"Subarus come from the factory with two oil pans, drain both and refill with 8 quarts of 10W40. Make sure to tighten both real good with the breaker bar, no leaks!"

 

Ideally my Subaru will never see the inside of a quick lube place. In reality, if too busy to DIY, Subaru dlr service dept is booked up, and taking a cross-country trip might have to go to a quick lube.

 

How to affix oil-, dirt-, and idiot-proof labels to dipsticks and drain plugs? For example, plastic flags stamped OIL, TRANS, DIFF thats retained by the crush washer, underhood-grade bright yellow bilingual labels on firewall for dipsticks. Will Brother P-Touch labels topcoated with clearcoat survive? Looks like a number on my new Baja's 4EAT came off a P-Touch just like mine, so these labels would look factory

 

Would be nice for Subaru to apply some markings at factory, when drivetrain failures occur prematurely because of a lube tech's ignorance, Subaru quality may be unfairly blamed.

 

BTW if buying a used car, what is typical symptom of damage caused by oil change screwups to watch out for? Leaking seals, burnt fluids, slipping AT?

P-touch labels may stick if you cleansurface real well. IF you have to use a quik lube place talk to mgr/head shop tech-if they listen, they can make sure the job gets done right. If they don't listen, go elsewhere. While i have never paid anyone for an oil change, the place I take my cars to be inspected is a quicklube place, and the guy that owns it has 40 years experience running gas/service stations so I would trust him-based on seeing he and his crew work-if i needed to pay someone to do the stuff i normally do. I owned a merc station wagon with 2 oil drain plugs(due to oil pan hump over front croass member) for a while, often wondered if both got pulled during a "store bought" oil change.

 

Signs to watch out for of damage? A Jiffy Lube sticker on the door jamb!(just kidding)

You would probably be best off coating the drain plugs in high-temp resistant paint. Each their own colour of course!

 

Make a simple card that explains what is what: Engine oil BLUE, Tranny oil RED...

 

 

The Subaru filters I get - from Japan - have ENGINE and TRANSMISSION written on the bottom of them.