2006 Aveo - 283,000 Miles - New Owner - What should I watch for?

I'm the lucky new owner of a 2006 Aveo 4 door Sedan 5 speed. Base model I guess. Manual windows and locks. No cruse control. Hell... My 1977 Thunderbird was more loaded than this thing, lol.

The car is solid. Some minor surface rust on the rockers just starting. I'll take care of it in the spring.

What should I watch/replace? I'm doing the timing belt just because... Does brand matter? I see kits from $35 - $200

I have about 30+ receipts from work done the last 4ish years for it. Struts, plugs/wires, valve cover gasket, t-stat and housing all done. Has a new passenger side lower control arm on it now and a new one for the drivers side in the trunk. I'll soon put it on cause I have it. Never owned one if these before. I was kinda thrown into it... My 2000 s-10 trailblazer blew a head gasket and I didn't want to deal with it with 210,000 miles on it. Plus it needed other things. I will miss my leather heated seats.

Did you replace the passenger LCA yourself?

Negative...

For those of us who live in the rust belt, the LCA bolts commonly seize to the inner bushing sleeve, which makes removing the LCA a PITA. On our '05 and '06, every one of the rear (vertical) bolts was seized, and I had to cut them out with a recip saw. Fortunately a 6" saw blade fits into both of the K frame openings, which allows the bolt to be cut above and below the bushing sleeve. However, I recently exchanged some information with a guy who had the front (horizontal) bolts on his Aveo seized. That didn't happen with either one of my vehicles, and hopefully it won't with yours either (his was a second gen Aveo).

AFA timing belt kits, you will find threads on this forum with a bunch of folks running all over creation trying to find metal pulleys. Some of the rest of us are completely ok with the plastic pulleys, so you can figure out what you want to do there. Outside of that consideration, I've used multiple (3) different brands of $100 kits doing this job in the past, and experienced no issues with any of them.

You might want to check to see if the strut towers inside of the engine bay are showing any signs of rust, and address that issue immediately if any is present.

Thanks on the tip on the LCA. Strut towers are solid. Being a rust belt dewller its the first thing I check on a car. The whole car is surprisingly clean. The floorboards are all rusty ether. Rockers are all intact. The inside is very decent for the millage. No rips in the seats. And I think its never been smoked in. I got it from the second owner, who's wife couldn't/didn't want too/ etc drive a stick. The original owner was supposedly an older lady.

Well, for certain one of those previous owners sure did drive a LOT. Good luck with it!

283,000 Miles

can't believe it is still in the game

I thought it was a little weird its still going. Someone had to have changed the timing belt at one point. But I'll do it again in the next week or two. I got some pictures of it... and I believe the little old lady story... You'll see with the last two pictures.

Attachment 10704Attachment 10705Attachment 10706Attachment 10707Attachment 10708Attachment 10709

We use to call Aveo immortal car here in Russia. there is no any assembly that can die
sold my 2 Gen Aveo with 120 K on it
it was almost like new. not a brand new but in very good condition

I have the same kind but mine is a 04. Check your Engine and transmission mounts. 120 K on minesAttachment 10710 Before and after