Blown engine help
Im having a issue which im hoping for some input on. I own a 2014 cruze 1.4 withn 18000 miles on it. I have a tune.
I randomly started having sever power loss and spuddering issues so I took the car into my dealer.
I installed my factory tune back on before hand.
I got a call about 3 weeks later saying the engine needs replaced. They quoted me at $4000 for a used engine and $8000 for a new engine.
They had a GM expert look at it and he found the tune and stated that voided the warranty.
My situation is I bought the car certified preowned with 13500 miles on it and have drove it about 4500 miles in a year in a half.
I understand that the tune voids the warranty if thats what the expert deems.
They offered to buy back my extended warranty and car to pay off the loan of $9000.
does anyone have any input?
I randomly started having sever power loss and spuddering issues so I took the car into my dealer.
I installed my factory tune back on before hand.
I got a call about 3 weeks later saying the engine needs replaced. They quoted me at $4000 for a used engine and $8000 for a new engine.
They had a GM expert look at it and he found the tune and stated that voided the warranty.
My situation is I bought the car certified preowned with 13500 miles on it and have drove it about 4500 miles in a year in a half.
I understand that the tune voids the warranty if thats what the expert deems.
They offered to buy back my extended warranty and car to pay off the loan of $9000.
does anyone have any input?
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GM offered to buy back your 'Extended Warranty' and your used Car to pay off your loan after modifying the CRUZE and then blowing it up? I have a 2014 with an "Extended Warranty" and a perfectly fine running CRUZE bought new, only 14,000 miles and GM offered me $9000 as well on a trade. Your Story just doesn't make economic 'cents'
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That might be worth considering. With their offer, you have nothing - but you owe nothing. If the car were running now, what could you get? A quick run of KBB.com for a LT standard options suggest you'd be lucky to get $9000 for it.
However, this does make me wonder why the dealer is being so generous. We're going to have to know a lot more about what's "blown" to know what to suggest.
At "4500 miles in a year in a half", I think you should run the numbers on a lease. Yes, a lease is never-ending, but OTOH, that's a big chunk of money to buy a car. (Especially when you have to take out a loan to do it). If you're not going to go over the mileage allowance of a lease, it can be a pretty good deal. This could be a silver lining - your're out from under your old car and can lease a new one for less.
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A Sales ploy if chidest purchases a new Car no doubt. The last thing the Dealer wants to do is give you top dollar for a non operational vehicle. Many times the remainder of the loan is tacked on to the new purchase.
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Yah, I'd watch for that. I think it's clear that the dealer wants something here.
It's not always easy to run the numbers. But you can use the current KBB value of a Cruze to get some idea of what you could expect to sell it for down the line. If you're not running it into the ground, you'll need to come up with some kind of resell value.
What usually trips up people in a lease is the mileage. They underestimate how much they drive and then get zinged by the overage charge. But since you know your mileage, and it's that low, I think you're in good shape.
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Leasing can be like a Shell Game with that little ball played on the streets of America. Today I heard a commercial for new 2016 CRUZE leases @$99 a month. This is the current offer which still offers $0 down but remember $2000 is due at signing and don't forget Sales Tax on a lease, about another $2000 and the monthly payment of $179
2017 CHEVROLET Cruze Sedan LT Preferred Equipment Group
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LeaseChevrolet National Lease Offers
Ultra Low-Mileage Lease for Qualified Lessees
$176/month for 39 months. $2,000 due at signing (after all offers).
$0 down payment / $0 first month payment / $0 security deposit for Current Lessees of select GM vehicles (after all offers)*.
Tax, title, license, and dealer fees extra. $0 security deposit.
Mileage charge of $0.25/mile over 32,500 miles at participating dealers.
Read Full Offer Detail
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Let's crunch numbers!
First, the lease. If we add in the $2000 at signing, the price to beat is $228.63/month (for 38 months). (Sales tax is on top of anything you do, so I'm going to ignore it.)
MSRP is $21,450. KBB is saying a private sale (which is more than trade-in value) of a 2014 Cruze 1LT in "Very good" condition with 32,500 miles is $10,789. That's a difference of $10,661 or $280/month over the 38 months. Lease wins.
Perhaps you can work a deal under MSRP. Truecar.com is suggesting a pricetag of $19,221. That gets you under the lease at $221/month. But taking out a loan, dealer trade-in at the end, or less than "very good" condition is going to eat away at that $256 savings.
Looking at 6 years, a 2011 1LT with 60,000 miles is $7,237 at private sale. So spread across 72 months, that's $166/month (plus repairs). Net win $4500/6 years. Same caveats applies. Going the dealer-trade in route cuts the savings to $2580. It looks like car loan could cut that in half.
I'm not sure what happens if you keep it longer than 6 years. It takes 7 years before you can afford to give it away and come out ahead over a lease.
