[KpaxFAQ]

The Cruze's use of SCR (the system that uses DEF) theoretically should make this less of an issue. Both EGR and SCR work to accomplish the same task of reducing NOx emissions. VW tried to get around having to use DEF by relying more on the EGR and subsequently encountered the problems of more intake clogging and worse DPF performance since the engine has to run richer and use EGR more which creates more soot.

By using SCR, the Cruze should rely a lot less on the EGR putting less strain on the intake system and the DPF. Only time will tell.



Diesel, many congrats on your experience so far; excellent write-up. Here's to the next 50,000 miles.

Thanks! That answers my uncertainty above!

 

[diesel]

How often have you filled the def how far have you gone

I haven't really paid that close of attention to it. Whenever it occurs to me, I will check the DIC to see if it is 35% or below and then I will feed it a 2.5 gallon jug. I tend to think of it on the same level as windshield washer fluid, just something I top up once in a while.

 

[boraz]

Also, on the TDI engine, the EGR system tends to coke up the intake manifold and start killing performance. I checked mine when I did the timing belt and it appears my TDI had the intake cleaned before I got it, my son's is starting to get bad, I have a spare manifold on the shelf. The EGR cooler also needs cleaning at this time, this all needs to come off of the car to be cleaned so nothing migrates into the engine and does damage. I'm an admin on a regional VW/Audi web site and one of the guys there bought a newish CPO BMW diesel that was eventually determined to have a coked up intake. After the repairs were done, it died from main bearing failure soon after. The fight is still ongoing but the suspicion is that some of the intake debris ended up in the engine and clogged the pickup screen or got into some part of the oil system. BMW doesn't sell many diesels so they don't know how to handle this stuff apparently, so I would suspect it's best to look into this yourself in case the dealer isn't up to speed on everything related to a diesel.

I haven't looked into how the Cruze EGR system is set up but when you guys start getting to this 50k mile level on the car you probably should start looking into whether there is any data on the other versions of this engine out there to see if this is going to be a problem needing monitoring. That's one of the few things I know of that can kill a diesel other than running it out of oil/coolant or total neglect of maintenance.

i wonder why our trucks at work with 15,000 + hrs have zero coking issues...they are def/dpf systems

lotsa trouble with def and dpf systems, but no intake issues

 

[888]

888, do you know much about urea injection? It's my understanding cars without it have to run heavier egr as it's my understanding. If that's the case I would think our motors might experience the same issues but take longer to gunk up. What's your thoughts on this?

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I really know nothing detailed about the "urea" type add ons on later VW's or other diesels, all I have experience with is the VE mechanical injection pump version of the VW diesel that has nothing more than a cat and the EGR for smog control. I read enough on TDIClub.com about the disaster stories with the PD (2004) and later VW TDI engines to run my VE pump cars till they can't be repaired any more.

 

[888]

The Cruze's use of SCR (the system that uses DEF) theoretically should make this less of an issue. Both EGR and SCR work to accomplish the same task of reducing NOx emissions. VW tried to get around having to use DEF by relying more on the EGR and subsequently encountered the problems of more intake clogging and worse DPF performance since the engine has to run richer and use EGR more which creates more soot.

By using SCR, the Cruze should rely a lot less on the EGR putting less strain on the intake system and the DPF. Only time will tell.



Diesel, many congrats on your experience so far; excellent write-up. Here's to the next 50,000 miles.

That's a lot more than i knew about the later system, thanks.

Really, cleaning the intake and EGR cooler isn't that big of a deal as long as you know it needs to be done and how to do it. The biggest problem is VW's insistence on using small socket head screws to hold everything together, it's all mostly blind work on the back side of the engine.

There are aftermarket EGR delete kits for the TDI, I just haven't bothered with it.

 

[ParisTNDude]

Excellent review at 50k and very well written, I might add. It would be great if R&T, Car and Driver, Motor Trend would get a copy of your comments and incorporate them into a review of higher mileage diesels.

Having driven your car for only 9 months, I'm curious if you are seeing any wear points on the car as in seats, steering wheel controls, or maybe the paint luster, etc. I had a 2008 Mustang Bullitt for only 18,000 miles (sold it when I got beat at the drag strip by a Chevy Cobalt SS) and found the turn signal stalk, steering wheel and heater control switches showing wear.

I don't have a great history of keeping my cars that long, but my wife loves this car and she has been a Lexus, Buick Regal, Chrysler mini-van fan for many years. I really thought she would grow tired of the smaller space by now (we have nearly 9k on ours).

Thanks for the write-up.

