Have 2011 rs auto and throttle very iffy. My son has same car but a 2012 and flat gets with it. I got the 2011 a few weeks ago and had them put new tires on. Of course it's a 2016 lt and throttle response is right on top. OK the car is not new but seems to be a trend. After reading did spark plug gap. Changed Trans fluid cleaned etb and maf. Also tried an ECM relearn process no improvement. So I guess my question is. Will a new dbw system from a newer model help? All and any thoughts will be appreciated. Thanks in advance
Throttle sucks
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Welcome:uhh:
Had throttle response problems with my 2012, take your foot off the gas, engine keeps on revving. Culprit is returning the PCV line in front of that throttle vane depositing all the crap. Worse yet is having a tiny little servo motor to return that vane to the home position as opposed to having linkage with a strong spring.
What you have to do is clean it with choke and carb cleaner, if you have eyes, can even see the crap on that vane. Still wonder why they can't return this PCV line to the cat, a self destructive method, that crap builds up on the piston rings even causing more blowby with more crap to further build it up, call this a chain reaction.
Also wish they would put a lever on that servo motor as for many engine tests need to rev the engine, can't do this anymore, need an assistant sitting in the vehicle to step on the gas pedal.
What you have to do is clean it with choke and carb cleaner, if you have eyes, can even see the crap on that vane. Still wonder why they can't return this PCV line to the cat, a self destructive method, that crap builds up on the piston rings even causing more blowby with more crap to further build it up, call this a chain reaction.
Also wish they would put a lever on that servo motor as for many engine tests need to rev the engine, can't do this anymore, need an assistant sitting in the vehicle to step on the gas pedal.
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165 Posts
Get a catch can. Problem solved. Your Stealership will clean your plastic intake and it will perform for x amount of miles. You ask why doesn't my car have a catch can. Simple it is a part you have to monitor more than the lazy public wants to. So they have a scheduled maintenance programs.
Ha, a catch can, better more descriptive name would be a crap trap. Mainly to catch oil, but blowby still must go through. Then trying to install it in a vehicle, PVC was not much of a problem when it first came out, mounted high on the valve cover, but still a lot of engine sprayed all over the valve. Then directly into the intake manifold, but this crap would still build up on the interior of the intake and on the intake valves, also on the spark plug itself. Even worse was putting injectors into the intake manifold, crap would build up on the face of these and affect the spray pattern as well if not completely blocking it ending up with drops of fuel.
Cruze mounts the PCV on the side mounted intake manifold, not injecting the crap into it but drawing it out, is ported into the valve cover area below the valve cover line. Would have been less problematic if mounted on top of the camshaft cover, lot less oil around there. Then it ports into the intake of the turbo into a venturi type orifice, also with the air from the air cleaner, the venturi creates a vacuum of 19"/Hg at idle.
While I have not searched yet for a pressure transducer somewhere in the crankcase circuit, has to be there, because if that vacuum drops below some unspecified value, an error code will be set.
So called catch cans should be vertically mounted some place in series with the PCV line, have fun with that corrugated plastic PCV tube. would have to be a perfect seal or you would lose vacuum and get a code. Not even sure while they are doing this in the first place, crankcase always has positive pressure, intake manifold negative pressure.
People are asking why they are finding oil to the intake of the turbo, if you comprehend the above statements will know why.
Crap buildup depends upon how you drive to minimize blowby, shifting into a higher gear sure increases combustion chamber temperature, more blowby, so does flooring the gas pedal at every traffic light.
Using products like Seafoam help to clean up that debris that creates more blowby, namely carbon on the piston rings. Synthetic oils also help, have better adhesion qualities. Minimizing the load on your engine while driving.
PCV is over a 50 year old problem made worse by feeding it back in front of the TB, adding fuel injectors, and always burning carbon.
EGR is another problem, no device can last very long with red hot exhaust going through it, also returned to the intake manifold and injectors. And it they don't open when they are suppose to super hot combustion chamber temperatures with unleaded gas will burn holes in your exhaust valves and pistons.
Another way to keep exhaust gases inside of the combustion chamber is to close the exhaust valves early for the next cycle, least the Cruze is doing this. Best way to reduce combustion chamber temperatures is via water injection, but considered way to complicated for us stupid Americans.
