My Family Has Two 2017 Cruzes with Two Engine Failures...thoughts?

51836 Views 132 Replies 52 Participants Last post by aircom, May 31, 2019

New Englander

Discussion Starter · Jun 6, 2017

I've had some Cruze issues that just don't seem right and I wanted to see if anyone else had similar issues.

My better half and I both leased brand new 2017 Cruze base models starting back in November. Both are set up as high mileage leases and both cars are driven quite a bit. On one, most of the mileage is city driving and on the other the mix is closer to 50/50 city and highway driving. Generally, different gas stations are used. Both cars have been maintained by quick lube places, but at different locations, different times, etc.

Right around 28k on each of the cars, a bad misfire developed. It got worse very quickly and in both cases, the dealer diagnosed the issue as piston failure. Different dealerships in different states worked with each car. In both cases, the dealer attempted to replace one piston and in both cases, there was further internal damage and the engines needed to be replaced. Car #1 had the work done and runs fine now. Car #2 is in the shop now and hopefully will be finished by the end of the week. Both are being covered under warranty, but both cars are used for work and without our cars, we cannot work. Between the two of us, this has cost about $3,500-$4,000 in lost income. Needless to say, I am very disappointed. We invested in new cars to be used as a tool. I don't expect engine failures after less than 30k. I am very nervous that we will be dancing this dance again at 60k,90k, etc. when the cars are out of warranty. We both really like our Cruzes, but this could be a big problem.

Has anyone else had piston issues on a Gen 2 Cruze?

I am also a writer and journalist, so I reached out to GM's public relations department to inquire about possible issues. They have not commented.

I also have not been able to find out for sure which cylinder had the piston failure. Both dealerships haven't been able to give me much information and the service writers seem very detached from the actual technicians.

Any thoughts or experience would be appreciated.

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61 - 80 of 133 Posts

ChevyCanuck

· #61 · Oct 16, 2017

There's no bulletin number that I can see. Here's an excerpt:

CORRECTION: =2810075=0.5ST=
REPROGRAM ECM SPS 11A65. UPDATE SPECIFICALLY FOR P015B DELAYED RESPONSE 02 SENSOR.
CLEAR ALL DTC'S VERIFY O2 SENSOR 1 FLAGGING

Hawkeye1

· #62 · Oct 17, 2017

Thanks for the response. My service advisor said the gm tech got back to him about the reprogramming. It is the one for the 2017s and they are trying it on the 2016s. I still don't know what the difference in the model years might be, but I hope it works. I go in on Thursday.

Hawkeye1

· #63 · Oct 19, 2017

The update is officially for the 2016s. My dealer has been great and is emailing gm to give me an extended warranty since this is the 4th time fixing it for the same issue. If it doesn't work, they will start the buy back process. I hope it works because we love the car except for this one issue.

ChevyCanuck

· #64 · Oct 20, 2017

I hope it works for you! It's a great little car.

CruzeTOwn

· #65 · Nov 27, 2017

I always try to buy American, but with my Cruze problems and then this...maybe I should reconsider. Sorry you are having these problems. I suppose GM is struggling still after being bailed out and now they can't make decent products anymore. Ugh....:sigh:

obermd

· #66 · Nov 27, 2017

CruzeTOwn said:
I always try to buy American, but with my Cruze problems and then this...maybe I should reconsider. Sorry you are having these problems. I suppose GM is struggling still after being bailed out and now they can't make decent products anymore. Ugh....:sigh:

When my 2012 ECO MT was totaled the Cruze was on my short list. In fact, all the cars on my short list were Chevys. The issue GM has with the Cruze is it's their mass market sedan and trying to keep costs down leads to other issues. GM's other issue is their dealership network. When I take my wife's Toyota in for service there are just as many Toyotas being worked on - in fact it's harder to get an appointment for her Toyota than it is for my Cruze (previous) and Volt.

SilverCruzer

· #67 · Nov 27, 2017

CruzeTOwn said:
I always try to buy American, but with my Cruze problems and then this...maybe I should reconsider. Sorry you are having these problems. I suppose GM is struggling still after being bailed out and now they can't make decent products anymore. Ugh....:sigh:

Unfortunately, much of this has to do with GM trying to meet a target miles per gallon across all their fleet. Since the money maker is the truck, they need to offset it with a vehicle that gets ultra MPG. And this second generation Cruze definitely does. I get 45 on my commute without trying.

However...everything in it is lighter weight and less substantial than my Gen 1 Cruze. There is technology on technology to squeeze out more MPG's, etc etc. More complications and opportunities for failure.

Now before we consider this a GM issue, the latest Consumer Reports Auto issue mentioned many new models across all MFG's that are experiencing problems with new tech on their 2018's.

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jamc204

· #68 · Dec 10, 2017

I'm going through this now w/ my Gen 2 2016. It has less than 24,000 miles on it and it started running roughly a few days ago and gave me a "service Stabilitrak" error mesage. I took it in and they said it has some bad pistons. I was shocked given the low mileage and how well I care for the car. I don't know much detail yet as they said the work will take into next week. I'll be sure to post the full diagnosis and results here.

Dealer gave me a rental with no hassle.

