[jblackburn]

I have now found the cooler line right above the axle where the leak is at. I cleaned the whole area & the cooler line. Going to take it for a ride today & then grab the color of the fluid & let everyone know today & then possible its off to the dealership if its nothing I can do myself.

The cooler lines leaking are extremely common on these cars.

 

[joshuab]

This may be exactly the issue & we shall see in a bit when I do my run. Is this cooler line connected to the engine & is this considered a 'seal' that would be covered under my warranty that I have so I know what is covered & what isn't.

 

[jblackburn]

This may be exactly the issue & we shall see in a bit when I do my run. Is this cooler line connected to the engine & is this considered a 'seal' that would be covered under my warranty that I have so I know what is covered & what isn't.

No. Not powertrain. If you have an extended warranty, that's more fuzzy.

 

[joshuab]

As mentioned in my earlier post, I cleaned the whole area prior to my drive to look for any visible leaks & to maybe pin point the exact location. Well that being said, I started off on my drive & doing the same stuff I did yesterday when I noticed the foul smell that I smelled along w/ the burning smell mixed into it. So I drive around 25/miles to the place I needed to be & then raised the hood smelling for this same smell & failed to smell it & looked under the driver wheel & its dry as can be no visible leaks anywhere, so I do my drive back home 25/miles again & its raining coming back so this makes it a bit more harder to tell for any leaks so i decided to smell that I smelled yesterday & nothing could be even closed to smelled like burning oil, leaking coolant, or anything of such.

So my conclusion to this matter is I must have ran over something that was really foul smelling & it just some how oddly got caught in the groves of the control arm & some must have got on the exhaust giving off that awful smell.

But I will report back again on a dry day tomorrow as I will clean any dirt off that area & take another 50/mile run to look for anything & then I'll report back my findings. I am only hoping that this issue is as simple as I think. Wouldn't that be great for me to get a break that easy, it would honestly be the first for me w/ this Cruze.

 

[ChevyGuy]

No. Not powertrain. If you have an extended warranty, that's more fuzzy.

You might look into any workmanship warranty for the engine replacement, since that's what we're thinking might have caused it.

 

[joshuab]

You might look into any workmanship warranty for the engine replacement, since that's what we're thinking might have caused it.

I would speak w/ the service manager prior too taking it in on a appointment & see if this is something that could be done on there part. But right now I am not even sure if its leaking, because I know within a 25/mile run I should have seen a sign of something. But only time will tell this story, I plan on cleaning the area yet again & doing another 50/mile drive just to check this & make sure its not leaking.

But that smell I smelled guys/gals, was foul like something dead was caught in there. But there wasn't I duplicated everything today as I did yesterday to see if the smell/leak would happen & so far nothing so again fingers crossed & hoping this was just something that splashed up there in some oddly way.

 

[jblackburn]

Possible that's been there since they worked on it and they just did a poor job cleaning things up. Oily stuff can stay around for a while. But with that thinking, I'd also think that it would have been more grimey.

Ah well, keep an eye on it.

 

[ChevyGuy]

I would speak w/ the service manager prior too taking it in on a appointment & see if this is something that could be done on there part.

Yes. If it comes to that, I'd check to see if the work they did might have had something to do with it. If you do find it's transmission oil, then I'd change the oil since it's hard to check it's level.

But since you're not able to duplicate it, I'm not sure what to suggest. You might try a uphill run to put the drive train under stress.

 

[IndyDiesel]

Sounds like you are addressing this pretty well, I would probably take brake cleaner and then clean the excess with paper towels and clean every around there very well. Good luck.

 

[joshuab]

Yes. If it comes to that, I'd check to see if the work they did might have had something to do with it. If you do find it's transmission oil, then I'd change the oil since it's hard to check it's level.

But since you're not able to duplicate it, I'm not sure what to suggest. You might try a uphill run to put the drive train under stress.

Yes in fact part of my run is uphill pull there isn't any indication of transmission problems, such as slippage, excess revving, long delayed shifts. All of these is shifting like butter & no sign of struggle from the transmission

Sounds like you are addressing this pretty well, I would probably take brake cleaner and then clean the excess with paper towels and clean every around there very well. Good luck.

I actually thought about using brake cleaner, however it didn't seem sticky so I just took my water hose & some paper towels & it cleaned up quite well & there didn't seem to be any 'staining' left behind so that was a plus far as being able to eye for any further leaks.

So this basically where I am at, just keeping a close watchful eye on this & keep the area cleaned daily & watch for anything that I can take a paper towel too, to test the color of the fluid of whatever it maybe.

 

[ChevyGuy]

however it didn't seem sticky so I just took my water hose & some paper towels & it cleaned up quite well & there didn't seem to be any 'staining' left behind so that was a plus far as being able to eye for any further leaks.

Which suggests it's recent stuff. Worrying. But not much else you can do at this point.

 

[joshuab]

Which suggests it's recent stuff. Worrying. But not much else you can do at this point.

Exactly, its recent. My theory right now is I must have ran over something that oddly splashed this foul smell at the time up on the control arm & just kinda stuck there & some must have got on the exhaust at the time as well because the odor was foul. So yeah worrying is about all I can do at this point & keep cleaning & watching for new leaks.

 

[joshuab]

I was able to catch today being a good day w/o any rain going & coming back from my round trip to check for any further leaks. During the whole round trip it didn't leak anything & is currently still dry & clean under there w/o any seen stains or leaks that I could possibly see. So I am just going to keep monitoring it & watching it closely.

There doesn't seem to be any changes in shifting, the brake fluid is full, coolant is full, oil is full. So all checks OK & again just going to keep a watchful eye on it & I'll update in a few days to make sure it doesn't return.

But I am pretty sure I am just going to caulk it up as to being something I must have ran into & got it on there & made it smell the way it did. Again I'll update this thread again in a few days w/ any change.