# Clutch is stuck to the floor



## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

2018 Chevy Cruze diesel sedan 6mt

I'm on vacation in Vermont and this morning the clutch goes all the way to the floor and sticks there. I cannot shift into gear.

Yesterday I noticed the clutch was "erratic." First thing in the morning it seemed like the takeup point of the clutch was very close to the floor, but after a little bit of driving it went back to what felt close to normal. Now I have this problem today.

Suggestions?


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## lbkNhubert (May 18, 2017)

Sounds like the slave cylinder. Hopefully you're still under warranty, even then it took me three times to get Chevy finally to replace it. If you are comfortable doing so you can limp it home by rev matching to shift between gears. I was fortunate to be able to do that the first and third times that it went out. The middle time I too was on vacation, had it towed and rented a car. That's another sordid story - it was the weekend and the dealer's preferred rental company was closed. I grabbed any car that I could, and was assured by the service manager at my home dealer that I would be reimbursed for the cost (around 1k). I wasn't, and he won't return my calls.

I hope that your episode goes more smoothly. Chevy will tow the car to the nearest dealer if you call roadside assistance. Insist that they change the slave cylinder. It's a difficult repair and they do everything they can to dodge it. In my case they replaced the master cylinder, the issue recurred, they replaced some pipe in the system (this was the vacation episode), the problem recurred, and finally, they replaced the slave cylinder.

Good luck!


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## 6speedTi (May 18, 2018)




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## 6speedTi (May 18, 2018)

GM has a few Service Bulletins leading up to this one. This is the latest one I found. All to common.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

The car was towed to the Chevy dealership in Burlington (I was camping on Grand Isle, on Lake Champlain). The tow truck flatbed had a bee-eye-itch of a time getting back to where my car was parked!

Because Vermont is a state where they want the possible COVID-19 infected plague rats to hit the bricks ASAP, they got me into the shop. The diagnosis was the above TSB telling me I could just yank the clutch pedal back up if it happened again and to go see my hometown dealer about getting that fixed. Oh, and it was $133 because it's not covered by the powertrain warranty.

Sounds like it is the clutch slave cylinder. It still seems to be driving intermittently. The clutch isn't what I'm used to feeling, it engages very far into the pedal travel (almost all the way to the floor), and when I parked it on top of Mt Washington in NH the pedal stuck again when I started the car to go back down the road.

In the next days I'm headed to Maine (Acadia National Park) and then on the return to Montauk NY, NYC, and probably some places in Pennsylvania. Here's to hoping it holds together for as long as I need it.


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## lbkNhubert (May 18, 2017)

With no offense intended, it's not the stupid pipe. It's Chevy being cheap. I hope for your sake that it doesn't go completely out on you during your trip, but given how it felt and when it went out the three times that it happened to me, I wouldn't count on it. I was fortunate that only once when it was fully out was I in a situation where I had to do any stopping. In that instance I pulled it out of gear, then when the light changed, gently pushed it into first, letting it move the car until I could get enough of a mesh to get it fully into gear. That was late at night at a light to get onto the highway. Once you're moving it's not terribly difficult to manage shifting with out the clutch. I wouldn't want to deal with it in a situation with stop and go or heavy traffic. Whenever you get it back to your primary dealer I'd advise you to insist that they change the slave cylinder. I went a week or two after the master cylinder was replaced before it failed again, and maybe a week after the above pipe was replaced before the third failure.

It looks like that TSB calls for the slave cylinder replacement in the gas engine, but not in the diesel, so you likely will have to battle to get it replaced.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Driving the past few days has the clutch feel/engagement all over the place. First thing in the morning it will stick and I have to really stomp/pump it a few times. Then, the pedal will have to be absolutely all the way to the floor to shift gears and the clutch engagement point is very far toward the floor. Then, sometimes while driving, it will be back to what I consider to be normal. It really fades in and out as an intermittent problem.

I'll see the dealership sometime next week. The powertrain warranty does cover the slave cylinder, so if I can get them to replace that maybe it will fix it.


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

Barry, the powertrain does cover the slave cylinder(clutch actuator) the problem is, that the PI that keeps getting talked about specifies replacing the pipe. The pipe isn't covered. The procedure called out in that document isn't a powertrain covered repair. 

To all who keep talking about it, I hope this is the last time I need to say this, but the gas cars get a slave cylinder because they are switching over to the diesel hydraulic system. The diesels get a new pipe and elbow, because the elbow gets clogged with debris from the pipe, the gas cars also get a slave cylinder because they get switched over to diesel parts and the new parts being installed won't connect to the original slave cylinder.

If you experience this out of warranty, or want to try to fix it yourself, you can remove the elbow, and drill out the orifice to a larger size. This elbow is basically an anti-abuse valve for the clutch. It's so that no matter how quick you dump the clutch it can only engage at a certain speed. Cobalts had the same issue. Except many Balts didn't have the small orifice, but would get one installed during clutch or trans service, especially if abuse was expected. There was even an ABS update that was applied on cars that broke axles and transmissions.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

lbkNhubert said:


> If you are comfortable doing so you can limp it home by rev matching to shift between gears. I was fortunate to be able to do that the first and third times that it went out.


Performance was intermittent all last week and yesterday, on the interstate during construction, it got really REALLY bad. I went to stop and the clutch went to the floor and did nothing. I jerked it out of gear and then couldn't get it into gear. I had to do the trick of pushing and pushing toward 1st gear to let the syncro slowly limp the car up to speed before it would jam into 1st gear, and then just rip through shifts without a clutch. Doing this in stop & go traffic for several miles was torture. Then, later that evening, as I was nearing my home dealer, it was back to normal. I took the car home. Went to take it to the dealership this morning and it was back to non-functional. I was limping it across town and it was back to working normally at the dealer.