 

[diesel]

Excellent review at 50k and very well written, I might add. It would be great if R&T, Car and Driver, Motor Trend would get a copy of your comments and incorporate them into a review of higher mileage diesels.

Having driven your car for only 9 months, I'm curious if you are seeing any wear points on the car as in seats, steering wheel controls, or maybe the paint luster, etc. I had a 2008 Mustang Bullitt for only 18,000 miles (sold it when I got beat at the drag strip by a Chevy Cobalt SS) and found the turn signal stalk, steering wheel and heater control switches showing wear.

I don't have a great history of keeping my cars that long, but my wife loves this car and she has been a Lexus, Buick Regal, Chrysler mini-van fan for many years. I really thought she would grow tired of the smaller space by now (we have nearly 9k on ours).

Thanks for the write-up.

Really no noticeable wear on anything except the steering wheel is starting to get a little bit shiny where I most often hold it. Everything is holding up very well. Seat leather seems very durable. All buttons still look new too.

 

[888]

Good to know, hopefully the 6 speed manual and cloth seats make it to the next gen and it doesn't look like a Prius so I can buy one. Diesel cars can be pretty amazing as far as mechanical longevity goes, the TDI I drive every day has 253k on it and it runs as well as others I have recently driven with half the miles. It doesn't use oil or otherwise misbehave, I see no reason it won't make it to 300k. My other TDI is driven by my son and it has 200k but it is chipped and seems to have more issues with oil leaks etc but still runs like a beast.

Yes, I quoted myself. I shouldn't have posted what I did bragging on my TDI because it developed a massive oil leak somewhere at the cooler/filter assembly and I may have killed the car. It's a long story I can tell if people want to hear it because it may apply to the Cruze but I'm still sorting out what exactly has happened. I didn't get the oil light/buzzer but it was pretty low on oil when I got to work and had been leaving a trail for a while.

The point of this post is to be sure you always check your oil and don't rely on the garage floor to tell you if something is going south. The TDI and the Cruze both have belly pans and they will hold a lot of oil before you start seeing something on the garage floor to tell you there is a problem.

 

[jblackburn]

Yes, I quoted myself. I shouldn't have posted what I did bragging on my TDI because it developed a massive oil leak somewhere at the cooler/filter assembly and I may have killed the car. It's a long story I can tell if people want to hear it because it may apply to the Cruze but I'm still sorting out what exactly has happened. I didn't get the oil light/buzzer but it was pretty low on oil when I got to work and had been leaving a trail for a while.

The point of this post is to be sure you always check your oil and don't rely on the garage floor to tell you if something is going south. The TDI and the Cruze both have belly pans and they will hold a lot of oil before you start seeing something on the garage floor to tell you there is a problem.

Taking oil pressure gauges out of vehicles was a stupid idea. I've blown out cam seals multiple times on my old car, with no warning or oil pressure light from the car at all. It dumped out 2-3 qts of oil in about as many miles...luckily, has a 6-qt sump.

Even that, with no belly pan, could develop a leak from something that would just pool on the turbo/exhaust, but never show up on the ground for days. Your only hint would be a burning oil smell.

 

[vwgtiglx]

Sorry to hear about the potential demise of your VW TDI. I know it's the kiss of death for me, every time I start bragging about how many miles I have gone with no problems/issues on any of my cars. More often than not, my car will make a liar out of me very shortly after I open my mouth.

 

[ParisTNDude]

Yes, I quoted myself. I shouldn't have posted what I did bragging on my TDI because it developed a massive oil leak somewhere at the cooler/filter assembly and I may have killed the car. It's a long story I can tell if people want to hear it because it may apply to the Cruze but I'm still sorting out what exactly has happened. I didn't get the oil light/buzzer but it was pretty low on oil when I got to work and had been leaving a trail for a while.

The point of this post is to be sure you always check your oil and don't rely on the garage floor to tell you if something is going south. The TDI and the Cruze both have belly pans and they will hold a lot of oil before you start seeing something on the garage floor to tell you there is a problem.

You offer some great advice with this post. I remember relying on previous experience with the series of engine in a used pickup truck I bought. I checked oil while on a trip and it was 3 quarts low. I found the dealership had to know this truck had a serious problem on the used vehicle which shows what lengths a dealership will go to make a profit.

 

[888]

Sorry to hear about the potential demise of your VW TDI. I know it's the kiss of death for me, every time I start bragging about how many miles I have gone with no problems/issues on any of my cars. More often than not, my car will make a liar out of me very shortly after I open my mouth.

You know, it actually did it twice and neither time did I run it low enough to hurt it. It still fires right up and purrs like a kitten. I've done everything I can with inspecting/renewing the sealing on the oil filter assembly and I still get pressure seep past the O ring. I guess I need to take apart the oil cooler assembly, flush it in the tank at work, and renew the seals, and see what it does.

