So..... My 98 forester was leaking oil awhile back I got a clutch job done at speed element along with the aos plate and the main seal and recently I did the valve cover gaskets my self which did quiet down the engine and made the idle smoother and no leaks from the gaskets. Now I am frustrated I can't figure what else could be leaking . Could the oil pan be leaking or could it be randomly burning oil? Whats a good indication that the pan is leaking? Also I checked the head gaskets they look ok.

 

Oil all around the pan would be a good indicator. Lots of places these things can leak unfortunately, and the pan can be a ***** to seal properly. Just did it a few months ago on the OBS. No oil on the ground? Clean off the underbody a bit and see where it comes back.

 

It used less than .5 of a qt in 1300 miles with amsoil. I'm thinking it could be just be burning I wouldn't doubt it because its 200,000+ miles

 

BTW I am running 5-30 I think I'm gonna get some 10-40 to top off and see how it does.

 

You may need something heavier with that mileage. I would go for a fresh oil change versus jut topping off so you can see whether or not its actually burning the new weight or not. I had this problem on my 1st car and when I started putting a higher weight, not only did it start up faster but it ran much better and stopped burning oil. On higher mileage cars (from my experience at the time it had 174k on the ODO) I would run a higher weight.

 

Thx zach

 

00 legacy 2.5 with 191k all original everything besides service items.

I burned like a quart every 1.5-2k ish hard driven miles on 5w30 regular oil when i got it at ~165k...

switched to 1030 and consumed a little less, and then to 1040 high mileage oil and now it's like 2-2.5k a quart

Older engines need the thicker oil