# questions / comments from new 2012 owner



## eegad (Feb 3, 2012)

A few question and comments from a new 2012 Cruze LS owner with only about 600 miles on the car so far...

- My car sometimes makes clicking noises when slowly coming to a stop (light pedal pressure approaching a red light, let's say). It's been happening more often lately. Sounds like it's coming from the rear wheels. I've found a few posts (mostly older) about this issue, but no real explanation as to what causes it. I plan to bring the car in to be looked at when I get the time in a week or two, but am curious if anyone knows more about it.

- Curious about the auto transmission. I know it's really not that smooth with its' shifting, and it's not just on my car, because another Cruze I test drove was the same way (it's the only thing I really dislike about the car). Having said that, I find that it's usually smooth enough for me during upshifting. But what I constantly notice is when you're slowing down and it does a VERY noticeable downshift (from 3rd to 2nd I guess, right around 25 mph). Anyone know specifically WHY that is?? My other comment with regard to this is that on my previous cars (cobalt, grand am, mustang), when I would take my foot off the gas and let the car coast towards a stop for, say, a light turning red in the distance, the car felt like it was just gliding to a stop. On the Cruze you can actually feel the transmission slowing the car down and holding it back. Again WHY? Surely this behavior would tend to DECREASE fuel economy rather than raise it???

- Is there a way to disable the seat belt chime? On all previous cars I could pull a plug under the seat (or short it), but with all the airbags and such on this car I don't wanna mess around unless I know for sure how to do it.

- Is there any way to disable the daytime running lights? I always turn them off manually; would rather they just be always set to off. Again, on my last car (a Cobalt), you could pull a fuse to disable them.

- I doubt it, but is there a way to set the "cabin air recirculation" to always be on? Any time you turn the air/heat on/off, it always resets to not recirculate the air. Well I always have either the heat or air turned on when driving (I never drive with windows open), and I always click on the recirculate button. Why can't it just stay on as the default???

- Anybody know much about the USB feature and the internals of the radio unit? Specifically I'm wondering WHY the car has to "index" my USB flashdrive every time I start the car. Obviously it needs to do so when a new drive is attached. After the indexing finishes, all is well and apparently it has built itself a database of all the music files which it is keeping in it's own internal RAM. But apparently it wipes the database when you turn the car off. Why??? If the radio unit has internal flash memory, then it requires no power to keep the data. If it has regular RAM, sure it takes minimal power to hold the data (so I could see it wiping it and turning it off after several days as a "battery saving" feature) - but not every time you turn the car off. Stop for groceries, and oops, gotta index that drive again! Why do I care? Only because the USB feature could be SO nice to have, but it's annoying the was it currently works since I have to wait 5 minutes every time I start the car before I can actually access my albums/songs via the menu. (note, this is with a 16gb flash drive containing just about 3000 songs).



Overall I like the car. Love the way it looks; and the interior (looks, seats, layout) and standard features are a HUGE improvement over the Cobalt. But the one thing I would say to GM is that the transmission in this car is by far the worst of any car I've had.


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## XtremeAaron (Jan 22, 2012)

My trans is smooth as butter, be it upshifting or downshifting, as well as coasting to a stop. Id say you have an issue with yours.


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## Eugene_C (Mar 15, 2012)

In order to keep from re-indexing the flash drive every time the radio restarts might mean the audio system needs to keep power to both itself and the USB port. The USB port could potentially be a big power draw depending on what was plugged into it, so it shuts it off. Computers are also pretty stupid; without keeping the USB drive powered up it has no way of knowing that the drive in there now is the same one that was in there when you shut it off, so it has to reload. 

You might find a faster USB drive someplace that has better performance, but 16 GB is a lot these days and most USB drives aren't exactly known for speed. You might also try a small USB hard disk drive and see if it can read that.


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## cruzeman (Mar 13, 2011)

Mine only indexes the first time I put it in, after that it's smooth sailing


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## Eugene_C (Mar 15, 2012)

XtremeAaron said:


> My trans is smooth as butter, be it upshifting or downshifting, as well as coasting to a stop. Id say you have an issue with yours.


