My wife's outback has one of these in there. The only problem that we've had with it has been oil consumption. I think it partly due to the fact that put 0w20 in it and that stuff is about as thick as water. Besides that it is peppy for a NA 2.5 in a very large car and gets great gas milage for a large car as well. She gets ~28 mpg average on it and most of her driving is stuck in traffic. She does have a 6-spd in it.
Just curious, have you tired running regular oil in for one oil change and then switching back to synthetic?
Nope I havent, I've been adding more 0w20 like the book says... As soon as free oil changes are up I am going to start putting something a tad thicker in there, cas that 0w20 stuff makes me uncomfortable. Its so thin.
Yeah I've been digging around on the Forester forum and I am reading the same thing about oil consumption.
I remember back in the 90's Audi or Porsche had an oil consumption problem on cars that were coming straight from the factories with Synthetic oil in them. The fix (TSB) was to run regular dino oil for one oil change cycle to let the rings seat properly then switch back to Synthetic.
That is certainly worth a try, like I said as soon as the free oil changes are done something else is getting put in there.
What FB25 Turbo??? This is definitely because of the water-oil 0w20, the CVT in a lot of these does not help with ring breakin. And the 0w20 will blow right by those rings. Note that BOTH of those things were done for a singular reason: fuel mileage. Great mileage with these new engines, and a boring cvt , but at what cost? Bummer that Subaru still can't get some of this new stuff out right.
His profile indicates he owns an STi. Also, while thin oil might exasperate the problem it is not the cause, it makes the symptom more identifiable.