# Oil leak left front of car



## Suny (Jun 21, 2017)

Walked to the car ('14 diesel 52000km) this afternoon and noticed a little wet spot in the dirt. For fun i took a quick peak and theres a leak on the left front of the car that goes down the panels on the underside. Is there a common issue with the diesel or the 6speed? Since its still under warranty id like to it in asap. Just wondering if theres something common with the cars.


----------



## Rivergoer (Mar 30, 2017)

Suny said:


> Walked to the car ('14 diesel 52000km) this afternoon and noticed a little wet spot in the dirt. For fun i took a quick peak and theres a leak on the left front of the car that goes down the panels on the underside. Is there a common issue with the diesel or the 6speed? Since its still under warranty id like to it in asap. Just wondering if theres something common with the cars.


I took my ‘14 CTD (6 spd auto, 80K miles) in for a left side oil leak. Chevy dealer determined transmission fluid was leaking at the case halves. 

GM stated the trans is “not serviceable” so the transmission was replaced free of charge under the 5 year/100K mile powertrain warranty. 

No issues since work was completed in December 2017.

Not sayin’ this is your issue...just one possibility. Good luck, hope it’s resolved soon and hopefully for cheeeep!!


----------



## Suny (Jun 21, 2017)

Maybe ill repost this in the tech side to see how often trans problems are or if theres an faq.


----------



## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

A more common problem than the transmission itself leaking is that the transmission cooler lines leak. This is extremely common on the Diesel (as well as about every GM vehicle ever produced).


----------



## LulzT1 (Aug 24, 2015)

When you say left, you mean driver side of car? Do you have a picture?


----------



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

revjpeterson said:


> A more common problem than the transmission itself leaking is that the transmission cooler lines leak. This is extremely common on the Diesel (as well as about every GM vehicle ever produced).


Honestly - most any vehicle by anyone using the same style of lines. I can't say anything about their warranty coverage - but GM's explicitly does *not* cover them under the PT warranty. 

Ours have been leaking for quite some time - I am waiting for Rock Auto to stock them again. They did, and they had all the dimensions, so I thought of having Inline Tube make up some nice braided replacements, but then suddenly the part was gone.


----------



## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

MP81 said:


> Honestly - most any vehicle by anyone using the same style of lines. I can't say anything about their warranty coverage - but GM's explicitly does *not* cover them under the PT warranty.
> 
> Ours have been leaking for quite some time - I am waiting for Rock Auto to stock them again. They did, and they had all the dimensions, so I thought of having Inline Tube make up some nice braided replacements, but then suddenly the part was gone.


Yeah. I ran into that problem with the warranty, and ended up replacing them myself last fall. None of my Chrysler/Jeep products with those lines have ever had a problem, other than one steering line on my Jeep that has seeped for years. I've gotten tons of practice over the years at replacing them on my Grand Prixs and Luminas, though. Those were a lot easier than the Cruze, since there was room to run the upper line without snaking it through a maze of other components to find the right path back to the connection point on the radiator.


----------



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

It didn't look _too_ bad when I had it up on the lift changing the trans fluid. I'm going to borrow my buddy's lift again, as well as said buddy, when I get new lines. 

You happen to have the part number for the CTD's lines? Or maybe I should just JB weld them - it's low enough pressure.


----------



## NHRA (Oct 12, 2014)

What goes bad on the cooler lines is the Crimp starts too seep a small amount of fluid. Cut off the flexible part of the line and replace with 3/16 fuel hose and 2 small hose clamps on each end of the line. The crimp goes bad from the extreem hot and cold freeze cycles of winter.


----------



## frankh (Aug 25, 2014)

NHRA said:


> What goes bad on the cooler lines is the Crimp starts too seep a small amount of fluid. Cut off the flexible part of the line and replace with 3/16 fuel hose and 2 small hose clamps on each end of the line. The crimp goes bad from the extreem hot and cold freeze cycles of winter.


Actually its 3/8ths hose and you can get the proper TOC (transmission oil cooler hose for $2/foot). Its quite a bit stiffer than fuel hose and hence a bit tough to push over the swage in the steel line.. For a detailed explanation on how I did it see here..

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/129-...ixed-leaking-tranny-cooler-lines-6-bucks.html


----------



## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

MP81 said:


> It didn't look _too_ bad when I had it up on the lift changing the trans fluid. I'm going to borrow my buddy's lift again, as well as said buddy, when I get new lines.
> 
> You happen to have the part number for the CTD's lines? Or maybe I should just JB weld them - it's low enough pressure.


[h=1]23143028[/h]
https://smile.amazon.com/ACDelco-23...automotive&vehicleId=4&vehicleType=automotive

Only cost $48 when I ordered them. Looks like demand might be rising and driving up the price.