When I first got my Vibe with the 5-speed auto I thought it shifted horribly. Now it seems fine. Either the computer learned and adapted or my impressions were just distorted because I was not used to an automatic with a lot of gears. Not sure which.


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## Eugene_C (Mar 15, 2012)

cruzeman said:


> Mine only indexes the first time I put it in, after that it's smooth sailing


That's interesting. That means that it can remember the index and drive without having to keep it powered. What size is your drive? Maybe your brand of drive is more compatible with the driver in the radio or maybe yours is so much smaller that you don't notice the load time. Could also possibly be a write issue to the drive but that seems like a long shot.


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## cruzeman (Mar 13, 2011)

I believe it's a hp drive no larger then 5 gb


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## Eugene_C (Mar 15, 2012)

Okay, I have a crazy idea that might help the OP. Try "De-fragging" your large USB drive if you have a defrag program that will do removable drives. It will probably take overnight to run, but might be worth it. The other thing you could do is wipe it clean and re-load it. It might help, it might not.

It might also be that with more than 3000 files, the index for the larger drive is slowing down the computer in the radio by taking up memory.


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## ErikBEggs (Aug 20, 2011)

eegad said:


> - Is there any way to disable the daytime running lights? I always turn them off manually; would rather they just be always set to off. Again, on my last car (a Cobalt), you could pull a fuse to disable them.


Yea the nob is located on the bottom left corner of the cockpit next to the steering wheel. Simply rotate it to the left until "all off" is selected. Then you manually control the lights. However, I don't really know why you wouldn't want the auto-light feature on headlights during the day are just safer than no headlights.


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

eegad said:


> A few question and comments from a new 2012 Cruze LS owner with only about 600 miles on the car so far...
> 
> - My car sometimes makes clicking noises when slowly coming to a stop (light pedal pressure approaching a red light, let's say). It's been happening more often lately. Sounds like it's coming from the rear wheels. I've found a few posts (mostly older) about this issue, but no real explanation as to what causes it. I plan to bring the car in to be looked at when I get the time in a week or two, but am curious if anyone knows more about it.
> 
> ...



eegad,
I would like to congratulate you on the purchase of your new Cruze! I am happy to hear that you love your new vehicle! You are able to turn the daylight running lamps off. In order to turn the DRL off or on again you have to turn the exterior lamps control to the off position and then release. There is not a way to turn off the seat belt warning chime, which is there for safety reasons. To improve fuel efficiency and to cool the vehicle faster, recirculation may be automatically selected in warm weather. The recirculation light will not come on. Select recirculation; press it again to select outside air. There is not a way to have this function to turn on automatically when you turn your vehicle on, you must press the button. You stated you do not like the way that the transmission shifts gears. The transmission has to "learn" the way you drive. If you feel that your transmission is not functioning properly I would suggest that you take your vehicle into your dealer and have them look into this for you. I would also suggest that you have the dealership look into the "clicking noises" that you are referring to. I would like you to keep me updated on this. If you have any further questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact me.
Thank you,
Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service


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## Eugene_C (Mar 15, 2012)

Chevy Customer Service said:


> eegad,
> ... You stated you do not like the way that the transmission shifts gears. The transmission has to "learn" the way you drive. ...
> Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service


Wow, thanks for answering this! I had a theory about this with my '09 Pontiac. Both the shifting and the accelerator seemed to smooth out after about a month or so. Does the accelerator also adapt to your driving?


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

ErikBEggs said:


> Yea the nob is located on the bottom left corner of the cockpit next to the steering wheel. Simply rotate it to the left until "all off" is selected. Then you manually control the lights. However, I don't really know why you wouldn't want the auto-light feature on headlights during the day are just safer than no headlights.


Does that setting remain in the system after you restart your car?


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## eegad (Feb 3, 2012)

XtremeRevolution said:


> Does that setting remain in the system after you restart your car?


nope, that was my question. i knew i could turn them off each time; i was just hoping there was a way to make it so that they would default to being off.


