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120k 2.0 engine failure

14K views 69 replies 15 participants last post by  Mw548 
#1 ·
Well the Cruze had been a good car owned it 4 years now very little issues and yesterday with very little warning the rod decided to come out of the block. 😳 will be looking for a new motor to replace this one.
 
#31 ·
Sounds like you blew one of the charge pipes to me - super common for them to break and blow off while driving and do...exactly that.
 
#33 ·
Yea, pipe or possible stuck EGR valve. If it's stuck far enough open it will crank and start, run about 1 second while stumbling bad and then shut off. If it's only stuck a little way open it might actually run but it'll run like crap. May not throw a code, mine didn't.

Also consider replacing the oil cooler lines soon, they're made of a hard plastic that is probably getting brittle by this point and will eventually leak. Mine did that two days ago @ 142k. You can remove the brittle lines and replace them with 5/8 heater hose, you reuse the quick connect plastic ends as they have a barb fitting on them. Cheap fix that way. Or you can purchase all new lines, about $75 on amazon for both. P/N 55488382 and 55488381.
 
#34 ·
I think the heater hose will last longer - stock replacement lines will eventually do the same thing.
 
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#48 ·
Well I’m up to 135k on it now no major issues. I didn’t put loctite on ac compressor bolts so that rattled loose and threw my serpentine belt other then that it’s been running great with no issues. One thing i have noticed it’s not a new problem but in cold weather if it’s not driven daily it has problems starting… have to go use the key cuz the remote start will draw battery dead before it pops off. I epoxied an oil pan heater to the bottom of the engine which if plugged in the car starts fine but cold start it struggles. Anybody else have this problem… and by cold weather i mean below 0
 
#51 ·
My car sits outside. I had very cold weather starting issues when my battery was 5 years old. I went the trickle charger route during that very cold week of -15F nights and made it through, then got through the rest of the winter without it. I replaced the battery sometime in 2019 and haven't had any issues since.
 
#49 ·
When was the last time you replaced your battery?
 
#50 ·
The charging strategy on these CTDs is programmed for fuel economy. The result is that the batteries never seem to get their full charge back. This is something I learned in the first few years of ownership.

The solution is to buy yourself a battery charger with an AGM program on it. Something with at least 10 amps output like the NOCO Genius 10. It’s currently the best value in an AGM compliant charger. And make a habit of placing that charger on your battery once every few weeks. You‘ll have no more starting problems.

I have a bunch of chargers, including a CTEK POLAR, but it’s 4.3 amps and just can’t do much on these 80 amp hour batteries. So I use a NOCO Genius 26000 on my CTD. At 26 amperes output it normally runs for two hours at least once a month. But there have been times when it’s run for as much as four hours. For comparison, a 10 amp charger would take 2.6 times as long, my CTEK six times longer. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
 
#56 ·
The charging strategy on these CTDs is programmed for fuel economy. The result is that the batteries never seem to get their full charge back. This is something I learned in the first few years of ownership.
It's a shame we can't do anything to change that...it'd be nice not to go through a battery every four years.
 
#53 ·
I replaced battery fall of 2021 when i replaced the engine so it’s a bit over a year old and both engines i have had in this car have had similar experiences. I don’t have power ran back to my shop and just have accepted to drive my pickup when below 0. I have a Chevy 5500 for work and have never plugged it in for 3 winters. Just boggles my mind this little diesel is that cold blooded
 
#58 ·
I assume you just charge it in the vehicle, not take that enormous thing out of the car and charge it? Similar to just leaving the vehicle on a trickle charger - would be pretty easy to run an extension cord out to where we normally park the car and charge it every 3-4 weeks or so.
 
#61 ·
@Tomko do you just set it to the AGM setting and leave it, or set it to 12V Repair? I just did the former yesterday when I finally got around to tossing the charger on the car yesterday afternoon. About to go unplug it now so my wife doesn't leave while it is still connected/in the engine bay, as I'm sure she will completely ignore the "Hood Open" message on the DIC.
 
#62 ·
I’ve never employed the repair function. Only the normal AGM setting.

But then again, I’ve never completely flattened my present NorthStar battery.

It’s now at seven years eight months, service.
 
#67 ·
This makes more sense then.

I put the charger on around 5PM and then pulled it at about 10:30AM - didn't check on it in between then.

Locked the car as well, and since it hadn't been driven in a few hours, the Android head unit would have turned off as well (I have it set to sleep for only 2 hours, then it turns off and has to boot up after that point - it's pretty quick to do so, therefore I consider it a good tradeoff).
 
#68 ·
Okay. So I think you’re golden.

Only further advice I’d offer is to get into the habit of toping-up your battery every month or so.
 
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#70 ·
Well the car is still just chugging away with the replacement engine don’t drive it to much due to having a work vehicle now. I just can’t get myself to sell it since they aren’t worth much anyways. Still drive it on weekends and throughout the week.
 
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