Got struck with unplated rear disc calipers, was a bit of a fight, but got new ones under warranty, they would no longer ratchet leading to a very low brake pedal. Had problems with the negative battery cable where it was crimped into the battery terminal, never soldered dipped that, I soldered it. Also problems with the ignition relay, POS from China, replaced that with a Pansonic.
With poor contact closure was messing up those microcontrollers that need a sharp voltage to reset them properly. Never had cooling system problems that seem to be the most common, leaking water pumps, poorly made heater cores, not so good thermostats.
Battery developed a high self discharge rate, idiot dealers in town said this is normal. But found a dealer in a small town that replaced it with a brand new battery under warranty. They also replaced that plastic camshaft cover under the PT warranty at no charge, just had a small crack in that cap.
Another problem with the Cruze are those steel clips on the pad holders on the calipers, but they like to blame road salt on this, rust builds up under them, expands those clips and jams the pads. 04 Cavalier never used this clips and never was a problem. Have to be cleaned, if the EPA didn't ban all plating in this country, would have paid a couple of bucks to have them plated, but had to resort to using anti-seize, EPA is the problem as well.
One of the key problems and not only with the Cruze is all vehicles, trying to find a good dealer. Really do not like to be told by some stupid kid service manager to trade it off for a new one.
Daughter had this problem with her Kia dealer with a strange vibration they could never find, but she has a dad with an ounce of brains, her air cleaner wasn't properly snapped down. Also all four of her wheels had brake drag, Chevy is not the only bunch of idiots using these steel clips and they adjusted her parking brake too tight that didn't let the rear disc caliper levers returned to their position. That was a five minute job.
Her major loss of power was due to spark plugs that developed a ceramic to base seal leaks after 12K miles. New plugs made her car run like a rocket again. But again this depends on your dealer.
Practically none of these kids have zero knowledge on electronics, with the advent of OBD II was suppose to be 150,000 tech jobs created to deal with all this computer stuff. Never happened, now idiot kids trying to deal with error codes they don't know anything about, so this is the problem. But not only with Chevy, just about everybody.
Heard really stupid things like your rear bumper is not falling off ain't getting an error code, or in my case, your brake pedal going to the floor is not the problem, ain't getting an error code.
But the whole automotive industry is this way, ask any tech, would be dead meat without an scope, but attempt to solve problems with a VOM. And this bit about not giving users access to firmware, only the ECM deals with emissions, other 5-7 computer systems do not. Storing valuable code in flashram is also extremely stupid. but again they all do this.
In any other form using self diagnostics, secondary references are used, except in automotive. So you have the blind leading the blind. All components have basic simple test specifications, don't even give these, tell you to replace with a known good part. How do you know its good if you don't have the basic specifications to test it?
I am wondering tho' Ive never seen a new car get so super hot under the hood before ...if gauge is ok then its just new and ok or turbo?
