My son is driving our 2015 Cruze with 118K miles back and forth from Kansas City to Lincoln Nebraska. On his way back to Kansas he had the "turn off AC message" come on going up and down some hills. The temp gauge went slightly above the middle. At home he took the car to work and noticed the heat was working, then not working. He's not mechanical (is an electrical engineer but never worked on cars). I explained to him how to check and add anti freeze, which he did and it helped. Because we saw a puddle under the front of the car when he was adding coolant, we both figured it had a leak that needed attention soon. So he drove the car all the way back home last night, some 250 miles and this morning I looked at it and I see nothing! Nothing on the ground as far as a leak and the coolant reservoir is full! I'll look at it again but I hate problems where you want to fix something but it's not apparent where it's broke. Wondering if anyone else has had this problem or any insight. As a side note I had at least two issues with my 2005 Trailblazer that's been a really good vehicle and both issues seemed to magically go away and I've not had them happen in years and it has 265K miles on it now. So I do realize that some problems can indeed come and go. I'm thinking about taking the car to the dealership for it's first 4 wheel alignment anyway so maybe I could just let them take a look at it I figure.... Maybe they could do one of those fluorescent dye checks and put the system under pressure.
Intermittent coolant leak?
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Seeing no evidence of the water pump leaking. That's not to say it's not, or it didn't happen. No sign of leaking coolant in engine bay. Coolant tank still full to top of mark after nearly 4 hours on highways. Don't like throwing money at cars so thinking of waiting until it's really "broke" before fixing.
I totally get what you are saying. A leak should be obvious, right? I have two questions for you. How many lumens is your flashlight? And how big is your inspection mirror?
I have literally spent my life fixing all manor of machines, and believe me there is no magic involved. Your car has a failure in the cooling system, just because the symptoms are intermittent means very little. And sure, I'm just basing my opinion of what very little you have wrote and could be mistaken.
Consider this, you have looked so hard and are baffled. Yet here I sit very confident in what your issue is. Hmmm.
I look forward to any updates.
Thanks, I'll keep you updated. There's only two options. 1) My son decides to take it back home next week and wait on the issue for now, or 2) he leaves the car with us and we have it inspected when it goes in for an alignment.
I've done water pumps on front wheel drive 4 cylinders before. Not too thrilled about the prospect but one thing I insist on is knowing what's broken before I fix it. Right now it's as if it never had a problem - no leak and coolant level stays full. If the dealer tells me it needs a new water pump and the estimate is over 8-$900, then I probably will just do it for him and save the money for him because I have the time to do it.
Hey Johnny B, thanks again for your insight and reply. I've been thinking about what you've been saying. I was going to pull my son's car into the garage (It's very cold here today) to get a better look, but I couldn't find the keys so I decided to take a THird look under the hood. The whole area around the water pump is devoid of any signs of leakage or moisture due to antifreeze. I used my flashlight (only a phone but it lit things up fairly well) and I could be mistaken, because the roads we live on here are real crap and the car gets very dirty just from having been driven here. But it's just looking like nothing from the water pump, period. It's very dry around the whole area and you know antifreeze is a lot like oil in that if it spills somewhere it kind of stays wet looking for a while. The whole issue about having recalls up to 2014 for the water pump makes me more inclined to have the dealer check it out because the last time I had the car in they fixed everything for free under warranty even though the sticker warranty had expired. That's my update - thanks If you got this far!
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I have a Chevy Cruze 87,000 miles 2015 LT model. I just had a replace my original reservoir. Check on the bottom of the reservoir that's where my leak was I could not find it at times but it was actually underneath my original reservoir. Chevy cruze's supposedly have a bad rep with the coolant leaks. I swapped it out with the Dorman aftermarket reservoir. Much better quality. I also replaced the radiator inlet hose which was leaking a tad near the end to the right of oil cap. So far so good.
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Yes look at the wires underneath they might be soaked. That was my clue, then I stuck my hand as far as I could under the reservoir and my hand got drenched with coolant. Therein manifested the problem.
