Hi Seasoned Cruze drivers,
I am driving a 2011 Cruze 6AT. While driving on the highway or city roads, my speedometer will randomly drop to zero, and the RPM went up above 3K. There is no power to the wheels no matter how I step on the accelerator. Most of the time I managed to roll the car to the side and power off the engine. After waiting 5mins or so, I start up the engine and the gear shifts fine for a moment then it will behave the same way again.
I encountered the issue 3 times and had struggled to the garage twice, i called for a tow the last time. The first time I encountered the issue was on the highway negotiating some random up and down hill. I felt a hard 'bump' like someone hit me from behind and noticed the speedometer keeps dropping to zero while the RPM remain high. I immediately exit the highway and drove in manual, keeping my gears below gear 4, and managed to reach the garage. The garage claimed my ATF was very old and changed it out for me. Indeed the liquid was dark brown in color. After that i managed to drive some 20KM without issues.
The next morning i was able to achieve another 15KM or so before it acted again while driving down a straight city road. Same issue, same symptom. This time when i tried to shift to manual, it would not let me go beyond gear 2, the check engine light came on and i struggled very slowly to the garage . When i reached the it, i was stuck on a hump entering the garage, the car couldn't move at all. I powered off engine and on again hoping it will recover, but this time the D display kept flashing, i needed some help to push the car into the garage. The car was sitting for a good 10mins before the mechanic came to it, oddly enough when he turn on the engine, it manage to drive normally again. The error code was P0723, so he changed out the Transmission Output Sensor.
After the change, i manage to drive 5km home. The next day, i managed to achieve about 5KM and left it sitting in a sheltered carpark for 2hours. After that i tried to travel downtown, about a 10KM drive. While I turned out from a round-about, just about to reach my destination, i noticed the speedometer drops to zero again! And the RPM gauge remain high at 3k RPM, with no power to the wheels. I rolled to the side and called the tow truck. As i was in town, my rear was blocking cars, so after 10mins i powered on the engine and put the gear into D, it managed to move so I hurriedly parked nicely by the side while waiting for tow. This time I had it towed to a automatic transmission specialist. The error code this time was P0700 and P0722. He claimed it was my PCM board acting up but will run full diagnostic on the whole auto transmission. The car is with him now.
Would like your inputs, why would the speedometer drop to zero? would it be an electronic fault or mechanical? and why did it affect the transmission, it was like the gears drop out into neutral. The 'bump' felt like the gears engaged back into action, similar to what I would feel in a manual car when i kick in lower gears at high speed. Each time i powered off and on after a few mins of sitting, it seems to work again. Would temperature affect electronic works? or would it be something more mechanical?
Please please please give your input as I am lost what to do. I still have 3 years installment on this car and couldn't possible swap it out yet.