Guys I bought a thing!

"treesmakewater" (baym)
09/11/2014 at 11:11 • Filed to: New car, Subaru, crosstrek, XV, bought a thing

Firstly, this photo is generic because my potato broke Tuesday .

By "I" I mean my mother bought a thing.

Backstory: my mother's 1995 Nissan maxima with 368K started leaking 5 quarts of oil every week about 3 months ago. My mother bought this car new, and did not want it to go, but it began to break down on her. I took her around to a few dealerships that she was interested in (Hyundai , ford, honda, toyota, vw, Subaru ). Both of us didn't really like the cars anywhere but Subaru, and our service was terrible everywhere but the Subaru dealership (the ford was okay, but he would not let us go anywhere but the predefined route on the test drive). After a little more shopping around, her mind was set on a Subaru. She bought a desert khaki XV crosstrek.

Currently, the car is at 650 of it's 1000 mile break-in period. The cvt is not that bad, but it good for a cvt, like really good. The sound system is worse than my moms 19 year old car. The wind noise is a little loud, but not unbearable.

I will give a full review once it has been broken in, and when my new potato comes in the mail.

Ignore whatever grammatical mistakes may be in this post, I don't plan to be anywhere near a professional writer.

DISCUSSION (21)

 V8 Rustler > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 11:16

Do you know if they fixed the high oil consumption of the FB20 for the 2014 model?

OPPOsaurus WRX > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 11:32

I find the wind noise a bit loud in the WRX. At highway speeds I get pressure waves if I only have the drivers window open to I have to crack another window to let it even out. Do you get that?

treesmakewater > V8 Rustler
09/11/2014 at 11:32

when I did pre-purchase research I never came across articles on high consumption for 2013 or 2014. What is "high consumption" to you?

treesmakewater > OPPOsaurus WRX
09/11/2014 at 11:41

I get pressure waves when only one BACK window is open.

Boxer_4 > V8 Rustler
09/11/2014 at 11:41

It should be fixed for the FB20 as of the 2014 model year. It should also be fixed for the FB25 as of the 2014 model year, too, except for the Forester, which was fixed for the 2015 model year.

The issue was the oil control piston rings, and there is a TSB out to replace them on existing FB engines that are still within the 5 year / 60,000 mile powertrain warranty.

 V8 Rustler > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 11:48

See reply from Boxer_4 above.

treesmakewater > Boxer_4
09/11/2014 at 11:51

well, I have 124,430 of warranty left. Hopefully the re-design is not crap also (like what Audi did with early 2000s friction plates in their transmissions)

Boxer_4 > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 11:52

There was a known issue on some earlier FB20 and FB25 engines where they were consuming oil. Of that group, most were consuming a quart every couple thousand miles, while several were consuming between a half to a full quart of oil every thousand miles.

The issue was traced back to the surface treatment of the oil control piston rings, which was changed to remedy the issue. The new piston rings were used on 2014+ Imprezas, Crosstreks, Legacys, and Outbacks, and 2015+ Foresters.

Subaru released a TSB to correct the issue for vehicles with the old type piston rings as long at the vehicle is within the 5 year / 60,000 mile powertrain warranty.

As long as you have a 2014 Crosstrek, you should be fine.

treesmakewater > Boxer_4
09/11/2014 at 11:54

it is a 2014

E92M3 > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 11:55

I love that color!

treesmakewater > E92M3
09/11/2014 at 12:04

it looks even better in low light! I like the blue more in low light, but the khaki is a better-rounded color (the blue is meh in sunlight)

Long Live the Longdoor > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 12:22

Sweet deal! We just bought a 2015 Forester, just waiting on delivery.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 13:08

Your mom made a wise choice. I might be a tad biased, but I've had my Tangerine Orange Pearl Crosstrek since April of '13, and have put about 22k on it.

You're right about the CVT, its eons better than the last one I drove (2010 Nissan). Once the break in happens you'll see a slight bump in fuel mileage. (Maybe 1.5 mpg). The flappy paddles of the CVT keeps the vehicle responsive enough, unless you're merging with the AC on. That's really the only time I've noticed the lack of power.

The sound system does suck, it's mostly the speakers. The door speakers have a paper cone, and a refrigerator magnet on them, they're garbage. The tweeters in the dash aren't much better. A way to help get a little better sound out of the head unit is to enter throughput mode. There's a quick tutorial here. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AnYFs6…

The wind noise doesn't really bother me too much. I have a set of the OEM in channel vent visors which did cut down on the noise a good deal. If you live where you get snow, the thing is pretty much unstoppable with a set of snow tires. You can go down one size to a 16" wheel and have no clearance issues.

Finally, nice color choice. DK would have been my next choice if not for the Orange. I too like the blue, but I refuse to buy a vehicle with a light interior because I have five dogs. Best of luck with it!

Manny05x > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 13:27

I love the color.

treesmakewater > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
09/11/2014 at 14:21

Thanks! the wind noise bothers me because my 14 year old audi still has 0 (the noise is not bad compared to a civic though). We get "snow" occasionally (normally a fwd car with all seasons is enough for our "snow"). AWD + V8 + summer tires = bad in snow.

The XV is only the second vehicle that I have driven where the A/C actually makes a difference in power, but that said, my sister's 1999 civic is wayyy slower. I can stand 140 or w/e HP, but 80-90 is too little for me.

The only problem is that my mother likes to keep vehicles a LONG time, and subaru's cvt has not been aroud long enough to see if it will fail like nissan's CVT.

treesmakewater > Long Live the Longdoor
09/11/2014 at 14:22

I'm sure you will enjoy it!

treesmakewater > Manny05x
09/11/2014 at 14:24

The only colors in production right now that I like more than the khaki is the VW/Audi brown, and the BMW M4's yellowish color.

Jeeper1 > treesmakewater
09/11/2014 at 22:06

not bad, but I was hoping to find this:

Kinja'd!!!

JGrabowMSt > Boxer_4
09/12/2014 at 11:09

I think "fixed" is a matter of opinion as far as Subaru is concerned. It's only an issue if it exceeds 1qt per 1400 miles, as stated in the manual.

My dad took his 2013 in, and they wouldn't do it, because it consumed less than 1qt per 1000 miles.

Boxer_4 > JGrabowMSt
09/12/2014 at 12:10

Hm, I didn't know that was Subaru's "official" specification for oil consumption. I haven't had too much exposure to the FB series yet.

Sorry to hear that they aren't replacing the rings on your dad's 2013. How much lower is the oil consumption than their specification?

JGrabowMSt > Boxer_4
09/12/2014 at 12:37

It's somewhere in the back of the manual, I'll see if I can get a look later for at least what page it's on.

It's under 1qt per 1000 miles. He plans on moving to a different weight at some point to lower it even more. For what it's worth, the only cars in my house that don't burn oil are the two Minis and my Magnum. Everything else needs to be topped off somewhat regularly. I just changed the PCV valve in my Neon to see if it stops burning oil (I'm trying to sell it by the end of the month as well).

But I'm trying to part ways with some of my dads methods of fixing cars. Some of those methods have ended pretty catastrophically.

Subaru Maintenance and Service Manual for the XV Crosstrek (p11-9):

If the oil consumption rate seems abnormally high after the break-in period, for example more than 1 quart per 1,200 miles (1 liter per 2,000kilometers), contact your SUBARU dealer.