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Upgrading the engine splash shield (Gen1 1.4L & 1.8)

28488 Views 30 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  Valpo Cruze, 
XtremeRevolution
Want better fuel economy, a cleaner engine bay, reduced road noise, and better highway stability? This thread is for you!

Back in 2011 and 2012, the Cruze and the Verano both used the same engine shield. It was a great design. Then, the NHTSA started investigating engine fires. Apparently, sloppy oil change techs would spill oil all over the engine bay, which would accumulate on the shield, splash on the exhaust, and catch fire. Bullshit recall ensued to address the PR nightmare.

The solution? Sawzall recall (hey, that rhymes)! I kid you not, the instructions literally told the dealer tech to take a reciprocating saw and cut up the engine shield. I declined the recall until I had to get some warranty work and they blackmailed me into getting the recall done in order to perform the work. I fought with them enough to get them to sell me the Verano shield (which was identical) for dealer cost ($80).

At some point, GM redesigned the engine shield for the Cruze so it had effectively the same size footprint.
The reason I'm sharing this is so those of you who have money burning a hole in your wallet would have a productive way to spend it, and so those of you who live in cold climates with salt on the road would have a cleaner engine bay. The Verano/Pre-recall Cruze shield covers much more of the engine bay. This has the following benefits:

- Significantly reduced engine bay dust/dirt/salt
- Significantly reduced road noise
- Significantly improved aerodynamics and cross-wind stability
- Slightly improved fuel economy

Here's the diagram of the original Verano/Pre-recall Cruze shield:


Here's a diagram of the redesigned post-recall Cruze shield:


Here's a brand new Verano shield next to the GM recalled (hacked up with a sawzall) shield:


For emphasis, here is the GM recalled shield on top of the brand new verano shield:


Lastly, here's what the Verano shield looks like installed:


I've also included pictures of the hacked up/recalled shield compared to a brand new Verano/Pre-recall Cruze shield so you can see what they look like as well. The 4th picture shows the hacked up shield on top of the new Verano/Pre-recall Cruze shield.

If you want to stick with OEM, the Part number is 23428362, available for $100 shipped on ThatGMPartsGuy.com, or you can get an aftermarket shield for less on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2gEXTR5

Please note, this only fits the 2011-2016.5 Cruze 1.4L and 1.8L. It does not fit the 2.0L Diesel.

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C
Xtreme- If I recall the posts from back in the day, some of the bolts that hold the large original splash shield on use speed nuts that are part of the frame.

2011's and 2012's that were modified by the recall would still have these speed nuts in the frame, all the owner would need is the bolt. However for 2013 and up I believe the mounting may have changed.

I remember a similar thread that someone did where they needed to buy hardware and if I recall correctly it wasn't expensive, but it was dealer only stuff.

The original shield is on with a lot of connection points. I think there's close to 10 or 12 on my original 2012 sheild. I'm not sure you would have to use all of them.

Just letting anyone who tries this know, the holes probably are in your frame, but not sure of the nut portion of the connection is in all of the mounting locations.

Proud to say original 2012 owner, and my car has never been back to the dealer, outside the first week I had it for a strut support noise. So I have the original splash shield, painted with stencils with the words. "Do NOT CUT".
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E
if my shield hasn't been cut, would it be any different than the $34 shield?
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XtremeRevolution
eddiefromcali said:
if my shield hasn't been cut, would it be any different than the $34 shield?
Click to expand...
Depends on what year your Cruze is. The newer years had a redesigned shield that didn't need to be cut, but was the same size as the ones that were cut.
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E
in my case, a 2014
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eddiefromcali said:
in my case, a 2014
Click to expand...
So your shield doesn't cover as much of the lower body as the $34.00 one. By 2014 the saw procedure was being done by the manufacturer of the shields before they were sent to Lordstown for vehicle assembly.

It does keep the bottom of the engine quite clean, especially in salty winter roads of the midwest. In Cali, is it worth it? That depends. Keeps undercarriage dry if you drive through a lot of water in the rainy seasons.
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obermd
eddiefromcali said:
in my case, a 2014
Click to expand...
It has the cut shield.

