So I am wasting some time reading Priuschat and was reading the old arguments about transaxle fluid changes. Part of the reason I bought an Outback a couple of months ago is that it got some rave reviews on this board. So, any of you have advice about changing the Outback fluid? I am at a hospitasl, so don't have access to the manual (just waiting for a new baby that seemed to want to arrive a few weeks early).
What year Outback? Subaru has two kinds of CVT fluid, essentially for "early" and "late" transmissions.
It's a 2019 with 1,800 miles. Plan to change the engine oil at 3k following tons of internet advice, plus advice from my independent mechanic.
My opinion - this is overkill. But if you must change transaxle fluid to soothe your soul, it is a simple drain and fill. Look up YouTube videos for tools required. From memory 70 mm Torx and close to 1/2" square socket?
Not to soothe any souls, to fend-off boredom at the moment. But thinking a little more, I don't suppose it would be any different than the Prius. Early,such as Mendel and many others tout at 10K. Or 30K tends to be popular for the Prius, followed by Mr. Wong, I believe at about 50K. Then, every 50K or 100K depending who you believe. Cheap enough insurance If you use the XMode a lot (I use it every day for at least two miles) and plan to keep the car for 20 plus years. Heck, I still may be doing it myself in 20 years. The first time on the Prius at 50K was a bit tough, but the second time last month at 100K was much easier.
For those less literate than ChapmanF, Oliver Wendell Holmes' poem The One Hoss Shay describes a machine so well built that all of its components failed at the same time.
Well, I'll drop you a good freebie here. The new Worst Thing Ever in Subaru fluid changes. I follow a few Subaru boards and one that has cropped up a few times with new-to-Sube fluid changers. They're out to do their first home oil change, and they crawl under to drain the engine oil. They carefully remove the drain plug from the transmission, wait until every last drop is out, and replace the plug. Then they change the engine oil filter, then they add the specified amount of oil to the engine. Then they take it for a test drive and get tons of alarms and the thing doesn't drive right. Disaster. Some of them had to buy new transmissions. The careful reader will already know the problem with the above. It's not just DIYers, too. A few generic quick-change shops have managed to do this too. The lesson: Subaru engine oil drains are much further forward than many people expect. The transmission drain is about where many people think the engine sump should be. That symmetrical AWD results in an odd layout: the entire engine is in front of the front wheels, which is a little unusual these days. Don't get lost. This seems to happen much more frequently now that the FB25 engine has the oil filter remoted to the topside, so you aren't thinking about it when you're under the car looking for the drainplug. You don't have that spatial reference as a crosscheck on drain identification on that engine. For a 2019 you'll want the "new" type CVT fluid, officially known as CVTF-II with part number SOA427V1660 for the 1qt bottle. Much like the Toyota HSD transaxle, Subaru doesn't publish guidelines for fluid changes. Unlike the Prius, the Subaru CVT does use the fluid to transmit power via torque converter and does contain friction clutches. So there will be particulate contamination and more heat stress. I say change it every 30-50k- but that's just my own advice.
I'm presuming (which is nearly as bad as "assuming") that there are no stator windings in the Subie, since I hven't seen the word Hybrid mentioned. This would influence my choice since there's really not many interesting things happening inside the cvt compared with all if the sucking, squeezing, banging and blowing that's happening in the ICE. I'd probably still do the cvt fluid change on the front nine, but I'm thinking that making sure that this procedure is done CORRECTLY will be much more important than whether it's done at 3k or 30k. YMMV
Subaru has a somewhat conflicting CVT fluid policy. Basically, like the Prius, don't change it but there's an asterisk for "extreme driving" stating changing every 25k miles. Quite the contrast me thinks. We have 100,000 on our 2015 that's still on the original fluid. I'm going to change it as part of my 100k service interval; did spark plugs (fun!), belt, filters, oil change, etc. Coolant is good for 11 years so not doing that.
The Prius transmission is a mechanically simple one that uses and ATF, which by their nature are delicate when it comes to heat. The gen4 got better transmission cooling. Earlier gens may not have had enough. There also may not be a filter. I never did a change on my 2005. Lifetime transmission fluids, I do at 80k to 100k miles, otherwise, I just follow the manual.
Here is the service manual section for a 2010 Outback, showing fill and drain locations, torque specs, etc. It's a fairly simple job, but ensure you get the correct amount of fluid back in.
They must be new to doing any sort of maintenance on a car as well. If they can't tell the difference between transmission fluid and engine oil when it's draining out, they shouldn't be touching their car. This in addition to the oil drain plug being on the bottom of an obvious engine oil pan (right next to the exhaust manifold) with an external hex head bolt. The transmission (which oddly enough has two axles coming out of it and is to the rear of the engine, where you would expect to find it) has a flat pan that looks like any other transmission pan, and the drain bolt uses an internal 8mm hex. If they were just using an Allen wrench to get that loose, they likely would have had to beat on it with a hammer to get it loose, etc.
