Finally replaced my ancient Subaru Forester because it was succumbing to jalopyism (as Click and Clack once put it). I found a 2015 Chevy Equinox with 85,400 miles (now closer to 86,400) at a local used car chain that my mechanic said was in good shape and bought it.
Both the manufacturer manual and the Haynes service manual for the car say to use 5W-30, but it doesn’t say what kind. My last three cars, I used high mileage blend (with an oil additive on top of it for the Subaru). I’m wondering if I should go with that in the Chevy, or go up to full synthetic.
I’m pretty sure your oil cap and owner’s manual show “dexos” as the proper oil for your car, so use only 5W30 oil that has the dexos approved emblem on the bottle.
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Castrol Edge high mileage 5w-30 is approved for this engine, most major brands are as well. Quite a list of them Castrol and Valvoline have the dexos symbol right up front on the bottle on the lower left. https://www.gmdexos.com/brands/dexos1/index.html
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2015 used vehicle . That has probably had all kinds of different oil put in so just using a name brand 5W-30 would be what I would do . Unless this shop that I used to inspect the vehicle says to use something specific . Certainly don’t see a need for synthetic unless it makes the owner feel better.
If this was a discussion about a car from the 1990s or early 2000’s, I’d say you’re right…use store-brand conventional oil of the proper viscosity. However, we are talking about a very recent model, which probably specified synthetic oil when new, and which would have very tight bearing clearances to take advantage of such thin oil. I personally would use nothing but Dexos-approved synthetic oil in this SUV.
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+1
GM began requiring Dexos-spec synthetic oil for the 2009 model year, and they updated the spec fo Dexos-2 in 2011, IIRC. I am fairly sure that if the OP opens his Owner’s Manual, it will state that Dexos-2 oil must be used.
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4-cyl.
And yeah, I saw the Dexos1 thing in the manufacturer manual, I didn’t know what that meant. Looking at the link @wolyrobb put up, it looks like it’s mostly full synthetic oils.
The original AC Delco dexos was a synthetic blend, however most major brand blends do not meet the dexos standard, whereas most full synthetics do. There are tons to choose from, just buy oil that has the dexos emblem and you’ll be fine.
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