MacintoshGuy

I have the front and rear splash guards from Chevy on my '17 Spark any they were a pain to install, drilling required on the front and they do little if anything to guard from splash. Don't waste your money on them.

I know couple people that work for GM and was pointed into another direction for a turbo Spark.  Chevy in Colombia sells an M400 platform Spark GT Turbo, I'm still trying to work out all the details (I don't speak Spanish very well so I have to have a friend intemperate for me) but on the upside once I have all the details (like parts numbers), my local dealer parts department (Imperial Chevrolet Mendon, MA) has told me that because the car is sold under the Chevrolet Brand they would be able to order the parts for me even though they weren't sold in the US or made available to US buyers.

2017, that pic was about 3 month ago.....it'll turn over 106,000 miles while my wife is on the way to work with it today.

My warranty and extended warranty are long since over (103,156 miles on my 2017 as of this morning) , that's why I'm starting to look at this more.

I know this is an old topic but my wife just got a Trax with the 1.4 Turbo and it seems (keep in mind I'm a computer guy not a mechanic), the engine mounts and everything are exactly the same in the 2018 Trax 1.4 Turbo as they are in my 2017 Spark 1.4.....seems like that would be a much easier swap.

The first thing is I don't go to the dealer unless I have to.  I have a mechanic I have gone to for about 15 years now, he keeps an eye on everything and lets me know what's going on.  The only thing not right with the car is the drivers side lower seat cushion is flat, I had to put a cushion on the seat to make it feel better again.  Factory brakes front and rear are still good, Jay (my mechanic) said I will probably need to replace the fronts in 15-20k mi more......The stock tires were even good to me, I got 64,000 miles out of them.

My wife just got a 2018 Trax LT, and the engine is exactly the same size and mounts as the Spark engine but it's a 1.4 Turbo.

So it's official, I'm over 100,000 miles and no major mechanical issue.  Just normal wear and tear stuff.  

Just came back from another road trip from Massachusetts to LA to Phoenix to Branson, MO to Buffalo, NY and back home.  Averaged more than the posted speed limits but with heavy cruise control use, after the latest update for the tcm, I was averaging 37.2 MPG.

On 7/29/2018 at 9:25 PM, Eric1984 said:

 

Um, what? This little car is actually pretty zippy for it's tiny engine. It's very easy to pass on the highway at 60+.

Btw, I wanted to see how fast the car would go, fastest I went was 100 but slowed down immediately since this car is pretty scary at those speeds. The wind throws the car around since it's so light.

Unofficially since it was a public road, foot to the floor in the Nevada Desert I was able to get to just under the 110 mark on the speedo and the car was surprisingly stable.  However sustained driving, if I use cruise about 70-75 I can usually still average about 36 MPG, if I cut it down to 65-70 I can get it up to 38 MPG easily.

On 7/25/2018 at 2:32 AM, Eric1984 said:

 

Now I feel a littler better about mine, I thought mine was a little high. It's a 2016, brought it home in February 2016 and it has just over 30k.

I'm over 82,000 miles now.  Then again I have been in 42 states and 3 countries in my Spark.......My wife and I love to take road trips when I have vacations, so we REALLY rack up the mileage, I won't be surprised if my 2017 is over 100,000 by the beginning of 2019.

Isn't insane mileage one of the reasons for getting a car like this.  My 2017, took delivery May 2017 already has 77,932 miles as of earlier today.

My WeatherTech mats are great but I'm noticing that after about 7 months, the are getting to be more of a dirty gray color.  I called WeatherTech, they advised using their cleaning/conditioning kit on them, spent $30 for basically nothing.  Anyone have any ideas to get them looking like new again.

A couple of months back I took my Spark from Central MA, to Birmingham, then Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas and back to MA without a single issue.

