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I know you see more complaints on the board here than praise, however that is to be expected...no problems on this Maxx at all with a build date of 2/17/04...only thing I havent had done is the TSB for the rear shades...I just leave them open and seldom are the rear seats used for people...I have had no PCM reflashes done...and the car is running so smooth...the acceleration is remarkable for this car and the long drive comfort is excellent...for the price out the door I paid.....an excellent value after one year of ownership..
Most 5w30 will shear down to a mid twenty weight if you push it to 4000 miles but I don't think it's that big a problem. Plus some of those new SM oils like Conoco/Phillips and Exxon/Mobil are actually selling group III oils for a buck and a half a quart. If Pennzoil is still group II+ it's an awfully good oil anyway.
I plan to pay attention to my oil life indicator which will probably indicate a 5000 oil change interval in mixed driving. I plan on driving the oil down to at least 10% oil life remaining.
I've only gone back about six months in the Maxx boards. Has there been any discussion here or anywhere that the Chevy indicator (which seems pretty sophisticated) isn't giving good data?
My Elantra was also an '01 and I remember lots of discussion on wheel shimmy at that time. The OEM Maxx tires seem to be a lot better than the Elantra's Michelin Energies IMHO, although the BB rating and rather low 380 treadwear rating (from memory) seem a bit mediocre to me. Low rolling resistance at the expense of traction probably gives it a slightly higer EPA mileage rating.
Hyundai was probably shooting for a name brand high end tire, although they'd probably done better if they'd stayed with Kumho/Hankook.
My wife's car ('05 LS Maxx w/1SB) has 1785 miles on it. We picked it up with 2 miles on odometer on 10/18. She doesn't drive much. Every couple of weeks I take it out to boil the stuff out of it. The oil life indicator just dropped to 59% - so it at least knows about short drive cycles.
Only on vehicles that are specified to use synthetic oil is the system calibrated for it (sorry)
http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/environment/news_issues/news/- simplified_maintenance_040104.html
Most technicians will say 3,000 miles while others say 5,000 or 7,000. But ask Mr. Goodwrench and he'll offer a simple solution – let your vehicle tell you when - that could protect your wallet and the environment from unnecessary oil changes. GM's patented Oil Life System (GMOLS) can double or even triple the time between oil changes when compared to the common 3,000-mile recommendation simply by evaluating driving conditions."
Also got to drive the '05 maxx LT with sunroof and all the goodies. Didn't see or feel any huge changes from '04 but noted rattles from the sunroof and back when hitting the rut/speedbump simulators. In other words, no need to trade in on this either!!!
Can also add the Cobalt was far more refined and composed than the Ion
But..that's all I have found wrong with the car, and it is a joy to drive...Seeya Jack
Sometimes break-in oil has an extra dose of moly and in some cars dumping it early can result in the engine not plating up properly. Minimal long distance travel, but at this rate my oil should last a bit more than 5K. Will probably dump it at about 10% remaining.
My Elantra did wonderfully on 4000 change intervals, burned no oil with SuperTech 10w30, a bit with ST 5w30, so I switched to Pennzoil 5w30 with no oil usage at all, although I'm sure a UOA would show shearing down to the mid-twenties. 5w20 oil effective weight shouldn't present much of a problem for this engine, nor should a 5K change interval. I'm sure that the total revolutions for that engine aren't much more over 4500 miles than the Elantra did at 4K.
I for one am not turned off by big old slow moving ohv engines. Nice not to have to worry about a timing belt and GM has the old technology down to a fine science.
Still averaging 24+ according to the trip computer. Remarkable in mostly city driving, hopefully I can hit 30 on a road trip.
(the side/rear windows have Rejex on them to help keep them clean).
Footnote on the oil change: Have NEVER EVER owned a vehicle (my tractor included) that didn't drain some of the filter's oil on to a front end part until now. The filter location is just great! Some oil gets on the old filter, but not a drop to clean up elsewhere. This is the easiest, cleanest oil and filter replacement I have ever seen. And...the oil drain plug is even impressive with the rubber ring that didn't let any oil out until the plug was in my hand.
Personally I have a GMPP Major Guard plan with $0/deduct and 60mos/100K miles, so I will be skipping synthetic oil and doing my oil changes only when GMOL tells me to. I will document religiously and if I ever have an engine failure due to oil changes it'll be GM's problem not mine.
I bought my car a little over a month ago and I've already got 2500 miles on it and 63% oil life remaining. I for one am looking forward to the cost savings provided by GMOL vs oil changes every 3000 miles.
Phillips TropArtic is a full blown group III blend that's selling at a little over a buck a quart at Wallyworld:
http://www.phillips66lubricants.com/GF-4+News.htm
I haven't checked but I'm sure the other ConocoPhillips brands including Union 76 and Kendall might be going the same way.