----------



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Okay - those are the ones I saw, they're about $51 on Rock Auto - but oddly enough, both Amazon and RA say they're for 2015 only. I'm pretty sure they changed nothing between the 2014 and 2015 Diesels, and yours is a 2014 so...I'll be ordering these. Doubt I can get them installed before driving to Atlanta next week (I'd prefer to do it on a lift), but who knows, maybe my buddy has time after work...


----------



## NHRA (Oct 12, 2014)

Sorry for the confusion you are correct 3/8. Thanks.


----------



## frankh (Aug 25, 2014)

MP81 said:


> Okay - those are the ones I saw, they're about $51 on Rock Auto - but oddly enough, both Amazon and RA say they're for 2015 only. I'm pretty sure they changed nothing between the 2014 and 2015 Diesels, and yours is a 2014 so...I'll be ordering these. Doubt I can get them installed before driving to Atlanta next week (I'd prefer to do it on a lift), but who knows, maybe my buddy has time after work...



To be honest the new hoses will probably leak eventually anyway due to the crappy design of the crimps/grooves in the pipes.. You're really much better of following the "6 dollar fix" as at least then you will only be doing it once.


----------



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

They absolutely will leak. But I am on a limited schedule if I want to get them done before we leave for vacation, which does not really allow for modifying parts. 

I'll keep the old ones and have them ready to fix, permenantly, when it comes time again. It'll be right around time to change the trans fluid again anyway.


----------



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

revjpeterson said:


> Those were a lot easier than the Cruze, since there was room to run the upper line without snaking it through a maze of other components to find the right path back to the connection point on the radiator.


Just finished doing them - took my buddy and I four hours, with a lift...absolutely no room at all to work. Getting the top line out of the rad was a major time vampire, as well as trying to get the snap rings back on...absolutely awful.


----------



## KpaxFAQ (Sep 1, 2013)

MP81 said:


> Just finished doing them - took my buddy and I four hours, with a lift...absolutely no room at all to work. Getting the top line out of the rad was a major time vampire, as well as trying to get the snap rings back on...absolutely awful.


Greaaaat


----------



## frankh (Aug 25, 2014)

not sure why this was so difficult.. I don't have the diesel so maybe its different?

Hardest part was the radiator connections for sure, but not that difficult. I removed the bottom plastic panel then removed the air hose between the throttle body and intercooler. That gave me enough access to the hose connections from below. Then picked out the clips. I found the clips were easy to reinstall as long as you put the pipes in first.

On the gas engine I dropped the left motor mount (the one on the top) and flexed the mount upwards using a rope through one of the holes and a ratchet strap (its flexible because its mounted in rubber) This provided enough room to pass the metal pipe through.

Like I said, maybe the diesel is different but it was not hard on the 1.4 turbo.


----------



## revjpeterson (Oct 2, 2013)

MP81 said:


> Just finished doing them - took my buddy and I four hours, with a lift...absolutely no room at all to work. Getting the top line out of the rad was a major time vampire, as well as trying to get the snap rings back on...absolutely awful.


I had that same problem. Because of the way the upper line is squeezed in, when you try to pull it out, it gets out of square and jams. I ended up prying it out with a pair of long hook-nose pliers (the ones I found on about my 3rd or 4th trip to Harbor Freight to try to find some tool to help me reach those retainer clips with my fat hands). 

https://www.harborfreight.com/11-inch-long-reach-needlenose-pliers-with-45-offset-jaws-39537.html

I also shot most of a box of those retainer clips across my garage trying to surgically snake them in and onto the radiator with a pair of those locking surgical clamp pliers. 



frankh said:


> not sure why this was so difficult.. I don't have the diesel so maybe its different?
> 
> Hardest part was the radiator connections for sure, but not that difficult. I removed the bottom plastic panel then removed the air hose between the throttle body and intercooler. That gave me enough access to the hose connections from below. Then picked out the clips. I found the clips were easy to reinstall as long as you put the pipes in first.
> 
> ...


It is a little different. We have a lot less engine bay space than the 1.4T models. (imagine putting another half an engine in your bay for comparison) Some of the clearances are like doing laparoscopic surgery with magnets and pliers because it's too small to squeeze a hand through.


----------



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Yeah...really working _in_ the engine bay of the CTD just shows how much they crammed that giant thing in there.

We, thankfully, didn't shoot any of the clips anywhere and were able to reuse the original ones. I think the bottom one got stretched out a bit, but we got the black retainer over top of it, so that should hold it in place, haha.

I'm thinking of writing a how-to:

Step One: Don't.


----------

