about two days ago i was visiting family in another state, i left later in the night and about 4-5 miles in to my trip i noticed power seemed down(car was not hitting sixty like it normally did), shortly after getting on to the highway with a speedlimit of 65 mph my low oil pressure light came on, i started to pull over immediately and then the engine started making a very loud noise and the check engine light came on(this all occurred in a matter or 10-15 seconds). i shut the car off and call roadside assistance. i checked the oil and saw no metal and the oil level was still near full. the flatbed comes and despite me telling the fellow not to start the car, he starts it, throws it in to drive and stomps on the gas to get it on to the tilted back flatbed. fast forward to today i had to call the dealership(they didnt bother calling me for some reason), and was informed there was metal all over inside the engine, i was not informed what caused this but that they needed my oil change records. the first oil change was around 7200 miles, and the second was around 14500 miles, both at the chevy dealer. the next two were done by me, at 21,000 miles and 29,000 miles using quaker state full synthetic oil. i have receipts for when the oil was purchased and work tickets from the dealership for warranty work done(the car has been a nightmare since ive bought it). the oil is dexos approved and the filters were not cheap. at this point the car has around 34,500 miles, i should be finding out tomorrow whether the car is covered under the power train warranty, which is 5 years/100,000 miles. so im looking for insight on what might have caused this problem and what to do if chevy wont honor their warranty, as i cant really afford to replace the engine. my thoughts on the cause would be the oil pump failing, i figured since the car was already making horrid noises before the tow truck driver abused it, the engine was already damaged. i would appreciate any feedback, thanks.
2014 cruze lt 1.4t- major engine failure could use some opinions
1 - 16 of 16 Posts
Joined
·
2,170 Posts
That's unfortunate, sorry to hear you've had issues. Just out of pure curiosity, what type of fuel were you using?
Please keep us informed on the response and conclusion from the dealer.
Please keep us informed on the response and conclusion from the dealer.
Well as long as you used 5w30 you should be just fine. Quaker States full synthetic line is Dexos1 approved. Sorry to hear your car is a "nightmare". What other issue's you having? I own a 2014 LTZ, car has been flawless outside of the basic stuff. (Negative Battery Cable, Thermostat, Water Pump). Bought it Certiifed Pre Owned (CPO) at 16k miles, now at 55k miles. Just had the transmission and brake fluid changed in November and a new set of tires.
the oil was 5w30, dealer said the engine was perfect no sludge or anything and all the receipts checked out so they are covering it. i bought my 2014 lt brand new, alot of the nightmare part of it is my local dealer being asses. so far under warranty i've had both headlights, shifter assembly, both battery cables, battery, rear drivers side door lock. luckily my car is in another state and is being repaired by a better dealer, my local one told me to walk home when my car died from the battery and they were also not rotating my tires, i just replaced my front tires with 34k miles, and my rear tires are still in good shape. another reason i kinda view this all as a nightmare is that this is my first brand new car, my previous car was 10+ years old and never really gave me any crazy issues or left me sit(02 Grand Prix GTP).
I use regular and the dealer said it is covered, it appears the oil pump went.
Joined
·
1,013 Posts
Most of the issues you've described having are issues I've not heard other people having before (oil pump failure, door lock, shifter assembly and 2 battery cables), so that's pretty odd, especially in the more reliable 2014 model year, you must have just gotten a bad egg, that's all I can assume.
However, I am glad the dealer has covered your problem under warranty, as they should.
However, I am glad the dealer has covered your problem under warranty, as they should.
Joined
·
2,170 Posts
That's good news, glad to hear. Thanks for the update! Hopefully you can get it fixed and put this whole thing past you. The 2014 model year otherwise is generally known to be pretty reliable as GM had time to revise and improve weak points that were seen on the earlier years.
