Hi, new member here.

[bondojamesbondo]

Hi, I thought I'd pop in and introduce myself; I've been visiting this board from time to time through the years (usually led here by a Google search) and finally got around to registering.

I have custody of my elderly mother's 2006 Aveo LS. She bought it new the year after my Dad (a GM retiree) passed. He was a Pontiac guy but she just wanted the smallest, most economical (read: CHEAP ) car she could find in the local Chevy dealer's inventory. At the time the GM employee/family discount program was still pretty good and I think she got it for around 10k plus tax.

She drove it sparingly until she moved into an assisted living facility in early 2014, at that time it had around 9600 miles on it. In that time, I changed the oil in it every other year or so; she didn't do many short trips or I would have changed it more frequently. As it was, I seemed to be draining out good clean oil and replacing it with... good, clean oil.

In the car's life it's had a couple of battery replacements due to an intermittently failing alternator that I replaced, and I put a set of tires on it in 2015 because the OE Hankook 420's (heh,heh,420) were hard as rocks and flat-spotted.

My wife and I take care of Mom's mini-farm and house and elderly cats and that's a 20-mile round trip every couple of days so we drive the Aveo since it's economical and it needs to be driven. It's at around 16,000 now.

I'm going to do the timing belt/water pump service this weekend at work since I have to work a double shift on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and I'll have the maintenance shop to myself with no interruptions.
I realize at 16K that I'm well under the suggested mileage interval but it's past it's "time" (no pun intended); on the '97 Accord I had Honda suggested a 90k/7year interval on the timing belt so I figure using their rule of thumb I'm overdue. Maybe it's overkill but whatever makes ya sleep through the night, right?

I've got a new OE Daewoo timing belt kit with OE idler and tensioner, and a new OE Daewoo pump. The kit even has 2 cam and 1 crank seal in it, individually bagged with Genuine GM parts logos. I'm going to replace the serpentine belt while I'm at it and refill it with Zerex Asian formula coolant.

So, long story long, that's why I'm here. I feel that it's rude to visit boards and lurk and glean information and then steal away like a thief in the night without saying anything.

As my old boss used to say "Until you're better paid, thank you for all you do".

JamesBondo

[Daox]

Welcome to the site Jamesbondo! Sounds like you have a solid runner there. Glad to see you're taking care of it. That is why so many Aveos go to the grave early.

[bondojamesbondo]

Thank you for the welcome. I'm buttoning up everything from the timing belt job I started last night. What a way to spend Christmas! The OE belt looked pretty good, I was expecting some dry rot. I'll sleep better now knowing it's all new parts in there.