Synthetic Oil

[HEMIMANN]

Subaru had issues with head gaskets on their older 2.5L engines. Their newer engines are better.

My chief gripe with them is use of CVTs and not traditional automatics. If you don't have the CVT fluid changed religiously every 30k miles it will grenade on you.

Consider a Rav-4. They're pretty simple and extremely reliable.

That's what it was - head gaskets on the boxers.

 

[Burla]

Mike the Subaru CVTs generally have a better track record than the Nissan ones do with proper fluid changes. Hey even the Nissan CVTs are decent with frequent fluid changes.

I also remember reading something about Toyota making a CVT with a traditional first gear used just for taking off from a stop. This was supposedly to take stress off the band and use the cvt part just for mild accelerating and cruising. Not sure if they actually produced them or not or what vehicles they were going to put them in but I remember being intrigued. BUT that also adds complexity....

how is it driving one? Like miss gears?

 

[Hemi395]

how is it driving one? Like miss gears?

It takes some getting used too. It revs up a bit as you start out and then just holds an RPM as you continually go faster. If you've ever driven a golf cart it's like that but just way more refined. It definitely keeps the engine it's power band better than your typical auto trans.

At first it was weird to me but now I get in my truck after driving that for weeks and I'm like "oh yeah this has gears" lol

 

[Wild one]

CVT = glorified snowmobile drive

 

[quickster2]

Any subaru fans or non fans out there. I am trying to put a list in front of the wife for options. I like they have a non di option and well it is the price that is attractive, if we get a 350 it will be used, but we can afford a outback at under 30k.. Which would you opt for? If you had a budget anything under 30k for a wife going into retirement soon ish, how would you spend it assuming that you actually need to spend it as she is asking for it. I'd rather work with her then let her buy something w/o my input.

I doubt she would even consider a big 3 vehicle, her entire family is in Lexus, toyo, etc. I'm sure she would go merc or German in general as well, obviously as a used choice.

We have 2 Subaru's. Wife's '19 2.0L Crosstrek Premium bought new currently at 55K miles (she will only drive a smaller car with no sunroof or leather seats). My winter car a '17 Outback 3.6R Touring bought 2 years ago with 138K on the clock (documented maintenance records at the dealer provided to me). Both have been "trouble free" overall. Wife's CarPlay has been glitchy since day 1 with all of the updates while under warranty. My '17 drives like new after I went through the suspension, fluids, plugs, filters, etc. Subaru's, like most cars, have their specific issues: battery drain, wheel bearing failures, CVT maintenance, difficult spark plug access, seat cracking on the "leather", screen delamination on Outback '18 MY, etc. 2 great resources are: subaruxvforums.com (Crosstrek) & subaruoutback.org. You can PM me if you want more info. If I wanted a used Outback I would go with a '19 3.6R Touring CPO (last year for the 3.6). Crosstrek from '19 on. Most prefer the 2.5L in the Crosstrek. Good luck.

 

[tjfdesmo]

The Subie headgasket thing is real, but was on basically one series of engines (watch Mr Subaru youtube channel), and not all boxer engines. It is a thing of the past. One of my wife's sisters has had Outbacks for a long time. The newer ones do have an issue with oil leaks on the cam carriers, which required pulling the engine. She has had two cars in a row that developed this leak, but while under warranty, fortunately. She has had zero CVT failures, but the tuning of the CVT in the newest one (2020?) is sort of annoying. Seems like they were trying to get that last .001 MPG.

 

[NCRaineman]

how is it driving one? Like miss gears?

CVTs suck the big one, but feel free to go test drive one and find out for yourself.
When you go to pull out in traffic or take off from a light you hit the gas, wait a moment while the computer decides what gear ratio it wants to use, then the vehicle actually moves.

Toyota CVTs are better because they combine a traditional first gear with the CVT mechanism, reducing that initial lag.

Nissan CVTs are made by Jatco and are also used by Mitsubishi. Run far far away and don't look back. They are ticking time bombs that will explode if the fluid isn't changed every 30k miles.

Subaru makes their own CVT and it is of a different design from the Jatco. It *should* be more reliable, but if you check Subaru forums or Reddit you'll see a lot of complaints.

 

[White six four]

Nissan CVTs are made by Jatco and are also used by Mitsubishi. Run far far away and don't look back. They are ticking time bombs that will explode if the fluid isn't changed every 30k miles.

X2 on this. Even when you do change the fluid every 30k with mitsubishi's almost $30 a quart unicorn p I s s they still crap the bed. Wife's outlander sport started acting up around 75k and she limped it til around 125k or so when it finally threw a code and our lifetime warranty did something about it. Warranty company wanted to put in a used one but they couldn't find one. I wonder why.

 

[tjfdesmo]

JATCO is the Oldsmobile diesel of CVTs.