Just wanted to chime in again that I turned over 64K mi this past weekend

I have a question about the CVT transmission in my 2017.  The owners manual lists a schedule for fluid and filter change in the automatic but there is no listing for the CVT transmission.  My local dealer said that the fluid is lifetime but what do they consider lifetime they couldn't say and Chevrolet Customer Service was less than helpful, again giving the answer it was lifetime fluid but what they considered lifetime they couldn't tell me.  I'm just over 64k miles already....Does any one happen to know what Chevy considers lifetime or what the fluid replacement schedule should be

I'm just a little north in Massachusetts and I went to my Spark from a Fiat 500 Abarth and the difference in the snow is night and day, even with almost 37,500 mi on the stock tires, the traction is still amazing in the snow.  My only cold weather issue with the car is that sometimes the hatch gasket sticks and you have to yank the hatch a little harder than normal....but that's nothing.....

12 hours ago, silverspark78 said:

Hi. I just bought a new 17 spark lt1 last Wednesday Dec 27 and I have some questions. 

What oil is the engine filled up with at the factory? Fully synthetic or synthetic blend? Do I need to use one over the other or does it matter? Could I use just synthetic safely and would I be able to go up to a year between oil changes since I don't drive any more than 8000 miles in a year. 

Also, would this car be safe to drive at speeds around 75 mph with the engine rotating at 2500 rpm for about say 3 hours or about 300 miles or so? 

I can tell you from personal experience, I drove my 17 Spark from Central Massachusetts to Birmingham Alabama all on the highway, going between 75-80 for over 8 hours

8 hours ago, silverspark78 said:

Is there anyway to install the factory remote start in the 17's?

Unless it comes pre-wired for it, (parts at the deal can tell you) you will  need to go aftermarket.  Mine when they checked the VIN didn't have it pre-wired so it would be over $1200 to have a factory until and then replace both keys to the remote start keys.  I went with a CompuStar remote start, it has it's own FOB or it can be programmed to start on triple click of lock.

First Car:     1981 Ford Escort L (it was light blue)

Best Car:    1975 Datsun 280Z (Red Wine Metallic with snow flake wheels)

Worst Car:  1987 Mazda RX-7 (13B-RESI engine, I think it single handedly caused oil prices to go up, top of the gas and fill the oil)

I had the same concerns about them ripping the dash apart, so I called my insurance agent to find out details.  The neck force on the recall is for anyone under 5'4", unbelted or child.  At least here in Massachusetts if I were to have not gotten the airbag recall done and gotten into an accident with my fiancé in the passenger seat and it did cause harm since she is only 5'2", insurance would not be obligated to pay in any way, even if I were not at fault, since it's failure to comply (insert a ton of legalese here).

I've been looking at parts and want to swap my front interior light from the one that has the two reading lights in it but I can only find the dome lamp w/roof w/reading lights or w/o roof w/o read lights.  The only as I could possibly see to have the reading lamps without the roof is to order: 

42340974 Dome Lamp Assembly with Sunroof, with Reading Lights 

95443044 Sunroof switch w/o sunroof

I've seen a 2017 Spark with the reading lights and without a sunroof but the dealer didn't really want me pulling things apart to get part numbers, and there is no direct path for the assembly listed in the GM Parts sites.  Any insight that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Almost finished with the outside changes, grill, hatch, wheel caps, and Holden Key.   I have the secondary driving lights to go above the round fog lights, but my mechanic can't install them for a week or two, and he will be putting the Holden logo airbag cover on at the same time, I've even gone so far as to order the Holden logo mats and owners manual wallet.  I still need to find out how to change the start up animation on the touch screen though, I have the holden Spark animation but it's the newer system that seems to be based on QNX and has the dev codes that start with 2013xxxx.

On 10/31/2017 at 4:51 PM, Eric1984 said:

 

If you get those headlights, can you please tell us where you found them or a part number please?

 

Also, how hard was it to replace that front emblem? I'll be replacing mine with a black bowtie soon.

I will let everyone know a part number once I get it.  I had to replace the whole backing piece also since the Holden Logo is round, I needed the upper grill with the round logo carrier.  changing the whole upper grill and logo took maybe 30 minutes.

Mr Tozzi

I have that part also with what looks like the driving lights and fog lights but I need to get the car up on a lift for that, I got lucky and found a junkyard near Perth that had a 2017 Holden Spark that got turned turtle so I was able to get most of the parts for next to nothing.  The other thing I am looking into is the Chevy Philippines Spark headlights with the LED strip. I'm basically picking and choosing from various Spark's around the world to make a totally one off.