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!
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!
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