It was really nice of the dealership to say it was a $79.95 diagnostic fee after I was already billed a $125 diagnostic fee in Burlington VT, and after I handed them the TSB and said "This is the problem." They insisted they couldn't take a diagnosis from another dealership.

Quote for repair today is about $500. That's nice to have a car that's 2-years-old and already needs a major repair. My Hyundai went 150,000 miles with never any trouble.


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## lbkNhubert (May 18, 2017)

Glad to hear that you got it back ok, sorry to hear that you had such a hassle in the traffic. In the instances where it occurred with me, once the pedal would go to the floor without engaging, it would never come back to working again. I minimized shifting when that occurred, so maybe I didn't push it enough. I hope that you are able to get it repaired ok, and under warranty. Best off luck, please let us know how it goes.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

lbkNhubert said:


> I hope that you are able to get it repaired ok, and under warranty. Best off luck, please let us know how it goes.


I'm certainly going to write some letters to GM customer service to see what they do. Two diagnostic fees (if I have to pay a second one - I'll argue with that dealership tomorrow about that) is a bit much. Even then, it's aggravating that gasoline vehicles with this issue get powertrain warranty coverage but diesel vehicles with THE. EXACT. SAME. PROBLEM. do not get that coverage.

I could have bought a Honda Civic and not had this problem.


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

You're assuming it's just the elbow causing this. If your slave cylinder (clutch actuator) is the problem, it's covered under powertrain, just like a gas car. The fuel type doesn't affect warranty coverage on the clutch, only the causal part does.

The fact that your pedal goes to the floor and doesn't actuate the clutch is an indication it's likely not (just) the elbow concern from the document.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> You're assuming it's just the elbow causing this. If your slave cylinder (clutch actuator) is the problem, it's covered under powertrain, just like a gas car. The fuel type doesn't affect warranty coverage on the clutch, only the causal part does.
> 
> The fact that your pedal goes to the floor and doesn't actuate the clutch is an indication it's likely not (just) the elbow concern from the document.


I'm aware of that problem. I'm gleefully awaiting the result of this. The dealership is doing the repair that I'll have to pay for out-of-pocket and they said the slave cylinder is not the cause of [or contributing to] the problem.

This will be nice to see how quickly it goes bad again, if it goes bad again.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

$487.98 charged by Miles Chevrolet in Decatur IL. They included a $79.99 diagnostic fee because they absolutely refused to accept the diagnostic ($133.75) from Key Chevrolet in Burlington VT. The repair was the hydraulic hose and elbow, they insisted the slave cylinder was fine, and none of it was covered under warranty. That's a total out-of-pocket cost of $621.71.

The car made it 12 miles before the clutch went to the floor and it will not go into gear. It's being towed back to Miles Chevrolet for me to scream at them on the phone in the morning.


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## lbkNhubert (May 18, 2017)

Ugh, sorry. Good luck. Hopefully you can get a full refund for the work. Chevy's handling of this issue is nothing short of atrocious. There should be a full recall.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

lbkNhubert said:


> Ugh, sorry. Good luck. Hopefully you can get a full refund for the work. Chevy's handling of this issue is nothing short of atrocious. There should be a full recall.


I took Hyundai to small claims court over a warranty issue and I won (they settled). I'll do the same for Chevrolet. I live 2 blocks from the courthouse so I can walk there to file, I have a lot of free time on my hands, I play things for the long game, and I'm straight-up a D-hole about things like this.

The tow truck driver helped me park the car right in front of both entrances to their service department. If they want to open tomorrow morning, they have to do something about my car.


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## lbkNhubert (May 18, 2017)

That's pretty funny. I know that the situation stinks, but the car blocking the service bays is a nice touch. I'll be interested in following how it goes for you. Hopefully they suck it up, replace the slave cylinder, and you experience no issues after that. I hope that your weekend goes better. It had to be terribly frustrating to have the clutch go out that quickly.


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## 6speedTi (May 18, 2018)

Barry Allen said:


> $487.98 charged by Miles Chevrolet in Decatur IL. They included a $79.99 diagnostic fee because they absolutely refused to accept the diagnostic ($133.75) from Key Chevrolet in Burlington VT. The repair was the hydraulic hose and elbow, they insisted the slave cylinder was fine, and none of it was covered under warranty. That's a total out-of-pocket cost of $621.71.
> 
> The car made it 12 miles before the clutch went to the floor and it will not go into gear. It's being towed back to Miles Chevrolet for me to scream at them on the phone in the morning.


From all the info I'm reading the hose deteriorated Internally and the debris is jamming up the slave cylinder. Once it gets that far the slave cylinder needs to be replaced as well as the hose. I wonder if GM had a improved hose that wont break down and jam up the slave cylinder.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

6speedTi said:


> From all the info I'm reading the hose deteriorated Internally and the debris is jamming up the slave cylinder. Once it gets that far the slave cylinder needs to be replaced as well as the hose. I wonder if GM had a improved hose that wont break down and jam up the slave cylinder.


I have no idea if the hose and elbow are new parts.

I've got a draft of a nasty letter to send to GM if I don't get my money back, and part of that is sending them a copy of the TSB. The TSB was initially created on 02/27/18 and then later edited to remove build dates and substitute model years. Notably, the TSB was created while 2018 model year vehicles were still being manufactured, meaning GM appeared to be building cars with parts that they knew were faulty. Some things never change.

Anyways, I had three separate conversations with the service manager. Conversation 1 was when I dropped the car off to tell him there were two problems:
1. The clutch pedal sticking, and;
2. The clutch pedal not actually actuating the clutch because the transmission wouldn't go into gear. If you put the car in 1st gear, stepped on the clutch, and then pressed the START button, the car would creep forward with the starter motor moving the car!

His phone call later on the 10th was telling me the hose and elbow needed replacing, and I then asked him why not the slave cylinder to fix problem #2. He insisted the slave cylinder was fine and that would fix both problems.

