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Comments
I would be very surprised if these oil life monitors were actually sophisticated enough to detect whether the oil is conventional oil or synthetic, and forecast the remaining oil life percentage accordingly (i.e. tell you there's more miles left before change needed when you are running synthetic oil).
In other words, wouldn't the oil life monitor have said the same thing - time to change at 9,000 miles - if you were running conventional oil instead of Mobil 1?
Oil life is affected by many factors other than just miles driven. The type of driving, temperature, and engine load all play a part.
That’s why GM developed the GM Oil Life System, an electronic watchdog that keeps track of all these variables and notifies the driver when it’s time to change oil.
The Oil Life System is programmed with a certain number of engine revolutions. As the engine runs, this number is reduced until it reaches zero, and the Oil Life light or message comes on. But that is not all. Operating the engine under low or high temperatures, and under high load conditions subtracts (penalizes) extra revolutions, so the light comes on sooner.
But what about Mobile 1, you ask? Not good news for you Malibu owners, I am afraid.
Synthetic oil resists "wearing out" better than mineral oil, so the oil life monitor is set to account for this, but only on vehicles that are specified for synthetic oil from the factory -- the Corvette, for instance. Using synthetic oil in other vehicles is certainly not harmful, but the oil life monitor will continue to count down as though the engine contained mineral oil.
If I can add find out anything in this area that I can share I will post back.
I do a lot of traveling to Canada, going again tomorrow but haven't even though about getting snow tires. Maybe I should cause I will be putting on 100,000 over the next three years if I would be into another set of tires anyways so maybe by rotating them fall & spring & could still manage using just two sets?
Does anyone thing they will cut down on gas mileage???
This engine torque reduction is probably what you were noticing. On other vehicles the traction control system also will apply the brakes to slow down a spinning wheel faster. The Malibu system does not do this.
To turn the system on or off, you press the ETS button which illuminates the traction control OFF telltale in cluster. In order to effectively “rock” the vehicle, you will need to turn off ETS.
My understanding of your basic 4-5 dollar synthetics on the shelf are that their additive packages are really no different than mineral oils. Speaking from experience they will tend to maintain seals and cleanliness better. I've had a vehicle I've worked on changed with Mobil 10W30 every 5000 miles and at 60000 miles the hydraulic lifters began sticking from varnish. However, when you would look inside the valve cover it would be perfectly clean. I would have expected better performance from Mobil 1. I've had another vehicle using Valvoline synthetic have the differential go (FWD) at about 218000 miles. A lot of miles yes, but I would have expected the same life with mineral oil. Also, here's a fun fact, Castrol Syntec became mineral oil after it's introduction and ExxonMobil took them to court over it, but lost.
What I hear from the dealers in the area about the oil life monitor is that it is great if you keep the car 2-3 years, but don't expect it to last long. What concerns me about the monitor is that is doesn't have a sensor for dirt, or the motor in oil bypass mode, or a way to compensate for different quality oils. Cadillac has a acid sensor, but I don't know about the Maxx. e2helper?
Having the engine bypass valve set to 4 psi vs. a standard 8-11psi on bypass filters will cause bypass more often. This can happen in cold weather when you first start your engine even or when the filter becomes restricted by a certain level of contaminants. If the brand of filter does not have media with a high flow rate, then theoretically the engine would bypass even sooner.
Wix tells me all GM motors have this internal bypass valve set to 4 psi. I have no way to verify this, but am just passing on what I've read on the net, etc.
gmaxx
Hence Maxx dash panel kind of dull (mouse gray)-
has anyone tried or at list consider auto market
wood or fiber? to bring some life into it?
You would thinbk that a GM system would have all their own VINs in a database.
Anyone else use GMLINK or have similar problems?
Thanks!
