2011 Acadia - They changed the filter for this year (same engine) from a PF48 to a PF63, which no one stocks except the dealer. Fine, I’ll pay the $10 for a filter until I can order some online since GM has been denying some warranty claims for using aftermarket filters. We won’t get into the legality of all of this, I’ll just use AC Delco and be done with it.
So the oil is drained, and for some reason (paranoia?), I look in the owner’s manual and see that they require the oil to meet the dexos-1 standards, not the API standards. This is where you insert vague bullshit statements in the manual about possible engine damage and voiding warranties. Off to WalMart at 9:45 P.M., and of course none of the oil has the dexos marking, hence my urge for the ball-kicking.
Supposedly Mobil 1 has done the certification and didn’t have to change the formulation, but I’m going to call to find out today. I wasn’t really planning on running synthetic in the Acadia.
So if you have a 2011 GM you may want to check into this.
FWIW, we just use Castrol bulk 5W30 in it. Don’t sweat it so much. (I work at a GM dealership as a tech) If you wanna get fancy, they do have a Castrol GTX that is “certified for GM motors”, but I wouldn’t bother…
Edit: Just to make sure, I’ll verify this at work today, but I haven’t seen anything other than bulk oil going into the Acadias. We don’t have any owners running synthetic as far as I know.
But isn’t that filter just in a wonderful spot? I wanna slap an engineer every time I change the oil on one. (I assume by the filter, that it’s got the 3.6VVT in it)
I just don’t want to take a chance in voiding a warranty since GM seems to be pissy lately. Have you seen many of the timing chain failures in the Acadias?
Being an engineer, I’ll skip the slapping part. There’s so much to fit in there, sometimes you’re forced into a corner on packaging. I do feel bad for you having to get that filter off - I don’t know how you don’t burn yourself if someone drove right in and needed an oil change.
sucks Jeff… maybe Gm should spend more time on stocking oil or engineering something correctly than creating shit-talking radio commercials to try to degrade other, better, car companies… if i hear another transverse or malibu commercial talk about how these cars are nicer than mercedes and bmw’s i’ll fucking puke… can’t wait til they talk shit on audi… great marketing campaign… smear the competitors… sounds like it’s run by democrats… oh … wait…
Just checked and we changed our bulk oil, it does need to meet that new Dexos spec, all new GM vehicles are like that… Stupid, I agree… I don’t even know about off the shelf stuff that complies… You didn’t get any free oil changes with your car?
And y’just get good, filter wrench and careful hand placement, and immunity to burns. Get the filter from the top before you lift it and it’s not too bad…
The 3.6VVT has had lots of timing chain issues, mostly with 09s, and from what we’ve heard the Dodges had issues too so we wonder if it’s a supplier problem.
The new Dexos spec is because of the engine issues we’ve been having. Full size trucks (regardless of engine) with massive oil consumption issues, timing chain issues on the 3.6VVT (regardless of what it’s in), stuff like that… I’m not sure how a new oil is supposed to fix this, but they’re supposed to be backdating the spec as well, to 08 or 09 I believe for all GM vehicles.
Yeah, I’ve heard of some timing chain issues where GM wouldn’t cover it because an aftermarket oil filter was used. On the flip side, it’s possible that the person also waited too long to change the oil.
^ That’s a bit sketch, and would likely come down to the dealership… I’m sure if they took it to the General they’d get it covered. We’re a fairly generous dealership and we cover a LOT of stuff, so I can’t say for sure what other dealerships would be doing in these situations.
The issues have been chains stretching primarily, also tensioners and cam gears (where the variable valve timing occurs) failing. We usually have 1 or 2 a week in the shop. One of my coworkers just finished a Traverse for timing chains today. Aside from tranny issues with the full sized trucks, that’s probably one of our more common “major” problems we get in the shop.
I’m definitely not a brand supporter. I work there 'cause they break and a dealership job looks better when I move across the country, than ‘Bob’s Garage’.
Honestly, the stuff they’re putting out now isn’t half bad. Working in the shop, of course all you see is the broken ones, but most of the chronic issues are more to do with the area I live in. Trucks get beaten on and abused, and cars go through endlinks like it’s going out of style due to the road surfaces… I wouldn’t say they’re a terrible product, and their design has come a long way, but it’s still no where close to the import companies IMO as far as style, fit and finish, or quality of product.
I can’t complain too much. Even though I had a lot of small annoying problems, I still traded in an Acadia for an Acadia. Everything’s a tradeoff - price, style, reliability, performance, utility, etc. This still won out over everything else for what i was looking for.
I called my dealer, and the service guy I talked to didn’t really know what I was talking about. GM hasn’t done a very good job making this new spec known to customers, and apparently to some dealers. Or maybe it was just the guy I had on the phone, even though he talked to the service manager.
I just went with Mobil 1. I called Mobil and their official statement was that anything with the dexos marking on it is an approved oil. And they haven’t changed their formulation, so one would conclude that the stuff currently on the shelf is the same. I actually took pictures of the oil, the filter, and my odometer for my service records. Might be anal, but no way am I getting screwed over if there’s a problem.
Oh, and the car came from the factory with the PF48 filter, even though it’s supposed to use a PF63. What a joke.