When I picked the car up today the service order only had problem #1 noted on the paperwork. I asked him again: Why wasn't the slave cylinder replaced to fix problem #2? You just ignored the entire problem I described to you, didn't note it on the paperwork, didn't care about it when I talked to you on the phone, and now I can see that the problem still is not fixed. He insisted it was fixed and it was fine.

12 miles later, it was not fine.

I can easily imagine the service technician took it for a test drive and the car drove normally. It was back to normal for the 12 miles I drove it to my parents' house. Then, an hour later, it was back to broken again.

Tomorrow, they'll call me and I'll give them their two options:
1. Fix the car, again, correctly, under warranty, and when I come to pick it up on Monday or Tuesday have $621.71 in cash to hand to me for a refund, or;
2. I come to their dealership and burn it to the ground.


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## jordanleaman (Apr 6, 2018)

I thought I'd add to the conversation as I'm experiencing the same issue with my '17 diesel, 43K miles. Pedal occasionally sticks to the floor and won't come back on its own. I can lift the pedal up with my toe but hydraulic pressure does not return to the pedal.

It took three weeks to get an official diagnosis from the dealer, and while they've been helpful since then, the TSB only specifies elbow and hydraulic line for the diesels which aren't covered under warranty. I submitted a case with GM customer assurance to argue that it should be covered under powertrain warranty and that went absolutely nowhere, surprise surprise... "The clutch is a wear and tear part" they kept saying over and over. Just got the final word today that they aren't going to do a cent of cost assistance and that I'm on the hook for the whole repair (Dealer estimated ~$1200 after adding up part and labor codes on TSB PIP5558C).

I bled the clutch today and there was noticeable debris in the first bit of fluid purged. Worth sending off for analysis? I'm not sure.

Anyways, I have a new master cylinder, slave cylinder, hydraulic line, and actuator elbow on order, and I'm hoping to do this repair myself next Monday.

And it's worth mentioning that I was planning to replacing the slave cylinder on my '91 Miata this weekend (coincidentally), which accounts for all of $13 in parts and about 15 minutes of easy labor. A world of difference in repairability over the years, and the arguably "better feeling" clutch goes to the Miata, IMO


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

jordanleaman said:


> I thought I'd add to the conversation as I'm experiencing the same issue with my '17 diesel, 43K miles. Pedal occasionally sticks to the floor and won't come back on its own. I can lift the pedal up with my toe but hydraulic pressure does not return to the pedal.


I have the separate issue of how the clutch doesn't actually engage: I sometimes cannot put the shifter into gear when the pedal is pushed to the floor (and then it also won't return on its own). For me, it's not just that the clutch pedal is sticking. It's that the pedal is occasionally doing nothing to engage the clutch at all.

If the problem keeps returning, I'll have Chevrolet roadside assistance tow the car to a dealership 2-3 times a week as necessary. I have a spare car to borrow from my parents, so I'll keep on repeating this over and over again until they decide they don't want to do it any longer.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

jordanleaman said:


> "The clutch is a wear and tear part" they kept saying over and over.


I got that similar quote a few times: "The clutch is a wear item." I had to repeatedly explain that the clutch itself (the disc) is not worn out or malfunctioning. It's the parts that actuate the clutch that are not working.


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

It's sounds like the master cylinder to me. When master cylinders leak they don't build pressure , they simply "leak" past the seals back into the unpressurized fluid reservoir side. When slave cylinder leak and don't build pressure, the fluid has to escape the system, and evinces as an external leak typically.

Just like you can have no brake pedal because you have a bad master cylinder or a bad caliper...if the caliper is reasom your brake pedal drops you have a fluid leak. If it's the master cylinder it can leak internally.

It sounds like your dealers aren't diagnosing anything, merely looking for bulletins.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> It sounds like your dealers aren't diagnosing anything, merely looking for bulletins.


That seems to be exactly what they are doing. The dealership in Vermont handed me the printed TSB and billed me $133.75 when I'm sure they didn't take anything apart.

The dealership in Illinois billed me $79.99 for the diagnosis where the paperwork claims the technician found debris in the orifice as per the TSB. Whether that's true or it's copy/paste from the TSB and they just did the repair on the TSB, I don't know.

It just aggravates me that I specifically told them THREE TIMES that I had two separate problems, and the second problem is one that isn't part of the problem on the TSB. They ignored that and never once diagnosed or fixed that problem.


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

It definitely sucks. Additionally, just in case you didn't know...so you can mentally prepare for them...master cylinder isn't covered either.


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## 6speedTi (May 18, 2018)

On my 2018 they had no valid reason saying the clutch and slave cylinder are wear and tear parts to weezle out of warranty work. My car had 15,000 miles when the clutch took a dump. They also replaced the slave cylinder and flywheel. No mention or documentation of replacing the clutch line. So far so good. We will see if the problem returns. Even if I replace the line myself will it be the same faulty line?


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

6speedTi said:


> On my 2018 they had no valid reason saying the clutch and slave cylinder are wear and tear parts to weezle out of warranty work. My car had 15,000 miles when the clutch took a dump.


You had the 3 year, 36,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranty to cover those items.

I'm at 50,956 miles, so the powertrain warranty is all that I have left.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> When slave cylinder leak and don't build pressure, the fluid has to escape the system, and evinces as an external leak typically.


I can't be certain some fluid wasn't leaking. While on vacation I took a look under the hood to check the fluid level of the clutch. That's when I found out that the fluid reservoir is shared with the brakes, because there aren't separate fluid reservoirs. It was night and the light wasn't good, but it was possible that the fluid level seemed to be low (down near or slightly below the MINIMUM marking on the reservoir). I never checked again in daylight because I just crossed my fingers that the car would make it home and I'd deal with it here.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> It definitely sucks. Additionally, just in case you didn't know...so you can mentally prepare for them...master cylinder isn't covered either.


