[suryaj1990]

Just finished a 1800km Journey to Goa and Back with the Mammoth!
Started the Journey at around 8am from Mumbai via the Atal Setu! Tanked up at a Jio BP pump to full tank. Cruised through the expressway at 100kmph throughout achieving close to 11.5kmpl on the MID. We stopped for a short break at the Pune pitstop for a quick snack. By now, the efficiency feel to 10.5kmpl thanks to the uphill section of the Ghats we encountered and some mild traffic. The heat was unbearable with temperatures soaring to 38 degrees! Just 30 minutes break at the pit stop made Trailblazer into a Fireblazer! Thanks to the Assistance of the Tinted Glasses all around including a light one in front in addition to the 70% clarity glasses by the OEM, cooling picked up in 5 minutes odd making the cabin breathable again. The car has bottle holders smartly placed in front of the side air vents which do a good job in cooling drinks. Initially, I assumed it to be a gimmick but it really does help! Post the expressway, we continued our journey all the way to Hotel Fern, Karad which is marked as the centre point of our Journey. The temperatures continued a northward trend to 42 degrees. The vehicle maintained the same 10.5 kmpl which included random overtakes and spirited pulls upto triple digits and some mild high speeds upto 120kmph and sometimes over that too. The vehicle grips well and the drive was great apart from the body roll which will take sometime to get used to considering its humongous size. Steering inputs need to be rallied in higher compared to a Electronic Assisted Steering which needs to be kept in mind specially on winding roads. Post Karad, we entered the Anushkura Ghat route which included a two lane tarmac road with literally zero pot holes! The 160km run through these narrow winding roads which include a lot of steep uphills broke the efficiency on the MID to 10kmpl but it also included a lot of spirited driving and overtakes which meant the car was always in power and regular downshifts too!

One thing is certain, this car revs high on climbs. the gearbox is tuned to keep the car in power. Once we made it to Rajapur, we were greeted by lovely 6 lane roads throughout and speeds were at 120kmph. 50km on this route, we heard a thud sound and at first we assumed we hit a huge stone on the road. On closer inspection, not damage or stone found, we found the intercooler pipe had slipped out! Fixed it, tightened it nicely and continued the Journey ahead! Seems the workshop must have not tightened the Jubilee clips well. Journey till Goa was uneventful, the efficiency rose to 10.3kmpl and we made it to Madgaon where we finally retired after covering 640km. I had Quarter tank of fuel left which meant 20 liners balance and a consumption of 56 litres to cover 640km which means an overall efficiency of 11.4kmpl

The vehicle does well with mild throttle inputs and you seldom need to push all the horses out. I was able to do overtakes with 30-40% throttle inputs which included downshifts. I rarely used 100% throttle inputs for overtaking but when I did, the car just darted through. I felt if that is not planned or managed well, it can be alarming because the car really pics up fast! The Car is on the original set up for headlamps and the throw and reach are pretty good. Fog lamps in general are useless but in dark roads and tunnels, they help in illuminating a wide spectrum down below. The suspension is extremely well tuned! Even on bad patched of roads/non existence, you won't feel anything inside the cabin. the car runs super silent on high speeds. it maintains 1500rpm at 100kmph speeds on 6th gear. the engine grunt can be heard at times when the engine is revved hard but in normal driving or cruising, the car is super quiet!

[suryaj1990]

Just completed a to and fro journey from Goa and then another journey upto Khed, Maharashtra. The car performed exceptionally well!

GOA
I was in the city for close to a month. I did feel the size of this car dawn on me in the ultra narrow roads and deep vegetation all around! The car was super comfortable and returned an efficiency of 9.5 to 10kmpl throughout my stay. There were days when there was more water on the roads than on the beaches and there were days when there was no road, no civilisation with super hot temperatures of 40 degrees too. Yet the vehicle held its own. She did 5,000km round the map of Goa covering deep city as well as jungles and mines. However, at the last leg of her Goa Mission, she stated to get tired. I noticed she always stayed in power on steep climbs (which are very common in Goa) and out on the open road there was a sense of lethargy in the pull. Got the air filter cleaned considering the harsh environments she encountered and the weather she saw. Added a can of Wurth oil additive which made a difference. Performance improved and efficiency stuck at 10kmpl. Another issue was a random "thump" sound which would creep in after every full turn from the front. The alignment got messed up twice during our journey.

On the return leg, I braved the Mumbai-Goa Highway NH66. No problems here. Out on the highway, this car is a performer. Returned a descent 11kmpl even with bad roads and speeds over 100kmph!

KHED
I left the very next day for Khed which was a 700km journey round trip deep in to the jungle close to the River channel. The vehicle performed like a beast! I used Jio Bp to fill her up, got an overall mileage of 10.5kmpl with really good speeds and no pulling back. I was able to cruise at high triple digits and the car felt super planted and did not feel stressed. This car loves highways! Out there on the open roads, there is nothing stopping her! Although, the occasional "thump" sound accompanied us throughout our trip. Bad roads or no roads were literally non existent with the 265 width tyres. I have done this route in an Innova, MG ZS EV and the yeti but by far, the trailblazer was unbeatable on these patches.