Also Exxon Mobil has a ton of group III refining capacity but they can't refer to it as a synthetic because it would interfere with their Mobil 1 marketing. This new Mobil Clean 5000 looks tremendous for the price, quite a difference from Drive Clean which had a lot of group I in it.
http://ir.exxonmobil.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=115024&p=irol-newsAr- - ticle_Print&ID=666282&highlight=
These new SM oils look really good for the price and I might just go ahead and try it with the Maxx. I misplaced my ramps several years ago. Is it easy enough to get at things so that I can just crawl around under there?
The newer Mobil Clean 5000 container did not have the GM endorsement on it. That's why I passed on it.
Ramps. My fixed-angle ramps are too steep for the Maxx, and my adjustable ones gave out, so I made a mod. I dug 2 narrow trenches for the ramps so that the angle would not be a problem (especially for that black ground effects(?) piece that hangs down below the front bumper fascia. Even with the reduced height, I had plenty of room to reach the filter and drain plug.
* GM 6094M
* Ford WSS-M2C929-A
* API SM
* ILSAC GF-4 (API Certified - Starburst)
Mobil Clean 5000 5W-30 is an ILSAC GF-4 energy conserving viscosity that provides all-season protection. It also meets requirements for diesel-powered vehicles where an API CF or CD oil is recommended.
With all Mobil Clean 5000s, you’ll get 16 percent more cleaning agent than our conventional oil, Mobil Clean (available only at installed facilities). It has extra cleaning power that helps your engine run cleaner than with other conventional oils — even with today’s longer oil change intervals. In fact, Mobil Clean 5000 is guaranteed to provide excellent performance and protection for all car engines for up to 5,000 miles of normal driving.
I change mine at 3000 miles anyway, and use a special corrosion inhibitor (not from the outfits the FCC tagged as selling junk).
Our miles to empty indication is typical of most vehicles -- there is still plenty of fuel left after the indicator starts displaying 'Low Fuel'. It displays that after you get down to 30-40 claimed miles remaining. There still seems to be a couple/few gallons left in the tank at this point.
What are the other high-value oils currently?
I just don't have the time to keep up on Bob's oil site any more.
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Anyway it's usually assumed that group II is better than group I, III better than II and IV or V better than III. Most blends were slammed as being only about 10% group III and selling for a premium price. Both the Phillips-Conoco and Exxon-Mobil oils have a fairly good dollup of group III at a low price. Phillips probably got this idea from selling Ford 5w20 oils which were semi-synthetic (group III) at a relatively low price. Exxon-Mobil is rolling in group III productivity but they have to market their wares as non-synthetic or they'd burst the Mobil 1 bubble.
For the record, Pennzoil was a group II+ oil-- probably the best of the SL's.
Any SL or SM oil is probably good for 4000 miles in just about any engine. Dumping good oil after 3K, especially in a loafing-low speed engine like the Maxx's is really overkill IMHO.
I wouldn't throw out any SL oil, it works just fine.
Pennzoil upgraded their oils to SM status ahead of the deadline but kept labeling as SL because of federal regulations.
I now have a Subaru Outback 2.5i LTD. No where near the power of the MAXX & gas mileage 2 or 3 mpg lower but I made the change for other reasons.
My MAXX had a build date of mid Feb 2004 and I had none of the problems others have had with transmission howl or power steering.
Its purpose it to keep your radio and Cluster PRNDL/Odometer at maximum intensity when you manually turn your headlights on in daytime for some special reason. If your backlighting of dash came on these displays would also dim like they usually do during nighttime and you would not be able to get full intensity. This type of operation also causes complaints which is why "Parade Mode" was created.
I believe a dealer has the capability to disable this feature but it would be permanent as far as customer is concerned because only dealer can turn it ON or OFF.
I get the feeling that later build Maxx's have tightened up a number of areas over the original '04's. Japanese and Korean builders seem to get more of these items right on the first roll out.
Mid twenties is great in mixed driving. Within 1 mpg of what I was getting on the manual transmission Elantra. Very happy with this car.
I have read repeatedly that it is "longish", and driving over hard-to-avoid occasional potholes suggests this is true.
But it would be nice to get some hard numbers.
Jack
I note that they're rated B for traction and B for temperature. Most non-H rated tires do have this B temperature rating (extra tread?), but even the low-end Douglas (Kelly-Springfield) touring tire is A traction and B temperature, plus a mileage rating about twice as wrong as the Bridgestones.
So my question is: "If temperature means that the tire will drive cooler and if termperature means that energy is going into heating the tire, shouldn't that increase rolling resistance and lower mileage.?"
In other words shouldn't a high mileage efficiency tire have B traction and A temperature?
Thanks.