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## eegad (Feb 3, 2012)

Eugene_C said:


> Try "De-fragging" your large USB drive if you have a defrag program that will do removable drives. It will probably take overnight to run, but might be worth it. The other thing you could do is wipe it clean and re-load it. It might help, it might not.


yep, i was thinking along the same lines, so i did try reformatting and copying all the music back onto the drive fresh a week ago. didn't make any difference as far as indexing-every-time-i-start-the-car. if it didn't specifically say in the manual that up to 10,000 songs were accessible on a usb drive i'd agree that maybe i was overloading it. but hey, i'm only at 30% of what they say the system will handle, so i wouldn't expect performance to be degraded.


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## GoldenCruze (Dec 18, 2011)

See what I can answer here... Seat belt chime - Just buckle up. Seriously. Auto Trans - Mine smoothed out after 2000, - 3,000 miles. Still a little abrupt on downshifts when coasting, but the idea is to slow the car down. Really needed on downhill situations. USB drives - The radio is not designed to retain any memory of the USB drive. What does happen is when it indexes the drive for the first time, it writes files to the drive that makes future indexing faster. Less than a minute for me. Cabin air - Recirculation is helpful in the summer when using air conditioning. Fresh air is most desirable in the winter for defogging the windshield and windows. Because of that, it defauts to fresh air on every start. DTR - I love daytime running lights. After spending time driving in Canada where they are required, I saw how well it works for making it easy to spot other traffic. I think that DTR should be mandatory in the U.S. as well. I hope that at least all cars in the future will have them like with the Cruze. They make the road safer.


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

Eugene_C said:


> Wow, thanks for answering this! I had a theory about this with my '09 Pontiac. Both the shifting and the accelerator seemed to smooth out after about a month or so. Does the accelerator also adapt to your driving?



Eugene_C,
The vehicle learns the way you drive after some time driving. The accelerator and the transmission work together so after some time it should be it should smooth out. If you feel that you are having different issues with your vehicle I would suggest that you have your dealership look into them for you. If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me.
Thank you,
Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service


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## Beaker (Mar 21, 2012)

I am sure there is a fuse for the Daytime Running Lights. I disabled them on my last car. The question is does that fuse control anything else on the Cruze. I also plan to do this though because I despise daytime running lights. I am perfectly capable of deciding whether or not to turn on my headlights.

Edit: Apparently it is not just a fuse. This annoys me.


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## frosty2692 (Jun 1, 2013)

Seatbelt chime- yes you can disable this without messing with the airbag system.I will put a video on youtube soon. In short there is a black and a yellow plug under a removable pouch under the seat. Unplug the black one. Yes I know I could just buckle the belt but I choose not to... mind your business nay sayers!


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## newsguy99 (May 24, 2013)

There should be some sort of computer chip update to help us people that hate running DRL's.. If they did that, just put in a command that says, make default... after you select the option you want. Then, at around DUSK, the light sensor can display a msg saying Turn your lights on!
I'm OK with running DRL's.. but, I'd hate to have to spend extra bucks on replacing headlamp bulbs (though they are fairly cheap), more often, just because they are always on.


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## greg1466 (Aug 29, 2012)

Mine only indexes when the drive is connected (*most of the time*). Which is really nice since I listen to 30-90 minute podcasts a lot and the system remembers where it is. But note that 'most of the time' comment. For reasons that I have yet to determine, sometimes it re-indexes even when I haven;t taken the drive out. I've played with pausing and switching sources before powering off, but have yet to see a pattern as to when it re-indexes. Which is VERY frustrating when it does it when I'm half way into a 90 minute podcast. Especially when the fast forward/reverse is so painful to use. It's fine for 3 minute songs, but forwarding 45 minutes into a podcast takes for ever.


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## ScarletFever (May 9, 2012)

*Got the Chime ?*



frosty2692 said:


> Seatbelt chime- yes you can disable this without messing with the airbag system.I will put a video on youtube soon. In short there is a black and a yellow plug under a removable pouch under the seat. Unplug the black one. Yes I know I could just buckle the belt but I choose not to... mind your business nay sayers!


It's not that we don't intend to buckle up; it's that I will buckle up AFTER starting the car and I don't want to listen to those very annoying chimes while i'm gettin comfortable. 
'SoapBox'


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