Oil Recommendation: 2006 Equinox 3.4L v6

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Mar 27, 2015
Messages
7
Location
Midwest US
1. What kind of vehicle you have
2. What your owner's manual says -- not just viscosity, but certifications (look for acronyms like API SM, ILSAC GF-4, etc.) and change intervals as well
3. Where you live
4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?)
5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?)
6. Whether your car has any known problems

2006 Chevy Equinox LT, 3.4L v6 engine, FWD, currently ~90,200 on the odometer.

Manual recommends "5W-30 meeting GM standard GM6094M."

Currently live in Iowa, will be driving this truck to its new home with me in Colorado sometime around August. Plan at this time is to keep it until it dies (I don't trade cars out often; the first two were only abandoned when they were wrecked, and my most recent rustbucket just became too much work to stick around as my daily driver when I'm planning a cross-country move).

I'd say I'm a 'hard' driver? Lead foot, tend to accelerate too quickly and brake late. Certainly not slow. I will be towing a trailer on my move and hauling things in the vehicle itself, but I don't do a noteworthy amount of either otherwise.

My current daily drive is a very short (less than ten minutes) jaunt to work and back at the end of the day, sometimes twenty minutes across town for certain things. Not sure what to expect once I'm settled in CO.

No known problems that I'm aware of. As stated above, the odometer is currently sitting at just over 90k miles. Body is in fantastic condition with one tiny little paint-chipped area that has the beginnings of rust. Undercarriage is fairly rusty, but not as bad as it could be for an Iowa vehicle. Biggest problems so far have involved a slightly defective door hinge, and a broken speaker wire in the passenger side front door.

I just performed a full tune up this weekend; took out the dealer-filled oil and filter and replaced with with Mobil1 5W-30 Extended Performance Advanced Full Synthetic and Mobil1 Extended Performance filter, purchased at Advance Auto Parts. Also put in ACDelco Iridium plugs, Denso wires because I couldn't get my hands on the Delcos in time, K&N engine air filter, and a Purolator cabin air filter. Noticed a marked performance increase afterwards, especially in acceleration. Gas mileage seems better, too, but I haven't had the car long enough to say for sure.

Did not change out oxygen sensors because I didn't see a need, fuel filter because it's non-serviceable or the PCV valve because it might as well be. Might still do the sensors/valve at some point, but both of them look stressful enough that I may wait until they throw a code.

I intend to be pretty religious about changing the oil at 5000 miles. Cost isn't an issue, I want to take care of this car. I work at Advance Auto Parts and get a good discount on anything they sell.

HIT ME!
 
Last edited:
I just "took over" maintenance of one of these - an '07 (my mother's). Similar mileage. After research I decided to go with M1 5w-30 HM. I think 5k OCIs on EP is a bit too short, but your harder use may dictate that. I have used 5w-30 M1 HM in other V6 high mileage vehicles with great results, out to 7.5k OCIs. Others can discuss the oil intricacies better than I.

I post because I would like to tell you that in my research I ran across two other known problems with this vehicle, and with help from other BITOG users.

1) Intake manifold gasket. Tend to leak. Change coolant consistently, others recommend some GM/Barr's tabs to prevent it. Scary reading:

http://troubleshootmyvehicle.com/gm/3.1L-3.4L/coolant-leaking-from-intake-gaskets

2) Aisin-Warner transmission. Seems some solenoids, etc. are fragile and Volvo and GM uses of this transmission seem to suffer equally. Change fluid regularly, use synthetic ATF, etc. I am going to use Mag1 synthetic (not low vis) in it since that matches the original T-IV fluid well (others do, too - not the only thing that can work here). Note it uses Toyota T-IV fluid in it and not dexron VI, etc.

So I am starting preventive/severe-service type maintenance schedules to try to avoid this.
 
I'd send in a sample for a UOA on this engine as it's known to have intake gasket issues...not just occasionally...pretty much all of them (you can Google that engine and you'll see what I mean). At 90K miles, if the gaskets haven't been done they'll no doubt need to be. The good news is once replaced and there's no danger of coolant getting into the oil through the gaskets, the engines are very durable and long-lived. I've driven these and they're a pleasant drive. There's probably a better than even chance that the gaskets have already been replaced but I'd go ahead with a $25 UOA unless I had proof just to be sure.
 
The intake manifold gasket will fail at some point. Put that at the top of your list to do. Also I'd take out the K&N air filter, they don't filter well at all. Just use a paper filter. 5,000 miles is a little short for Mobil 1 EP, but with your driving style of short trips 5,000 miles sounds good.
 
Originally Posted By: Oro_O

1) Intake manifold gasket. Tend to leak. Change coolant consistently, others recommend some GM/Barr's tabs to prevent it. Scary reading:

http://troubleshootmyvehicle.com/gm/3.1L-3.4L/coolant-leaking-from-intake-gaskets


I'm gonna get an oil analysis done, as some others on here suggested. I did make sure to get a 2 yr warranty from GM when I purchased this car; assuming I find a leak, that should be covered, right?

I'm not familiar with the 'GM/Barr's tabs' terminology; is that just the stop-leak stuff or something else?

Originally Posted By: Oro_O


2) Aisin-Warner transmission. Seems some solenoids, etc. are fragile and Volvo and GM uses of this transmission seem to suffer equally. Change fluid regularly, use synthetic ATF, etc. I am going to use Mag1 synthetic (not low vis) in it since that matches the original T-IV fluid well (others do, too - not the only thing that can work here). Note it uses Toyota T-IV fluid in it and not dexron VI, etc.

So I am starting preventive/severe-service type maintenance schedules to try to avoid this.



Thanks, I'll look into making that happen. What would you consider 'regularly?' Same time-frame as my oil changes, or... ?

I'm curious as to what your schedule looks like. I have a rough idea of mine, and I'd like to see how it compares.

[/quote]

Originally Posted By: oilmaven
I'd send in a sample for a UOA on this engine as it's known to have intake gasket issues...not just occasionally...pretty much all of them (you can Google that engine and you'll see what I mean). At 90K miles, if the gaskets haven't been done they'll no doubt need to be. The good news is once replaced and there's no danger of coolant getting into the oil through the gaskets, the engines are very durable and long-lived. I've driven these and they're a pleasant drive. There's probably a better than even chance that the gaskets have already been replaced but I'd go ahead with a $25 UOA unless I had proof just to be sure.


I'll do that once I've got some miles on this oil. I got a 2 yr/36k warranty on it, so if it comes up filled with coolant, I'll be raising unholy [censored] at the dealership until they fix it.

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
The intake manifold gasket will fail at some point. Put that at the top of your list to do. Also I'd take out the K&N air filter, they don't filter well at all. Just use a paper filter. 5,000 miles is a little short for Mobil 1 EP, but with your driving style of short trips 5,000 miles sounds good.


See above re: the gaskets. I'm sorry to hear that about the K&N filter; I'd always thought they were supposed to be pretty good stuff. Is there any literature available on this?

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Run. Anything terminal will cost more than the cars value to fix


That's what the warranty is for.
smile.gif
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top