I have heard such a variance of opinion for what constitutes a correct break in procedure that I began to wonder if there is a connection between cars that were broken in harshly and oil usage. For those who have owned their cars since new or know how their car was broken in, has anyone seen an example where a mild break in procedure was used and the car still burns oil? My car was not taken over 4000 RPM's for the first 4000 miles and had the oil changed a couple times within the first 4000 miles. I have paid close attention to oil usage over the last roughly 2000 miles (driving the car pretty hard occasionally) and it doesn't appear to be down a drop. Granted, the car has a little less than 13K on it now, but I have heard of some cars using oil with fewer miles on them than that. My suspicion is that my theory holds water, but I was curious to hear if others have had similiar experiences/thoughts.

 

i didn't really break my wrx in properly but it only consumed a little bit of oil. maybe a third of a quart between 3000 mile changes. i put 55,000 miles on that car, most of them modded.

i definitely didn't break my g35 in properly but it consumed an insignificant ammount of oil. i put about 14,000 miles on that car but left it stock.

my truck isn't getting broken in properly, mostly because it's a truck and i don't really care about performance and i won't have it long enough to care about longevity

 

Both my WRX and STi were broken in per the manual's suggestion (1000 miles). The WRX never burned oil, even when it was pushing 350 hp (traded in at 32,000 miles). My STi has not burned any oil either and it is putting out an estimated 370 hp (currently 16,000 miles). All hp numbers are at the crank.

The funny thing is when I bought my wife her LGT, which has an automatic transmission, I asked how I was supposed to break it in (how the heck do you keep under 4000 rpm in a car that shifts by itself ). The dealer said it was unnecessary to follow the break-in procedure. It didn't make any sense to me since the LGT has the exact same engine as my STi.

So far no issues with the LGT either (10,000 miles).

 

HMMMM..... I'd like to think that it's more than luck of the draw that determines whether or not an engine suffers from blow-by and oil usage. I would hope that Subaru's (or any other manufacturer for that matter) has good enough quality control to eliminate variables that large.

 

Oil is overrated anyways...

 

Your mom is overrated.

 

Your mom's underrated...oh burn!

 

....so you're saying that my mom is better than she appears?

 

I'll let her know. My dad's getting along in years and she could use a young, boob-ed buck like yourself.

 

Haha!

 

That's the best response you've got? I'm sorry, my mom is looking for someone a little quicker on his feet, a little sharper.

 

How is that all of my threads get hijacked by T-Will?

 

I'll burn about a quart between oil changes, and I broke mine in using the procedure in the manual (with the occasional rev to redline). But, I never kept a sustained RPM higher then 4k for the first 1000 miles. I would consider that a decent break-in, and I burn more oil then some people who have broken their cars in exactly like the manual suggests. And I also burn as much as others, who broke their motors in properly.

Subaru's can burn oil and I personally think it has more to do with the variances in manufacturing tolerances then with break-in. Besides, Subaru says 1 qt per 1000 miles is not abnormal, so 1 quart for 4500 miles doesn't worry me. Also, a lot of people have been saying they see the most oil consumption between 15k-20k miles which I'm right in the middle of (which I can't figure out why, but whatever, it might be true.).

 

I didnt do the break in on my wrx, but I was told that it was done according to the subie manual. I bought it from a friend who treated it nicely, but def. didnt drive like a grandma The first oil change was done at either 3K or 3750 and switched to redline synthetic 5w30 with oil changes done every 3K - 5K miles.

Now at 51K miles, Im under the impression that oil consumption soley depends on how I drive. If I try to conserve gas (not drive like a demon) it wont consume any oil. BUT if I drive hard (which I normally do), at high rpms or go to redline alot, it WILL consume oil. I add an extra quart every 1K to 2K miles.

 

nKoan and Subie OCD... thanks for getting this thread back on track!