Hello guy's i'm new to the forum   i bought a subaru recently and i'm a bit worried about a smoking issue. The situation the car is in goes like this, it was a company car,it has 55k miles on the clock (possibly clocked before 2011 no proof for that but would't surprise me) only been at subaru once for service, maybe 2 oil filters changed in 55k,as when i changed the filter last week it was an OEM subaru blue filter with some small rust holes inside,and was leaking; So the car had a rough life. i did a little service miself, oil filters battery soon to follow cambelt (as service interval suggests 60k?) and sparkplugs. The reason i bought the car was to go on a winter trip across europe,and i decided to go for a subaru, now i'm worried it won't make the trip (about 10k miles in 3 weeks)? the level of oil has decreased from last week when i put 4L in of castrol edge, maybe i lost anywhere between 400ml to 800ml of oil; car is smoking not when driving, but at traffic lights or whenever i start the car,it's mostly noticeable in start stop slow moving traffic, at the moment i'm really keeping an eye on oil/coolant levels but it just bugs me, could it be the headgasket or? also i checked the engine temp and it idles at about 92 degrees. Also when the car starts it takes a while i mean not alot but compared to my previous vechicles i'd say it takes an extra second or 2 otherwise it drives from A to B... i really wanted to make the trip and plane tickets are really expensive (so would an engine rebuild would be but...) what do you guys think? smoke is white/grey  :(  :(

Wotcha and welcome - mileage isnt high but a sniff test will give you head gasket result.

These cars can be oil heavy, if the coolant level is sound, the 'smoke' could be condensation at this time of year. If the smoke was blue then I'd be worried about engine wear. If it drives ok, the oil is clean and it's not losing coolant I wouldn't be overly worried if it's not overheating.

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thanks for the reply guys, when you say overheating about how many degrees you're thinking martyc?

92c doesn't seem too high and sounds perfectly fine, although I'm not sure what the operating temp is on these cars

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hi guys an update the car now runs between 95 degrees on the motorway and 100 degrees around town, also i lost about 2.5 L -3L of oil since last week in about 200 miles, but there is no obvious leak, so i will try to get someone to have a look at it, i've been quoted by the dealers in coventry 700 for a cambelt change, i'm not sure how much they charge for diagnostics but what do you guys think should i avoid them all toghether, and look for a subaru specialist/enthusiast garage? any recommandations around coventry? i've found this guys on google any one dealt with them before? http://tdracing.co.uk/contact-us 

That's far too high oil consumption! That's a hefty price for a cambelt too

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That's about standard dealer pricing,

Thwaites is a good garage although I don't know anyone personally who's used them all the stuff on the net I've come across has been positive

Ok so i went there on Wednesday, and they quoted me for 550 for cambelt change+aux belts,transmission oil change diff oil change and sparkplugs also a further investigation of where the oil is going, not bad considering the dealers price and all this will be done on monday on such short notice. The opinion i got for the oil leak is that; because the car has been abused oil is going down the exhaust as there is no obvious leak, so probably engine rebuild which goes up to 1.9k.