Also, the original shield needed a couple more holes drilled in it. After you put the shield on the car sit the car on level ground and you'll see a couple of low points. Oil will collect at these points. Drill a hole in each low point and the oil will drain out instead of sitting in the engine bay near the exhaust manifold. From the pictures it appears the other problem with the original shield has been fixed - a lip around the entire rear of the shield that held leaked fluids on the shield.
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XtremeRevolution
carbon02 said:
So your shield doesn't cover as much of the lower body as the $34.00 one. By 2014 the saw procedure was being done by the manufacturer of the shields before they were sent to Lordstown for vehicle assembly.

It does keep the bottom of the engine quite clean, especially in salty winter roads of the midwest. In Cali, is it worth it? That depends. Keeps undercarriage dry if you drive through a lot of water in the rainy seasons.
Click to expand...
There is reduced road noise, improved fuel economy, improved highway stability, and cleaner engine bay from using this. Even if you aren't getting salty winter roads, you are still getting dust and grime.
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Rivergoer
Excellent info.

I take it this does not apply to 1.8L or Diesel models?
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LiveTrash
Rivergoer said:
Excellent info.

I take it this does not apply to 1.8L or Diesel models?
Click to expand...
I would tend to think it would not. I was just at the shop with my Diesel. They had it up on the hoist and I had a peak under it. The shield on mine seems rather large and covers quite a bit of the engine bay, similar to the large one pictured in this thread.
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XtremeRevolution
Rivergoer said:
Excellent info.

I take it this does not apply to 1.8L or Diesel models?
Click to expand...
It will not fit on the diesel, but it looks like the 1.8 uses the same shield.
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Blasirl
XtremeRevolution said:
Want better fuel economy, a cleaner engine bay, reduced road noise, and better highway stability? This thread is for you!

Back in 2011 and 2012, the Cruze and the Verano both used the same engine shield. It was a great design. Then, the NHTSA started investigating engine fires. Apparently, sloppy oil change techs would spill oil all over the engine bay, which would accumulate on the shield, splash on the exhaust, and catch fire. Bullshit recall ensued to address the PR nightmare.

The solution? Sawzall recall (hey, that rhymes)! I kid you not, the instructions literally told the dealer tech to take a reciprocating saw and cut up the engine shield. I declined the recall until I had to get some warranty work and they blackmailed me into getting the recall done in order to perform the work. I fought with them enough to get them to sell me the Verano shield (which was identical) for dealer cost ($80).

At some point, GM redesigned the engine shield for the Cruze so it had effectively the same size footprint.
The reason I'm sharing this is so those of you who have money burning a hole in your wallet would have a productive way to spend it, and so those of you who live in cold climates with salt on the road would have a cleaner engine bay. The Verano/Pre-recall Cruze shield covers much more of the engine bay. This has the following benefits:

- Significantly reduced engine bay dust/dirt/salt
- Significantly reduced road noise
- Significantly improved aerodynamics and cross-wind stability
- Slightly improved fuel economy

Please note, this only fits the 2011-2016.5 Cruze 1.4L and 1.8L. It does not fit the 2.0L Diesel.
Click to expand...
XR, I forgot what year you have, but can you talk more to the bolt holes / hardware issue for those of us that have a 13-16.5?
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XtremeRevolution
Blasirl said:
XR, I forgot what year you have, but can you talk more to the bolt holes / hardware issue for those of us that have a 13-16.5?
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There are anchors that go into the rear of the subframe for the shield to attach to. I'm not entirely certain on what hardware is missing but I assume that's part of it.

Sent from my BlackBerry PRIV using Tapatalk
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C
I have not confirmed the information in this thread, but page 3 of the post linked below discusses some of the issues that I mentioned above with the speed nuts in the frame.

I think the new info is that the splash shield is available in the aftermarket with reasonable shipping. I think the dealers cost for original shields, or shields from the Verano made most people just accept the dealership hack job recall.

Someone would have to go through the part pages for a 2011 or 2012 cruze and gather the info on the bolts, speed nuts, and fasteners. Either on Nally GMC Wholesale parts (Google it), or your favorite online site for GM part numbers. I mention Nally because back in the day they had parts lists up before GM parts direct, and I believe the would have the pages for the splash shield. I remember seeing them.

This entire topic is coming back from the dead.. There were a lot of posts back in 2012-2013 about people complaining about the recall and reinstall splash shields.

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/25-g...-engine-splash-shield-need-part-number-3.html
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Blasirl
XtremeRevolution said:
There are anchors that go into the rear of the subframe for the shield to attach to. I'm not entirely certain on what hardware is missing but I assume that's part of it.

