Whether you’re looking for a Subaru mechanic near you, or live 100s of miles away from Berkeley, you may find this article helpful. It’s our honest opinion about what service a Subaru really needs.
We’ve been mechanics in Berkeley for 43 years and doing Subaru repairs for over 20 years. In those 20 years we’ve serviced many new Subarus from their infancy. Some our early Subarus have worn out and been replaced, but others are still with us in their geriatric years. We’re convinced that Subarus can last a very long time, if they’re well maintained.
Subaru Service: What’s really necessary?
How should you service your Subaru? What should your Subaru maintenance plan include?
You could follow the recommendations in Subaru’s maintenance schedule, which you can find in your owner’s manual or online. It’s the minimum required if you want to keep your factory warranty.
But is following the maintenance guide the best way to keep your Subaru in good shape and avoid major repairs? It’s a hard question to answer because what’s “best” varies from person to person. People have different goals. One person may want to spend as little as possible to meet the requirements of a lease agreement, another might want to keep the car for 20 years.
We can help you make good choices either way. We’ve been servicing Subaru in our Berkeley shop for long enough to have a pretty good idea of what service items will save money in the long run and which aren’t good for anything but lining our pockets. If you’d like one Berkeley Subaru mechanic’s opinion, read on.
Subaru’s service recommendations
Representatives from Subaru aren’t in the habit of calling me to discuss their strategies, but I think I have a fairly good idea what drives their maintenance recommendations.
First, Subaru doesn’t want their cars to break down under warranty, so I think it’s safe to assume that following the service recommendations in the owner’s manual will keep the car in good condition for the first three years of its life.
Second, Subaru doesn’t want the car to appear expensive to own. If they add too much to the service schedule, people who check for total cost of ownership before buying a car won’t want to buy a Subaru because of the high cost of maintenance.
You may want to service your Subaru more often than required
I’m sure you don’t want your car to need major repairs under warranty, just like Subaru. But what about later?
Subaru’s longevity goal may only be 5 to 8 years. They’re in the business of selling cars. They’d certainly like you to buy a new one.
Consumers can be influenced to buy a new car with the “carrot and stick” approach. The “carrot” is all the new features a newer car will offer. The “stick” is the increasing cost to repair your Subaru as it ages, especially if it’s poorly maintained.
You should think about what you want from your car and make a plan. You may want to drive your Subaru for 15 years and 200,000 miles. In that case, you’ll probably want to do more than the minimum.
On the other hand, maybe you like getting a new car every so often. If you want to get a new car every 3 to 5 years, following the maintenance guide will likely be enough.
Our recommendation for your Subaru Service Schedule
As we see it, our job is to advise you so you can reach your longevity goal, whether it be 80K or 300K. We have plenty of work, and you’re not going to hurt our feelings or pocketbook if you don’t take our recommendations. If you’d like to stick with the minimum, that’s OK. If you’d like to do everything you can to make your car last as long as possible, we can do that too.
Occasionally we’ll feel strongly that a maintenance item is very important, but it’s your car. Once we’ve given our opinion, you’re welcome to do whatever you think best. Since only you know your situation, how could we possibly know better?
Our recommendations are based on what we’ve seen work over the last 40 years. We’re pretty sure our recommendations are valid based on the large pool of anecdotal evidence we’ve amassed over the years. However, not everyone agrees with us. If you call around and compare, you’ll find that a 30K service will be a little bit different at every auto repair shop.
There isn’t a Subaru dealership in Berkeley, but there are Subaru dealerships in nearby Albany and Oakland. You might think that going to a Subaru service center would guaranty a consistent service recommendation, but it won’t. The Albany Subaru service center might a totally different 60,000 mile service than one quoted by the Oakland Subaru dealer.
We’ve seen some of the worst examples “wallet flush” items on dealer invoices. Each dealership is an independent franchise, and they have wildly different cultures. Some are great. Some are scandalous.
Your Subaru service plan should at minimum include what’s in the owner’s manual. You’ll need to use some critical thinking and decide who to trust for any additional recommendations.
Below I’ll list each service item, when the manufacturer recommends it be done, and then when we think it should be done. When there’s a difference between the manufacturer’s recommendation and ours, I’ll explain why.
Oil change
Subaru has adopted a 6,000-mile interval for motor oil. I should mention that there is no interval that requires only an oil change. Subaru requires tire rotation and brake inspection brakes inspected every 6,000 miles as well. This is one of reasons why maintaining your car at a quick lube shop is a bad idea.
6,000 miles is a weird interval, and some of the new Subaru engines tend to consume a lot of oil. Maintenance schedules have three general categories of service: small, medium, and large.
A typical service schedule would be — small, small, medium, small, small, large, and then it repeats. If you choose the 6,000-mile intervals, the medium size “15K” type services don’t fit neatly into the pattern with large services at 30K.
We recommend changing the oil every 5,000 miles, just like Toyota recommends.
Cabin filter
Subaru recommends replacing the cabin filter every 12,000 miles. This is overkill in our opinion unless you park your car under a perpetually shedding tree or just got back from Burning Man.
We recommend you replace the cabin filter every 30K miles. Will this void your warranty? It shouldn’t, but it’s not my call. The only damage a clogged cabin filter could possibly do is to the blower motor, so unless the warranty claim is for the blower motor, I don’t see how a failure to replace the cabin filter on time could be used as an excuse.
Engine air filter
Subaru recommends replacing the engine air filter every 30,000 miles. We agree. This is a good interval for most people. Here’s an article about Subaru engine air filters.
Brake fluid
Subaru recommends replacing brake fluid every 30,000 miles. We agree.
Old brake fluid absorbs moisture which decreases the boiling point and increases oxidation of expensive brake parts like brake actuators.
