Hi,
I own an '02 Outback Limited with 173k miles. The thing runs great and is an excellent shape except for that it burns what seems to me a lot of oil. I have to add oil every 800-900 miles. A shop told me that to fix it I would need a new engine...
Should I live with it, get a new motor, or rebuild the motor? And what would be benefits/disadvantages of new vs rebuilt engines and what is a reasonable price to pay for that work?
Thanks.
I'd say live with it until the thing craters. If you can't do the work yourself you're talking about thousands of dollars to deal with replacing or overhauling the engine and I seriously doubt that a 20-year-old Outback is worth putting that kind of money into. If it does not have variable valve timing you can try using a heavier oil to slow the oil consumption. (This is all assuming the engine really is worn and it's not just something like a bad PCV valve.)
Would most mechanics check the PCV valve? I was really hoping it would be something like that but the mechanic didn't mention it...guess I should have asked. The shop I took it to does all kinds of work on cars, including engine rebuilds or replacements but they definitely were not trying to sell me an engine. They actually just advised me to keep refilling the oil but I'll definitely look into the PCV just in case they missed it...
Thanks for your response!
PS: They did replace a leaky valve cover gasket, so hopefully that will help at least some...
They should have checked it but you never know. As has been mentioned, head gaskets can also lead to oil burning but I'd think if that were the case here you'd have other symptoms like oil and/or coolant dripping on the ground (on Subarus they tend to leak externally first), and coolant loss. On a car that old though you don't want to get sucked into spending too much money on it. If the PCV valve is OK and the engine is not a VVT type (Variable Valve Timing), I would switch to 20W50 oil as long as ambient temperature is above freezing. That may help reduce the oil burning a bit. (I don't think Subaru had VVT until 2004 but you'd want to verify that before putting in thicker oil.)
Have the head gaskets ever been replaced? That year is in the range of the known crappy Subaru head gasket issues. There are 3 scenario's with those Subaru head gaskets; 1) External oil leak. 2) Internal coolant/oil leak. 3) Internal oil leak into the combustion chamber, thus burning oil. If it's still on the original factory head gaskets, I'd bet that's the source of your disappearing oil (#3).
I'm actually not sure. How can I check this? My mechanic said that it is not leaking oil or any other fluid, and the dipstick definitely appears to have only pure oil on it. But I don't know whether the head gaskets have ever been changed (I've only owned the car for about 10 months/11k miles). Is this something that most mechanics would at least check when they are looking for oil consumption issues (especially on a Subaru lol)
Thanks for your response!