2014 Subaru Outback Excessive Oil Consumption (FB25): What It Really Costs to Fix

The FB25 2.5-liter boxer that arrived in the 2013 Outback brought the FB engine family's oil-consumption problem with it: oil gets past the piston rings into the combustion chambers, affected engines need regular top-ups between changes, and the low-oil warning becomes a familiar sight. The problem drove a class action, Yaeger v. Subaru of America, which was settled with final approval on August 31, 2016 and gave covered cars 8 years/100,000 miles of coverage for oil-consumption repairs, with a replacement short block as the definitive fix for engines that failed Subaru's consumption test.

The settlement's scope is narrower than the problem's reputation, and it matters for this model year. For the Outback it covered 2013 cars with the CVT (within VIN ranges) and 2013 and 2014 cars with the manual transmission; a 2014 Outback with the CVT was not part of it. The other covered models were the 2011 to 2014 Forester, 2012 to 2013 Impreza, 2013 Crosstrek and 2013 Legacy with automatics, plus manual cars through 2015 for the Forester, Impreza and Crosstrek and through 2014 for the Legacy. The claim deadline was October 1, 2016, and the 8-year/100,000-mile coverage has run out for these model years.

Out of coverage, the economics move to market: a short block costs engine-replacement money, so the alternative is managing a thirsty engine with top-ups and vigilance, which is workable on an engine that otherwise wears Subaru's reputation honestly. The bright spot is the replaced-short-block population: those repairs were documented, so paperwork is the highest-yield diligence on any candidate, followed by the dipstick-and-consumption interview.