This morning the dealership service manager says he has the technician repeatedly bleeding the hydraulic line to the clutch. He says the technician believes when he opened up the hydraulic system to replace the pipe and elbow, that air bubbles trapped in the line are causing the clutch to not work.

That still doesn't explain why it wasn't working BEFORE they opened up the system, and why it was working fine when the technician tested the car before giving it back to me, and why the car drove fine for the 12 miles that I took it home.

What he wants to do is bleed the car a few times today, let it sit over the weekend, and then test drive it Monday morning to ensure that all the air bubbles are bled out of the hydraulic system.

This sounds like it is not going to fix the problem.


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## 6speedTi (May 18, 2018)

Barry Allen said:


> This morning the dealership service manager says he has the technician repeatedly bleeding the hydraulic line to the clutch. He says the technician believes when he opened up the hydraulic system to replace the pipe and elbow, that air bubbles trapped in the line are causing the clutch to not work.
> 
> That still doesn't explain why it wasn't working BEFORE they opened up the system, and why it was working fine when the technician tested the car before giving it back to me, and why the car drove fine for the 12 miles that I took it home.
> 
> ...


Sounds like a hail mary to avoid a costly repair that the dealership does not want to be stuck with.


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## lbkNhubert (May 18, 2017)

Replacing the slave cylinder is a pain in the neck and they're doing everything that they can to avoid it. I can only speak from my experience, but nothing worked to fix the issues with mine until the final repair, when the slave cylinder was replaced. To recap:
Symptoms: clutch not engaging, pedal on floor
repair 1: replace master cylinder and actuator pipe.
repair 2: replace actuator pipe again.
repair 3: replace actuator cylinder

After repairs 1 and 2, the car was fine for hundreds to thousands of miles, but once the clutch started not to engage a bit, it went to fully non-functional fairly quickly. After the third repair things have held up. Fingers crossed that that was it, and that you're able to convince the dealer and GM to do the right thing for you.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

6speedTi said:


> Sounds like a hail mary to avoid a costly repair that the dealership does not want to be stuck with.


The service manager did tell me "The things we are doing are what is required by GM to work the problem. If we just replace the slave cylinder without doing their trouble-shooting steps, we get stuck with the cost of that."

He also told me the technician working on the car is one of their most experienced and "He drives a diesel Cruze, too." So I ask: Is his a manual transmission? "Well, no..." So I ask: How many manual transmissions does he regularly work on? "Well, not many..."

I could have just bought a Honda Civic and not had this trouble.


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

There's so few manual transmission diesel Cruzes you can't really be upset that people don't have experience with them. But experience and proper diagnostics are two different things. I've never worked on something til the first time I have, doesn't mean I csrew up everything once.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

lbkNhubert said:


> Replacing the slave cylinder is a pain in the neck and they're doing everything that they can to avoid it. I can only speak from my experience, but nothing worked to fix the issues with mine until the final repair, when the slave cylinder was replaced. To recap:
> Symptoms: clutch not engaging, pedal on floor
> repair 1: replace master cylinder and actuator pipe.
> repair 2: replace actuator pipe again.
> ...


If it's the slave cylinder that is bad, I expect a replacement of the master cylinder won't fix the problem and it will manifest itself again within a day or two. It took 12 miles and 1 hour to make it happen again, so if the dealership insists on replacing the master cylinder I think it will be back to the clutch not working again the next morning or the morning after.

With some luck, they can do all their BS drain & fill of the fluid all they want and the MFing thing does it to them again Monday morning when they go to test drive it.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Phone call from the dealership today: They have been bleeding the hydraulic clutch exactly as GM technical is telling them and are apparently not fixing the issue. The service manager said they're waiting to hear more but likely won't have the car finished today, which is not a huge problem.

It sounds like they are desperately trying not to change the slave cylinder for obvious reasons (warranty $$$). 

I'm honestly surprised that they didn't try to stick the excuse in there about needing to change the master cylinder (at my cost). Maybe that will come tomorrow.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Phone call from the dealership today: They say there is an o-ring where the elbow plugs into the hydraulic circuit that they are replacing because when the technician wiggles the elbow back and forth as someone is stepping on the clutch it lets air bubbles into the circuit. They said they aren't 99% sure that will fix the problem but it's something they need to try.

Notably, it took them all day to throw this Hail Mary pass. I wonder how many more things they are going to come up with before they actually bite it and replace the slave cylinder.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Phone call from the dealer this morning: They are ordering a slave cylinder to replace it like I told them to do a week ago. 

I tell people all the time: do things my way the first time when I request them and the world wiil be a better place and you will save time, money, and aggravation. I don't know how much time they have invested in chasing every problem that they can bill me for to try to avoid the problem that is warranty work, but they're eating all that labor.

Now the big questions I have are how much time it takes to change the slave cylinder? Seems like it's a big job by the way they are trying to avoid it. Do they have to drop the transmission to swap that part out? If so, I'm going to ask them to put a new clutch disc in (I will pay for the part) just to freshen it up at the 51,000 mile mark. If they're going to drop the transmission, might as well put that in there while it is opened up. Might have them check the dual-mass flywheel for defects or anything that looks/feels funny, because if it's going or gone I'd have them replace that as well if there is a newer part with updates.


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## Wantatune (Mar 28, 2020)

I had this exact same problem. They wound up changing the slave cylinder. Total time from fault to fix was 3 months. Car was under a power train warranty but not bumper to bumper. They told me debris in the system and I told them that I didnt put it there and the system had never been opened since I picked up the car with 5 miles on it. So if there was debris it was manufacture defect. They changed the pipe, and elbow per the tsb and the problem returned the next day. I drove it back to the dealership without the clutch working(about 60 miles.) The slave cylinder is covered under the power train warranty and specifically listed in the warranty manual.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Wantatune said:


> They told me debris in the system and I told them that I didnt put it there and the system had never been opened since I picked up the car with 5 miles on it. So if there was debris it was manufacture defect.