I didn't see anything there but thanks again for the suggestion. I didn't stick my hand under the tank because it just looked like nothing was wet. It was all dry in appearance all around and the reservoir was filled slightly above the full line. I'm hoping to convince my son (without being too harsh because I want him to start making decisions and taking more responsibility - a learning experience hopefully) to simply leave the car with me and take our older Trailblazer temporarily while I get this sorted out. It's also a bit hard for me to believe that Chevrolet could extend the warranty to 10 years and 150K miles for all gen1 Cruzes, except the 2015, for the water pump. The dealer may be able to shed some light on this. We are the original owners and Chevrolet fixed a different problem prior to this completely free. Even provided a loaner car. I'm not expecting that this time because it has a lot more years and miles but I'm hoping they know something more about this problem than I can see.
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I would continue to monitor the coolant tank closely(especially if its the original one) for slight cracks and/or leaks on the reservoir itself or the hoses stemming from the reservoir too. I noticed my leak appearing on and off by my front tire driver tire so that made me suspicious of the tank. There is a guy on Youtube if you type in Chevy Cruze coolant leak he is one of the top ones. I think his name is DIY with Michael B0rders. He goes over the common reasons for the Cruze's coolant leaks. He has a couple of videos. He said the Cruze is notorious for these issues and he has never ever had to replace a coolant tank before for any car except the Cruze. I now believe him after my issue! lol Good luck!
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I would continue to monitor the coolant tank closely(especially if its the original one) for slight cracks and/or leaks on the reservoir itself or the hoses stemming from the reservoir too. I noticed my leak appearing on and off by my front tire driver tire so that made me suspicious of the tank. There is a guy on Youtube if you type in Chevy Cruze coolant leak he is one of the top ones. I think his name is DIY with Michael B0rders. He goes over the common reasons for the Cruze's coolant leaks. He has a couple of videos. He said the Cruze is notorious for these issues and he has never ever had to replace a coolant tank before for any car except the Cruze. I now believe him after my issue! lol Good luck!
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My daughter's 13 Cruze and my son's 17 Sonic both leak at the hose ends a bit when the temp drops. The Sonic recently needed a new reservoir and water pump so new hoses were put on, problem solved. My 16 Cruze Limited seems to use coolant. No leaks, no puddles and no milky oil, so I'm not really worried. I lose 1-2 lines on the reservoir each oil change (6000 miles).
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I am having the same problem for months now, I have been chasing my tail. My 2015 LTZ with 140,000miles has has a new Water pump, Thermostat housing, and a few new hoses. Car is full of coolant and bled properly. Car runs normal most of the time, but every so often , gage goes way up, i get AC off, engine overtemp warning, and then it goes back down to normal in 30 seconds or so. Viewed coolant temp on my code reader and it does go up to 255, then drops back to 215. Garage told me that it could be low on coolant and an air bubble is causing this. I've bled system out and I still get the occasional warning. the other thing is the two radiator hoses are very different temperatures. Hose after thermostat is much cooler than the other side, even though i see the temperature going up and down as if the thermostat is working. Any ideas?
Just my two cents. I think you have the right idea. I wouldn’t fix anything either until I knew what was wrong. Just keep an eye on it and keep the reservoir full. You can keep a gallon of Dex-cool premix in the car for piece of mind. It only takes a quart to fill the empty reservoir tank. I wouldn’t even have the dealer look at it. They will find all kinds of things to replace.
Even though the thermostat may be “working” it may be lazy as in slow to open. I have had this happen on other vehicles before. Replaced thermostat and problem solved.
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I have a 2014 Chevy Cruze and I experienced similar problems, my issue turned out to be the water pump was leaking from the weep hole. I took it to Smicklas Chevy dealership here in Oklahoma City. I was prepared to pay out of pocket, after speaking with the service manager, Colton, he told me that the water pump was under warranty! Yippee. Of course I couldn't be more pleased. I would suggest you make an appointment with your local Chevy dealership and see if yours is covered under warranty.
I had the same thing happen on my 2015 Cruze LT. I turned out ro be that the water/coolant inlet housing needed replaced. These are made of plastic an are notorious for developing hairline cracks.
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I'm guessing you have a very slow leak, but the first time the coolant was topped up the air was not burped out, which is why the coolant level dropped quickly but you didn't find any coolant under the hood. The suggestions above are all good in terms of possible sources. Of course if a leak is so slow you can't find it, to me it makes more sense to occasionally check the coolant level and top up as needed than spend $$$ looking around for a leak then replacing it. If the leak gets bigger, then you'll be able to find it and it's a good time to replace the offending hose or part.
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