Our shiny new Subaru Forester came with a 540 page user manual and, being that type of guy, I’ve been reading through it. I suspect warnings like this come from a lawsuit in the not-too-far-distant past:
They seem to be very, very worried about small animals:
In this situation, I’d hope the engine would fare better than, say, a squirrel:
Unlike the Toyota Sienna’s enclosed belt, I could actually replace this one, so I suppose a squirrel could take up residence somewhere in there:
And look at that oil filter: right up top, inside a bowl! The never-sufficiently-to-be-damned Toyota engineers mounted the Sienna’s filter horizontally, halfway up the side of the transverse V6 engine, where it slobbers oil down the block and over the front exhaust manifold.
So far, so good…
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 
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17 responses to “Subaru Forester Manual: Oddities”
I’ll be curious to know how much oil remains in an upside down oil filter….I think you’ll still have a mess. In other news, I bought a well used Outback in January, and have yet to do an oil change….can’t wait.
Ideally, none at all, so that tub around the filter should remain pristine. The Sienna filter came off half-full every time.
The Outback is pretty easy, IF it doesn’t have the under-engine brush guard. If it does, trickier, because then you have to open an access hatch and can’t actually see what you’re doing.
I’ve had a critter nest just behind the fan pulley on one of our trucks, but if we leave the hoods open when the vehicles go in the garage, the engine compartment is uninviting for small furry animals. Even the air ducts are less attractive, though both trucks have (and need) 1/4″ hardware cloth in the air boxes to filter out mice and chipmunks.
We got a coupon good for 4 free oil changes from the dealer, so I haven’t had to do it yet. I found a half-case of synthetic 0W-20 (Costco doesn’t stock it) locally, but have heard good things about bobistheoilguy dot com from an automotive news site (the truth about cars).
I had your critters in mind while contemplating the front of that engine!
Rumor says the Boxer engine’s horizontal cylinders use more oil; it oozes past the rings when the engine is stopped. Guess I must resume the long-lost habit of checking the oil with every tank of gas until I understand what’s happening in there.
I haven’t tried to open the Subaru’s air box, but the hood trick seems to keep our thermophilic critters at bay. We have wide temp swings day to night, so it’s pretty common around here.
On oil consumption: I’d been checking fairly regularly with no untoward usage, and at the last oil change, neglected to check until just before the trip. In my preflight check, I added 12 ounces of oil. (Might have been that way from the change.) The topped-off oil level held for 4800 miles of mostly freeway driving. My understanding is that the engine has a bit of a break-in period, so the initial usage might be high, then it should settle down. This is all in the 2.5 liter engine. I don’t know the 2.0 at all..
Memories of a parking lot oil change for an old MGB surfaced. The multi-part filter housing had lots of opportunities to go wrong, and I found one or two. That part of the lot was not going to raise any dust. [wince]
You do that too, huh?
As nearly as I can tell, designers apologize for not having enough room for a real motor by adding a turbocharger with all its gimcrackery. That doesn’t explain why they didn’t put a blower on the 2.5 liter engine, but maybe there wasn’t enough room under the hood and Subaru just had to offer a turbo model.
I’m down with regular gas and fewer fiddly parts.
There are/were models with the turbocharged 2.5 liter engine (FWIW, if you see a Subie with a hood scoop, it’s ‘charged), though I’m not sure if the Forester has that option offered. Agreed on regular gas and KISS.
I knew this mechanic who told this apocryphal story about (I think) his best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend who brought in this car which only made this clattering noise when she made right hand turns. After opening the hood was found a deceased cat whose head would loll over into the spinning blades of the fan after a right hand turn was made ;)
We’ve had 5 Subarus over the last 25 years. Although some of them used a bit more oil than others we’ve owned, it was never a lot. Just changed the oil yesterday in our 2009 Outback. It hadn’t used any noticeable amount of oil since the last oil change.
The oil filter on top is a welcome change. On our Outbacks, which have older versions of the 2.5 L engine, the filters have all been on the bottom. As Subaru added more and more plastic shielding to the underside of the car, it became a real pain to remove the filters. Before the shields, you could just reach up and quickly remove the filter.
The anti-drainback valves in the filter do a pretty good job of keeping the oil from just gushing out.
I was surprised they had enough room for the filter on top; it’s perfectly fine to not unscrew the thing over my head and under the car.
Quite by coincidence, I just poured the last of the 5W30 into the Sienna. There’s one oil filter left, now tucked into the back storage compartment. Our Larval Engineer probably won’t be doing any oil changes in her apartment parking lot, but it could happen…
A fairly large number of cars around here have had small animals (rats, often) crawl into the engine compartment and eat most of the wiring. They apparently particularly like spark plug wires.
The roll of screening stapled into the mouse hole at the corner of the garage door seems intact, but I will renew the peanut butter in the traps posthaste…
Well, this is purely anecdotal, but The Day Of The Rats at my wife’s workplace left the company PT Cruisers stripped pretty much bare, but a Scion with one ignition wire chewed on enough to not work and her Subaru untouched. So, park near domestic cars and you should be good.
Sort of like “You don’t have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your buddy”.
I suppose dabbing peanut butter on the three adjacent cars in the parking lot would produce a flag on the play…
Speaking of small mammals in cars, I once had a squirrel who tried to kill me. Here’s my story: we had an older car that my daughter crashed so it was parked in the driveway waiting to be repaired. Finally we gave up and had it towed, but in the meantime a squirrel nested in the engine compartment. After the old car was gone, I started noticing that my other car kept running worse and worse: the lights wouldn’t come on and then turn signals would fail..Upon inspection, I found a squirrel nest inside, made out of chewed out parts of my main wiring harness; the darn squirrel kept taking wires from it one by one. I spliced it back together, and wrapped in aluminum expanded mesh.
I think the bereaved, homeless squirrel was looking for its old nest, but the only thing it could find was my other car, so it just went to work with what it had to be ready for the upcoming mating season.
Sounds like you were just collateral damage; that critter had a job to finish!
The Sienna has probably become a condo, out there in the driveway behind the house. I better take another look under the hood…