This is the exact reason GM is probably getting a small claims lawsuit to recover costs on this issue. The TSB was Feb 2018 (a month before I picked up my car) so that's right around the time that 2016-2017 cars were showing up in shops with this problem. I'm almost certain my car was already manufactured by the date of the TSB, but there is a small chance it was made a week or two after. Presumably GM spent the rest of model year 2018 making new cars with parts they knew were defective and then they never issued a recall to fix all of them with new parts.

This was a wonderful excuse about how they replaced the elbow and line (and then some o-ring they claim was leaking) because "Somehow air is getting into the line after we opened the system up." Well, how about you explain why this was a problem before you did anything to open the system up? Funny, about that.

Meanwhile, the car was still on the lift at the shop when I went there today (where it's been parked for a week). The guy said they had the part but the technician wasn't working this Saturday. I asked if another technician could finish it up and he said they were busy doing oil changes as that is what they focus on for Saturday mornings when their service department is open (closed on Sundays). So, now I have a car that will be possibly fixed on Monday and it will be sitting at their dealership ANOTHER WEEK because I don't live here in town with my parents and I have a job to go to. I have to borrow their car for another week until I will be back this way again. I've got a car sitting for at least 2 weeks (but I still have to make a payment on it this month) and I've got the expenses of using my parents' car because the dealership cannot give me a loaner because they are not 100% absolutely certain that the warranty repair is what is causing the issue (and they only give loaner cars for warranty repairs). 57.5¢ per mile (IRS reimbursement rate for 2020) is getting added to the small claims case to compensate my parents.

There is a chance they'll still have to stick me with a repair bill to replace the master cylinder, because if debris in the hydraulic system is a problem it could be debris that has damaged the seals on the master cylinder. If I can get the technician to put it in writing on the invoice that is the problem, that master cylinder repair is going in the small claims case.


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## Wantatune (Mar 28, 2020)

Have you called gm corporate to get them involved yet?


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Wantatune said:


> Have you called gm corporate to get them involved yet?


No. I've paid two bills so far.

#1 was $133.75 out-of-pocket to the Chevy dealership in South Burlington VT. They "diagnosed" the problem but didn't have parts to fix it, so I moved on as I was traveling on vacation. The bill was because the TSB they showed me wasn't a fix covered under warranty. I've emailed them and asked them to refund my money since their diagnosis was incorrect.

#2 was a little under $500 to replace the pipe, elbow, some other part, and new fluid. The fix on the TSB wasn't under warranty. 12 miles later the car was still broken so it went back and the service manager said if it was diagnosed as the slave cylinder that they would refund the prior repair.

I don't know how much arguing it will be. To settle it amicably I would be willing to pay for the parts replaced in repair #2 because it comes out to be like $50. As long as they're covering all the labor to do the job, I just don't care and will settle for as cheap as I can. If they come up with some BS argument that I should pay for all that labor for the parts in the TSB to be replaced and they'll only cover the labor for the slave cylinder, well... we'll see what goes from there.

Worst case scenario is I go to small claims court. I've done it before on a Hyundai for a warranty repair and it's an easy settlement. Huge corporations don't want to argue over a few hundred dollars so they always settle.


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

Trans has to come out to replace the slave, its pretty invasive.

My guess is replacing clutch disc they are going to tell you it requires the pressure plate as well, and some fasteners and extra labor as removing the clutch isn't part of the the slave repair...

GM warranty time is 5.7hrs for the slave, and extra half hour for the clutch.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> Trans has to come out to replace the slave, its pretty invasive.


Wonderful. I can only imagine the future problems that will create.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> It definitely sucks. Additionally, just in case you didn't know...so you can mentally prepare for them...master cylinder isn't covered either.


I think it's absolutely wonderful that Opel/Vauxhall covers this as a safety recall that affects the brakes (and the clutch at the same time). Their documentation says it's debris from the slave cylinder that can cause malfunctions of the brakes due to leaking seals in the master cylinder. The recall campaign for Europe and the UK is to replace the slave cylinder, master cylinder, lines, etc.

The recall is even prominently listed at www.Vauxhall.co.uk

Scroll down to the bottom and you'll find "Astra K Recall" to click and see what they are doing!


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Opel customer service confirmed the recall in an email to me:


*It does seem, from your description and from the information I got from a very quick search regarding the Cruze, that the issue is similar to that covered by a safety recall launched in Europe. The recall on Astra addressed a condition where the clutch pedal would stay on the floor once depressed to change gear.*
_*
Components of the clutch and brake hydraulic systems required replacement due to contamination of the fluid which, in turn, could affect the master cylinder, slave cylinder, pipework and brake ABS control modulator. However, please understand that we cannot release the requested documents as they are specific to Opel and Vauxhall vehicles and are intended for internal use only.
*_
*The Chevrolet Cruze is not released here in Ireland and we are unable to confirm any similarities it may have with the Opel Astra, but there certainly do seem to be symptoms common to both models.*


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

WOW...I'm surprised you even got that much.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> WOW...I'm surprised you even got that much.


It does alarm me that Opel/Vauxhall replaces the ABS control modulator. Apparently they have determined that component is or can be damaged by the debris from the slave cylinder in the hydraulic system.

The EU and the UK have functioning government agencies that did this as a safety recall. The US DOT? Uh, you might have noticed, but in the past couple years we don't really have a government that functions well because... reasons.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

OK, so here is today's update from the dealership:

They say the car is finished. They replaced the slave cylinder and spent some time for a couple mornings and afternoons parking the car and double-checking that it was working without intermittent trouble. They say it's ready to be picked up.

