Thread: Some help with my FXT

So I believe the turbo is going out on my the Foz and wanted to confirm what is going on and next move.

First this car has always given me fits with finding the oil level on the dipstick. It reads all over the place, and takes a loooong time to drain down to show a proper level.

Second the car smokes out the exhaust (sometimes not all the time) when you idle it for a few minutes and then take off. Not from stoplights but if I sit in a parking lot with the AC on for a few minutes. Its done it more lately.

Third you have to fill up the oil real slow when changing or it will back up and I recently fished a bunch of gunk out of the filler tube at the last oil change.

I got an engine code that suggested several things including; low or dirty oil, blocked oil passage, timing belt misalignment or failed avcs solenoid.

Symptoms very similar to this guy;

http://www.justanswer.com/subaru/35xea-2004-subaru-forester-turbo-67-000-miles-check-engine-light.html

Last MPG has been very good 21-24 (that's good for an 04 w 4eat) and it consumes no coolant at all.


Thanks for the help I'm just gonna shout out random subie heads @Vadim @sentraman @blairellis @Cliff @xCONWRATHx and @classicaddict (sorry if I missed someone)

cheers
Ben

Subie wants to be a Nissan. sorry I can't help.

You have to check the oil with it cold I've found. What code are you getting? Something to try is removing the filters from the banjo fittings for the AVCS. I removed mine years ago before they caused issues. You can't just dump the oil in like with an inline motor since the filler neck is small. With my Evo and the 200, I can dump a full 5qt jug in without a problem, but I always spill oil if I try that with the Forester. It's a slower process for sure. I would also pull the IC and see if you have a bunch of oil in it or the turbo. The seal between the center section and the housings might be going out, and you might as well upgrade if you are going to do that, or look for a low mileage TD04.

Thanks Eric.

I'm going to check the AVCS filters on the banjo fittings but I also fear the turbo is going or is gone. It definitely sounds funny sometimes, and then other times it sounds awesome. At 120k and about 20k miles for us over 3 years I can't complain about the car but I need to sort this out before it impacts other things.

Found a low mile turbo from on Forester.org but its from 2011 FXT. Will that work I'm thinking I read that it won't.

It won't, you need a turbo from a '02 - '07 WRX, or a '04 - '08 FXT. The newer turbos bolt directly to the IC instead of using a coupler. I think the up pipe and downpipe bolt pattern is different also.

STI turbo time



I hate the dipsticks/oil checking design on these cars. So hard to read and inconsistent.



Sounds like turbo oil seals are leaking. Could also be valve seals (I had this issue on my VE).



Had this issue first time I did the oil change, just did one last week (first time with warm weather) and it had no backup issues at all.



Did you remove the stupid little filters out of the oil feed to the heads?



That is good MPG's, is that highway only or city too? My city only was 14-15 until I sidegapped my plugs, now it's at 18-19. My mixed driving seemed to have stayed around 21ish, highway only before sidegapping was 22ish.

I agree with going with a VF39, but I didn't want to suggest that unless he was looking at an AP or OpenSource.

I'd like to get the AP/Opensource but its not in the cards right now.

The MPG are from mixed driving. Out here there's a lot of open road but you have to haul down to stop signs and speed up again so often its really not highway driving or pure city. I can tell you highway mpg isn't much better since you can't keep the turbo off boost over ~70mph and with a 65mph limit you basically have to be in boost just to keep up.

I'll investigate this soon and post up but I may be forced to trade the car in soon depending how things shake out over the next month or so.

^2nd that, vf39 or 43

@Benito Malito how much oil do you put in?

I put about half a quart on this oil change interval, which is at ~3000 miles. Castrol Syntec. It got real bad one day after my nephew's christening. Really embarrassing to pull out of the church, but my two year old was having a serious meltdown so we sat in the car idling with AC for probably 10-15 minutes while everyone got into caravan form to go to the restaurant.

I'll admit I've run conventional oil in the car before but change at 2000-2500.