Service
After the trip, we decided its time for Service specially since she has completed a 10,000km interval. This time, I followed the manual and had her filled up with a Dexos 2 compliant oil. I chose the 5W30 Amsoil Europe Motor Oil and Liqui Moly Engine Flush. Oh boy! The oil change was really needed. during the drain, the oil was opaque black without a sign of light passing through! the filter was pitch black and seemed well spent. I carried out the service with Orix which is the authorised dealer for Chevrolet in Mumbai. They charged me an advance to order Service parts other than the oil which I bought myself. I witnessed the entire service and was quite happy. A proper checklist is followed and a deep inspection was done. The vehicle was found to be in good order. The "thump" sound was due to broken shocker mounts. All brakes were cleaned, sanded and grease was applied to the caliber pins and rods and fitted back. A few missing screws and clips were remixed in missing locations in the wheel housing. The entire team was amazed to See the Trailblazer. I was told that this Mammoth is a rare sight and they receive just one more car apart from mine. They had many lifting bays, I counted close to 18 but only one was capable to take on the trailblazer thanks to size as well as weight! The attending mechanic had to use a stool because the engine height was just too high without which eh could not comfortably reach the centre fill cap!

[Sanjay Halikar]

Conratulations mate!! Good to see another Trailblazer on the forum. I have been taking mine on the yearly pligrimage to Goa every year since 2019. It is a sublime combination for power and comfort. Fun to drive to Goa, just a little bit too big for North Goa by lanes.

I have been maintaining my car at a FNG and more recently at Chevy authorized service center at Thane. Balaji Chevrolet. But I had an extremely bad experience the last time I was there. Over a month spend waiting at the garage for parts and final work was not at all upto the mark. How was your experience at ORIX ?

[suryaj1990]

Originally Posted by Sanjay Halikar

Conratulations mate!! Good to see another Trailblazer on the forum. I have been taking mine on the yearly pligrimage to Goa every year since 2019. It is a sublime combination for power and comfort. Fun to drive to Goa, just a little bit too big for North Goa by lanes.

I have been maintaining my car at a FNG and more recently at Chevy authorized service center at Thane. Balaji Chevrolet. But I had an extremely bad experience the last time I was there. Over a month spend waiting at the garage for parts and final work was not at all upto the mark. How was your experience at ORIX ?

Feeling is mutual! Specially to find someone running the same mill! Will be great to connect!

Orix does a good job! However, I personally look into the service schedules, checks and changes even with them. They are not really aware about quite a few things but their Engineers take keen interest if you involve them. For Eg. The engine oil they suggested was Motul 5w30 but it was not Dexos 2 compliant. They tried to assure me that it won't have a negative impact but I prefer being by the book. Hence, did not buy it. They recently did a suspension mounting change. However, even after doing the job, the noise complain persisted. They had conducted a trial and were satisfied the car was noise free. However, when I personally did a check, noise was there. Although, the senior engineer understood the noise and figured that it was due to wrong torque figures on the bolts! When matched with the service manual figures, the noise disappeared.

Parts do take time and sometimes; even if the availability is shown on their system, it is not really there but eventually they come. I pre-plan my repairs which makes it easy for me and as far as possible, I am keeping the car fully stock! No outside parts or filters

[Sanjay Halikar]

I have had similar experiences with Engine Oil recommendations and hence have been procuring the same on my own since past few years. Most of them sell the same idea that as long as the grade is the same, and you are using a fully synthetic oil, any oil will work. I have stopped arguing with such people and just insist on using the Engine oil I have procured. I use Castrol Magnatec SUV C3 or Mobil Super 3000, mostly Castrol as its more easily available. I have to get a bit of suspension work done again. These guys changed everything in the suspension apart from the shocks as they were not able to procure the same even after 1 month of waiting at the workshop. I had a long trip and couldn’t wait for it and hence was delayed.

Also, I was planning on comprehensively changing all the fuilds including the Transmission Oil and maybe the rear Differential Oil as well. You think these guys at Orix will be able to do the works well ? I don’t mind taking time out and sitting at their workshop for a day or two. In fact I would love it.

I have kept the car fully stock as well, apart from Headlight Upgrade to HIDS (Few years back). I got the itch couple of times to Delete the EGR and CAT and tune it. From what I have read about the Duramax, we can easily liberate a decent amount of Power with a Stage 1 tune plus EGR/CAT delete. Only slight complication was that our ASIN gearbox has Max Torque limitations. I think only 550 Nm and I didn’t want to push it even close to that number. Maybe sometime soon.

I would love to connect with you, unfortunately I am Newbie and cannot DM. Maybe you can DM me or if you would like you can connect with me at sanjay.halikar@gmail.com

[suryaj1990]

I am having promising results with Amsoil European. Efficiency shoots up really well while lazing around at 100-120kmph on the Expressway to Pune. Ive been able to achieve 14kmpl which has been astonishing for this Mammoth.

The earlier Oil change was with Mobil 1 esp. The engine clatter used to be high and while the efficiency was initially good; later it tamed down to a mere 10.50 to 11kmpl. I noticed that the engine worked much harder too.

