2.4 Grand Am Maintenance

I have a 2000 grand am with the 2.4 engine, it has about 100,000 miles on it now. I was just wondering if there are some things that I could check or have done on it. Do you ever have the check the timming chains on these engines? I am going on a long trip with it and I want everything to be ready to go. Also would it be a good idea to start using synthetic oil? Thanks for the help!

There are many, many things that need to be done. If you have the owners manual for the car, it should have a complete listing of what needs to be done and when. I personally reccomend that transmission fluid (A/T) be changed much sooner than GM says, around 30,000 miles for most FWD cars.

The timing chains don't need to be checked, and may last the life of the engine. I have 194,000 miles on mine and the chain looked fine and wasn't stretched (I bought the car at 179,000 miles, so there is a chance that it was replaced before). I will be replacing it because I'm replacing the head gasket and water pump, and well, if I take something off I usually replace it while it's off.

Synthetic oil never hurt anything, so if the price is worth it to you, then go for it.