2014 Cruze TONS OF PROBLEMS AT ONCE

joshuab said:

Welcome to the community here, you have came to the right place for help! These are a great group of guys/gals always willing help determine the cause of your issues. The code you mentioned in one of your previous post, I actually received that engine code yesterday & took to the dealership today to find out I had a bad catalytic converter, but yours being a 2014 seems really odd to have a bad catalytic converter at age. But possible due to a few points of running rich, etc.

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I'm looking for bad catalytic converter 2014 cruze talk. Car has 80k, check engine light came on again. Had it in for a powertrain repair covered under power train warranty a few months back. It had been losing vacuum so they repaired a cracked cover which I'll get them to take me through step by step tomorrow. Now check engine light on again and they say it needs $750 catalytic converter replacement NOT covered under warranty. Seems to me having owned cars for 39 years with about 100 years of car ownership having never heard of replacing a catalytic converter that something caused the failure. Also, that $1800 bumper to bumper warranty good for 100k miles should cover it. Am trying to rule out that Chevy has an issue with those cat converters on the Chevy Cruze. My initial assessment is that the issue they repaired a few months ago has caused early failure plugging the catalytic converter. Even if that weren't the cause, it isn't a wearing part that fails in 3 years or I would have heard of it before having 100+ years of owning cars, so bumper to bumper $1800 warranty will cover it or else I'll never buy another Chevy. My son dropped the car off, so maybe they are just taking advantage of a 28 year old down at the dealership. He hasn't worked on cars much. I have, and have never had to replace a catalytic converter. lol who ever heard of such on a 3 yr old car?

Pains me to report but I have yet to see an extended service contract from any underwriter that provided coverage for catalytic converters.

There are so many things that can cause a efficiency loss with the biggest suspect being fuel. Something as simple as one tank of fuel that is too high in sulfur content can cut efficiency by 20%. This loss is a result of the sulfur attaching to the grid and it does not burn off.
This is something neither you or the manufacturer can control.
Obviously, any fuel that has a trace of tetraethyl lead will poison it as well.......think of a tanker that recently refilled the 100LL avgas tanks at a airfield and not being properly flushed prior to its next delivery of unleaded.

Over the years (I'm a mostly retired wrench) I've had to replace many cats that no longer converted effectively.........and also, quite a few that melted the substrate due to over rich operation.
The melted ones are obvious......car won't go past 30 mph or in worse cases, won't even run.
The grid coated ones run just fine since there is no obstruction.....it just doesn't perform the conversion process anymore.

There was a time you could get a unit from a car at the wrecking yard, but even that is no longer legal (plus, the noble metals within are very valuable to the yard).

All this to say,
I think, from a cost of repair standpoint, you are doomed to pay.

Sux.

Rob

Linda B. said:

Thanks, Rob. That is very helpful. It runs fine just slight loss of power, so guess things could be worse. Since it is past the 80k emissions warranty, would it hurt to switch that out for a kit? Do you know if that voids any other warranty? Eldest suggested that today.
I've learned since yesterday afternoon when I received the sad news that very expensive parts regularly fail on the cruze. We are discussing today that we need to get rid of it by 100,000 miles due to all the issues.

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Not just the Cruze from a part expense standpoint.

Every brand, late model vehicle, in an effort to achieve high mileage, almost zero emissions, yet retain driveability suffers from these high buck failures.
Once upon a time, if you did repairs yourself, you could keep a car running fairly economically.
Yes, the labor expense has risen over the years but the part expense has gone off the chart.

Case in point, wifes trans failed on her 08 Malibu, showing 68000 miles. The labor was in the 1200.00 range......the parts exceeded 3300.00.
Yes indeedy, even though I can perform the repair, that one claim exceeded what I paid for the GM Protection Plan.

Regarding the Cruze.....without question the first three years had some rather common component failures, same as any clean sheet car does. For the most part though, the later builds were as reliable as any other.
I always laugh when Asian cars are in the mix.....the manufacturers often sell their new version cars (clean sheet design) in the home country for a couple of years......so, those folks get to uncover the design weaknesses.
Once the car gets here, most of the problems have been ironed out and the car is perceived as 'better built'.

BTW....unless you are in California the emission warranty is only 3/36 for the other 49 states.

Rob