Sent from my BlackBerry PRIV using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply.

carbon02 said:
I have not confirmed the information in this thread, but page 3 of the post linked below discusses some of the issues that I mentioned above with the speed nuts in the frame.

I think the new info is that the splash shield is available in the aftermarket with reasonable shipping. I think the dealers cost for original shields, or shields from the Verano made most people just accept the dealership hack job recall.

Someone would have to go through the part pages for a 2011 or 2012 cruze and gather the info on the bolts, speed nuts, and fasteners. Either on Nally GMC Wholesale parts (Google it), or your favorite online site for GM part numbers. I mention Nally because back in the day they had parts lists up before GM parts direct, and I believe the would have the pages for the splash shield. I remember seeing them.

This entire topic is coming back from the dead.. There were a lot of posts back in 2012-2013 about people complaining about the recall and reinstall splash shields.

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/25-g...-engine-splash-shield-need-part-number-3.html
Click to expand...

This may be exactly what I need. This is a post from that thread with what seems to be all the needed info. I am going to try and verify in a few moments.


evanblar said:
Installed it this morning.

My car is an early production 2013 (built 8/12), so it came with a factory cut shield. The full shield uses 8 bolts, the cut shield 6. The bolts thread into expanding nuts which clip into rectangular shaped blind holes in the subframe, and there were two missing nuts on mine. I wound up using plastic drywall anchors in those holes as a temporary measure until I get the correct parts. If your shield was cut in the recall I would imagine the nuts would still be there and you would only need 2 extra bolts.

Procedure as follows:

-Check to see if all 8 expanding nuts are present in the subframe - the 2 extras are needed on the front middle drivers side, and the far rear drivers side.

-Jack up the car and support at jacking points behind front wheels. I didn't get mine very high up as fasteners can all be reached from the front or sides.

-Remove side plastic retainers attaching wheel splash shields to engine shield, 2 each side.

-Remove plastic retainers attaching front wheel air dams to shield, 1 each side.

-Remove bolts using a 7mm socket. The cut shield will have 2 on the drivers side and 4 on the passengers.

-Carefully remove the remaining plastic retainers on the bottom in the middle. There will be one on each half of the cut shield. I removed mine with a gentle twisting motion to prevent damage.

Installation is reverse. Install all plastic retainers before doing a final tightening of the bolts.


Part numbers:

95079891 full shield

94520301 bolt (2 extra needed)

24441317 nut (2 extra if not present in the subframe)


95216004 retainer (2) - these are the plastic retainers which go into the bottom of the shield, these clip in and can be easily damaged when removing. They differ from the ones used on the sides behind the wheels, which have a center plug which can be removed and reinstalled easily.

Its strange to open the hood and not see the ground!
Click to expand...


Pilfered from the link Carbon02 posted above
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Blasirl
This is what I found.

24441317 U-Nut Line art





95216004 Splash Shield Retainer


94520301 bolt

Don't forget that it is about $14 in shipping as well, even for only one nut.
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I ordered the Verano splash shield from Amazon a couple of weeks ago and installed it on my Cruze over the weekend after an oil change. I have had the "recall" shield for a long time, but decided it was time to put the original design back. I have to admit, I was skeptical of the claim of reduced road noise, but damned if my car didn't seem quieter on my drive to work on Monday.
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DMC said:
I ordered the Verano splash shield from Amazon a couple of weeks ago and installed it on my Cruze over the weekend after an oil change. I have had the "recall" shield for a long time, but decided it was time to put the original design back. I have to admit, I was skeptical of the claim of reduced road noise, but damned if my car didn't seem quieter on my drive to work on Monday.
Click to expand...
I just removed my factory uncut shield for about the 3rd time doing maintenance. What did you use for the additional fasterners required? Where did you get them? Specifically the sheet metal screw with the washer attached? I'm missing some of those. It appears they are 8mm heads, but I haven't found anything close yet, and not looking for dealer hardware at $5.00 per screw.

My research shows that M4.3-13 or something like that is the screw size. Must be a metric thing.

After 8 years, you could eat of my oil pan and tranny, and living in the rust belt with salt, that's why I kept the shield.

Glad it worked for you, and they are still avalible.
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Blasirl
I used some Harbor Freight panel nuts and screws for some of them. I listed them here:
How I installed a Verano engine shield
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Ravenkeeper
Glad that I stumbled across this one. Been wanting to replace all of the ones on my '14 Eco. Other than the "Stealerships," where can I get them?
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