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My '12 Eco isn't suffering from this issue yet, but it's nice to know there may be a diy fix for it if it comes up.
Just some personal experience with GM pressure caps, they suck. My '96 and '01 Saturns as well as my '02 Vette all needed to have caps replaced. Water vapor escapes over time (probably smells like coolant but didn't notice a smell in the car) and "coolant" levels get low, motor sucks air in, I pull hair out trying to bleed the air out of the system. I put "coolant" in quotes because if this happens and is the cause of your low reservoir level you need to make sure you only top up with distilled water, NOT a 50/50 mix of antifreeze/water. Only the water is evaporating, so replacing it with coolant will skew the coolant/water ratio.
It is possible the Cruze suffers from a similar cap flaw. The overflows on all my other vehicles were near the front on the passenger side, so maybe they were far enough away that the smell wasn't obvious? I guess it's possible that the cowl seals are better on those cars as well?
It's also possible that every Cruze has this issue and the cowl seal is the culprit, where only cars with leaky cowl seals could be letting the odor into the HVAC intake. Just a thought.
Just some personal experience with GM pressure caps, they suck. My '96 and '01 Saturns as well as my '02 Vette all needed to have caps replaced. Water vapor escapes over time (probably smells like coolant but didn't notice a smell in the car) and "coolant" levels get low, motor sucks air in, I pull hair out trying to bleed the air out of the system. I put "coolant" in quotes because if this happens and is the cause of your low reservoir level you need to make sure you only top up with distilled water, NOT a 50/50 mix of antifreeze/water. Only the water is evaporating, so replacing it with coolant will skew the coolant/water ratio.
It is possible the Cruze suffers from a similar cap flaw. The overflows on all my other vehicles were near the front on the passenger side, so maybe they were far enough away that the smell wasn't obvious? I guess it's possible that the cowl seals are better on those cars as well?
It's also possible that every Cruze has this issue and the cowl seal is the culprit, where only cars with leaky cowl seals could be letting the odor into the HVAC intake. Just a thought.
