Coolant Reservoir Level-won't stay topped off

[obermd]

This isn't a Cruze thing. This is an "every turbo car" thing.

The Cruze isn't as prone to eating bearings and coking oil and stuff as some of the older, non-water-cooled turbos, but the turbos are still really hot, and more so when they've been run hard without cooling them down. Idling and letting the turbos cool is a big thing with diesels, because the turbos are largely not water cooled.

Mike

Since the owner's manual doesn't address idling the car for a couple of minutes after a long run, I wonder if the noise some members, including me, have reported is the car cooling off the engine and turbo. My Montana had a cool down feature for it's engine as well, so I know GM does this for some vehicles.

[fastdriver]

This isn't a Cruze thing. This is an "every turbo car" thing.

The Cruze isn't as prone to eating bearings and coking oil and stuff as some of the older, non-water-cooled turbos, but the turbos are still really hot, and more so when they've been run hard without cooling them down. Idling and letting the turbos cool is a big thing with diesels, because the turbos are largely not water cooled.

Mike

That may be, but I have NEVER owned a turbo before and never knew this and did NOT see anything about this in the owner's manual. If it is so important, WHY isn't it in the manual?

[spacedout]

That may be, but I have NEVER owned a turbo before and never knew this and did NOT see anything about this in the owner's manual. If it is so important, WHY isn't it in the manual?

Because it is not important on the cruze. If the turbo is to hot at shutdown it sounds like they have a circulating pump to cool to a safe level. I have yet to hear this pump as other have, but I tend to be easy on the car the last 2-10miles of a drive. At most I idle for 10 seconds before I shut the car off.

Since turbos were first put on tractors it was known you needed to idle after working the engine/turbo to cool things down. I remember being on an uncles farm as a kid, they would leave the tractors idling while they ate lunch(20-30minutes) just to cool the super heated turbos.

[bryanakron40]

Honestly, I don't think it would make that much of a difference. It has been printed in many owner's manuals over the years and the majority of people ignore it. Also, since these aren't a SS model with high HP, they may have deemed it unnecessary.

[obermd]

Add my ECO to the list of coolant leaks. I had the flourescent dye put in on my way home from work. I've dropped about an inch of coolant in the last 4,500 miles. I'll keep an eye on my level and when the car gets an oil change at 18K we'll put the black light to the underside of the engine.

[jsusanka]

I bought some anti freeze and topped it off on 0ct 23rd following the instructions in the manual. So far the level has stayed the same and I smelled antifreeze by the over flow tank a few times but the level hasn't dropped and I have no puddles under the car. I did notice the cap came off really easy and when I was putting it back it seemed like I had had to turn a lot more times than when I did taking it off. When I put the cap on I stopped when it started to get hard and could turn anymore then I turned the car off and was cleaning up and I tightened the cap one more time and it turned really easily like 3/4 a turn and now it seems like it is on better than it was before I added anti-freeze. I don't know maybe I am imagining it but hopefully my cap just wasn't on properely before.

[jblackburn]

Since the owner's manual doesn't address idling the car for a couple of minutes after a long run, I wonder if the noise some members, including me, have reported is the car cooling off the engine and turbo. My Montana had a cool down feature for it's engine as well, so I know GM does this for some vehicles.

I've never idled my turbo cars before shut down unless I've been driving them really, really hard. Coking doesn't happen with water-cooled turbos (or with a good synthetic oil used); it was moreso something that happened with the old oil-cooled Garrett turbos on old Volvos/Saabs at the onset of the turbocharging era. Both turbo technology and oil technology have come a long way since then and made this an unnecessary practice.