Hi Scotty,
love your channel. Unfortunately I bought my GMC Acadia - new - before I discovered you.
I live in Montreal, Canada - lots of cold and salt in winter and heat in summer.
For practical reasons I need to keep my car as long as possible. It holds me, the wife, her parents and my 13 year old twin boys very comfortably. I would like to change the car, but I haven't found a replacement that has the same passenger carrying qualities.
Current issues - no AC and I am too cheap to fix it, a strange rattling noise when I run the heat, and a variety of rattling body noises.
It has 95,000 km, I change the oil often, and at 85,000 km I changed the transmission fluid.
It is currently my only car, so drive about 30 km a day in city. This summer I plan to get a smaller car just for going to work.
So my question is, what basic maintenance do I need to do to keep it running a long time -at least until the twins move out. As I said I am cheap - I'm Dutch - so what work would be throwing my money away and what work would be saving me money.
Thanks,
Bob Papenburg
Unfortunately being cheap, and keeping it a long time are not really compatible.
Follow the maintenance schedule in the manual, and wash the road salt off. Listen for strange sounds or abnormal behaviour. Find a trustworthy mechanic, and take the car for a checkup once a year.
"By the 2012 model year these complaints seem to have mostly been resolved so the engine problems were not any more of an issue with the GMC Acadia at this time than they were for any other similar vehicle. The newest models of the GMC Acadia have redesigned engines and the flaws of the older generation are all but nonexistent."
I see that these cars are cheaply made but I remember that if you take care of it and drive like a grandma it could last. Lot's of issues were "resolved", which I doubt, by 2012. It should be fine for a while as it only has 59,000 miles.
I think with proper maintenance (described in your owners manuel) and driving it conservatively, it could last another 40 50k kilometers, but don't expect more. What I would say is, the second you start having minor issues, get rid of it and get a large SUV or minivan or something.
It is a cheaply made 8 year old GM Suv. But it could still last if you drive it conservatively and follow the maintenance guidlines in the owners manuel. You should be changing the transmission fluid no later than every 40k miles (65k km) and 85.000 km is a bit of a stretch from now on do it more often as those GM tranny's are one of the weakest parts of the car. Around 60k miles on it so that is not that much odds are if you take care of it you could get 10 15 years out of it, more than enough for a GM car. Have routine checks with a trusted independent mechanic. Just don't wear it out much. You will make a very smart decision by getting another car to travel to work as city travel wears a car out as much as 10 times as on a highway.
Thanks for the advice. My goal for my 2013 GMC Acadia is to use it as a family car - like going out for supper or off to the lake. I have looked at a lot of other cars and none are as spacious as this car.
So I want to baby it so it lasts as long as possible. So frequent oil changes with a high quality oil filter, and I drive it like a grandma, never shooting off when the light turns green, and on long stops I switch out of drive into neutral.
Should I use an injector cleaner at my current mileage? I haven't flushed the cooling system yet. Should I.
What are the particular weakness of my car that I should pay particular attention and service more often than suggested?
Thanks
Don't coast in neutral. It's dangerous and not worth it.
If your manual says it's time to change coolant, then change it.
If your engine is running fine, don't clean the injectors. Don't fix things that aren't broken.
See the link I posted above for weaknesses.
Yes, listen to what mountainjoe says
Open his link and look at it AND
check this out: https://www.carcomplaints.com/GMC/Acadia/
Common problems include transmission, engine, electrical, and AC/Heater issues.
The weakest parts are usually the engine and transmission which sometimes falls apart as early as 80 90k miles (140k kilometers).