For the suspension, you can check with Orix but I believe that lead times would be same for all Garages. There are two workaround here. You can speak directly with the Factory. They have an E-mail id which will give you indication on your parts. Secondly, you can order these shockers from an aftermarket stores if they give you the specifications. Finally, it can easily sourced through Thailand, Philippines and Russia if you have contacts there and your interested in Stock GM.

I have changed the differential Oil, the brake oil and steering oil. For the coolant and transmission, an outside FNG as well as Orix recommended that I should wait to cross the 1,00,000km mark specially since I am not facing any issues. Coolant however, shall have it flushed and changed as per specs in my next service. I'll connect you to the guys at Orix if you would like to try.

I am really interested to upgrade my light setup since I am using the 2.8 mill mainly on highways! Although I'm not a big fan of night driving. I end up pulling the key out at Dawn but I feel it is a worthy upgrade. Do share the details of the bulbs your using and the review on the output with the cost?

Considering our Indian Roads as well as the vigilant Speed Cams popping up everywhere, I personally find the present power output to be sufficient or rather more than sufficient! I have always been keen to remap but considering the rarity or our beloved, I won't mess with it. The gearbox has been rated at 550nm which is a safety threshold while this Transmission is capable of much more. This transmission is common with the 2015 Camaro too so I doubt such limitations have stopped Camaro owners. It is the engine I worry about. I am part of groups on Social media platforms for the 2.8LWN and there have been a lot of hue and cry with holes in cylinder head and many such problems. Although those engines are fitted with DPF too and they have deleted the DPF and EGR along with a straight pipe making it sound more Meaty! My opinion would be continue stock primarily because: "where will you use that much torque and power?"

If your looking to upgrade, rather look at the interior and exterior upgrades based on the 2024 trailblazer on sale in Brazil. Its all bolt on. They have the 8 speed transmission in it and have minutely improved torque on the car

[suryaj1990]

Recently diagnosed the "Clunking sound" from the front suspensions to detonated mounting. Had them changed with the OEM sourced parts. I was getting cheaper options in the market too but decided to stick with OEM. Orix ordered the parts and after 10 days, the parts arrived from their Factory. At first, I was sceptical because the suspension set up on tis vehicle is spot on! Did not want the wrong set of hands to deal with it. Since there are 2-3 in Mumbai, I enquired with the service head and he reassured that they are going to follow the Manual and work as per OEM guidelines since they are an Authorised Workshop of Chevrolet

New Mountings!!




Outgoing Mountings! See their Condition! Literally Squeezed due to the 2800kg it carries!











Fitment of the Final Set!

[suryaj1990]

Post this, I have been making trips all around! The car is just amazing on the highways! She eats up all those craters for breakfast! I have used her with all 7 seats occupied and luggage in the last row. Third row companions ranging in height of 5'4 to 5'11 did not find any botheration. It did not feel claustrophobic or a tight space to be in. Second Row is this cars Business Class. During a round trip of 1,500km from Mumbai to Pune to Aurangabad/NAshik and back to Mumbai; she did not skip a beat. Overall efficiency achieved was 11kmpl. I managed to Pull out a good range on Straight Highways maintaining a constant speed. On 2 lane roads, it is unwise not to use the 500NM torque! Overtaking was amazing! Most of the pulls were just done with 25% power input! Imagine the rush if I used 100% power! It is amazing how this Mammoth just Darts through. At speeds of 100-120kmph, she feels at home. Engine cruises close to 2,000rpm and on 6th gear with super refinement and no noise! The Amsoil is doing its magic well and I think all future changes would be with Amsoil

[suryaj1990]

I planned to take her on another trip. Once you start, you just can't stop! Decided to end this Winter with one final Road Trip! So it was sealed. A group of Friends decided to move from Mumbai-Kolhapur-Goa-Karwar-Goa-Ratnagiri-Ganpatiphule-Mumbai. The dates were set, distances were calculated, hotels were booked, Fueling was decided and then all we did was pack our bags and move! Since we were just the 4 of us, the third row was put down! It gobbled 5 Bags, 1 Stroller and Accessories Bags. Although, the headlights are confidence inspiring, we decided to call it a day by Sunset.

I took the vehicle down to Orix. She needed new wipers and during her last adventure, there was a missing engine rubber shield in wheel well.




Mind you, these wipers are not available anywhere apart from Chevrolet. Its not the size but the fitment adapter which is not easy to find. Not a generic Wiper for front as well as back!






The very first challenge was the heat! Summer came in early! Temperatures soared to 43degrees with no remorse! Just as we exited Mumbai, the upward trend started!



First Stop, Kolhapur! Mahalaxmi Temple visit and retired for the night!

Finally Goa!


The Beast Resting after the Second Leg!


Beautiful Drive to Karwar Beach! Love the Backdrop!



Ratnagiri At The Cliff Point! What a Sunset! These are the things which one travels for!



On Way to Ganpitphule via the Coastal Road! What lovely Tarmac and what views!


Finally! The Mammoth is Resting After The Epic Journey!