Hawkeye1

· #69 · Dec 10, 2017

Sorry to hear yours has the piston issue. I was wondering if you were experiencing the po15b code for the oxygen sensors? If so, how many times did they replace the sensor? I have driven about 5000 miles since they did the update and am hoping I didn't get any damage. They extended my bumper to bumper warranty to 6 years 100,000 miles at the request of my dealer just in case.

cohbraz

· #70 · Dec 10, 2017

ChevyCanuck said:
There's no bulletin number that I can see. Here's an excerpt:

CORRECTION: =2810075=0.5ST=
REPROGRAM ECM SPS 11A65. UPDATE SPECIFICALLY FOR P015B DELAYED RESPONSE 02 SENSOR.
CLEAR ALL DTC'S VERIFY O2 SENSOR 1 FLAGGING

I just had the ECM reprogrammed in my 2016.5 1.4/t after getting the p015b code. The service bulletin was 17-NA-155. As far as I can tell, they did not replace the O2 sensor - just the reprogram. I would love to get more information about this bulletin.

JC55

· #71 · Dec 13, 2017

I had the really rough idle and low power, took it into the dealer today and it has a failed piston. 2017 model with 35,000 miles

davhamm

· #72 · Jan 3, 2018

ChevyCanuck said:
I brought my 2016.5 Cruze in 1 week ago for my second po15 b CEL. They didn't replace an O2 sensor this time but they did reprogram the ECU. So it looks like the long awaited update is out. I'm not sure what it changes. The only thing I noticed was that my auto-transmission seemed to have been reset and had to relearn my driving habits. I shifted weird at first but is back to normal for me.

For what it's worth I fill up with Shell V-Power and engine seems to run great except for a few instances where the engine was lugging in high gear/low RPMs. The lugging hasnt occured for me since the ECU update. It hasn't been long enough to tell if the shifting algorithm has been changed though.

Had similiar tale, just got back from 3rd CEL replaced, 02 sensors again and said GM is working on a fix, so the software flash from Nov didn't seem to fix anything, or was a different issue.

rippem

· #73 · Jan 4, 2018

just had my 16.5 flashed for emissions CEL
delayed response to 02 sensor/PO15b sensor delay bank 1.
TSB 17 NA 155
Reprogram ECM 11E30

Time will tell. I also run premium fuel

MRO1791

· #74 · Jan 4, 2018

Reading this thread has been interesting. The Emissions on the Gen 1 Diesels, and Diesels in general have been a technical challenge (though it seems the made big improvements on Gen 2 - 1.6L over the Gen 1 - 2.0 for emissions).. it appears that a similar challenge is now taking place on the engine pistons in the gas engine... All this due to CAFE standards, and EPA standards.. Having said that, if I was driving a gas engine, I'd go high octane for sure, I've calculated that even in my 21 year old Saturn, that the MPG increase for the more efficient burn of the higher octane fuel more than offsets the extra cost of the fuel, I'd assume that holds true, even more so for a turbo charged engine in the Cruze.

The other observation.. I think I'll take the possible emissions hassles over a blown piston... then again, I have 3 Diesel Cruzes, so that should be pretty obvious I guess. Actually the diesel emissions tend to work pretty well if you do enough highway driving to get a good DPF regen, I've been without any serious issue on my Diesels because I have a pretty good understanding of what it takes for them to work well.

It's also interesting to hear about soot issues on the gas engine.. that's been an issue for Diesel, especially from EGR flow, which tends to be much higher in the Diesel.

To the OP: Do consider a diesel for your next 50/50 highway/city car... my car with average speed at only 25MPH is sitting at 50MPG right now, I've been stunned at how good the MPG is on the Gen 2 Diesel.

I'd caution against a Diesel for anyone doing mostly city/short duration drives.. that spells emissions troubles for sure. It would really be nice if the manufactures would just explain all that, but they want us to think any and all cars can do any and all patterns of driving with no problems... which is just not reality. I do think they say 87 Octane is OK, for marketing purposes, when clearly a turbo engine with higher compression is going to be safer and perform much better with the higher octane fuel.... this is the marketing people, likely over objections of the engineers.

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JC55

· #75 · Jan 5, 2018

What did you guys think of buying the trifecta or bnr tune to possibly circumvent this from happening again? I forgot to mention the Piston that failed was number 3 in my car

Premier17

· #76 · Jan 7, 2018

It's hard to say. Going with a tune to prevent that does introduce the risk of voiding any further power-train warranty. However, I also have not heard of anyone having a piston failure that also had a tune, though the ratio of tuned Cruze to factory tuned is also much lower. I would say there really is not enough evidence yet to suggest going with a tune solely with the objective of avoiding the piston 1 failure.

jblackburn

· #77 · Jan 7, 2018

Premier17 said:
It's hard to say. Going with a tune to prevent that does introduce the risk of voiding any further power-train warranty. However, I also have not heard of anyone having a piston failure that also had a tune, though the ratio of tuned Cruze to factory tuned is also much lower. I would say there really is not enough evidence yet to suggest going with a tune solely with the objective of avoiding the piston 1 failure.

There have been a few. I think that's why GM hasn't figured out the "solution" with a simple tune update yet either like they did for the Malibu.

There have also been lots of O2 sensor problems with the early Gen 2 builds. Probably has something to do with the piston failures.

JRB'sOilburningCruze

· #78 · Jan 7, 2018

As mentioned above, these are the reasons I stayed away from buying another turbo powered car. Turbos do make up for smaller displacement but as I've state before, I think they are just too hard on the components.

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Pegasus

· #79 · Feb 23, 2018

Is the piston issue still happening with #1 cylinder? Has a cause been officially determined. I read somewhere that the auto stop feature stops the cylinder at the top of the stroke on piston #1. If that is true, could that be related to the cause?
Just speculating, and concerned about whether this will happen to me.

2017 with 1K miles LT 1.4 turbo

jblackburn

· #80 · Feb 23, 2018

Yes, happens on the forums and FB page every few weeks or so.

Much more likely tuning or LSPI issues than anything to do with auto-stop.

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