However, they say they will not refund the $488 that I paid for the other parts to be replaced on the TSB. Their claim is that those parts are not covered by warranty and that was the source of the problem in the first place. They claim they only replaced the slave cylinder because the technician discovered that the replaced parts from the TSB were somehow updated parts and were not making a correct fit with the slave cylinder, meaning that it was allowing air to leak into the hydraulic system and causing the continuing malfunction. They said the only reason the slave cylinder was replaced was because it wouldn't work with the new replacement parts from the TSB. They claim the asked the technician if the car would have been fixed if they only replaced the slave cylinder, and his answer was "That would not have fixed it" so the replacement of the parts on the TSB is at my cost because those parts are not warrantied.

To me, this seems like a total BS answer. They are verbally telling me the exact opposite of what is printed on the TSB. The TSB says the replacement parts will work with the slave cylinder fitted to the transmission on diesel cars; the dealership claims the replacement parts did not work with the slave cylinder so it had to be replaced (but only that specific part and replacement was warrantied).

I called GM customer service and created a case. They will look into it tomorrow when the dealership is open. I asked them to simply refund my $488 from this dealership and refund the diagnostic fee of $133.75 from the dealership in Vermont. I feel that is fair as this is a repair that ended up being a warranty item and the other parts replaced were required to be replaced to work with the item that was replaced under warranty. If they agree to those refunds I won't ask them to compensate me for using my parents' car for two weeks (57.5¢ per mile is what I'd want paid so I could pay my parents) and I won't ask them to cover this month's car payment for a car that was basically unusable for almost 3 weeks. You sometimes have to give a little to get something, so I'd agree to that if they settle up with me right now.

If they refuse, I'll just take it to small claims court and they'll probably make an offer to settle in full to make me go away.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

You know, I had just changed the gear oil on the transmission less than 10,000 miles prior. Filled it with good Amsoil 75W-90 GL-4 gear lube.

I wonder what fill oil the replaced that with. I hear the AC Delco gear lube is synthetic, so maybe that's a decent product.


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

I have access to the European service manual for some reason today, and my searchi g doesn't show a recall yet. There's a TSB (16-E-3286), that's older but virtually identical to our document. Big difference is there's is from Sept 2016, and is a TSB, ours is Feb 2028, and is labeled as preliminary info. To be fair there's WAY more manual trans car AND diesels in Europe than there is here. But our document applies to China, Korea, the Americas, and Oz/NZ.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> I have access to the European service manual for some reason today, and my searchi g doesn't show a recall yet. There's a TSB (16-E-3286), that's older but virtually identical to our document. Big difference is there's is from Sept 2016, and is a TSB, ours is Feb 2028, and is labeled as preliminary info. To be fair there's WAY more manual trans car AND diesels in Europe than there is here. But our document applies to China, Korea, the Americas, and Oz/NZ.


The EU has it as a safety recall for Opel that I've attached here.

Vauxhall has it on their website: Astra K Recall | Vauxhall


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> there's WAY more manual trans car AND diesels in Europe than there is here.


All of their diesel cars with the 1.6 diesel had the M32 manual transmission as the manual transmission option. The gasoline cars from the same model years apparently didn't use the M32 transmission so they are excluded from the recall.

Here in the USA, the M32 transmission was used in all manual transmission cars from 2016-2018, so all of them are affected.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Today I finally received the paperwork from the dealership. I thought it was weird that I picked the car up about 48 hours after the repair was completed and they still didn't have paperwork to hand me. The service manager said the tech hadn't finished the paperwork yet and that was extremely odd. I would think they would be responsible for wrapping it all up upon completion of a job before moving on to another job, but I digress.

It's standard paperwork showing a bunch of parts replaced. Slave cylinder, bolts, nuts, seals, a drain plug, and 2 quarts of transmission fluid. I thought the standard refill was 2.5 quarts, so maybe it's a little low, and it's a bummer that I did a gear oil replacement less than 10,000 miles prior with Amsoil. I would have skipped that trouble and expense if I had know I was going to get it free with this job.

I'm still waiting to see what GM corporate says about paying me for the expenses.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Today I received a call from the dealership in Vermont. Their "regional" guy approved a warranty payment to cover the $133.75 for their diagnosis that was incorrect. They'll be mailing me a check in a week or two.


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## Ma v e n (Oct 8, 2018)

Nice.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> Nice.


I was actually shocked to receive the phone call this morning. I had complained to the dealership in Vermont about the car having worse problems than just needing the TSB performed (that didn't fix the problem). The service writer said he told the "regional guy" about all the problems I had to get it fixed and the guy approved the warranty claim. I don't know if he had access to the invoices from the dealership in Illinois, but that might be something that motivated him.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Ma v e n said:


> Nice.


GM has denied coverage of the original $490 repair that did not fix the problem. Their claim is that it needed to be done anyway and the separate job to replace the slave cylinder was covered under warranty. Since the warranty repair for the slave cylinder involves taking everything apart anyway, I asked to just pay for the cost of the parts and have that labor be covered by the warranty repair done of the slave cylinder. They declined.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Prior to filing in small claims court it is recommended that I send a demand letter. That was done today. I'll have to let everyone know what happens later this month, if they respond.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

*General Motors Company
ATTN: Legal Department
300 Renaissance Center
Detroit MI

Subject: Demand Letter (Small Claims Court Case)

To Whom It May Concern:

This letter serves as a formal demand for payment of $2,474.05, the total cost to replace defective parts on my 2018 Chevy Cruze.

On the morning of Sep 2nd, the clutch pedal on my car began to malfunction. That morning it seemed to be very soft and the clutch engagement point was not at the normal point of travel in the stroke of the pedal as I was accustomed to. Within a mile of driving the clutch was back to a “normal” feel, but for the rest of the day it was intermittently having abnormal operation. The following morning, the clutch pedal went to the floor and stuck there. I could not engage the transmission into gear. The vehicle was towed to Key Chevrolet in South Burlington, Vermont. For the cost of $133.75, the dealership diagnosed the problem and provided me a copy of a Technical Service Bulletin (PIP5558C) that is included with this letter. The TSB states the problem is caused by debris clogging an orifice in a fluid pipe that actuates the hydraulic clutch. The solution to repair this is to replace several parts that are new, redesigned parts to not have the problem repeat. The TSB does not address the separate issue of the transmission not going into gear.

