Wondering now about that 1.4L in winter months.

[NickD]

Takes forever for that temperature gauge to reach normal, only about a 1/4 the way when driving around town for even seven miles. Maybe have to go back to the old days and put a piece of cardboard in front of the condenser. Then concerned if this thing is ever getting out of open loop mode. That occurs until the engine gets hot enough for close loop mode where the O2 sensor can take over.

Have to make a 80 mile trip tomorrow, have 413 miles on this thing already and will be watching that temperature gauge. Could have a bad thermostat, making these things in India or China now. 2.2L Cavalier would hit normal even in cold weather after two miles of driving.

Anyone experience this?

[kevhed]

Yeah...mine does the same when its cold out. My commute to work is about 10 miles each way and the engine won't reach full temp until about 3/4 of the way there. It does seem like a long time. I was going mention it to my dealer and have him check it out at my first oil change. I would think with the electronically controlled thermo....if there was actually a problem it would throw a warning lamp or something.

[sciphi]

Mine's at full temperature inside 10 minutes. Full temperature is 200-220*F, although I've seen 180*F when running the heater idling at a 2 minute stoplight.

Do you have a 2011 or 2012? The 2012's can check the coolant temperature on the DIC. At least on mine, the coolant will be 140*F before the gauge starts moving off of its rest position.

[UpstateNYBill]

Mine's at full temperature inside 10 minutes. Full temperature is 200-220*F, although I've seen 180*F when running the heater idling at a 2 minute stoplight.

Do you have a 2011 or 2012? The 2012's can check the coolant temperature on the DIC. At least on mine, the coolant will be 140*F before the gauge starts moving off of its rest position.

Good point. While I've idled my car for 15 minutes or so in the morning when it's been below zero and the temp gauge hasn't moved up much during that idling period, it moves up quickly enough once I get going. The coolant temp display reads normal when I've bothered to look at it.

Bought my car on the 9th, I'm already over 2400 miles.

On a side note, have you noticed in that section with the coolant temp, battery voltage, etc., there is one display is blank? That would be a handy place to show the boost.

[NickD]

Watched it carefully this morning took six miles of highway driving, 55 mph, OnStar is watching me to reach full operating temperature. Do have the 2012 2LT with a manual transmission and the display, did get up to 212*F and stayed there +/- a couple of degrees. Finally broke the 500 mile mark, tried to use mostly town driving for a good break in.

Gather with in town driving, DOT came in 12 years ago and installed a zillion traffic lights, spend more time waiting for a green light when not a **** vehicle is coming with a green light on their side. So at idle, just won't heat up. But did have a 1986 Civic with a 1.5L engine with the same problem.

Really got curious also about what boost pressure this 1.4L is using, could only find sites like this one with guesses. 88 Supra Turbo does have a gauge on it. One thing good about that is if your waste gate valve sticks, a good warning you are about to blow a head gasket or something worse. Not sure if this Cruze has an error code on this, shop manuals are not available yet.

[GoldenCruze]

I sometime watch the temperature readout on the DIC when driving my 2LT. I have learned that when the temp reaches 125 Degrees F, I get heat from the heater. I'm sure running the heater extends the warmup period. I finally get to 224 degrees F after about 10 - 15 minutes. I have driven it in below freezing temperatures, but not below zero temperatures because of the crazy winter we are having in Ohio. Seems like the warmup period is the same. I don't have any concern for the length of time it takes to warm up fully.

[eagleco]

That's nice the 2012 shows coolant temp. on the DIC. On my 5 mile drive to work, my Eco warms up about the same as my previous car, a 2.0 Mazda 3. It seems the iron block of the 1.4 retains heat a bit better than my aluminum 2 liter did, although that may be just because I think it should.

[sciphi]

Really got curious also about what boost pressure this 1.4L is using, could only find sites like this one with guesses. 88 Supra Turbo does have a gauge on it. One thing good about that is if your waste gate valve sticks, a good warning you are about to blow a head gasket or something worse. Not sure if this Cruze has an error code on this, shop manuals are not available yet.

Common OEM boost pressures range from 4-12 PSI as needed, and bursts of up to 15 PSI when called for. Tuned, people see 21-22 PSI consistently when really getting on it. I do believe there's an error code for no turbo response.

Folks have installed boost gauges. I have a ScanGauge II that reports boost as one of the 4 gauges it reports at one time.

[blk88verde]

The small displacement and iron block leads to the slow warm up on cold days. I get complaints from my wife as to the slowness to warm up the interior. She is used to an all aluminum 3.5 litre V6 in her Olds Intrigue which starts putting out heat with in a mile to a mile and a half.

[NickD]

Just another minor factor with the 1.4L engine, with my 04 Cavalier with the DOHC engine, at idle on level ground, could ease out the clutch and get moving. With the 1.4L, kills the engine, have to lightly touch on the gas pedal to prevent that.

Can't say too much good about fuel economy, just as bad as my 04 Cavalier with this stupid winter gas we are forced to buy. Hope it does much better on long trips. 04 Cavalier got as high as 42 mpg with summer gas, if I could hold the speed to about 53 mph. EPA window sticker says 31-45 mpg, quite a range. But did most of my driving around town and for the first fillup, only got 27.2 mpg.

When we first drove it home, average mpg was 44.1, but that was with Ohio summer gas. I only use top tier gas, even my 04 Cavalier shop manual in very small print said to use ethanol free gas, E10 sparingly, whatever the **** that means. My old 84 Honda Accord DX with a 1.7 L engine and good gas would always get 46 mpg on the highway. Gas used to be 120,000 BTU per gallon, now they dropped it down to 96,000 to 106,000 BTU's if you are lucky. Not only getting screwed at the pump, but indirectly as well.