As far as the conventional oil vs. synthetics, I use Mobil 1 in mine after the second oil change (roughly between 4 and 6k miles, depending on how a new car gets driven). Because of the fact that the Oil Life Monitor in the Malibu doesn't account for a higher grade of oil (e2helper's info), I feel fairly safe using it to determine changes, even though it does show a longer period between changes than I went with before such systems existed in my cars.
cover in burgundy...I had one on my last car and found it gives a soft attractive, grippy surface for my hands, $35.70, shipping included..I ordered the wheel cover from Street Lightz.com and the dash cover from
exoticwooddash.com..Be talking to you...Jack
I solved it by calling the customer center and they fixed it. My problem was that I wanted to register my car in the name of the second purchaser and they have the cars under the name of the first.
Perhaps Mobil 1 is indeed a top-quality synthetic oil (hard to say for sure, one way or the other), and this vehicle/engine would have done the same thing regardless of which oil was used? Just a different angle.
Also, Valvoline 'synthetic' stopped being a true synthetic oil a few years ago. Its PAO formula seemed to be well-regarded and a good Mobil 1 competitor, but I am 99% sure it has since switched to hydrocracking - a la Castrol Syntec.
This would seem to suggest that the Purolator Pure One filter, which is very well regarded but sometimes criticized for being too flow-restrictive, may be a poor choice for the 3.5L Maxx engine?
The Pure One filter has been my chosen filter for do-it-myself oil changes on various vehicles the past several years. It's readily available, seems to offer very good quality and performance, and is readily available to me for $5-6.
E2helper, thanks for being there for us, again!
Speaking of Valvoline Synthetic, the back of the oil bottle recommends changing every 3 months or 3000 miles.
Don't forget that the owner's manual says to change @3 months 3000 miles if the oil life monitor is accidently reset.
I've done oil analysis in the past on AMSOIL oil synthetic filter advertised as long life and the dirt/contaminant levels were higher than advertised at 7500 miles, in the unsafe level, above 20 microns. I've tested Honda filters, which I believe might be NIPPON, using 2 filters for a 7500 mile oil change came out with the best results of all @ 4 microns of dirt.
After my recent research I've gone with WIX due to them being the only company that could give me hard data. By the way they also advertise their filters as low restriction. A local mechanic I know did his own weighing of different brand filters before and after use and the WIX consistently weighed more, holding more contaminants. Wix runs around $5-6 dollars here in town.
I can definitely tell the improvement with the PCM recalibration.
Don't forget to give the service write-up person the TSB number from e2helper's posting #2436 in case the service department is unaware.
Any comments?
I'd still like to have the message show the miles-to-empty since Low fuel warning only tells you that you have anywhere from 0 to 40 miles left. Is this possible?
Thanks!
Is it too farfetched to have a situation where if I have to park on the side of a winter road, end up with one wheel on glare ice and find the traction control will be of absolutely no use? The maxx can't take chains either (was advised of and asked to sign release statment verifying this on delivery).
I had planned some winter trips in the car but not so sure I want to try it now.
The 05 Malibus seem to be doing pretty well. It seems that most of the 04 problems (EPS failure, etc.)were put to rest with that model year.
If you have an 05 Malibu, some of you might notice there is a slight difference between the bowtie emblems on the grille and decklid. That was a change that happened early on.
The sedan is still selling way better than the Maxx. Marketing obviously is still trying to figure out who they're selling the car to. As a result, we're stretching the limits of how fast the plant can build the sedan, while at the same time a lot of the Maxx equipment sits idle.
A few months ago, I had a unique experience. A reader of this message board told me he had ordered a Maxx and he was wondering if I could look it up on the schedule to see when it would be built. Not only was I able to get the timing, I was able to track the car as it was being built! He got a real kick out of getting live updates on how his Maxx was doing.
Which reminds me, I wanted to let everyone know that they are still doing this "GM in the Driveway" program. This is the website:
https://www.gmfamilyfirst.com/pages/ff_login.jsp
This program allows employees to offer the supplier discount to anyone interested in purchasing a GM vehicle. This is in addition to other current incentives. You don't have to be a family member either. If anyone's interested, shoot me an e-mail, and I'll get the information I need from you. I get no benefit from it other than a fraction of job security. LOL. Actually, I enjoy helping people out. That's the real benefit.
