I have a 2012 Eco 6-speed with 140k km on the odo. I never had a single issue with the car, not even water pump or coolant smell or any of the other stuff. My CEL light would come on and off the odd time, sometimes stay on for months at a time, but it is a GM so I would be concerned if it didn't - right?
All at once while driving on the highway I lost all my oomph. There was no noise, engine revved and idled smoothly, but I simply lost any real power. I had the codes pulled, and the three there were the 'lean left bank' because I run 87 octane, the infamous 0771 or whatever for the camshaft cover PCV valve of doom, and naturally the 0299 for underboost.
I ordered a new cover and installed it, and while doing so checked all vacuum lines and air filter / MAF, etc. That code went away. My wastegate actuator moves freely with zero slop of any kind on the pin.
Honestly, I went too long between oil changes with crappy oil and I am quite sure that my feed line slowly plugged up over time until it starved the bearing on the turbo. On startup there is a very minor rattling I can hear that I am sure is the remains of my rotor jiggling about in there. The engine doesn't drink oil or coolant, there has never been any puffs of smoke out the back end, and the only code I throw now is underboost. I troubleshoot machinery for a living, and to me the problem is obvious.
I would rather douse myself in 87 octane than fight with GM for warranty, and this job looks amazingly easy to do. I was ignorant as to how critical oil quality was to this thing, and obviously there is a design flaw to this turbo since GM has quietly redesigned the feed line, flashed ECU's to run the fan after the motor shuts off, and dropped the oil lifespan monitor by a healthy percentage.
I will make a post detailing anything that a person needs to know about swapping out their own turbo, but the definitive how to with a zillion pictures is best left to those with a garage and time.
