[Boathook36]

 

[Boathook36]

Our first diesel Cruze is at 302K miles and our second has 50K miles. The second one is apart getting a bunch of work done currently.

 

[Boathook36]

Today was the first test drive on the new Cruze. It had front end damage when I got it and this is the first time its been roadworthy since I bought it in July.

The turbo seemed to just turn off as soon as I hit the road. It had absolutely no turbo and ran like a total slug barely able to go 30 mph. In park it seemed to throttle up just fine. Poking around this forum at people who have had boost issues I saw a reference to turning off Traction Control at the button next to the shifter. The car immediately recovered and drives fine as long as TC is slashed on the dash.

 

[Boathook36]

I saw a post on this forum about someone who put a T fitting in their boost control vacuum line and was able to override the factory control. I think it was a diesel Cruze. I cant find the post again and Ive even looked through a bunch of 1.4L stuff.

If anyone can find it faster than me please reply with a link or search details.

He had no codes but intermittantly lost boost, prompting him to add the aftermarket control. He adjusted it down until he didnt get an overboost code and then it worked code free.

We're sick of hitting TC off each time we start the cars so Id like to make the boost control mechanical. I have not tuned this car yet because it had a tune done in the past so Im hesitant to overwrite whats there.

 

[Boathook36]

We're at 313K miles and the front coil springs were shot. One totally collapsed and the internal rubber stop was pulverized and the tire was often bouncing off the top of the fender opening. The tire ate on one side due to positive camber at its extreme. I took the old struts off and found the dampers were okay so they could be rebuilt with new coil springs. I discarded the old rubbber junk because my oversize tires will hit the top of the fender long before the cylinder will hit bottom so a rubber stop is unnecessary. I replaced the old coil springs from my AMC Eagles with a heavier version intended for an early 70s AMC Javevelin with a 401 V8 (Moog 3156). The old AMC coil springs are the same on Gremlins, Spirits, Hornets, and Javelins. The outer diameter fit the Cruze strut buckets perfectly. At the top I retained the AMC spring isolator in addition to the Cruze hardware. On the bottom I cut off exactly one rotation off the AMC coil spring. This meant there was no longer a flattened last spiral, affecting how the spring ended at the strut. A single bolt in an existing hole on one side formed a stop for the end of the coil and on the opposite side a clamp worked to pull the coil down into the strut bucket, effectively forming a flat final spiral.

 

[Boathook36]

We love the new ride. It is much better than stock. We'll be doing the exact same modification to our other Cruze, which I believe to be a good example of stock setup given its low 50K mileage. I dont like the lean but the rear doesnt rub. I'll be modding the rear eventually too with a stiffer coil spring. This is the current side profile. We have 225/70R16 tires and rims from a 2005 Chevy Equinox on the Cruze. Those rims require a 1/4" spacer on the front to clear the strut. Its approximately 1.5" taller than stock with about 3/4" of that just from the larger tires being about 1.5" larger than stock. The 16" vs 17" rims means theres alot more sidewall and that softens the ride as much as the stiffer springs tightens the ride. Its perfect ride and it eats potholes beautifully. I also removed the little rubber thing on the front. It hops curbs and clears bumpstops now.

 

[Boathook36]

I think the stock Cruze front coil springs have a wire diameter of 0.56" and the AMC springs are 0.68". There is also an extra spiral on the AMC coil springs along the same length. That made for a much higher load rate as I desired. This picture was taken before I cut off exactly one turn using the end of the coil as a guide for the chopsaw.

 

[Boathook36]

While it was apart I also addressed other issues. The tube between the airflow sensor and the turbo split. The rubber is thin and its total junk not meant to last. I grabbed some air cleaner-to-throttle body tubes from early-90s Jeep XJs and trimmed them down to the flanges. I took a PVC 45 degree pipe fitting and some clamps and it worked great. Its tighter than Id like so next time its off Ill trim a 1/4" off both sides of the PVC and shorten it up a tad.

 

[boraz]

We love the new ride. It is much better than stock. We'll be doing the exact same modification to our other Cruze, which I believe to be a good example of stock setup given its low 50K mileage. I dont like the lean but the rear doesnt rub. I'll be modding the rear eventually too with a stiffer coil spring. This is the current side profile. We have 225/70R16 tires and rims from a 2005 Chevy Equinox on the Cruze. Those rims require a 1/4" spacer on the front to clear the strut. Its approximately 1.5" taller than stock with about 3/4" of that just from the larger tires being about 1.5" larger than stock. The 16" vs 17" rims means theres alot more sidewall and that softens the ride as much as the stiffer springs tightens the ride. Its perfect ride and it eats potholes beautifully. I also removed the little rubber thing on the front. It hops curbs and clears bumpstops now.

if you drive that at night, hopefully the oncoming semi that you are blinding will take you off the road

 

[Boathook36]

There are people that make the front higher than the back on purpose. Its the Cruze Edition of the gloriously stupid Carolina Squat.