Probably the exact same filter, just a different lengh. My parts guy didn’t know about a different filter for the 2011s either. The PF47 and PF61 are the same idea. Exact same filter, but one is about an inch and a half longer.
Mobil 1 would work, but there’s a Castrol GTX out that’s “GM approved” which probably costs less, I’d say go with that if you’re concerned about warranty issues. Either way Mobil 1 will be fine I’m sure, just cost more.
GM does a terrible job of passing that type of information down. You should’ve seen our shop all on a research mission about the new SCR systems in our diesels. 2011 is the first year to use them, so we knew nothing about them until we got the first one in to PDI and we had to learn all the stuff we needed to know to do the PDI as we went.
I am also a GM tech. I would like to know what terrible thing you did in your past that forced a gmc acadia on you. And all the new '11’s are supposed to run dexos, 10’s and older are still SAE.
have you had the pleasure of replacing a steering rack in one yet? the fwd models are a pain but the awd and holy crap you will throw tools. and the oil filter location, sunroof drain leaks, timing chain stretch, transmission failures, bcm/pcm failures. They are going to be the next customer pay cash cows like the old “U” vans.
Not too strange. When the ecotec motors first came out with the cartridge oil filter, you could not get one anywhere but the dealer. And they were $9. This was back in 2003 I believe. Now everybody clones it, and there are five makes of the same filter at every parts store for $3-$4…
The Dexos spec is because the oil change interval is going way up on these cars, and regular dino oil was not cutting it. If you run 10k miles on most any dino engine oil you are going to end up with sludge.
Does your car have a direct injection system? Cars with this type of injection are SHREDDING motor oil in short fashion. This is another reason for Dexos.
GM wants you to use a full synthetic motor oil, and use the engine computer to tell you when you change the oil. In most cases it will be once a year (or pretty close to 10k miles in most cases) (unless they put a 6 month time limit on it also)…
Ford is having trouble with the direct injected engines killing motor oil, so GM isn’t alone…
People are going to shit when they see what the price of an oil change at the dealer goes to. They can’t give away a full synthetic motor oil and an OEM filter for nothing.
And GM is denying warranty claims for aftermarket filters. But I’d never use a quick change oil place with unmarked oil filters. I prefer my garage where I know the oil has been fully drained and filled. Don’t even like using the dealer - if it’s one of you guys on here doing it, then okay, if it’s the guy that left the nut off the sway bar linkage, then no.
Yes it is direct injection, and the oil analyses I’ve seen confirm what you’re saying. I kind of use the oil monitor, but prefer to change it much earlier. I think some people wait until it says to change the oil, and have never checked their oil level from the last change.
Yeah, our OLM is 10,000KM or 6 months, but it monitors cold startups, run time, etc to determine the oil life… If you’re running synthetic 10,000KM is perfectly acceptable IMO, dyno oil, no more than 5000-7000Km at the most. It’s just not worth it. (personally I wouldn’t run dyno oil in anything other than an engine I was breaking in for the first time)
Yeah I’ve done the rack on an AWD, if you drop the rear shaft, centre diff, and lower the back half of the subframe it’s not horrendous, but it’s still a two person job on a hoist unless you wanna just disassemble the whole front end… Unlike the full sized trucks that you can do it in under an hour including bleeding… But we’ve already established at our shop that there is absolutely nothing at all easy about working on an Acadia. No matter how simple or major the job is.
JustinH pretty much hit it spot on with his post too…
I think they’re going to find that they need to run something closer to a diesel rating on their direct injection engines for the oil to stand up. I’m sure that’s part of that Dexos rating…
Oil change on a new diesel with the SCR is a couple hundred dollars, 10L of synthetic diesel oil, $12/L exhaust fluid, etc, etc… I think you’ll be finding people with trucks won’t be buying a diesel unless they absolutely need the torque these days… Too expensive to run otherwise.
It is good to hear about other people that realize how important their oil is though, my cousin and I were just having that conversation last night actually… I spent about 1/2 an hour in the oil aisle when I switched my car from Castrol to Rotella T, making sure I was going to be ok. Car seems happy though and the 0W really helped my cold weather start up which was the main reason for switching.
Acadias are a whore to put a remote start in, too. I did a 2010 a few weeks ago. Obviously the next one won’t be that tough, but the first one sucked.
GM still sucks. It is ridiculous that GM is denying warranty claims for aftermarket filters…No 2008 or newer car should have a timing chain failure. Maybe if it has 150k miles, or badly wrecked to damage the engine.
Do they tell you when they sell you the car that it takes special oil and filters?
My work car is a 2010 Equinox with the 4cyl Direct Injection/6 speed auto. Does it need the special oil/filter too? NTB has done the oil changes and nobody has mentioned anything to me about it. It is a leased fleet vehicle and I have to take it to the chain service centers (which I would never take my own vehicles to). I do all my own work because I don’t trust anyone else.
There’s so much to fit in there, sometimes you’re forced into a corner on packaging. I do feel bad for you having to get that filter off - I don’t know how you don’t burn yourself if someone drove right in and needed an oil change.
There is absolutely nothing easy to do on them.