At this point, as much as I want to wait on the Cruze diesel, I'm not sure it's ever going to be offered with the cloth seats and manual transmission. I keep looking at my wife's Malibu which never requires any attention and wish I had something as reliable as a daily.

I've started looking at gas 1.4 Turbo manual tranny Cruzes, if I can get the TDI reliably repaired to the point I'm comfortable selling it, I might have to bite the bullet and go with the gas version. I'm running into the same thing I did when looking at a CPO Malibu for my wife, the price difference between CPO and new is so small that there's no point in buying used.

Not exactly what I want to do but I'm getting to the point that trying to keep two TDI's running is more than I can deal with right now.

 

[888]

Taking oil pressure gauges out of vehicles was a stupid idea. I've blown out cam seals multiple times on my old car, with no warning or oil pressure light from the car at all. It dumped out 2-3 qts of oil in about as many miles...luckily, has a 6-qt sump.

Even that, with no belly pan, could develop a leak from something that would just pool on the turbo/exhaust, but never show up on the ground for days. Your only hint would be a burning oil smell.

I hear you. My Cummins truck has an oil pressure gauge and I watch that more than I do any other gauge.

Talk about stupid, when VW designed the New Beetle they didn't even include a temp gauge. Just an idiot light to tell you if the engine was cold or hot. If you try to find an AEG code 4 cylinder 2.0 replacement engine, good luck. The New Beetles killed them off.

Subaru did the same thing on the recent Outback I had as a loaner, took out the temp gauge in favor of a vacuum/MPG gauge. This on a flat four engine that in many versions inhaled head gaskets on routine intervals. What the **** are these people thinking?

That's one area Ford really excelled back in the day of the early Ranger pickups....even the base model came with a full gauge package when the base S-10's didn't have much of anything.

 

[PanJet]

Talk about stupid, when VW designed the New Beetle they didn't even include a temp gauge. Just an idiot light to tell you if the engine was cold or hot. If you try to find an AEG code 4 cylinder 2.0 replacement engine, good luck. The New Beetles killed them off.

Subaru did the same thing on the recent Outback I had as a loaner, took out the temp gauge in favor of a vacuum/MPG gauge.

No kidding. When I had my Impala, I was able to see my thermostat failing via the temp gauge long before it ever reached any red lines. Going up a mountain pass at 90+ degrees F OAT, the water temp climbed higher than it ever had by at least 20 degrees. Going down the other side, it nearly bottomed out on the gauge. Popped in a new thermostat and it was solid as a rock again. No idiot light was going to tell me that.

Subaru took the temp gauge out on the 4th Gen Outback from 2010-2012, but IIRC when they did the mid-cycle refresh they put it back in starting with the 2013 model. They must have had a lot of complaints.

 

[Garandman]

Our Chevrolet Express has Ammeter, water temperature, and oil pressure gauges and it gives great piece of mind.

 

[888]

I just wanted to add one more thing.....the problem with the TDI oil leak appears to be with an "OEM " oil filter cap from ID Parts. I tried new O rings and other various tests with no luck. I kept the old cap because the center spindle was what was broken and finally found it last night. I decided to reinstall the old cap with the existing O ring just for fun before tearing the oil cooler assembly apart and everything stayed dry in a 6 or 7 mile drive where previously I started losing oil between the cap and the housing.

So...OEM means different things to different people, and when it comes to keeping the oil in your engine, maybe it's best to go to the dealer.

 

[Tomko]

Our Chevrolet Express has Ammeter, water temperature, and oil pressure gauges and it gives great piece of mind.

Never seen a GM product with an ammeter. Only a volt meter.

 

[rescueswimmer]

Congrats on the milestone,

We just turned 25k on ours. 90% HWY 10% city we have a lifetime average of 44 MPG. Only issue we had was the steering gear had to be replaced due to the notchy issue that has plagued the gas ones.

 

[Tomko]

Congrats on the milestone,

We just turned 25k on ours. 90% HWY 10% city we have a lifetime average of 44 MPG. Only issue we had was the steering gear had to be replaced due to the notchy issue that has plagued the gas ones.

What did they do to correct the steering?

My dealer would like to know.

 

[KpaxFAQ]

Congrats on the milestone,

We just turned 25k on ours. 90% HWY 10% city we have a lifetime average of 44 MPG. Only issue we had was the steering gear had to be replaced due to the notchy issue that has plagued the gas ones.

Yeah I'm curious, I haven't taken my car to the dealer because there doesn't seem to be a solution that actually works.