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2014 Diesel Cruze will not start

14073 Views 92 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Boathook36, 
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I have a 2014 that will not start. I just bought it as is and am at the bottom of the learning curve still. It has 243K miles. The interior is very nice and the car looks to have much less mileage than 243K.

I checked the DTCs and it came up with five of them.
1) P0098 Intake Air Temp Sensor 2 Circuit High Input
2) P00F5 Intake Air Humidity Sensor Circuit High Input
3) P227D Barometric Pressure Sensor "C" Circuit High
4) P0103 Mass or Volume Air Flow Circuit High
5) P069E Fuel Pump Control Module Requested MIL Illumination

I'm pretty sure the MAP sensor has the IAT2 and Barometric pressure incorporated into it. With all of them out I suspect cleaning the MAP won't help and the +5V supply voltage is suspect. I'm hoping that hunting down this issue will be enough to see the car run for the first time.

I purchased a repair manual from an ebay seller. Its terrible. They sent me a PDF of a 2013 repair manual and another PDF with the 2.0L diesel rebuild instructions. The 2013 manual lacks any diesel code description or sensor troubleshooting info. It isn't even close to what I need or what the description promised.

The fifth one P069E cleared and did not come back. It now just has the first four. I suspect that one was affected by the previous owner installing an injection pump. They claimed to have replaced it.

I purchased the 2014 Diesel Cruze from a family that likes to buy broken cars and flip them. This one has not been running for at least the 7 months while they owned it. The family replaced the injection pump supposedly. The EGR looks brand new so I think they replaced that too. I wasn't too impressed by their mechanical prowness. They seemed to have given up because it would not crank. I watched them demonstrate that by putting a dinky little jumpstarter on the totally discharged battery. It was just barely strong enough to turn on dash lights and to put it into neutral. I was surprised how dismayed they seemed to be when it would not crank.

When I got it home I replaced the battery and it immediately cranked properly. They didn't seem to understand that jumpstarter packs often don't work with fully discharged batteries even in low torque gas motors. There should be at least 8V on the battery for the jumpstarter to help.

I got it with a totally empty coolant reservoir. That worries me a tad. The oil is a normal diesel black without signs of water or unusual wear. It sounds fine as it cranks. The seller claimed to have compression tested the motor without issue. I'm hoping the engine is okay.

We have a 2015 Cruze (1.4L Gas motor) that has already gone through two head gaskets at 120K. We've been looking for a diesel Cruze for a long time and this one will still be the cheapest I've found even if I have to replace the motor. Hopefully the issue is just sensor or emissions related.

I want to get the car running and confirm the condition of the motor quickly. If it checks out the budget for possible motor replacement can be applied to getting an EFI Live tool and license. I've been reading those threads here on the forum and I'm excited to improve the car past its stock configuration.
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We have about two thousand miles on the car already. After finding the badly cross-threaded glow plugs and retapping and replacing them the car still did not start. Turns out the starter was in bad shape and then the high pressure fuel line on the brand new fuel injection pump was installed improperly by the previous owners. It had popped off. Those three things took about a month to figure out and it has been running well since.

We got one flat and I tried to use the spare tire from our other Cruze. I had figured on grabbing a spare tire from a gas Cruze at a junkyard. I was rather surprised to find the bolt pattern is different. The gas Cruzes have a 5x105mm pattern and the Diesel uses 5x115mm. I'm not aware of any other car that uses 5x115mm. I'm going to try a spare from my old Jeep Cherokee next. Thats 5x4.5" which comes rather close at 5x114.7mm. I haven't tried it yet. The tiny doughnut spare has very little backspacing so it might be okay. I probably need at least a 16" rim to clear the caliper brackets. The Jeep 16" and 17" wheels are usually 5x5". All the 5x4.5" Jeep wheels I have are 15". I think the Rubicon wheels from 2003-2006 might be the only compatible donor I've found so far and those are only 16". I'll keep looking.

I replaced the tires with one size larger. They are 215/65R17. The tires are 28" diameter instead of 26-1/4" for the stock size (215/55R17). They fit well. I was prepared to clearance any rub spots and they fit without having to. Plenty of room even in hard bumps. It adds 1 MPH to every 20 MPH on the speedometer. If the speedometer says we're going 80 we're actually going 84. If it says 60 we're actually going 63. That extra girth around the rim made a huge difference in ride quality. It soaks up the potholes and rough roads much better. The nose clears most curbs now with that extra inch of ground clearance.

