[Chris Breaux]

Hey everyone, my name is Chris Breaux from Bush, Louisiana. I own a 2012 Chevrolet Cruze LTZ with auto transmission and approximately 113,000 miles on it.
I am experiencing a hesitation upon hard acceleration from 3rd or fourth gear. At one point the check engine light came on. I read some articles on the MAF Sensor and cleaned it along with replacing the spark plugs. The check engine light never came back on but still experience the hesitation. I brought it to my mechanic who diagnosed it with a faulty TPS. The TPS is built into the throttle body therefore he purched it from the local Chevy dealer. When he pulled one of the hoses off to replace the throttle body he found oil to run out of it. I spoke to a long time Chevy mechanic and brought it to the dealer and was told this is normal along with them not finding a code nor getting it to do what I told them it is doing. Can anyone verify this? I do most of my own work when time permits and I don't feel there should be oil in the throttle body. Never saw it in any of my other vehicles I've had in the past. Can anyone verify this as being normal or is there a problem Chevrolet has and is not admitting to it? Thanks in advance for your help.
Chris Breaux

 

[Robby]

Small amounts of oil in the throttle body is considered normal for the majority of turbocharged (and supercharged) designs.

Rob

 

[Chris Breaux]

Will the oil getting onto the TPS cause it to malfunction again?

 

[Robby]

It is my understanding there is no harm......sit tight and see what other info pops up from the membership.

Rob

 

[ChevyGuy]

It sure would be nice to know what that code was.

As for sparkplugs, you might want to read the Hesitation...GONE! thread. The car is somewhat sensitive to plugs and gap.

Also, I'd suggest you run at least mid-grade gas. Regular is likely to have some performance problems as things warm up. Although he most recent ECU recall seems to help that a lot.

 

[NickD]

Assuming a high rpm misfire, typically caused by engine compression blowing through the spark plug, besides replacing the spark plugs, that carbon build up also has to be cleaned up.

And with the PCV pipe returning back to the input of the turbo, carbon build up also causes piston ring blow by that picks up crank case oil. Carbon build up is an age old problem and usually starts showing up at around 50 K miles.

Suggest you put in a full can of SeaFoam in a full tank of gas and see what happens to clean this carbon up. Quicker results can be had if you follow the instructions on the back of the can and pour it directly into the TB with the engine idling. But this is not easy with the Cruze with a horizontal input.

Even though I only use top tier gas in my vehicles, not enough so toss in a can of SeaFoam before each oil change. Springs inside of the spark plug boots get hung up on the internal shoulder of the boot is also a problem, stretch those out another half an inch.

And a 26 mil gap on the plugs works the best. Nice to hear the Cruze is still running after 100K miles.