There are a lot of interesting changes coming up on the Malibu over the next couple years. The new G6 and the yet unnamed Saturn will give several clues. The SS models and hybrid will both pose several challenges from an assembly perspective.
Happy motoring!
Dave
Is is __styling__?? Is it __price__ ?
Is it's because the factory isn't building enough ??
The dealers have very few!! I've seen ___very___ few maxxes out here in Los Angeles.
I have a 5 month old 04 Maxx that I've put 6500 miles on. She’s a loaded black LT, sunroof, 6 CD changer, dvd player, XM radio, etc.
First of all, I *love* this car. We love all sorts of vehicles and I’ve driven just about everything under the sun. I spent the ’01 –02 model season driving *every* 4 door sedan in the $0-$50k range when my mother was car shopping, and she custom ordered a ‘02 Buick Regal. A co-worker bought a Maxx; I sat in it, and knew, immediately, this was the one for me.
Secondly, if this nonsense keeps happening, I am going to drive the damn thing though the dealership windows.
It has been a difficult childhood for poor little Crow. She has been in the dealership 6 times since I got her, mostly for stupid things.
The trips:
1.) check engine light on, CD changer either grinding and not changing, or dead in the water and not playing anything, remote star would not work
: resolution: cleared light – O2 sensor, reprogram fobs, temp radio while new ordered
2.) swap temp (temp does same thing, and drop preprogrammed stations) for new ordered radio
3.) order another radio, new radio doing same thing
4.) install 4th radio, complain about check engine light again, 1st service while there before road-tripping
:resolution: cleared code (they didn’t tell me), snap at older service manager for treating me like a witless girl (I know to check the damn gas cap)
5.) Put 1800 miles on in 12 days. Check engine light on for 80% of mileage put on car so far, usually tied to what gas I put in, whine at other service manager that the remote star does not work, he tells me how the light will not allow the remote start to work, bring it in.
6.) Bring car in on Monday, they bang at it for a while, tell me it’s fixed, and roll out, Tuesday remote start works, but ends early – light came on and shut it off, started car with key and the light’s back on.
7.) Bring car back Friday, and fix it. Kid tells me it’s a vacuum (??!?) leak. Older guy is no longer allowed to speak to me.
8.) So now the radio is doing the same damn thing all over again. Turn the car on, and the CD player sits in a track. Won’t play, try to rest and start the track from 00:00 and it sits, try changing the CD’s, get message it’s trying to change, and nothing, takes 6-7 minutes for it to give up enough to switch to the tuner instead of the CD. Will not eject any CD’s. When I go out tomorrow, most likely, it will work just fine. Then 3 days later, it will prolly do the same thing.
The radio ‘gets lost’ for a lack of a better description. It forgets whether it was on the XM or a CD, where it was in a track if it was playing a CD, or just the fact that it was on, and then the next restart it goes into a different mode. It is very frustrating. Please, some insight on what I am doing wrong would be greatly appreciated.
SnowCat
Drive like a screaming maniac with my hair on fire.
'04 Malibu Maxx 'Crow'
'91 Pontiac 6000 'Swan'
'69 Cutlass S Holiday Coupe 'Goldfinger'
Nice detailed post. Sorry for issues/aggravation you are having with "Crow".
Let me see if I understand the issues (and suggest some things).
1. Check Engine Light comes on
2. Remote Start Inop
3. CD Changer not changing/grinding
4. Radio not remembering settings
Is that right?
First if you could provide last 6 of your VIN that would be helpful.
1. There is a potential that your vehicle might fall into the population of Maxxes with a warped gas tank (VIN info would be most helpful for this one). This issue also causes fuel gauge not to read "F" after fueling (or be there VERY short amount of time) a problem you didn't mention. After filling the tank it occassionally can cause the Check Gas Cap message and even less occassionally the Check Engine Light. The frequency of those problems would be related to your driving/fueling patterns.
Dealer has bulletin #04-08-49-025 available to tell them how to test the fuel tank in this situation
2. Dealer is correct that a Check Engine Light causes the remote start function to be disabled. So item 1 needs to be addressed to fix.