Key Chevrolet did not have the parts in stock to make the repair and I continued on my vacation. The clutch pedal continued to intermittently malfunction for the entire length of my trip. The final problem occurred on Sep 9th when I was driving on the interstate and encountered road construction. At the point I had to come to a complete stop I discovered the clutch was entirely non-functional. I had to forcibly yank the gear shift out of gear to make an emergency stop where I almost crashed into the rear of a semi-trailer. When attempting to resume travel, the clutch went to the floor and stayed there, and the car could not be put in gear. I was able to limp the car home by forcing the gearshift into 1st gear to get started and then shifting by matching engine speed to gear changes. This was very dangerous and distracting to do in stop & go traffic. The clutch continued to intermittently work with no resolution to the problem.

On Sep 10th the vehicle was put in for service at Miles Chevrolet in Decatur, Illinois. Miles Chevrolet later informed me the necessary repair was what was stated on the included TSB. The repair was completed on Sep 11th. I drove the car 12 miles and the problem reoccurred to where the car was undriveable. The car was towed back to Miles Chevrolet where it took over a week of a service technician trying different diagnoses until they elected to replace the slave cylinder on the transmission. This was a warranty repair, and the dealership refused to refund my prior repair costs even though those parts did not fix the problems I was having. The slave cylinder had to be replaced because, as the dealership explained to me, the new hydraulic system parts did not make a proper connection to the old slave cylinder still in the transmission.

In doing research of the problems with my car, I found out that the Opel/Vauxhall Astra is a vehicle manufactured for the European markets. Some Astra cars used the same engine and manual transmission as the diesel-powered Chevy Cruze for model years 2016-2018. Opel/Vauxhall was previously the European branch of General Motors, before being sold by GM in 2017. The widespread sale of Astra cars with the diesel engine and manual transmission in Europe caused safety issues with the braking system to where the brakes could fail during light braking events, but the brakes would function with hard/panic application of the brakes. The steps that Opel/Vauxhall are taking to repair the vehicles involved included immediately replacing the hydraulic fluid in the brake/transmission system, and then subsequently replacing several components of the affected cars. As was explained to me by Opel customer support, the parts replaced include the master cylinder, slave cylinder, hydraulic pipework, and the ABS control modulator.

Included with this letter are copies of the email from Opel customer support, a copy of the EU recall of Opel Astra vehicles, and a printout of the recall listed on the Vauxhall website.

It causes me great concern that General Motors has largely ignored this issue in the United States. GM has treated this issue as a minor item of concern with the release of a Technical Service Bulletin for dealers rather than a recall of the affected cars. This leaves customers with problems that they must pay out-of-pocket for repair costs if they occur outside the relatively short warranty period. Worse still, GM has ignored this issue as a safety issue for drivers who might find that their brakes or transmission fail to function when they immediately need proper performance. This could easily cause an accident. GM has ignored the issue due to the small market share of their cars sold in the USA. There are relatively few Chevy Cruze sedans and hatchbacks sold in the USA with manual transmissions.

The breakdown of my demanded payment follows:*

*$487.98 – repair invoice from Miles Chevrolet*
*$167.90 – mileage reimbursement (IRS rate of 57.5¢ per mile) for use of my parents’ car while my car was in the shop for repairs*
*$1,818.17 – estimate for replacement of brake system components affected by hydraulic fluid contamination as per the EU and UK safety recall of Opel/Vauxhall vehicles*
*The repair estimate in line item 3 was prepared by Leman Chevrolet in Bloomington IL, and is as follows: $158.99 for a new master cylinder, $379.99 for a new ABS controller module, $417.99 for a new brake control valve (the dealership service writer says this part almost always has to be replaced at the same time as the ABS controller module; “If one goes bad, the other goes bad at the same time”), $29.98 for fresh hydraulic fluid, $194.82 in labor to replace the master cylinder, $519.52 in labor to replace the brake system modules (the labor is the same to replace both parts of the brake system), approximately $86 in taxes, and an environmental fee of $30.88.

I have previously attempted to resolve this issue by working with Chevrolet Customer Service to have this repair (performed by Miles Chevrolet) covered by warranty. As of today, this claim for warranty work was not approved.

If I do not receive a full payment of $2,474.05 by December 31, 2020, I will file a case in McLean County small claims court.

I am willing to negotiate a reasonable, mutually satisfying settlement. Feel free to contact me with my information provided below.*


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

If GM paid me for the prior repair (that did not fix the problem) and gave me an extended warranty just for the relevant brake system components, I'd be fine with that. If the brakes don't have any problem, GM wouldn't have to fix them.


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## Danbo313 (Mar 4, 2020)

The clutch in my '18 Cruze Diesel started acting up about a week and a half a go. Car has 77800 miles on it. I actually stalled the car leave a gas station because it actuated way lower than normal. I thought the pedal seemed weird and that it wasn't just the books I was wearing. Yesterday I was driving and it felt weird again, later got back in the car and pedal stuck to the floor. I've had issues with pedal sticking/clutch not actuating in my '99 Camaro and I've had to rebuild the slave cylinder in my '92 k1500 with an aftermarket concentric bearing type slave cylinder. On the Camaro, I had issues with the pedal sticking even after i put in a new slave cylinder. I ended up making a custom setup with a Tilton Master cylinder and removed the spring on the pedal. 

I told my wife i wanted to change the brake fluid out as well because it looked like garbage while I was doing my initial inspection for leaks, etc. 

If the slave is the problem, it'd either be plugged and not moving (should feel a restriction on the pedal) or the fluid is leaking past. They are pretty simple devices. I am not quite sure how Just the slave cylinder itself would cause the pedal to stick, seems to me the seals in the master would have to be bypassing fluid. I would try and remove the pedal spring, but these cars have a pedal position sensor that will yell at you if the pedal isn't all the way up. I guess I can jumper that out.

