Beyond Expectations: Buick* Lucerne* Rolls Past 340,000 Miles

AMSOIL Dealer Carl Kirst knows firsthand just how much of a difference regular vehicle maintenance with high-quality lubricants and products can make for vehicle longevity. In March 2008, he purchased a brand-new Buick Lucerne CXL with the 3.8L V-6 engine. Kirst knew his car would endure many miles under the hot Texas sun, so at 5,000 miles he installed AMSOIL Signature Series 5W-30 Synthetic Motor Oil and an AMSOIL Ea15K29 Oil Filter.

Kirst’s Buick is not just his daily driver. As a church musician, Kirst also makes a 180-mile roundtrip drive twice a week from Lockhart to Victoria, Tex. He needs his vehicle to stay reliable, so he installed AMSOIL products and kept up with routine maintenance practices to give it his best shot.

At 50,000 miles, a complete transmission fluid and filter change was performed on the 4T-65E transmission using AMSOIL Synthetic ATF. Kirst has maintained those conservative intervals ever since and the routine has paid off. The transmission is original and still running strong, despite the transmission adaptation module starting to show signs of wear.

When the Buick reached 100,000 miles, the brake system was flushed and AMSOIL Brake Fluid was installed. To this day, the entire brake system is still original. The master cylinder, four-wheel cylinder and hydraulic parts have all been maintained and remain in good operating condition.

When the car climbed over 100,000 miles, the power steering system received a complete flush and was refilled with AMSOIL Power Steering Fluid. The power steering system performed without issue for the next 150,000 miles. When it hit 250,000 miles, the pump and the rack and pinion steering assembly were replaced. For a vehicle that had reached a quarter-million miles, this was an impressive feat of endurance.

Today the Buick has over 343,000 miles on it and sees a fresh AMSOIL motor oil and filter change every 15,000 miles. The seals and gaskets are in excellent shape and leave no oil drippings on the driveway.

Kirst regularly adds a bottle of AMSOIL P.i. Performance Improver to the gas tank to keep engine components clean and obtain his best mileage. The entire fuel system is original, and the fuel pump and injector system still perform perfectly. With conservative driving, he gets mileage in the upper-20’s mpg and occasionally achieves 30 mpg.

To find out if his high-mileage vehicle still had it, Kirst took it to a quiet stretch of Texas highway where the speed limit is 85 mph and decided to see how it would perform with the cruise control set at 95 mph. It handled the speed like a top, indicating to Kirst that the engine and transmission are still well-equipped to handle the road ahead. He plans to keep driving the vehicle indefinitely.

This wasn’t Kirst’s first time experiencing the impact of AMSOIL products on vehicle longevity. He first discovered AMSOIL in the early 90s after meeting AMSOIL Dealer David Bell and being introduced to synthetic motor oil. Kirst was a skeptic at first and wondered how it could be possible for an oil to extend drain intervals so far beyond conventional oils.

After speaking with Bell and doing more research (before the days of the internet), he installed AMSOIL in his 1993 Buick Regal. That car reached 297,000 miles before he retired it. After that experience, Kirst knew he had found a family of products that he would continue using in future vehicles. No longer a skeptic, these days Kirst enjoys watching his odometer climb far beyond normal expectations.

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