# Free Dealer Oil Changes



## JesterMasque (Dec 5, 2017)

Hey everyone!
I just bought my 2017 Cruze LT hatch with the 1.4T and 6MT yesterday. It's my very first new car, and I've never been so excited to start a new maintenance notebook! I've always kept perfect records with my older vehicles, but this one will finally have everything documented from mile zero (well, 55..).

Anyway, part of the deal I ran involved free oil changes for the life of the vehicle from the Chevy dealership that I purchased from. It includes "manufacturer recommended oil" with an optional upcharge for syn. Has anyone had any experience with a program like this? I'm sure it varies from service department to department, despite them all being GM Certified Service. I normally do all of my own vehicle service, and I am generally suspicious of most systemic perks, especially "free" ones. However, I travel around the Chicago and outlying suburbs a lot for my work, and I plan on using my vehicle for ride sharing. Having free oil changes will reduce my maintenance costs by a drastic amount across a 1-year period.

Furthermore, learning about the 1.4T Ecotec, I stumbled upon the issue of LSPI (low speed pre-ignition), which legitimately scares the **** out of me. I'm used to stock Civics, Integras, and older Accords (F22A), which are 500k engine blocks if you simply keep your oil and filter fresh ever 3k miles. I want to understand the best ways to stave off the possibility of such catastrophic events that can arise from LSPI. I am very conscious of not "lugging" my engines in high gear, and I have a generally relaxed right foot. It seems like a fairly reliable engine system from recent years, I'm just very new to the FI maintenance game.

Thanks for any input!


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## Patman (May 7, 2011)

Welcome and what is this issue you stumbled upon?


> I stumbled upon the issue of LSPD


 and another thing, you don't have F.I., this engine has turbo charger. We have several members here that have Cruzes with 200K + so longevity is not an issue. as long as you do the maintenance so use the free oil changes. The dealer will make sure all is well with your car


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

The dealership will be using the AC Delco synthetic blend. This is the factory oil in the Cruze and is a full synthetic oil. You might want to consider swapping out the tranny synchromesh at 10-15K miles and putting in Amsoil Synchromesh. The GM fluid will be worn out and the Amsoil will last 40-45K miles. Other than this I would follow the severe service schedule in the owner's manual and change the oil every 5-6K miles.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Patman said:


> you don't have F.I., this engine has turbo charger.


FI = Forced Induction = Turbocharger.



obermd said:


> The dealership will be using the AC Delco synthetic blend. This is the factory oil in the Cruze and is a full synthetic oil.


Yes, AC Delco dexos1 is full synthetic. So there should be no upcharge of any kind.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

MP81 said:


> FI = Forced Induction = Turbocharger.


It could also be a Supercharger.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

obermd said:


> It could also be a Supercharger.


Correct - in this instance it is a turbo, though. As an aside, and to be technical, a turbocharger is a form of supercharger.


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

I'll assume the purchass was made at Castle Chevy.

Rob


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## neile300c (Jul 8, 2014)

Like others have said, Dexos is now required to be synthetic. If they follow the manufacturer guideline, they must use synthetic to keep your warranty intact.


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## JesterMasque (Dec 5, 2017)

Patman said:


> Welcome and what is this issue you stumbled upon? and another thing, you don't have F.I., this engine has turbo charger. We have several members here that have Cruzes with 200K + so longevity is not an issue. as long as you do the maintenance so use the free oil changes. The dealer will make sure all is well with your car


My fault, low speed pre-ignition. I must have been thinking of detonation to type the D.


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## JesterMasque (Dec 5, 2017)

neile300c said:


> Like others have said, Dexos is now required to be synthetic. If they follow the manufacturer guideline, they must use synthetic to keep your warranty intact.


Thanks so much for the information, guys. I kept seeing the term Dexos in my research on this car, but I'm not sure what it is. I have much more to read..

And the dealership was Martin Chevrolet in Crystal Lake. Excellent service, very nice people, and they even gave me a dealer loaner for an entire week while my car was shipped in. I originally went to Castle, but they were not too keen on finding me a manual transmission. I understand they were really trying to push their in-stock inventory, but when I had two people trying to argue me into an automatic I decided to leave. It's basically about the only thing I was picky about on the vehicle.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

With the addition of more turbo direct-injection vehicles to their lineup, such as the Equinox, Malibu, and Gen 2 Cruze that sell in pretty large numbers, GM reformulated the Dexos-1 oil and sent service bulletins around to dealerships to replace their oil stocks with the Dexos-1 "full synthetic" oil for all turbocharged engines from here on out. The larger 1.5T version of our engines were experiencing all kinds of issues blowing pistons apart; they were required to have their oil spec updated and a new tune pushed out. Cruzes have had issues, mostly with piston #1, but it is nowhere near as widespread.

By now, your dealer should have only that oil in stock. Run good gas, use a synthetic oil at all times, try to stay out of low RPM, high load conditions, and hopefully you'll be one of the ones that has a LSPI-free ownership experience.


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## JesterMasque (Dec 5, 2017)

obermd said:


> The dealership will be using the AC Delco synthetic blend. This is the factory oil in the Cruze and is a full synthetic oil. You might want to consider swapping out the tranny synchromesh at 10-15K miles and putting in Amsoil Synchromesh. The GM fluid will be worn out and the Amsoil will last 40-45K miles. Other than this I would follow the severe service schedule in the owner's manual and change the oil every 5-6K miles.


I have read that about gear lube and the M32.. I was wondering if anyone tried the Eneos 75W90, as that was the favorite at my friend's race shop. Redline also made a good one, but I've heard mix results with it in our gearbox. I might actually do it around 1K, taking advice I've read in other posts here. My buddy has a fluid extractor and filler, I just need to get a repair manual for this vehicle, adding another one to the shelf..


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