My 2011 Chevy Cruze started initially then died 3 seconds later. Couldn't get it to start again so I waited a couple minutes and tried again. It died after 3 seconds again. I repeated this one more time with the same results. I am getting multiple codes showing up. There were nonetheless last time I drove. Images of the codes are attached. In addition it said in dash display: please service power steering and please service battery charging system. Please let me know if you have any idea what the problem or solution is.
Cruze started then died after 3 seconds
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1.8L dohc
75k miles
Battery is 3 years old
I bought with 13k miles from dealership 3.5 years ago
I'm not sure about last time fuel filter was changed or tsb.
I havent really done any maintenance other than regular oil changes.
Sorry if I have not been much help.
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Please return to your selling dealer and request that the negative battery cable TSB be performed.
Also consider a new battery depending on your climate and the quality of the battery you're currently using.
Are you using a Top Tier Gasoline as recommended in the owner's manual?
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24,131 Posts
Have your battery load tested. Don't do a static test as this won't properly test the Cruze's electrical behavior. Get http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/25-g...al-coverage-14311-negative-battery-cable.html performed. At 3 seconds the fuel filter isn't the issue. The codes you showed are electrical, not fuel related.
I went to oreilly and got the battery checked and it was completely dead. Car seems to run well after the new battery was installed. I wouldn't have thought it was the battery alone since the car died after it had started all of the way. Hopefully that was the only issue. Thanks all for the advice.
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Good to hear. We've had several members report strange electrical related problems get fixed by installing a new battery, so this was probably the root cause.
Sounds more like a shorted cell, if the battery was dead, wouldn't get anything. Back in the good old days, a 6V battery had three cells, connected in series, been this way for over a hundred years now, each fully charged cell should show 2.15V at 25*C. If one is bad, like shorted out, instead of reading 6.45 V across three cells, would only read 4.3 volts.
Back then, only had to replace the bad cell, with a 12 V battery, and to save on manufacturing cost, get rid of those extra straps, solder them internally, so instead of reading 12.9 volts would only read 10.75 volts. But you can't replace that one bad cell, have to replace the entire battery.
Your car is a computer and with this lower voltage, do not get sufficient voltage to run all these electronics, and in particular a Power On Reset, microcontrollers are so confused, start reading code someplace up the stream then generate all kinds of weird codes.
Voltage drops with even a good battery can also cause these kinds of problems. Corroded connectors, loose terminals, and even dirty relay contacts.
Really all you need to troubleshoot these problems is a voltmeter.
In a 12 volt battery with six cells, each has to be perfectly balanced, because they are all charged and discharged in series. Each cell consists of many plates in parallel, if one plate is not soldered correctly, its capacity will be lower, and it will overcharged boiling off the electrolyte and then shorting out with exposed plates. This could be corrected if you had individual caps where you can check the level of the electrolyte to prolong the life of the battery.
But you can't do this with a maintenance free battery, no caps.
So calling these maintenance free batteries is not exactly correct, a far more appropriate name would be a throwaway battery.
These are all over one hundred year old facts. Ha, the Prius battery has something like 200 cells in series, one takes one cell to go bad to destroy the entire mess. But great for selling new batteries, depends on which side of the fence you are on.
Back then, only had to replace the bad cell, with a 12 V battery, and to save on manufacturing cost, get rid of those extra straps, solder them internally, so instead of reading 12.9 volts would only read 10.75 volts. But you can't replace that one bad cell, have to replace the entire battery.
Your car is a computer and with this lower voltage, do not get sufficient voltage to run all these electronics, and in particular a Power On Reset, microcontrollers are so confused, start reading code someplace up the stream then generate all kinds of weird codes.
Voltage drops with even a good battery can also cause these kinds of problems. Corroded connectors, loose terminals, and even dirty relay contacts.
Really all you need to troubleshoot these problems is a voltmeter.
In a 12 volt battery with six cells, each has to be perfectly balanced, because they are all charged and discharged in series. Each cell consists of many plates in parallel, if one plate is not soldered correctly, its capacity will be lower, and it will overcharged boiling off the electrolyte and then shorting out with exposed plates. This could be corrected if you had individual caps where you can check the level of the electrolyte to prolong the life of the battery.
But you can't do this with a maintenance free battery, no caps.
So calling these maintenance free batteries is not exactly correct, a far more appropriate name would be a throwaway battery.
These are all over one hundred year old facts. Ha, the Prius battery has something like 200 cells in series, one takes one cell to go bad to destroy the entire mess. But great for selling new batteries, depends on which side of the fence you are on.
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2,987 Posts
i looked at vin # he provided. it has no open recalls and neg cable HAS been done but does have spec tsb open. lots of work done on that car
rad tank replaced,thermo and housing replaced, fan motor, knock sensor, water pump, USB replaced,engine trans shield modified,
my CTD acted absolutely crazy even when batt tested ok on the super expensive fancy GM provided batt machine.. swapped a new one in and problem solved
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24,131 Posts
In OP's opening post he included two images from his scanning tool. The codes were all low current and lost communications with various computers, including the BCM. This is why I immediately jumped on a system wide electrical problem and when OP had the battery tested it turned out to be dead.
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