I still have a check engine light because my active grill shutter was found to be damaged. One of the pins corroded and broke off inside the plug. I think the 1.8L gas Cruzes used the same unit but I haven't found any of those yet. I may try to defeat it for now. I think the shutter gets 12V to activate on two pins then returns a ground on a third pin to indicate status. I could mimic that with a relay. I haven't tried it yet.
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Tomko
www.cruzetalk.com

Verano doughnut spare for CTD

Will this fit the CTD 5 x 115 bolt pattern, 4 x 16 dia. Offset????
www.cruzetalk.com www.cruzetalk.com
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MP81
Boathook36 said:
I'm not aware of any other car that uses 5x115mm.
Click to expand...
Plenty do. Malibu, 1st gen Volt, Verano, ATS, all the old W-Bodies...

As @Tomko posted, the Verano is the favorite for a spare tire, because the Diesel uses Verano brakes.
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Thanks for mentioning the Verano. I had never even heard of one before that. There is one at the local yard for me to check out.

The horn doesn't work. There is power at the fuse. I checked the connections from underneath and there is no obvious issue. Its time to quit grumbling about it and full the front clip to keep trouble-shooting. I'm planning on working on the active grill shutters at the same time.
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front bumper not to bad... just all the stupid little plastic push connections that half break when you pull them.. buy some before you start......experience......lol
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I'll never buy those dang things. I put everything together with old scrap pieces of 12G Romex wire.

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I finally fixed my active shutters today. The previous owner replaced the assembly but the plug has one of the four pins exposed more than the other three. Through the hole you can see heavy green copper oxide and a broken pin jammed inside it. I poured sulfuric acid drain cleaner into a glass shotglass and dunked it for about 30 seconds. When all the green oxide was gone I rinsed it thoroughly. I've used better combinations of cleaning products to etch corroded PCB boards before but this worked okay for this. Its nice bright bare copper all the way inside where I could never reach with a wire brush or file. I was able to dig out the broken pin with tweezers. Its plugged into the motor and fastened to the body separate from the shutter assembly. It worked and did its little startup dance and the code finally cleared. I expect it to last longer without the load of the shutters. The shutters themselves are wired tight in the open position by drilling a hole in the center. I have very little regard for whatever the heck the shutters are meant to accomplish.

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Here's the plug after the acid bath and before digging out the broken pin. Its visible in this picture.

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I also installed the dash camera today. I ran a 10 foot usb extension cable up through the B pillar trim and let it poke out next to the grab handle. From there a short cable is plugged into the dash camera. Its the cheapest camera I could find that supports a 256 gig microSD card. It was $150 at best buy. It has a second camera feed to face rearward to view both front and rear. It is powered on all the time and left recording even when parked. If I was to let the car sit for several days I just unplug it by the grab handle to keep from killing the battery. The plug turns off with the ignition normally but I defeated that by yanking the relay and jamming it shut.

The interior fuse block swivels down to expose three relay slots on top. The plastic cover on the relay isn't hard to pop off. From there I jammed a spoon against the contact. That contact is normally pulled by the electromagnet to make contact then springs away once the electromagnet releases when the ignition turns off. My little chunk of spoon keeps the camera and phone chargers on all the time. The cover pops back on the relay and it looks unmodified so I write a big X on the top to remember which one I've defeated.

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This is a good picture to share. The limiting factor for tire size is the Strut to tire clearance. This space stays constant as the strut moves up and down with the spring. I did not need to modify anything at all and there was plenty of space around the tire everywhere else. I used 215/65R17 tires that are nearly 2" bigger than stock and the difference in ride quality is even much bigger than I expected. Its so much nicer with the extra cushion affect of having such tall sidewalls.