 

[Hemi395]

Fluid changes is key, and I'd almost say 20k intervals would be a MINIMUM if you want it to last. I do annual fluid changes with Amsoil CVT fluid, and pan drops every other year. The Nissan NS3 fluid is pretty $h itty fluid too so that doesn't help with Nissan longevity. My CVT temps dropped almost 15⁰ in the summer just by changing to the Amsoil CVT fluid. This time of year it struggles to get hotter than 130⁰ and it has a heater like the 8 speeds.

I've heard good things about Valvoline CVT fluid as well.

The thing is with Nissan CVTs you only hear about the failures. My buddy had a Maxima with 180k on the clock with 0 cvt issues before he hit a deer and totalled it. He did fluid changes every 30k. That was actually a pretty nice car too and surprisingly quick.

On the FB groups there's plenty of post with pics showing over 200k on Nissan CVTs.

 

[Dan Topp]

Has anyone tried this brand of motor and gear oil

 

[Ludville1]

I must say for all of this bad talk about CVT's, we have a 2012 Jeep Compass Limited that we bought new and it's CVT has been stellar. We've had the Compass for 13 years, with over 188,000 miles on it now, and never an issue. We have had the CVT fluid and filter changed twice by the dealer, and that has been it. All in all, it has been a great, rock solid vehicle...and we do have the Maxcare Lifetime Warranty on it, that was available at the time.

 

[06 Dodge]

That is interesting, I need to look into that engine, from what I saw it is only a bit over a grand in cost for that option but is nearly 10mpg according to Toyota. Perhaps we should start grading which hybrid technologies makes sense compared to those who don't, thinking of the ram hybrid as the later. Unless I am mistaken the ram hybrid is a motor similar to the pentastar that is used to charge the battery, lol. For me all for not unless I can convince the ol lady to at least sit a new rav 4. Something that kind of bugs me is none of the local toyota stores have an y rav 4 with the two paint which I think is the freak'n bomb. From my detailing days do you know how hot paint gets compared to white roof? I painted my rav 4 roof with white bed liner, lol. I don't know why more cars do have white roofs regardless what color the body is. They have like 100 rav fours in 4 dealers, not one two tone with white roof.

View attachment 560235

Best I could see when we were looking at them, the only 2 tone car colors for the 2025 Rav 4 the roof was black, sorry no white roof except on and all white cars unlike years past that had white cars with black accents aka roof was still white, wife wanted the silver but once she saw the one with a black roof that is what she got, only bad part is we had to wait weeks for it to get off the ship from Japan, to be guarantees it would be available once off loaded we had to put a $500. deposit down as they were and are in my area being spoken for before the are off the ship...

 

[Burla]

So I had a nice long talk with the wife today, I was hoping she would at least sit the cross or the rav 4 as they would be new, she really wants a used 350, so there is no reason for me to do anymore research on it, I concur it is a good choice anyhow. Now just gotta find one that makes the wife happy and good budget to make me happy, and the only must is white or tan leather, buy a 5 year old car with black leather bad idea.

I'm just glad I got her off new one, a 65k brand new car might have ended in the d word, lol. 25k or even 30k for this particular used car I can handle. I generally would never spend this money on a used vehicle, but I believe these to be the real deal.

.

 

[HEMIMANN]

Good luck, Mike.
It took me a year to find the Ram combo I wanted, used. I had been buying only new via custom order, but got tired of the hassle. I also wanted the Laramie upgrade. Sounds like you're after an upgrade too.
I don't recall the web search crawler I used.

 

[NCRaineman]

I must say for all of this bad talk about CVT's, we have a 2012 Jeep Compass Limited that we bought new and it's CVT has been stellar. We've had the Compass for 13 years, with over 188,000 miles on it now, and never an issue. We have had the CVT fluid and filter changed twice by the dealer, and that has been it. All in all, it has been a great, rock solid vehicle...and we do have the Maxcare Lifetime Warranty on it, that was available at the time.

That is another Jatco CVT. Consider yourself extremely lucky it hasn't grenaded on you.

 

[Travis8352]

Has anyone tried this brand of motor and gear oil View attachment 560258

Ive been curious about their gear oils for a while. They are PAO based

 

[Stefan N]

Cirkel K Gothenburg Sweden is opening there worlds first manned charge station. Wonder if they will sell any oil in there? :O

https://swedenherald.com/article/first-charging-station-to-gothenburg

 

[Ludville1]

That is another Jatco CVT. Consider yourself extremely lucky it hasn't grenaded on you.

Sorry pal, I've never been lucky...I take care of my stuff. If it "grenades" I have Lifetime Warranty on it.

 

[huntergreen]

Sorry pal, I've never been lucky...I take care of my stuff. If it "grenades" I have Lifetime Warranty on it.

Read the fine print, if the cost of repair is more than the current market value than the vehicle, the warranty pays the value of the vehicle. Hopefully your compass just keeps running for you.