3. I don't have an answer for this one. You have had this problem with multiple radios. Are you using retail CDs or ones you burned yourself?
4. Did the dealer mention to you that the vehicle has radio setting personalization based on the last remote keyfob that was used to UNLOCK vehicle? Are you regularly using both fobs or only one? My suggestion here if you are only using one fob to try switching to the other fob as your default.
If you are using switching between fobs regularly then you are not going to be able to avoid this issue since it will change the radio settings to the last ones for that particular fob.
1.) warped gas tank
None of the codes they have cleared and none of the symptoms that have been posted in the forum here match. It’s been a week and the light has not popped back up. We’ll see what happens when I fill the tank this weekend. (Filling this tank make me miss my Geo Prizm I had for a while.) I’ll mention it to the service manager next time I’m in.
2.) Check engine light/remote start.
The younger service manager actually told me this before the Monday appointment. He actually talks to me like I’ve got a brain. Since the light has not been coming on, the start has been working.
3.) CD changer
Yes – 4 different radios. I am using commercial disks that are either brand new, or I’ve had for a while. I am thinking this is something that a hammer could fix. :-(
4.) Switching key fobs.
_really_? Huh. I think I read that in the owner’s manual, but it didn’t sink in. (read it cover to cover, thankyouverymuch.) I generally use just one key fob, but sometimes, usually at the house, I might use the other to open it or start it, since it’s right there on the coffee table and the regular is buried in my purse or jacket.
E2Helper, *thank you* for you expert help in here. I have been trying to read my way though here, and have seen many of your posts and how you tie to this and the G6 (my jaw dropped when I saw the ad with the 3-panel sunroof)
SnowCat
Drive like a screaming maniac with my hair on fire.
'04 Malibu Maxx 'Crow'
'91 Pontiac 6000 'Swan'
'69 Cutlass S Holiday Coupe 'Goldfinger'
Yeah, all 4 radios do the "can't play, can't switch discs, can't eject, can't load, message on DIC says CD Changer Error. " Unfortunately, it is intermittent on all radios, which makes me afraid of a electrical connection, or something else wonky. I plan on keeping this car for a very longtime, and I do not want to have major issues.
I haven't got the "Check DAB", maybe once right after a radio swap, but nothing after that.
Hmm.
Thanks for the reassurance, I hadn't seen any radios issues yet, and I wanted it to be not just me.
SnowCat
Drive like a screaming maniac with my hair on fire.
'04 Malibu Maxx 'Crow'
'91 Pontiac 6000 'Swan'
'69 Cutlass S Holiday Coupe 'Goldfinger'
1) So you have never had an issue where you thought the fuel gage wasn't reading "F" after you filled up tank? Well when I see your VIN I will have a better idea on when your vehicle was built.
2)We seem to have this one understood.
3)I am at a loss on this one and have passed your message to someone a little more knowledgable than me for comments
4) The original printing of the owner's manual didn't even mention this feature but 2nd printing gave it a real quick 1 or 2 line description somewhere. Actually this feature was deleted from 2005 model year because of the number of customer complaints received that the way the function was implemented was confusing.
Anyways everything is based on the UNLOCK function with key fob. The keyless entry module sends body computer a "FOB 1 UNLOCK" or "FOB 2 UNLOCK" command. The body computer then sends a "DRIVER 1" or "DRIVER 2" message to other electronics on the vehicle (unfortunately this information is NOT displayed in the DIC like it is on some vehicles so you won't know which is selected (and fobs don't have numbers on them).
Only the radio and XM receiver react to this with personalized operation. The XM remembers XM radio presets, the radio remembers AM/FM presets, volume, Radio On/Off, CD or Radio, etc, etc.
If you are pretty sure you are just using 1 key fob and this weird stuff is still happening the interesting thing would be whether you are using key fob 1 or 2. The dealer can tell this using his scan tool. I believe that fob 1 is default and so was thinking if the body computer somehow occassionally forgot what fob it was using it might default to fob 1 thus being different than your normal settings. I am not aware this happens - It was just a thought.