Cruze mounts the PCV on the side mounted intake manifold, not injecting the crap into it but drawing it out, is ported into the valve cover area below the valve cover line. Would have been less problematic if mounted on top of the camshaft cover, lot less oil around there. Then it ports into the intake of the turbo into a venturi type orifice, also with the air from the air cleaner, the venturi creates a vacuum of 19"/Hg at idle.
While I have not searched yet for a pressure transducer somewhere in the crankcase circuit, has to be there, because if that vacuum drops below some unspecified value, an error code will be set.
So called catch cans should be vertically mounted some place in series with the PCV line, have fun with that corrugated plastic PCV tube. would have to be a perfect seal or you would lose vacuum and get a code. Not even sure while they are doing this in the first place, crankcase always has positive pressure, intake manifold negative pressure.
People are asking why they are finding oil to the intake of the turbo, if you comprehend the above statements will know why.
Crap buildup depends upon how you drive to minimize blowby, shifting into a higher gear sure increases combustion chamber temperature, more blowby, so does flooring the gas pedal at every traffic light.
Using products like Seafoam help to clean up that debris that creates more blowby, namely carbon on the piston rings. Synthetic oils also help, have better adhesion qualities. Minimizing the load on your engine while driving.
PCV is over a 50 year old problem made worse by feeding it back in front of the TB, adding fuel injectors, and always burning carbon.
EGR is another problem, no device can last very long with red hot exhaust going through it, also returned to the intake manifold and injectors. And it they don't open when they are suppose to super hot combustion chamber temperatures with unleaded gas will burn holes in your exhaust valves and pistons.
Another way to keep exhaust gases inside of the combustion chamber is to close the exhaust valves early for the next cycle, least the Cruze is doing this. Best way to reduce combustion chamber temperatures is via water injection, but considered way to complicated for us stupid Americans.
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25,602 Posts
It's the nature of the 1st generation Cruze. Even with the shifting improvements in the 2012 and later the automatic transmission simply isn't quick off the line. This is a combination of programming and hardware design. Performance tunes adjust the programming but these cars simply aren't ever going to be quick off the line or accelerate. They're quick and fast enough for daily driving but not for performance driving.
Okay with what I started with I said that the car is older and should be out performed buy a newer car. My next series of questions are should I try new internal parts for my car such as the 2016 I'm also going to get a trifecta tune probably leave as I plan on having mods done to this vehicle drive by wire system transmission control module and maybe even the ECM? I have also tried cleaners for the fuel fuel intake system hoping not to plug up the exhaust. So I guess short answers first is there anything I should be thinking about besides replacing expensive parts. I understand that the car is not quick off the line but when I'm trying to change lanes with traffic coming up on me and my car comes to a complete stop that bothers me a lot I do not want to die over a malfunction such as this. I would consider this a kickdown problem for the transmission but nobody seems to know if it's the transmission spark plug gap so on so forth if anybody has a complete answer for me I would appreciate it. Car is in very good shape I don't want to replace it I would just like to be able to get some of the bugs worked out of it. So if the very first response I get from my post is a smart-ass comment about things get better when they're newer this is already understood by me. I need constructive criticism and or answers to find a fix. I intend on putting in a trifecta Elite tune as I plan on making plenty of mods 2 help horsepower and some of the transmission problems.
My intentions are to put a cold air intake as my first mod. I want the cold air intake to be able to go back down to the stock hole where the air box was to get to cooler air. And as far as cold air is concerned I also want to run a better charge air cooling system. The cooler the air the more horsepower you will make. As for the exhaust I'm on the fence it will definitely not have any cats as I'm in the area that doesn't have any emissions test. I would like to run dual exhaust but I'm looking for an exhaust note that isn't obnoxious I don't want to sound like a fart can or straight pipes. I want to have a good tone but not so much that it rumbles you out of the car going down the highway.
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25,602 Posts
The first generation of Cruze is a torque managed powertrain. Basically the ECU manages the power requirements to meet the torque demanded by the driver to accelerate or maintain speed. The various performance tunes push the hardware closer to its physical limits but not to the extent that they blow the engine the first time you accelerate. Leaving the safety buffer still limits the car to somewhere around 170 to 180 HP and also improves the low end torque tables so the ECU will try to spool up the HP and turbo quicker.
