[chadderbox]

Hi there,

I have a 2015 Chev Cruze 1.4L Turbo.

Engine ran perfectly fine and then shut off, came back and it wouldn't start up. Pushed into warm shop (in Canada, about -10C) to try to diagnose, ended up trying it again after a few hours and boom it went, ran fine for about a 30 min drive home. Then, tried again after a few hours (in cold) and it won't fire.

The engine will crank but will not fire and stay running. It sometimes tries to fire (you can feel it fire but immediately shuts off). Most times it doesn't even try to fire, though, just cranks.

I checked fuel pressure on the rail and it shows 55-60psi. Fuel is there.

Tested coil and all 4 spark normally with test plug, seems good.

Replaced spark plugs and battery with no change, other than turns over much better.

New spark plugs were dry after trying to turn over. Put a few drops of fuel down each cylinder and it fired for 10 seconds then shut off again.

It seems like it's not getting fuel... what could the issue be?

Engine seems to have compression, but I don't have a compression tool handy to check exact values.

Fuses all good. I also swapped out the ignition/fuel relays and no difference. Also, no engine codes coming up on OBDII reader.

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[CHEVYCRUZE RS]

Good battery?
Could be a faulty fuel system, faulty coolant specific part, faulty air temp. sensor or even a faulty ignition system!

 

[chadderbox]

Good battery?
Could be a faulty fuel system, faulty coolant specific part, faulty air temp. sensor or even a faulty ignition system!

Tried a brand new battery, no difference.

Well yeah, without dumping a bunch of money on random parts I'd like to figure out the best place to start given the diagnosis thus far.

You'd think with all the sensors on this thing there would be engine codes coming up if it was a sensor or fault. Weird.

 

[landrystephane92]

sounds like your fuel lines have had condensation in them and froze.

 

[chadderbox]

sounds like your fuel lines have had condensation in them and froze.

Maybe, but why would there be adequate fuel pressure on the rail if that was the case? Also if there was water in the fuel, it would freeze to the bottom of the tank and lose all pressure.

 

[landrystephane92]

Maybe, but why would there be adequate fuel pressure on the rail if that was the case? Also if there was water in the fuel, it would freeze to the bottom of the tank and lose all pressure.

Not necessarily, if you have chunks of ice in your lines pressure can still happen. Condensation isn't enough to accumulate as water in your tank.

Leave it in a heated garage, then once heated up, turn it on and leave it on with a bottle of gasline antifreeze.

 

[chadderbox]

Not necessarily, if you have chunks of ice in your lines pressure can still happen. Condensation isn't enough to accumulate as water in your tank.

Leave it in a heated garage, then once heated up, turn it on and leave it on with a bottle of gasline antifreeze.

Yes, we did dump some in yesterday but it wouldn't start so couldn't circulate. We put it back in heated garage and it fired up this morning. Going to test theory now by letting it run for a bit and then taking it outside in cold again to see if it won't start again once it cools down.

I'm also wondering if it is might be a temp sensor running out of range. Going to run diagnosis on that as well.

We know the issue is temperature, which means either condensation/water or temp sensors out of range. Thanks!

Any other ideas welcome in the meantime.

 

[Blasirl]

Yes, we did dump some in yesterday but it wouldn't start so couldn't circulate. We put it back in heated garage and it fired up this morning. Going to test theory now by letting it run for a bit and then taking it outside in cold again to see if it won't start again once it cools down.

I'm also wondering if it is might be a temp sensor running out of range. Going to run diagnosis on that as well.

We know the issue is temperature, which means either condensation/water or temp sensors out of range. Thanks!

Any other ideas welcome in the meantime.

Have you tried seeing if there any pending codes in the system. They don't always trigger a CEL.

 

[chadderbox]

Have you tried seeing if there any pending codes in the system. They don't always trigger a CEL.

No pending codes. Scanned with reader.

We ended up trial and erroring it. We figured the injectors were good because it would run fine when it was warmed up. So, we tried a new coolant temp sensor on the side of the engine on the water outlet and that fixed the issue!

The sensor must have been out of range and figured the engine was already warm, but in reality the engine was cold so it wasn't dumping enough fuel in to get it to fire on cold startup. These engines must run so lean when they're warm.

 

[Blasirl]

No pending codes. Scanned with reader.

We ended up trial and erroring it. We figured the injectors were good because it would run fine when it was warmed up. So, we tried a new coolant temp sensor on the side of the engine on the water outlet and that fixed the issue!

The sensor must have been out of range and figured the engine was already warm, but in reality the engine was cold so it wasn't dumping enough fuel in to get it to fire on cold startup. These engines must run so lean when they're warm.

They do. Glad you found the issue. Which sensor? I'll adjust the title to reflect that as well. The next thing that may pop up is more cooling issues if you have not completely burped the system or better yet pulled a vacuum on it.

 

[chadderbox]

They do. Glad you found the issue. Which sensor? I'll adjust the title to reflect that as well. The next thing that may pop up is more cooling issues if you have not completely burped the system or better yet pulled a vacuum on it.

The coolant temp sensor on the side of the engine on the water outlet.

This guide has all the photos:

Errors and Fixes Chevy Cruze Coolant Temperature Sensor – BackYardMechanic

www.backyardmechanic.org

The sensor itself was gummed up and pretty dirty. I'm planning on flushing and changing the coolant.

 

[daria1]

Have you figured out the problem of the machine and the sensor? maybe the manual will help you

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