The Carolina Squat yahoos like to point to dune racing as their inspiration. When a dune pops a racer into the air Dukes of Hazzard style they need a slight rear squat to land right. My 1.5" overall squat is actually about right for a dune racer and thats my new spin on its iterative status. Heck the whole car has 300K worth of bumps and scrapes to sell the idea it really has been dune racing recently. I like a little character so each scrape just gets painted over as is. The one fender has been crumpled, straightened, and repainted at least three times.

The car drove offroad around a road closure yesterday and did rather well. Theres also an annoying concrete divider they added on a road near me after decades of turning left being okay. The decided the last accident there meant everyone should only turn right and a sloped chunk of concrete was just the ticket to force the new rule. I hop it often and used it as a test run after finishing the new coils. Theres another road near me with a 25 mph speed limit. Hitting it at 45 mph is enough for a second or two of air time. At 60 mph its a proper Dukes of Hazzard experience. The car has seen air there a time or three. I made sure to include that in the test run to make sure it was bouncing the same right and left. Maybe I should leave it with the lean and embrace the theme. That would make sense if I didnt use the trailer hitch so often. I picked up a Fridge with it yesterday and the need for new rear coil springs is pretty dire once you put a bunch of tongue weight on it.

 

[Boathook36]

I often had soot along the entire side of the car and it came from the leaking gaskets on either side of the intercooler. The factory plastic clip on junk is not up to the task. The factory intercooler was also bent and looked clogged and gross inside. A factory replacement doesnt appeal to me when it is a plastic sided cheap unit that costs more than the alternatives. I see many fully metal universal units with 2.5" inlet/outlets available for less. I didnt have an intercooler when I replaced the damaged facia on my second Cruze and I used a 33" long piece of 2.5" exhaust tubing to replace it. The loss of efficiency was not noticeable on that car and given the low temperature differential the loss of pressure from the weak gaskets hurts worse than the intercooler helps.

I went ahead and removed the intercooler on our main Cruze and so far it has not lost efficiency and run even better with just the pipe. I hope to see a net increase once the pipe is replaced with the upgraded intercooler. I bolted the AC condenser to a 40" long piece of 1"x1" square stock and it spanned the bumper for a new support.

The picture shows the fernco used to seal over the leaking gaskets. It fits perfectly snug and has grooves ready for clamps. These would also work with the factory intercooler. They are readily available at Home Depot.

 

[Boathook36]

The last major upgrade I did recently involves new tire sensors and dynamic balancing. The 2005 Equinox 16" wheels have less clearence over the calipers than the factory 17" wheels did. I also found the old weights barely secure and went ahead and stripped them all off.

I also used the universal 1/4" spacers that have large hexagons preventing concentric install. It hangs limply at least a half inch off center when you go to put the tire on. I did use tape to hold it within a 1/16" of center but its far from perfect. I bet the rotors are far from balanced either. The net wheel balance is very far off. The car worked its first shift with a very obvious vibration above 55 mph.

These rotors have had grooves scraped into them several times. I use the cheapest pads available and they last 29K miles. They will last 32K miles if I ignore the anti rattle clip and swap the inside and outside pads halfway. The inner always wears faster than the outer. I will never machine a rotor and consider it to be as silly as greasing a trailer hitch ball. It makes people feel competent and productive as they flush money down the toilet on something with no worthwhile outcome.

When I installed the new TPMS sensors I popped the bead off the front of the rim. Before reseating the bead I added 4.2 ounces of BBs in each tire. The exact weight depends on your tire size and smaller tires would be more like 3 ounces. I used the copper plated steel standard BBs since a $10 container at Walmart is about 60 ounces. The fancy high density ceramic Dynabeads are more like $2 an ounce, roughly twelve times the cost. The official Dynabead has an advantage in that they cannot corrode and they can be added through the tire stem. Besides the obvious cost difference, Steel BBs have an advantage in density and size. Larger balls are better to balance because they do not stack inside the spinning tire. Ceramic balls are smaller and less dense and sometimes they cannot balance the tire because it forms too large a circle and not enough weight can get where it is needed. The balls must move freely and be smooth enough to resist binding to each other so corrosion is a concern. We put on about 60K miles per year so I will simply replace the BBs at the next tire change likely within 10 months time. If it was a smaller tire needing less material and being driven less Id probably justify the proper ceramic beads.

The end result is a perfectly balanced rotating assembly that accounts for everything, not just the tire. It is highly superior and I wish I switched over a long time ago. I didnt start using dynamic balancing until I encountered the beads on commercial 11R22.5 tires. Truckers figured out its the only way to go a long time ago and the average consumer just goes ahead paying for tire balances and paying people to purposefully shave copious service life off their rotors.

I could also rant about how the only acceptable method to balance a tire is the delta method where two weights are placed on equal sides of the high point and moved away from each to find the precise balance without changing weight size. Nearly all modern shops have a digital machine that identifies a single weight and high spot to put it at. That NEVER works correctly and yet so many "professionals" do it anyway because its cheaper to use one weight.

I got my 33/12.5R15 tires done at the best tire shop around three times and they shook badly each time. It wasnt until I insisted on a delta balance it finally stopped shaking until about 10K miles later when its time to rebalance. Big tires are a pain. Now I skip all that fuss and just dynamic balance and its good forever.