I thank you for the information you offered its some things that I needed to know. I'm not an engineer but if you look underneath the hood of one of these cars some of the piping doesn't make sense. I don't understand what good the intercooler piping does when it's running along and or clamped to the coolant hoses. The first thing i did was remove that air box resonator and piping. I don't even know how the car gathered enough air to run. If you haven't looked at the snorkel piping and stuff that they fed the engine with you'd be surprised they run as good as they do. Once again like I said I'm not an engineer but if somebody has some of the answers to things I'm pondering about please let me know.
Ha, knew mechanical engineers that didn't know how to change a tire or electronic engineers that didn't know how to use voltmeter, so much for engineers.
Throttle lag is defined as the ability of the TB vane to follow the accelerator pedal, with more information, sure doesn't sound like your problem. Given advice on modifications will give you more noise, but won't solve your problems either. Bad advice, tune, if lucky, maybe a couple of extra HP, but will have to use the very highest octane fuel you can find, this varies like crazy all over the world.
Older vehicles actually had a built in dynamometer to let you know instantly how your engine was performing with an AT. With service brakes on, wheel blocked in low gear, just floor the gas pedal to learn if you could hit 1,800-2000 RPM, if you did, your engine was in top performance.
DO NOT TRY THIS WITH THE CRAP THEY ARE MAKING TODAY, WILL TOAST YOUR AT!!!!
With used vehicles with driveability problems, sounds like yours first tool is a compression gauge tester, when expecting 150 pis per cylinder may read around 80, these need a good carbon cleaning and a prayer. Some will go up to 150, others down to zero, carbon actually can help compression.
The way engine parts are today, really kick this around to look at the rest of the vehicle, you can't buy a complete engine overhaul gasket kit for four bucks anymore, will be over 150 bucks just for a head gasket. And gaskets were always the cheapest parts!
Had to give this bad news to my brand new daughter-in-law, just married, just out of college, student loans, her dad and I got her something she could drive. And she more than paid us back with three of the most wonderful grandkids in the world.
Next step if the engine is even running is to connect a real oil pressure gauge, stupid things won't light the low oil light if the pressure is above 3 psi. If you go to a quick oil change place, that charges your for a new filter, may learn it wasn't changed in the last 50,000 miles or so, even caught dealers pulling this BS. Engine has to be flushed to clean out all the crap, again, hope and prayer the oil pressure goes way up, look for around 40 psi.
Ignition is cut and dry, clean plugs, good connectivity, check the internal resistors, proper gap and torque. With only one vehicle, had to make my own timing marks, CAS was under the harmonic balancer, bracket was bend, initial timing was way off.
Another valuable is a spark plug gap tester, inconvenient on the Cruze, have to lay the module on its side, pull the boots and jumper each terminal to each individual plug. Plugs are in the head for this test, just substitute each plug one at a time, cutting the engine each time and expect to see a spark going across a 1/4" gap on the tester. Only for a few seconds, have to worry about your cat, but not much of a problem when its cold, worthless when cold. Will get a misfire code, that can be cleared with a scanner.
Another need tool is a fuel pump pressure gauge, at idle should see 45 psi, and with the engine off, that 45 psi should hold, some even for a month, others a couple of seconds. Low pressures could be excessive voltage drops to the pump, or even a plugged fuel filter. Leak downs can be anywhere, but with injectors, will find a wet cylinder. If Seafoam doesn't clean them, can be removed and manually cleaned. Have a procedure for this in lieu of a $7,000.00 injector tester. Ha, have all the stuff I need to do the same thing here. This is a long procedure, will have to post it separately.
Daughter had throttle lag due to dragging brake pads, good thing this was caught very early before rotor and pad damage. Not even related to the engine.
Another useful tool is a vacuum gauge, friend came over after laying out $1,600.00 from his dealer for parts he didn't even need. Took less than five minutes, a couple of his intake manifold bolts were loose. Never was a problem before with cast iron, sure is with plastic.
Can't cover anything in a short post, but you have a problem. IC engine has not changed in over 120 years, SOS.