While brake fluid degrades more with time than miles driven, putting brake fluid on a time-based schedule only leads to it being forgotten. 2-3 years is a good interval for brake fluid and an average driver will drive around 30K in 2-3 year.
Differential oil
Subaru’s recommendation for differential oil makes no sense at all. If you drive under “severe conditions”, you need to replace the differential oils (front and rear) every 15,000 miles. Otherwise, you never need to replace it.
They recommend inspecting the oils every 30K, but gauging the condition of differential oil is quite difficult for some models. It can’t be tested like brake fluid or coolant, and it doesn’t change color or smell as it degrades. The amount of debris in the fluid is a useful metric, but metal powder settles to the bottom of the sump and typically won’t be seen when the fluid level is checked at the fill hole, which is at the top of the differential.
We recommend replacing the differential oils every 30K miles. 30,000 miles has been the interval for gear oil on Japanese cars for years and years. The fluids and gears are the same as they’ve always been, and there’s no reason to change what works.
There are more limited slip differentials these days, but if anything, they require more maintenance, not less. Several Honda products with limited slip differentials require fluid changes every 15K.
CVT Fluid
Another one of Subaru’s service intervals that makes no sense is for the CVT fluid. Subaru CVT transmission fluid never needs to be replaced, unless the car is driven under “severe conditions”. In that case, it should be replaced every 25,000 miles.
We recommend servicing your Subaru CVT fluid at least every 60K miles. If you want to take really good care of your car, consider replacing the CVT fluid every 30K miles. The truth is that we don’t know the best interval. CVTs on Subaru cars is a relatively recent thing.
Subaru has had quite a few problems with the CVT transmissions. However, there’s no way we can know for sure if more frequent fluid changes would have prevented these failures. It seems likely that it might, and common-sense dictates that no type of oil can last forever. 60K seems like a conservative balance of cost and likely benefit.
Valve adjustment
Subaru has a number of engines that require periodic valve adjustment. We generally recommend just following the recommended schedule, which is different model to model. We’ve seen some WRXs that develop tight valves early, but for the most part, they make it to their interval.
There are a few cars like the Toyota Tacoma with a 2RZFE or 3RZFE and the Gen1 Honda Fit where we recommend valve adjustments more frequently that the manufacturer, but so far this hasn’t been needed for any Subaru models.
Spark Plugs
Subaru usually recommends spark plugs at 60K or 105K depending on the model. We haven’t seen any reason to modify this recommendation.
Coolant
If the car has a timing belt instead of a timing chain, then we recommend replacing coolant during the timing belt replacement. Otherwise, Subaru recommends replacing it the first time at the nice round number of 137,500 miles, and then every 75K after that.
Coolant is getting a little tough to advise on. In the old days, every 30K was a good interval. Now all of the Japanese manufacturers use “super long life” coolant, and it actually seems to hold up pretty well. If you have a car without a timing chain, I’d recommend no later than 120K, but I’m far from passionate about it.
Timing belt
Subaru recommends replacing the camshaft timing belt at 105K. We haven’t seen any reason to change this recommendation, but we also recommend replacing a bunch of additional items at the same time. If any of these items fail, the timing belt will need to be removed again, and some of them could lead to engine failure if they fail.
- The water pump. The water pump is driven by the timing belt and is extremely unlikely to make it to 210K without failing.
- The cam seals, crank seal, and oil pump o-ring. Sometimes they’re already leaking, but even if not, we recommend replacing them at the same time as the timing belt.
- Tensioner, pusher, and idler pulleys. These don’t require any additional labor on most models and can cause the new timing belt to break if they fail.
- Drive belt(s). These can be replaced later without repeating the timing belt job, but they need to come off to replace the timing belt, and like the timing belt, they’re likely in need of replacement at 105K.
Subaru Service you don’t need
“Wallet flushing” is the term mechanics use to describe services that do little or nothing for the longevity of the car, but do bring in money. If you’re offered any of the following, it should raise a red flag.
Injector cleaning
On-car injector cleaning machines don’t do anything beyond what adding a can of injector cleaner to the fuel tank would do, so there’s no reason for this service to exist.
Do injectors get dirty and clog? Yes. Sometimes, on some models of cars. An occasional can of Techron or similar might help prevent it.
However, to fix an injector with low flow, it needs to come off the car and be cleaned in an ultra-sonic tank.
Removing injectors for real cleaning is a waste of money unless there’s a problem, like a P0171 lean code. If you’re offered an injector cleaning with an oil change, save your money. The best you can hope for is some psychosomatic improvement.
Felt battery terminal pads
These are offered to prevent corrosion on the battery terminals. They don’t work, and some folks charge a whole lot of money to install them. If terminal corrosion is a persistent problem, there’s something wrong with the car or battery.
Transmission additives
For the most part these are a bad idea. There was a product called Lubegard that we used in the early 1990s to free stuck shift solenoids, and it worked fairly well for that purpose. However, it’s a bad idea to add anything but the correct transmission fluid to a working transmission. Surprisingly, some dealerships seem to love this kind of stuff, even though it could void the warranty.
Cooling system flushes and additives
Flushing the cooling system is unnecessary. Simply draining and filling the coolant and then bleeding the system is all that’s required.
There is a myriad of other cooling system additives that go along with the system flush, and they should be avoided. There is one additive that should be added to Subaru coolant called Subaru cooling system conditioner. It’s a stop-leak product and it’s used to help seal Subaru head gaskets.
Where can you get your Subaru service in Berkeley?
Looking for a Subaru mechanic in Berkeley? Well, we’d like you to come to our shop for your Subaru service, but if you’re not in Berkeley or any of the surrounding East Bay cities like Oakland, Emeryville, Albany or El Cerrito, you can check out our how to find a good mechanic page for some tips on how to find a good place to have your Subaru serviced.