Hello Team,
I have a 2011 Chevy Cruze (1.8L) with 105k miles. My car was affected by a faulty thermostat that caused it to overheat while idling and/or running the air conditioner; when I was moving or turned on the heat, the temp gauge would drop back to normal levels. About a couple months back, I took it to the dealer to get the t-stat replaced and the coolant flushed; they advised that I also had a leak in my transmission cooler line and that they'd need replaced. Also, the engine valve gasket was dry rot in a particular area in the front of the engine, so it was trickling small bits of oil and making an unpleasant burning smell. I couldn't do anything about the valve cover gasket, but for the time being, I used some flex seal tape & a couple clamps on the affected cooler line to mitigate leaking of the ATF to the transmission block, which seemed to work alright. Two days ago, I scrounged up enough $ to get both things fixed; I also had the transmission serviced to add new fluid to it.
Since getting these issues resolved, the car is running much better; it's not as difficult to shift, and I've not seen any temperature issues while idling. My concern now is that while going uphill in 4th gear (~3-4k RPM at 40-45MPH), I'm seeing moderate amounts of white smoke come out of the exhaust until I manually shift into 5th gear; this occurred twice (yesterday morning & this morning). As I drive around more, it eventually all goes away. When I parked at work this morning, I held a napkin slightly over the exhaust w/ the car on to see if there was any smell or moisture hitting it; it was dry & didn't smell sweet (i.e. coolant issue), but the exhaust pipe exterior was dingy. Do you all think it's just condensation and I'm overreacting, or could it be excess ATF burning off since they cleaned the area before putting the new cooler line on? Is there anything I can do to clean this up to prevent further issues?
Thanks,
Kyle
I have a 2011 Chevy Cruze (1.8L) with 105k miles. My car was affected by a faulty thermostat that caused it to overheat while idling and/or running the air conditioner; when I was moving or turned on the heat, the temp gauge would drop back to normal levels. About a couple months back, I took it to the dealer to get the t-stat replaced and the coolant flushed; they advised that I also had a leak in my transmission cooler line and that they'd need replaced. Also, the engine valve gasket was dry rot in a particular area in the front of the engine, so it was trickling small bits of oil and making an unpleasant burning smell. I couldn't do anything about the valve cover gasket, but for the time being, I used some flex seal tape & a couple clamps on the affected cooler line to mitigate leaking of the ATF to the transmission block, which seemed to work alright. Two days ago, I scrounged up enough $ to get both things fixed; I also had the transmission serviced to add new fluid to it.
Since getting these issues resolved, the car is running much better; it's not as difficult to shift, and I've not seen any temperature issues while idling. My concern now is that while going uphill in 4th gear (~3-4k RPM at 40-45MPH), I'm seeing moderate amounts of white smoke come out of the exhaust until I manually shift into 5th gear; this occurred twice (yesterday morning & this morning). As I drive around more, it eventually all goes away. When I parked at work this morning, I held a napkin slightly over the exhaust w/ the car on to see if there was any smell or moisture hitting it; it was dry & didn't smell sweet (i.e. coolant issue), but the exhaust pipe exterior was dingy. Do you all think it's just condensation and I'm overreacting, or could it be excess ATF burning off since they cleaned the area before putting the new cooler line on? Is there anything I can do to clean this up to prevent further issues?
Thanks,
Kyle
