Major service intervals...

Purchased my 2005 Outback in Dec. 2008 with 171,000 km on the odometer.
Did the 200,000 km 'thing' in January 2010, at about 210,000 km, just after returning from my Cameron Corner trip.

Have just ticked over 336,000 km. That is 160,000 km in 21 months, an average of approx 7,600 km per month!
On that basis I will clock over 400,000 km in 8.4 months, i.e. mid April next year.

That will mean belts and filters changed after 3 years and 3 months this time - the previous change having been after 5 years and 9 months. (Jan 2010, built in Sept 2004)


Last time I changed the 'water' pump, as a lot of labour to get to that between belt changes.

My question therefore is:
Given that I am using ZERO coolant between services (5,000 km oil change every 7 weeks!) and that this 'water' pump will be less than 3 1/2 years old, is it reasonable to expect it to last another 200,000 km - i.e. until it is approx. 6.5 years old?
Note: I'm running coolant in the system, i.e. I have never run water through the 'water' pump.

Opinions gratefully received. :biggrin:

I'd replace it Barry. I think every 100-150,000km would be alright, it shouldn't burn oil but more so leak from where the pump is. Plus with the labour to change it I'd do it everytime you change the timing belt as it takes another 5mins to get to the w/p once the t/b is off. My original w/p lasted 10 years and 170,000km before it started leaking badly.
Plus for $80 for a new w/p thats cheap as chips.

Wow, 6,500km is a few in a month. I do around 1000km a week and my new motor just ticked over 200,000km..

Yeah Taza,
74km each way to work, so 740km per week, ~ 1500 per fortnight - and that is before I have any fun at all!

And that is an average of 7,600 km / month. Admittedly the Cameron Corner trip pushed that up a bit...

How many km do you get to a tank?

Gidday Barry

The original WP in my Impreza went around 200K kms before it got really noisy. It never leaked, but the bearing was shot.

At the kind of mileage you are doing, I would change the oil at 10,000 km intervals, or 12,500 kms, whichever is the recommended service interval for your car (it is 12,500 kms or 6 months for my 2006 Forester). I am assuming that most of these miles are not in stop/start traffic, or you would still be doing a month's worth at the end of each year :rotfl:.

If your car is using oil (burning oil) then the shorter change periods are warranted, because if oil is being burned, it means that there are exhaust blow-by gases entering the sump via the leaky rings. There will also be unburned petrol entering the sump.
These factors will cause the oil to deteriorate faster than oil in an engine that is not using any oil.

It can only be determined that an engine is not burning oil after a significant run at highway speeds on freeways or preferably on the open road. Otherwise, the petrol leaking into the sump could compensate for the oil being burned ... ; giving an impression of there being no oil burned when in fact there is.

We have the opposite problem in that we get to 12 months with about/less than 12,500 kms on the cars. I work on the principle that oil should be OK for 12 months, if the mileage is not done under arduous conditions (traffic; hard off-road; dusty; towing; etc).

Having said all that, Roo1 used no oil and no coolant in the 4,500 kms to Brisbane and back (35 to 40+°C all the way up ... ), just before I traded it in at 234,000 kms and 18 y.o.

Sorry fellas, didn't mean to be confusing. Only Mae reference to the oil changes in terms of there being no visible loss of coolant when checked at each service, which occurs at 5,000km intervals. Unfortunately I do have oil loss, probably due to blown plug seals... Something else to address at 400,000km.