But the real stinger in this is that $0.25/mile over 10,000/year. That's $250 for each 1,000 miles over. I've heard of people who parked their leased cars to wait out the lease rather than pay that.
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Something doesn't sound right here. In fact, many things don't sound right.
BNR has tuned over 500 cars, mine included, and most of those have been 1.4L Turbo engines. The OP is the first to report an engine failure on that tune.
My vehicle has been run short trips to redline making full boost every time I take the car out for a spin, for any purpose whatsoever, and it has made that power reliably for the last two years or approximately 25,000 miles. Those were some very hard driven 25,000 miles. The OP's engine somehow "blew" with only 4,500 miles. It doesn't add up.
The OP states that they installed the factory tune back on. How then did GM find the tune and claim it voided the warranty? All GM could have found was that the ECU was programmed at some point, but they have no way to prove that the programming caused a failure.
The dealership offered to buy back the extended warranty, the car itself, and to pay off the loan of $9,000, and there is no indication from the OP that this would be part of a new vehicle purchase. Why would the dealer make such a generous offer if, as ChevyGuy pointed out, that is basically the value of the vehicle?
The dealer said the engine blew, and said he needed a new engine. There is nothing a tune can cause that will require someone to need an entirely new engine short of extreme detonation, and BNR's tunes have safety parameters in place specifically designed to dial back power, even throw the car into limp mode before the vehicle even gets close to that point. If the pistons blew, which I've seen occasionally happen on these vehicles, tuned or not, the pistons would be replaced, not the whole engine, and it wouldn't cost $4,000 to do it.
The cost of the service to be performed is absolutely asinine. A used 1.4L Turbo goes for $500, maybe $1,000 from the most expensive junkyard in town. The remaining $3000 is for what? 24 solid hours of service? It takes one day to pull and replace an engine, not three. The math doesn't add up.
A lot of things don't add up here. To the OP: did you datalog your tune like you were supposed to, install any updates BNR sent, and send datalogs for any update that was needed?
BNR has tuned over 500 cars, mine included, and most of those have been 1.4L Turbo engines. The OP is the first to report an engine failure on that tune.
My vehicle has been run short trips to redline making full boost every time I take the car out for a spin, for any purpose whatsoever, and it has made that power reliably for the last two years or approximately 25,000 miles. Those were some very hard driven 25,000 miles. The OP's engine somehow "blew" with only 4,500 miles. It doesn't add up.
The OP states that they installed the factory tune back on. How then did GM find the tune and claim it voided the warranty? All GM could have found was that the ECU was programmed at some point, but they have no way to prove that the programming caused a failure.
The dealership offered to buy back the extended warranty, the car itself, and to pay off the loan of $9,000, and there is no indication from the OP that this would be part of a new vehicle purchase. Why would the dealer make such a generous offer if, as ChevyGuy pointed out, that is basically the value of the vehicle?
The dealer said the engine blew, and said he needed a new engine. There is nothing a tune can cause that will require someone to need an entirely new engine short of extreme detonation, and BNR's tunes have safety parameters in place specifically designed to dial back power, even throw the car into limp mode before the vehicle even gets close to that point. If the pistons blew, which I've seen occasionally happen on these vehicles, tuned or not, the pistons would be replaced, not the whole engine, and it wouldn't cost $4,000 to do it.
The cost of the service to be performed is absolutely asinine. A used 1.4L Turbo goes for $500, maybe $1,000 from the most expensive junkyard in town. The remaining $3000 is for what? 24 solid hours of service? It takes one day to pull and replace an engine, not three. The math doesn't add up.
A lot of things don't add up here. To the OP: did you datalog your tune like you were supposed to, install any updates BNR sent, and send datalogs for any update that was needed?
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Without knowing the details of how ECMs work, I'll be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt in finding a tune. A lot of things are possible with computer forensics. It might be as simple as finding a flash count well above what GM's service records indicate. Yeah, they would have to prove it's what did it, but we're getting into a significant artillery zone if OP wants to battle this.
That wouldn't be a surprise in a 2011 or 2012, but OP has a 2014.
I would sure like to know more about what went wrong. Part of me is wondering if the dealer's techs botched something badly and the dealer is trying to cover this up. A no-profit sale is preferable to having to pay up. And why did it take 3 weeks? Geez, you don't suppose they accidentally sold OP's car??
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I do know how the ECMs work which is why I'm not giving them the benefit of the doubt. The ECM doesn't store old tunes. It simply clicks over a counter for how many times its been flashed. That's all they can find.
I know the OP has a 2014 and I've seen pistons blown on 2013 models as well. It happens.
Like I said, and you seem to be noticing, something isn't quite right.
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I know the OP has a 2014 and I've seen pistons blown on 2013 models as well. It happens.
Like I said, and you seem to be noticing, something isn't quite right.
Sent from my BlackBerry PRIV using Tapatalk
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Terry's 2014 blew up at relatively low mileage. I think they all may potentially have issues.
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