I don't like the fact that the reservoir is shared with the brakes. Stay tuned, maybe I will go aftermarket master cylinder as I did on my Camaro and k1500. I guess I'll be driving the K1500 to work for a while. I have a 6.0 swapped in it, so that'll eat up the fuel. I have lift in my shop, it sounds like the cruze will be taking up residence for a bit. BTW the car was a GM test vehicle, no pesky warranty to worry about. However if this was a recall as it should be, they would have to fix it. I will report it to the NHSTA. Also I'll start my own thread when I do the repairs.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Danbo313 said:


> I am not quite sure how Just the slave cylinder itself would cause the pedal to stick


There are two different opinions on the issue depending on which continent you live on.

In the EU and UK, officials ordered a safety recall of Opel & Vauxhall vehicles with the diesel engine and 6-speed manual transmission. They claim the slave cylinder sheds debris that causes issues with the brakes where a single fluid reservoir is shared between both systems. Light application of the brakes can result in not slowing the car (but firm/panic applications of the brakes work to stop the vehicle). The safety recall is in two steps: 1. You get your fluid changed, then; 2. The dealership has your car for two days to replace the slave cylinder, clutch hydraulic pipework, master cylinder, and ABS controller module.

In the USA, GM claims the debris is from something else and it clogs an orifice in the clutch hydraulic pipe. The TSB tells the dealership to replace the pipework and you only get it free if it happens in your bumper-to-bumper warranty. The TSB says to replace the slave cylinder on gasoline vehicles because the new/updated hydraulic pipework won't properly connect to the OEM slave cylinder, and you get that slave cylinder under the powertrain warranty (longer than the B2B warranty). The TSB says the diesel engine doesn't need the slave cylinder replaced because it connects just fine to the new/updated hydraulic pipework. HOWEVER, when my dealership did the job they found the new/updated hydraulic pipework DOES NOT properly connect to the OEM slave cylinder on my car, so someone is full of crap on this issue. Either the TSB is wrong, or the technician found the world's weirdest mistake on my car.

Either way, in the USA if you are out of your warranty GM will tell you to get bent. They won't take responsibility for this as a safety issue. It leaves me wondering how the EU and the UK could find it affects the brakes, but GM makes cars using the same parts and it's all fine here in the USA.


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## Danbo313 (Mar 4, 2020)

I just put the car up on the lift. Nice bead of brake fluid on the bottom of the bell housing.. out come the tranny I guess...


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## Danbo313 (Mar 4, 2020)

Well it's out...


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## chadtn (Feb 27, 2018)

Any response to your demand letter from GM yet? Reading about all of these problems has me paranoid about my car. I just hit 50k miles, but haven't had any issues to date. I hope it stays that way. heh..

Thanks!

Chad


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

No response yet. I gave them until December 31 to reply, and if not I will go to small claims court in January to file.

I asked them for about $2,400 to cover everything, including replacing those brake system components that are part of the safety recall in the EU and UK. That's just a bluff on my part, because I really don't want them replaced if they are working fine so far. I would settle for GM giving me an extended warranty on those parts. That way, they don't have to replace them if they don't break and all it takes for GM is some paperwork agreeing to warranty them.

If they pay me the $490 from the repair on the TSB that didn't fix the problem, I'll be satisfied.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

I received an emailed response this morning (screenshot attached). Looks like they are wanting to settle.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

A few days ago I finally received the letter (via email) from GM. Their business case manager believes they have satisfied their obligations under the warranty and they won't pay me for the $500 repair that didn't fix anything.

I've already filed in small claims (e-file, so I didn't even have to leave my house!) and they've been sent the summons via certified and return receipt US mail. Will see if that lights a fire under them to be reasonable.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

Today was a status hearing. We are set for trial in June. I will see if the GM rep who was at the court hearing via Zoom wants to settle this amicably, but no promises.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

As a brief follow-up to this, my small claims trial on this issue is tomorrow. There is a good possibility I will prevail at trial and get my expenses covered for everything. If that happens, I will be here tomorrow afternoon to let anyone/everyone who is interested know how things went.

There is the possibility that GM will make a settlement offer and I can guess this might include a non-disclosure agreement. I'm not even sure that the NDA would allow me to come here and tell anyone it was settled to our satisfaction. So, I'll have to leave you to observe and make your own conclusions. If I'm not back here tomorrow afternoon to tell you how things went, well, you'll figure it out.


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

I won. GM owes me $488 and assorted costs.


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## sethdinoi (10 mo ago)

Just wanted to thank Barry and other contributors to this thread, it's been very informative on a topic that has next to zero available info and which affects only a few people, but is extremely costly.
I bought my 2017 Cruze Diesel Manual, new off the lot. I have 72,000 miles and the lazy clutch pedal problem started suddenly. I replaced the brake/clutch fluid 2 years ago which may have bought me some time. When this problem arose, I replaced the fluid again. This bought me 6 weeks of decent operation with occasional times of only half a pedal, which I could pump up. Then it totally failed in traffic. The car is undrivable now. The Slave cylinder and pipework are on national backorder with no known restock date. Dealerships have manual cruzes (the few that exist) sitting on their lots, waiting for parts. GM offers no support especially since I'm just out of warranty. I don't know what to do. It seems my only option is to preorder the parts from the dealer (about $1,000 as everything costs double these days) with no refund if I change my mind while waiting for them to arrive; and sit and wait with a car as a paperweight in my driveway until if and when the parts arrive. The total cost of repair is expected to be between $2,000 - $2,500 depending on incidental repairs.
This is just to serve as further info for any other cruze 6MT owners out there who are/will be in the same position. If anyone sees this and has any new info or updates, please share with us. Thank You


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