And now you know a h*** of a lot more about the personalization feature in your vehicle (and probably more than the dealer)
I will be back in touch this evening.
Once my wife and I figured out the radio features, we came to love it, especially since we both have our own favorite types of music (there's overlap, so some stations are shared, but we each have several unique presets now, too. ) ).
GMs fix, removing the feature entirely, seems like a step backward. I guess I should be happy that we bought an '04, first-year gremlins or not..
1.) No – fills all the way to the top – I had a rust hole in my Cutlass’ tank years ago, and I’ve always kept an eye on the gas gauge since.
2.) Yeppers.
3.) Thanks. If this keeps up, I’m going to make them change the radio to a 1 CD with tape deck and make them buy me an iPod. Music issue solved. Of course when I got in the car this morning at home, after the CD locking up last night, it played beautifully. Car was unlocked and just started it with the key, not the remote.
4.) Kewl. Hmmm I am going to just use the one fob from now till the end of the year and see if it does anymore of the resets. A lot of the forgetting was when I was road tripping and using the two different fobs interchangeably due to size of the key ring. Since I’ve reprogrammed the presets for the radio, the only noticeable difference is where the radio/XM/CD was last playing. Food for thought.
I like knowing all I can, but then I’m the daughter of an engineer, and he always answered the “Why Daddy, why?” questions in overkill detail. :-)
PS. – a last salvo over the wall, why the hell did they not put a locking gas cover on this?
Thanks,
SnowCat
I think the reason the Maxx isn't selling as well is because the marketing folk completely missed their target demographic. I could've sworn I read somewhere that the majority of Maxx buyers are in their 40's, which would seem to agree with the poll that somebody on this message board had posted a while ago. I think that was a much older age group than what GM was expecting.
onlysurfer: The discount that you're able to get through this offer is called a supplier discount, and it varies depending on the vehicle you choose and the options you pick. The $3000 discount you mention for the Northeast is in addition to the supplier discount, which is all off of the MSRP. I'm pretty sure you can use the GM card earnings on top of all that as well.
If you go to that website, you'll notice a drop-down menu on the top titled "vehicle shopping." Click this, and choose "GMID Pricing." This takes you to a special version of GMBuypower that lets you virtually build a vehicle to your liking, find dealers that have vehicles like this, and it'll show you the supplier discount price.
e2helper - you are a great asset to GM. Thanks for helping folks clear up some of their issues. I certainly don't have the insight on some of these components that you have.
Dave
But, it's just little 'ole me, so no one to fight over the radio with. :
SnowCat
Hi folks - a few of us in the Malibu Maxx forum have been having a discussion as to why so many of you "sedan" folks have selected the 2004/2005 Malibu sedan instead of the Malibu Maxx. Would any of you sedan folks care to comment? I'm going to post this message in the Malibu Maxx forum also suggesting they check this forum for responses from the sedan folks.
- Michiganmaxx
Steven
I'm glad to say that the appearance of both cars has grown on me. And, if I were shopping today, I probably would have bought the Maxx instead of a sedan.
But having said that, the sedan really is serving us very well, with plenty of space for my wife, my two children (one two year old and one eight year old), and myself. It's a fairly loaded LT, pretty much including everything but an engine block heater and OnStar (wish we'd have had the OnStar though). As a bonus, lately the gas mileage has been going up. We just passed 7k miles at the end of October, and since then I've seen the highway mileage pushing for 35mpg DIC indicated, 32.5-33 manually calculated (actually, I've seen 37.5 - 38 DIC indicated many times, but can't seem to maintain that higher number for a whole tank, mostly because our highway miles here in western NC are composed of lots of mountain stretches. I'd love to see what the manual #'s come out to on those stretches though, lol.). IMO, this is outstanding considering the way this engine feels. Seems to me that many Hondayota fans compare the sixes in these cars purely by the numbers on the window sticker, because this car feels as strong as those in everyday driving!
Thanks!