TL;DR

what oil filter does a 2011 Forrester 2.5 na take? Does it depend on engine code?

 

 

So I went to auto zone to do the oil change I asked about last night. I siddle up to to booklet and find the filter that matches my car, engine, and promotion (Bosch filter I believe, Castrol edge was the sale of choice).they were out of the 3300, so I asked them if they had any more. They asked which engine code I had. It was something like (numbers)ab or ac. They said I can bring it in and the obd2 scanner will tell me, but now I don't trust them. Long story short, I need to change the oil...

look you car up at the Bosch website maybe?

That's an idea. Thanks Texan

I called the dealer. He was able to tell cased on vin that I have engine code b. Auto zone can handle that. Learn something new every day

I guess all this discussion is that a 2011 Forester 2.5 NA uses either one of two different size oil filters, depending on which engine code is in the car. Wonder why Subaru would do a mid engine year change??

maybe they introduced the FB engine during our model year, but in canada ?

 

I dunno, maybe they were just wanting to know if it was turbo or na ?

It's simply called Autozone making it more difficult to buy parts, as usual.  This is all due to a Subaru TSB that affects 2013+ models, but allows two different oil filters for the 2011/2012 models:

 

"For the Naturally Aspirated 2011 and 2012 Forester (only) these oil filters are interchangeable, and either one may be used. However, this will not be the case with other future Subaru models using these filter part numbers. Design requirements of future models will necessitate the use of a specific oil filter part number for each application going forward. Therefore, these parts will not supersede within our parts system and we will be carrying inventory of both parts."

 

And the NA and Turbo are different, but all they needed for that was the trim.  The XT is the only one that came with a Turbo so any other trim is obviously going to be an NA, or (since the OP posted which engine) they could have just asked which engine (2.5 NA or 2.5 Turbo).

 

Part numbers for future reference:

 

2.5 NA Oil Filter Subaru 2011 Forester (2012 as well)

15208AA12A

 

2.5 Turbo Oil Filter Subaru 2011 Forester Turbo

15208AA130