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by Justin Stobb

Subaru practices lean manufacturing, and as a result if they can eliminate part numbers to keep things simple they will greatly lower their costs, but there are some unintended consequences sometimes.

Nowhere is this more obvious than their oil filters and how they have changed, superseded and morphed through the last few years.

The O.E. oil filter you buy for your older model Subaru today looks nothing like the one it came with or was installed for years, but in Subaru’s quest to keep things simple they have decided to not make available the older oil filters, but instead have shrank the size of the filter and dropped the older part numbers from production and inventory.

Pictured below are the last 3 oil filters used by Subaru for the 4 cylinder model.  The black one in the middle was first used on the 2002 WRX turbo models, the reason for this is the Turbo models exhaust system runs very close to the oil filter and it was necessary to shrink the filter down to keep the oil filter from getting to hot and thus increasing the oil and engine temperature.   Here is where things have gone from there, we used to install the black filter on the turbo models, the white filter on everything else except for the H6 and the Loyale.   Then Subaru dropped the white filter from production, but wait a minute any one can see the white filter is bigger!   The oil filter now used by Subaru on all 4 cylinder models is the blue one, which is even a little smaller than the black one and yes still much smaller than the white one that was used on your non Turbo model Subaru for years. I also want to point out the location on the engine for the oil filter on the 4 cylinder Subaru models has not changed since the Legacy came out in 1989.

If you own a Turbo model Subaru and don’t change your oil and filter at least every 4,000 miles you will most likely buy a Turbo or worse an engine, this is the current theme in the 2005 and newer Legacy GT, Forester XT and Outback XT models.

Before there is any argument about synthetic oil and oil analysis, the oil filter used by Subaru is very small and will not last the 7,000 miles your synthetic  oil may last, oil analysis has no way of catching the slow clogging of the oil feed line to the turbo.  Damage from extending the oil changes can happen very gradually over time or can ruin your trip in mere seconds and be very costly.

If you change your oil twice a year versus 3 to 4 times a year you will save roughly $800.00 over a ten year period.  The bad news is you will most likely buy a Turbo and the Turbo will cost over $1200.00, just for the part!  Add to that labor, gaskets and the possibility of the Turbo damaging the Engine just for fun.

If you own a older model Subaru (pre 2005) and the dealer is now installing the blue filter you are now cutting the filtering capacity and oil capacity down from how it was originally designed, and if you exceed the ability of the filter to filter, it doesn’t filter and contaminants in the oil will circulate around in the oil rather than be caught in the filter, this is done as the filter becomes restricted by the bypass to protect the engine from ever being starved for engine oil.

Subaru changed the exhaust lay out of the header pipe in all of their four cylinder models to resemble the Turbo models and now all of the 4 cylinder models have the exhaust system running very close to the oil filter rather than on the turbo models.   So all current production models get the small oil filter as such there is no need for Subaru to keep making available the bigger oil filter even if it would be more beneficial to your 2004 Outback or your 1992 Legacy.

At our shop we use the Blue filters on cars still covered under A Subaru warranty to just keep things simple, and try to explain that the ramifications of going to long with the little blue filter won’t show up until the car is out of Warranty and its all your car.  We install a large oil filter on models that don’t have a turbo or newer exhaust system.  For turbo and 05 and later models we use a filter closer in design to the black filter as the Blue filter leaves a lot to be desired and anyone (minus the engineer who designed it) when holding the blue and black filters in their hands side by side will agree the quality of the filter is just not the same as it used to be.

The good news is Subaru did lower the price of the blue filter a little.

When I see things like this I will always try to find a solution to deliver more value than just going along with a corporations desire to cut costs.  While I will also never claim to be as clever as the engineers, I will also never lose the argument that reducing oil capacity and filtering capacity is a bad idea.  I kind of seriously doubt accounting ever consulted the engineers anyways.

Thanks for reading

Justin

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7 Responses to “Subaru Service Seattle: Subaru Oil Filters Explained”

1. Bruce Brown Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 12:56 pm

   Hey Justin,

   Thank you for the great article above. Great timining since my mechanic and I were just discussing oil filters the other day. What’s the low-down on smaller filters increasing oil pressure, and if they do is it a go thing?

   Your article mentioned “We install a large oil filter on models that don’t have a turbo or newer exhaust system.” Would you mind giving out the brand and part number of this larger filter?

   I live on the east coast so using your shop for repairs isn’t likely. However, I would like to thank you very much for all the repair information on your site. This has been a great help to me and my mechanic (small independent shop) as we try to keep our three againg Subaru’s on the road in top shape.

   Thank you again,

   Bruce Brown
   Le Roy, WV
   95 Impreza coupe 200k
   95 Impreza wagon 193k
   96 Outback 201k

2. Gary Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 2:11 pm

   Interesting, and kind of disconcerting, article, Justin. Thanks for the info.

   Would you please be more specific about what oil filter you now recommend and use for an out-of-warranty 2003 4 cylinder (not Turbo) Outback Wagon? Such as: manufacturer, and model and/or part number? Thanks!

3. Justin Stobb Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 3:51 pm

   Bruce and Gary,

   The oil filters we use are imported from Japan and made in Thailand. They are basically the oil filters that are used in the non U.S. market which is a pretty consistent theme for how we buy our parts. Like The U.S. turns to Mexico, Canada and now China for much of its parts production Japan uses Thailand and other countries as well.

   Unfortunately U.S. based companies such as Fram (Allied Signal) have such a strangle hold on the aftermarket parts channels in the U.S. it makes it really difficult to source out the best parts possible as a consumer. The places we buy our parts from do not have a retail side to them at all, they are all strictly wholesale.

   As far as brand they are private label, and not available for purchase in normal retail outlets. We are going to sell the filters we use under our parts page in the weeks to come.

   The part number is #15208 AA60

   Justin

4. Ed Says:
   November 17th, 2009 at 4:28 am

   I just had my ‘05 Legacy serviced at your shop today. Thanks for the great work. Is this why the published oil level in the owners manual is less than it was in my former ‘98 Outback?

5. Bob Says:
   January 8th, 2010 at 2:27 pm

   Great explanation about the oil filters. There are 4 Outbacks in our family. Recently I researched K&N oil filters for the Outbacks as I had read that they produced a quality product. I was surpised to see different listings for the years ‘00, ‘01, ‘04 (all 2.5L engines). Here are the specs”
   ‘00 ‘01 ‘04
   Height 76mm 73mm 87mm
   Outside dia 80mm 68mm 80mm
   relievf valve ?? 11-17 11-17
   drainback valve no yes yes

   Also ‘01 3L engine, takes the same filter as ‘04.

   If bigger is better, I am comtemplating using the largest filter which is the listing for the ‘04, on all the cars. What do you think?

6. Colton Says:
   January 11th, 2010 at 7:53 am

   Dear Justin

   Do you have any recommendation as to what brand an model number I could pick up at an autoparts store?

   Thanks for your time
   Colton

7. Juan E. Delacruz Says:
   February 26th, 2010 at 7:07 am

   #15208 AA60 Please let me know when this filter will be available, I like the fact that you take PAYPAL, Thanks and keep up the good work.

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