30,000 Miles service

Sounds like you have it pretty well covered. I would have a top engine cleaning done to get rid of the carbon that may have built up in the 30k. The 4 cylinder Malibus have electric power steering, so no fluid to worry about.

GM has a spray can top engine cleaner that you spray into the throttle body while it is running, actually I think the instructions are on the can. It has to be bought at the dealer though, but it works a lot better than seafoam for cleaning. It cleans the carbon out of the throttle body nicely too, if any is left over just wipe it out. Also, a bottle of either GM injector cleaner or chevron techron would be good to add to the gas tank to clean the injectors some.

I love not having to worry about power steering fluid, it is one less thing that might leak.

I think the can of the top engine cleaner costs around $10 and you only need the one can. If a dealer or shop does it, it will run around $100 for their fuel system service most likely.

The top engine cleaner is a spray that you use while the vehicle is running. You have to take the air intake off and spray it in bursts into the throttle body while it is running.

A fuel system service involves running the vehicle on an injector cleaner only to clean the injectors and spraying a top engine cleaner into the throttle body. Also, some add a can of fuel system cleaner into the gas tank. It is a lot cheaper to do it yourself than pay someone else to do it.

Lgndryhr said:

Hmm sounds like the top engine cleaner isn't too hard to use. I will have to get some then.

So basically they do what I already do minus the top engine cleaner since I already use Chevron Techron.

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Yep, and then they charge a lot more to do it. One thing I will stress is DO NOT empty the whole spray can quickly or you run the risk of hydro-locking the engine. Short bursts work just fine and afterwards let the vehicle sit for 10-15 minutes while everything is reassembled. This lets the chemical work in some more and ends up running it out of the exhaust. It is really simple to do though, I just seem to make things sound complicated sometimes.

Lgndryhr said:

Wow, a bottle of Techron is like $6 lol and a can of that is probably $10 or $15 around here. That $100 charge is probably to cover labor costs. It's ridiculous. My dealership service center charges $100/hour just for labor. Glad all my work for the most part is under warranty so far. Do you use the whole can in one cleaning? Yea I wouldn't think of just streaming the can in there. Just sounds like a bad idea. Okay thanks for the advice on letting it sit there for 10 to 15 minutes.

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Wow, $100 an hour, it may be more at yours if they offer it. Yes, the whole can is used for it. The good thing about these cars is they don't seem to build up as much carbon as cars of the past since they run more efficiently, so it won't need to be done very often.

Lgndryhr said:

Yea, its ridiculous. I only go there to get warranty work done. They also flipped when I told them I was wiring my spoiler to my chmsl and told me I didn't know what I was doing. They said all I would do is short out my BCM. Proved them wrong as seen in the pics I posted yesterday.
I was wondering how much carbon build up they might have. Especially worried how it was take care of its first 14,214 miles by the previous owner. The tail pipe is so dirty and looks like it's covered in shot/rusting(?). So I can imagine using it will only help the car a great deal. I figure do it every 30k miles?

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Performing the top engine cleaning is fine every 30K. There shouldn't be much build up. My exhaust tip was completely black when I bought it, and there really wasn't much built up in the throttle body. The only thing that is different is my car had 48K put on in the first year so I don't think much had a chance to build up. If there is a lot of smoke after you do it, then there was a good build up. Carbon builds up more with cheap gas and short, not run up to operating temperature, drives.

You can get rid of the soot on the tailpipe with 0000 steel wool and some mothers chrome polish. Mine came out looking like new after that.

Lgndryhr said:

So I tried the chrome polish today on the tip. It made a world of difference. I still gotta do it a few more times to get her fully cleaned. For the most part though it all came off. I just used a cotton cloth to clean her.

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That's good to hear. I know mine looked like it blended in with the black bumper trim when I first got it. Still clean now, even after winter.