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MP81
Boathook36 said:
This is a good picture to share. The limiting factor for tire size is the Strut to tire clearance. This space stays constant as the strut moves up and down with the spring. I did not need to modify anything at all and there was plenty of space around the tire everywhere else. I used 215/65R17 tires that are nearly 2" bigger than stock and the difference in ride quality is even much bigger than I expected. Its so much nicer with the extra cushion affect of having such tall sidewalls.
Click to expand...
Good lord that is way too much sidewall. Even with the stock "sport" suspension on the diesel, the 215/55R17 is plenty comfortable.
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I'm fixing this up for my wife to drive Uber in Philly. She drove 60K miles last year and beat the snot out of the gas Cruze with several flats and a tire unbeaded from the rim. When there are weekend bonus promotions she sticks to the rough areas all day and its all zipping through back alleys and over sidewalks. I've already had to drive my van an hour away and rebead her tire with lighter fluid to get it home among several late night tire repairs. Before COVID I once had to steal a tire off the display rack at a 24 hour Walmart to switch on to her car to get it home.

We welcome the thought that extra sidewall could prevent a repeat event. I saved the stock tires that came off to make some full size spares or to prevent another midnight Walmart raid.

The attached pictures show old versus new. I only replaced two initially to make sure they would clear. I also included the picture of the old tire unbeaded from the rim. That event prompted me to do it sooner than later.

Our driveway is brutal. My family drives SUVs and trucks that make the Cruze feel like a Go-cart so we never care to fix the rough spots. The difference in ride quality is mostly measured in how well it now drives across the same driveway every day that used to be jarring and painful for her.

Happy wife, happy life. It was money well spent.

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MP81
...why is she driving over sidewalks? That seems like you could easily solve the problem by...not driving over sidewalks...?
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We drove to the hospital to have our daughter in our 1980 Turbodiesel IH Scout Traveler. With her water broken I had her sit on the plastic shower curtain to keep my seats safe, of course. We drove over medians, sidewalks, maybe a pedestrian or two. I guess she got a taste for it then. That deep diesel grumble just makes her want to hop a curb.

Its surprising how often people stop in the middle of narrow one-way roads in Philly and put on their hazards and just exit the vehicle and walk away. It boggles the mind. The definition of what is road is up for interpretation based on what you're able to drive over.

The black air dam trim below the facia used to snag on the 6x6 lumber we use as a curb stop in the driveway. A 2" taller tire lifts the facia 1" which now clears the 6x6 so she can park the tire tight to the curb stop. We're happy about it.
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MP81
There have been one or two Cruzes on this site that have actually been lifted successfully...might be a worthwhile idea if you're looking for some further extra ride height.
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It broke down today. It is in need of a service regen. It cut off with codes P2455 "Diesel Particulate Filter Pressure Sensor "A" High" and P2453 and P22A1. The extra height helped it get up the tow ramp without dragging.

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Replacing the DPF Canister was much more difficult than I expected. After it was loose it did not want to drop out of the car. I had to remove the engine mount to finally get it out. Even that was surprisingly hard. The upper bolt is barely accessible by a Ujoint and a long extension poked up through the radiator fan.

With the DPF removed it is able to drive but its in "reduced power" mode. Our horn isn't working and I confirmed its a bad relay before attempting to remove the fuse box assembly. It irks my soul that the horn relay isnt accessible without replacing the entire fuse box. Since futzing with the fuse box several sensors lost power and it has been barely running since. It wasnt able to do a regen and that killed the DPF.

Two of the three lower flange bolts broke. Ive got the backside ground smooth and I still couldnt beat out the broken studs. Im driving it with just one stud until I find time to drill out the other two.

I tried to remove the oil drain plug and the head stripped totally round from frickin' numbnuts overtightening it. That will be fun to fix. Its due an oil change and I can't change it yet.

I think I'm getting close to "done." Let's hope.
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The Horn works now. I took apart the fuse box and attempted to figure out which relay was bad. I popped off the covers and scratched at the contact surfaces. When it went back together the horn was healed.
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boraz
Boathook36 said:
Replacing the DPF Canister was much more difficult than I expected. After it was loose it did not want to drop out of the car. I had to remove the engine mount to finally get it out. Even that was surprisingly hard. The upper bolt is barely accessible by a Ujoint and a long extension poked up through the radiator fan.
Click to expand...
had none of these issues removing my dpf, im not understanding what youve done
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There is a bracket supporting the middle of the DPF. Two nuts on the DPF come off easy but the bracket wouldnt allow the DPF past. The second picture shows that.
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I couldn't get to the two 13mm nuts on the engine block without removing the engine mount and lifting the engine up just a little. The upper engine mount bolt was accessed through the radiator fan with a Ujoint and long extension.
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