Rob_B

This is a topic that I am interested in. I live in the Scottish Highlands and I regularly drive over Glenshee, the highest tarmac road in the UK. This means the vehicle is constantly driving up and down some very steep hills, usually heavily laden. I also I live 900 feet up a hillside, so again, the car is always on a hill when cold. In the US, they seem obsessed with servicing and their service schedule for oil is every 6000 miles (it was 4000), and the CVT gets done at 70,000. There vehicles are built in the US though, and it does appear the quality is not as good as our Japanese built vehicles. However, I discovered that in both the UK and the US, Subaru have a “Severe driving” service schedule for the CVT, which is every 36000 miles if regularly towing, off-roading or driving in the mountains. However, I cannot find a single UK dealer willing to do the service. They all say that it is only for extreme temperatures. Well, this winter I have seen -16 degrees C, and in the summer, plus 30, so I would say a 46 degrees difference is pretty extreme. My last Outback, a 2019 Premiem SE had 42500 miles on it with no issues at all. My current 2023 Field is on 1900 miles, but shudders when the engine is cold if I am stationary, but in drive or reverse. By the time the oil temp is up around 70 degrees, it’s fine. I have contacted the dealer twice (who is 140 miles away), but with no reply. I would really like to keep this car, (if the shudder is not an issue), so want to do the 36000 mile CVT service.

On my second service on a 2019 Outback Premium SE I was advised my front discs were badly scored and pads were 90% worn. They also advised the rear callipers were sticking. That was at around 20,000 miles. They wanted around £1000 plus VAT to sort them. I bought a disk and pad set direct from EBC, which included uprated discs and Green Stuff pads, plus Green stuff pads for the rear , for around £320, including calliper grease. Replacement was easy. Breaking was much better, and at its first MOT at 40000 miles, the report came back as pads 20% worn. Discs were fine with very little scoring. My partners 2017 WRX STi needed new discs and pads at its first MOT. Milage was around 25,000 miles. Again, I got direct from EBC and she wanted like for like replacements. I think we were about £450 for 4 discs and 4 sets of pads. She is now on 70,000 miles and I am just starting to think about disc replacement. So in both cases, EBC kit lasted at least twice as long as Subaru OE kit, and gave better braking performance.