sms@eisx.UUCP (Samuel Saal) (07/05/85)
is there a bug/gti still here?
Just a comment on Subarus. My father bought a 1985 in January.
(a 4 door station wagon) It is not very powerful (not a problem)
and it is very comfortable. However, it regularly goes through
oil. He has to add about a quart every 2000 to 3000 miles. This
has 2 disadvantages. The first is the cost. That is almost like
an old 2 stroke engine. The second, and more important problem,
is that one of the quickest ways of ascertaining that there is
some sort of engine problem is that you are losing oil. This is a
very early indicator of several problems but if you must add oil
regularly you can't use this as an indicator. This oil loss
occurs even though he we have always changed oil and filter every
3000 miles regardless of the color, etc.
Although my father likes the car he would not recommend it
to any one who does any of his own maintenance.
Sam Saal ..!{ihnp4}!kitc!smsgvcormack@watmum.UUCP (Gordon V. Cormack) (07/08/85)
> Just a comment on Subarus. My father bought a 1985 in January. > (a 4 door station wagon) It is not very powerful (not a problem) > and it is very comfortable. However, it regularly goes through > oil. He has to add about a quart every 2000 to 3000 miles. This > has 2 disadvantages. The first is the cost. That is almost like > an old 2 stroke engine. The second, and more important problem, > is that one of the quickest ways of ascertaining that there is > some sort of engine problem is that you are losing oil. This is a > very early indicator of several problems but if you must add oil > regularly you can't use this as an indicator. This oil loss > occurs even though he we have always changed oil and filter every > 3000 miles regardless of the color, etc. > Sam Saal ..!{ihnp4}!kitc!sms You can't be serious. One quart per 2000 to 3000 miles is perfectly normal. It is true that some cars use 2 to 3 times less than this, but there is still no problem. You don't say how many miles are on the car, but since its a 1985, I will assume not many. The oil consumption is quite likely to decrease for the first 10,000 to 20,000 miles of the car's life. The cost? You can add $30 - $50 over 100,000 miles. Same as a 2-stroke? At 50:1 and 50mpg, a 2-stroke engine would use a gallon of oil in 2000-3000 miles, not a quart. And 2-stroke oil is a lot more expensive than regular crankcase oil. As an indicator of engine wear, you can still observe increased oil consumption. It is unlikely that you would want to do anything about such oil consumption unless the engine had other symptoms or was burning a lot more than 1 quart per 1000 miles. There are many factors to consider when deciding (in the initial design) how much oil an engine should consume. If the oil control rings work too well, only a very thin film of oil is left on the cylinder wall. This film may be inadequate to lubricate the compression rings. So the car that gets 10,000 miles/quart today may well wear out faster.
mhg@wjh12.UUCP (Goldstein) (07/09/85)
> is there a bug/gti still here? > > > Just a comment on Subarus. My father bought a 1985 in January. > (a 4 door station wagon) It is not very powerful (not a problem) > and it is very comfortable. However, it regularly goes through > oil. He has to add about a quart every 2000 to 3000 miles. This > has 2 disadvantages. The first is the cost. That is almost like > an old 2 stroke engine. The second, and more important problem, > is that one of the quickest ways of ascertaining that there is > some sort of engine problem is that you are losing oil. This is a > very early indicator of several problems but if you must add oil > regularly you can't use this as an indicator. This oil loss > occurs even though he we have always changed oil and filter every > 3000 miles regardless of the color, etc. > > Although my father likes the car he would not recommend it > to any one who does any of his own maintenance. > > Sam Saal ..!{ihnp4}!kitc!sms I assume you meant 2-3 HUNDRED miles per quart. As 2-3 Thousand is considered very acceptable nowadays. Something is WRONG, and should be fixed under warrentee (how DO you spell that?) Mike Goldstein
sms@eisx.UUCP (Samuel Saal) (07/09/85)
I understand the corrections and comments made about my posting.
However, I stand by my comments. I had a '67 Plymouth Valiant
which, after 80k miles burned half the oil of the new Subaru and
my new Saab (84 with ~20k miles) doesn't go through a quarter of
the Subaru's. I am not at all concerned about the cost of the
oil, I agree that it is very little over the life of the car. My
comparison to the 2-stroke was IN JEST (a joke, get it?) BUT I
still believe that the fact that you can't tell if you have an
engine problem which would come as a result of seeing the oil
level dropping unusually rapidly is now (in the Subaru) lost.
Sam Saal ..!{ihnp4}!kitc!sms
^
see? the name changed!