the airbox, battery and maybe the washer bottle, and you'll have much easier access.

Probably going to do my oil change this weekend,

has anyone actually done a scooby oil change without the dry cranking?
Where exactly is the sensor i need to disconnect to dry crank the engine?
What is dry cranking?


Scooby novice here :)

I always use the proceedure earlier suggested. I did'nt used to but after seeing two different cars at different times both having big end failure about 30 to 40miles after an oil change i changed my mind.Its only a little extra time, I'd rather that than the bottom end let go.

Of course. It's a fair bet that many garages will skip this procedure. However, it only adds a few minutes to the job and could concievably save you a blown engine at some point in the future.

Lol, you'll find answers to those questions and more in the thread I linked to a little further up. Well worth a read before you go further.

just checked other thread, thanks greasemonkey!
Seems quite easy once you get all the info!

Ultimately, if you're going to change your own oil, it's your decision on how to approach it. I follow the "procedure" ,because too many knowledgeable people have pointed out the likely results of ignoring it. That's my choice, and if it still goes bang, despite this approach, I'll cope with it , knowing I tried my best to avoid it happening. How are you going to feel if yours blows up, a few hundred miles after a service which doesn't follow this procedure,
( a common occurence ) and it turns out that, for the sake of an extra 20 mins of aggro, you've run a bearing dry? £1500 to 3K for repair or replacement engine doesn't bear thinking about, and isn't an unlikely outcome. People like johnfelstead and greasemonkey clearly know what they are on about, and their advice is free, why come on here and ignore it , or even more ridiculous, take issue with it. Loads of people ready to fly in the face of common sense, as always.

I'm quite new to Scoobs, i had a my98 for 12 months, found this forum a essencial source for info. Yesterday after reading through this info, i decided to do a general service following the guidelines.

Got most of my kit from halfords, expensive oil and plugs, cheap air and oil filter, but no Sump plug washer.. being near Subaru in widnes, i went down and got one from them, was 89p and cos i was paying on card thought i'd get a fuel filter, becuas i didnt know when it had last been done, it's every 30, 000 miles and my scoob has done 84. So i bought 1, £21 ouch. Anyway asked in passing the guy there about changing the oil and how they go about it. This is a main dealership remember, and he said they dont dry crank, just warm her up and drop the oil, replace plug and and filter and fill back up.

Needless to say, if you want to follow the guidlines set out here, unless you do it yourself or go to a "specialist" you cant be sure the procedure is going to be followed, back street garage or dealer.

I did lose some skin.. with the plugs, hehe and even forgot to put the cap on the drain bucket for the oil, oil everywhere. But for the most part it was ok.

On my98 the Oil filter was vertical, and the engine guard has to come off, i jacked the car up on the left front, and manged it all ok. I did dry crank for quite a while, but couldnt get the oil presure light to extinguish. hopefully, ive done enough, i did have the plugs out when i did it.

I'm not mr grease monkey, but i had a go, "half a day" and it was done.

hope she lasts the week.

ted

Hmmm, worrying. This is despite Subaru UK apparently circulating a bulleting stressing the importance of pre-filling the filter and establishing oil pressure prior to firing the engine back up.

True. Unfortunately many dealers don't look on it as in their best interests to follow procedures like this. It adds time to the service (although not much if you do everything in the right order), and, ultimately, some dealers won't mind too much if the occasional car blows up, as they'll figure on being paid to put it all back together and thus it's a win-win situation for them. Ultimately the people who suffer are the owners, Subaru (financially via warranty claims), and of course the general reputation of the car.

I'm sure she'll be fine. :)

My Dad is bigger than your dad :D:D

good info non the less, and as mentioned before is it really worth the risk of your engine for the sake of an extra 20 mins of your time ??

Phil

you pays your money....etc

This is the thing I don't understand about the "Don't bother with that, never done it before, don't see why I should start now" brigade. It doesn't add 20 minutes to the service time if it's done in the right order, probably less than five minutes in a garage servicing context.

It's such a simple thing to do, and can potentially save so much time, aggro and cost, that I can't see any reason at all not to do it, bar laziness, or the knowledge that it's someone else's car you're working on.

They only said they dont do the dry crank bit, he didnt mention the filling of the oil filter... Of wich by the way was like a freekin tardis.. My mobil 1 just seem to get sucked up by it. Not funny when 4ltrs costs £36 from halfords...

But all the same.. they should do as they say to do i guess..dry crank!

I'd recommend anyone have a go.. though plugs could be tricky for some..

Ted