Final update on this, got the car back and it seems to be running good. i started using premium gas as well, MPG did not improve at all but power seems to be mildly better. the final diagnosis of what happened to the engine was oil pump failure, they ended up replacing the oil pump/timing cover, harmonic balancer, a hand full of bolts and gaskets, and they pulled the engine apart and cleaned it. i had to pay for the oil change but i didnt mind as it was almost due for one and its really cold outside lately. i will probably keep the car until the warranty is almost up and see how i feel about it then, id like to have it tuned but given the issues ive already had with the thing i am not sure it would be the safest thing.
Joined
·
1,247 Posts
It ran with low oil pressure until it began to seize up and power dropped to nearly nothing, a tow truck driver started it without an oil pump and floored it to drive it up a steep incline, and they didn't have to replace camshafts, bearings, or even piston rings afterwards?
If a tow truck driver started my car against my explicit orders, I would have been screaming at him the instant I heard the starter motor, and if he started it anyway, he would have been removed from the car at gunpoint (well, maybe not if the dealership owned the tow truck, in that case I'd just hold GM responsible for any damage he did).
If a tow truck driver started my car against my explicit orders, I would have been screaming at him the instant I heard the starter motor, and if he started it anyway, he would have been removed from the car at gunpoint (well, maybe not if the dealership owned the tow truck, in that case I'd just hold GM responsible for any damage he did).
Joined
·
25,596 Posts
I think you nailed the real issue here - crappy dealership. When you get your car back find a different dealership as the one you've been using isn't doing the job right. As for the dealership asking about the oil changes you did this is because GM wants this information before they'll cover a warranty repair.
I was a little bothered by this but the car was about due for an oil change so i would have been paying for it anyway.
They claimed that there was little metal up top and that there was no damage, the car is still warrantied for another year and eight months. if i have any more issues with the thing, it will go when the warranty runs out and ill pick up something else. as for the tow truck driver, he could barely formulate a decent conversation and told me many times how much chevy sucked.
i keep documents for everything with my cars, so having the information on hand wasn't an issue. it just kind of felt as though they were trying to pin it on me, after opening the engine up the tech said it was clean, no sludge at all.
Joined
·
1,247 Posts
Sounds like he wasn't merely inept, he was an ******* who didn't give a darn about you or your car. It's a piece of **** Chebby, so I'm entitled to abuse it.
That's the kind of people I don't allow to touch my property.
It's taken me decades to get to this point, but I'm much happier this way.
The first tow call I ever made, I had serious reservations at how he wanted to retrieve my car. He got aggressive and borderline nasty when I questioned his judgment, and did it his way. I made a quick decision to let him do the job, I was young then, I'm a lot older and nastier now. It was a high risk pull, but he got away with it and my car wasn't damaged. I still found myself thinking "I paid that guy to be an ******* to me?".
I worked for a tow company one summer, 30 years ago. Two or three of our drivers were among the dumbest guys I knew, but they tried to do a good job, and to the best of my knowledge didn't treat our customers like crap. I saw the occasional 'why would you do THAT?' (I had to repair their screw-ups). But it was semi understandable stuff like a FWD with a torn CV boot because the driver put a tow hook on the axle, probably because he didn't put his head down in the mud and look at what he was doing.
Another time, our heavy duty wrecker broke down with a semi rig on the sling, our dispatcher sent a F450 out to help him, the F450 driver hooked up to the big wrecker and towed the wrecker, tractor, and trailer into town. He was lucky the cop only wrote him a ticket for being over the legal length limit. Looking back on it, I wonder why the trucker let them do that.
Some of the stuff I've seen and heard about in recent years qualifies as outright vandalism.
Last year my parents were looking at an off lease Malibu. Carfax had two lockout events in the previous year. The passenger door and the door opening in the body had over a dozen small but serious dents in them. I showed it to a dealer I know, and he said 'tow truck drivers do that all the time'. I'd never seen anything like it before.
You see those square dents 3/8 of an inch wide, and you know somebody just jammed one of these in the door and started yanking so he could shove something in to poke the unlock button. Haven't those guys ever heard of these?
Anyway, the moral to that story is NEVER call a tow truck when you're locked out of your car. Call a 24 hour locksmith instead.
If you have AAA, it's not really your call who comes out.
1 - 16 of 16 Posts
Join the discussion