Throttle lag is defined as the ability of the TB vane to follow the accelerator pedal, with more information, sure doesn't sound like your problem. Given advice on modifications will give you more noise, but won't solve your problems either. Bad advice, tune, if lucky, maybe a couple of extra HP, but will have to use the very highest octane fuel you can find, this varies like crazy all over the world.
Older vehicles actually had a built in dynamometer to let you know instantly how your engine was performing with an AT. With service brakes on, wheel blocked in low gear, just floor the gas pedal to learn if you could hit 1,800-2000 RPM, if you did, your engine was in top performance.
DO NOT TRY THIS WITH THE CRAP THEY ARE MAKING TODAY, WILL TOAST YOUR AT!!!!
With used vehicles with driveability problems, sounds like yours first tool is a compression gauge tester, when expecting 150 pis per cylinder may read around 80, these need a good carbon cleaning and a prayer. Some will go up to 150, others down to zero, carbon actually can help compression.
The way engine parts are today, really kick this around to look at the rest of the vehicle, you can't buy a complete engine overhaul gasket kit for four bucks anymore, will be over 150 bucks just for a head gasket. And gaskets were always the cheapest parts!
Had to give this bad news to my brand new daughter-in-law, just married, just out of college, student loans, her dad and I got her something she could drive. And she more than paid us back with three of the most wonderful grandkids in the world.
Next step if the engine is even running is to connect a real oil pressure gauge, stupid things won't light the low oil light if the pressure is above 3 psi. If you go to a quick oil change place, that charges your for a new filter, may learn it wasn't changed in the last 50,000 miles or so, even caught dealers pulling this BS. Engine has to be flushed to clean out all the crap, again, hope and prayer the oil pressure goes way up, look for around 40 psi.
Ignition is cut and dry, clean plugs, good connectivity, check the internal resistors, proper gap and torque. With only one vehicle, had to make my own timing marks, CAS was under the harmonic balancer, bracket was bend, initial timing was way off.
Another valuable is a spark plug gap tester, inconvenient on the Cruze, have to lay the module on its side, pull the boots and jumper each terminal to each individual plug. Plugs are in the head for this test, just substitute each plug one at a time, cutting the engine each time and expect to see a spark going across a 1/4" gap on the tester. Only for a few seconds, have to worry about your cat, but not much of a problem when its cold, worthless when cold. Will get a misfire code, that can be cleared with a scanner.
Another need tool is a fuel pump pressure gauge, at idle should see 45 psi, and with the engine off, that 45 psi should hold, some even for a month, others a couple of seconds. Low pressures could be excessive voltage drops to the pump, or even a plugged fuel filter. Leak downs can be anywhere, but with injectors, will find a wet cylinder. If Seafoam doesn't clean them, can be removed and manually cleaned. Have a procedure for this in lieu of a $7,000.00 injector tester. Ha, have all the stuff I need to do the same thing here. This is a long procedure, will have to post it separately.
Daughter had throttle lag due to dragging brake pads, good thing this was caught very early before rotor and pad damage. Not even related to the engine.
Another useful tool is a vacuum gauge, friend came over after laying out $1,600.00 from his dealer for parts he didn't even need. Took less than five minutes, a couple of his intake manifold bolts were loose. Never was a problem before with cast iron, sure is with plastic.
Can't cover anything in a short post, but you have a problem. IC engine has not changed in over 120 years, SOS.
Okay after that tutorial I feel as though I should just leave things alone. So I guess the majority of the things I need to do is put in a cold air intake exhaust if I feel like it may be a brand new charger cooling system and at em and then just be done with it. If this is the case I think you very much and we'll go from there. Thank you for all your time is greatly appreciated
I tend to disagree with what was said about tunning. Although marority of people think tunning is only about increasing power, it is not. Tunning is about optimizing engine performance. Stock ECU is comming optimized to work in all possible conditions, in different parts of the world, driven by different kind of people. Earlier Cruze engines did really had the problem with very slow throttle respone. Later it was improved a bit but not too much. Good tunner will improve it even more without neccessarily asking engine for more power. An example is Driver Wish map. And CAI helps that but not too much.
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