[jblackburn]

This sounds like an early run manufacturing issue. Later engines haven't been having this issue.

17's have had it happen too. Not sure whether there's any correlation between Mexico/US assy for the 17 model year.

Thats interesting because we do have people on here with 2016.5 with no issues and have close to 40000 miles. I am at 14000 and my car runs great. Just had the O2 replaced for the P015B code that seems to be popping up. Was the O2 sensor and this code causing this issue of running lean and burning up pistons?

GM's TSB for piston replacement specifically calls out looking for leaks or conditions that may cause it to run lean. I haven't yet had an O2 sensor issue on my 16.5, but I could see that as doing it.

I think they'll release an ECU reflash in the near future given the rate some cars have been continually taking out O2 sensors.

 

[jblackburn]

Do you have a copy of the TSB? Also how many miles do you have on your 2016.5? Mine runs great, it has had a little rough idle a few times but nothing big.

12.5 or so.

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/369-gen2-service-issues/201050-cylinder-1-misfire-no-loss-power.html

Midway through this post ^

 

[jblackburn]

I don't know of ANY warranty act that would protect ANYone when mods are done.

As for the tune. No one has spoken out yet. Only stock cars. And it's pointing out to lower octane. Although one guy found on youtube did an exhaust mod.

Course, you all might have heard something else. I"ve only owned my cruze 7 months now.

Couple tuned guys on the FB side of things have cracked em too

 

[jblackburn]

IMHO, I think the Auto Stop/Start may be a contributing factor to cracked pistons. Think about it.....any manual trans Cruzes exhibit this problem?

Yes. More, actually. Probably a factor of engine load.

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[jblackburn]

Typically they replace the block if there is cylinder wall damage. That doesn't always happen when these things let go.

They are replacing all 4 pistons with the updated piston design so that they don't fail in the same fashion again and result in another warranty claim and a pissed-off customer (hopefully).

 

[jblackburn]

So is this issue believed to be fixed for 2018s and beyond?

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Guess we'll find out!

I'm sure GM is tired of warrantying them, so it would be in their best interest to fix the LSPI issues with the 1.4/1.5T motors in production as quickly as possible.

 

[jblackburn]

Ive been looking around at other low displacement turbo engines with low torque peaks for LSPI issues. Just kinda curious if the issue is common to the type of engine or just chevy. Havent been able to find much elsewhere though. Will say that new honda civic has soooo many issues i cant believe what im reading over in those forums...i probably would have picked up a civic if it wasnt like $5000 more and had a CVT (and wasnt ugly as sin), not im sort of glad i didnt.

Im actually seeing less issues overall with the cruze (excluding first gen)....so the pistons get wrecked under warranty.

I am very curious to see if the re-designed pistons in the newer model years even have this issue. Part of me thinks its too early to see '18's with these issues but then people were reporting cracked pistons (in the malibu too) pretty **** early in the engines life. think i saw a few with 5k-10k miles on it with those earlier gen models.

Are cracked pistons from LSPI really that common of an issue? Realistically speaking how many (% wise) would you guess see this issue?

Subaru has constant issues with cracked pistons, but that's mostly a crap design (EJ). Mazda had issues early on (2.3 MazdaSpeed3/6). BMW has had cracked piston issues.

Ford and Honda run their DI engines pig-rich to avoid LSPI issues. Instead, they have fuel dilution issues (especially the Honda 1.5T). GM runs their DI motors quite lean. Better fuel economy for a turbo motor than usual, BUT you have a higher tendency for LSPI events to occur.

 

[jblackburn]

I think it's a mixture of bad / cheap metal and chemical in fuels overall weaken piston to cause failure.
We never saw these problems unless extreme stress on engine years ago till cheap metal started coming into play.

We also didn't see [gasoline] engines making peak torque at 1500 RPM

 

[jblackburn]

What does the Malibu 1.5 ECM update do, enrich the fuel profile?

https://gm.oemdtc.com/7357/17019-02...ing-cracked-piston-2016-2017-chevrolet-malibu

Basically. Detunes the low end a bit and adds fuel.

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[jblackburn]

The bulletin sent out to all dealers state do not replace all pistons unless they are broken. So they know they will fail in time and want to wait till they fail before replace. And hope that it goes past the warranty period.
Bad move for chevy I am no longer supporting and soon will be on channel 5 news and a tech guy on utube that has 40k-50k sub

Which bulletin? Most I've heard of have had all 4 pistons replaced if they are a 16-17.

 

[jblackburn]

That seems to be the case. Is there some way to turn off the auto start?

L6