# 2014 Turbo Issue



## LemonHelp (4 mo ago)

Hi, and thank you in advance.

I purchased this car recently through fairly reputable used dealer - May, 2022.
Have a 4 yr payment plan on it.

2.5 weeks ago engine light comes on. 
Took to mechanic who put scope thingy on it and said was Turbo Lag. Re set it and said if happens again, investigate further.
yesterday it happened again, this time A/C was on (do not believe was on last time), there was a surge as I tried to excel to pass someone. 
Seems symptom of noted.
Took back and Machinic said same problem on scope and that maybe the computer didn't like somethiing and may have triggered this.

I am not satisfied with this. Since investigating, I find the turbo issue is a notorious problem with this make and year.

I also learned that it could result in losing acceleration and worsened engine problems.

I am in Canada, Please advise:
1) what is a reasonable worst case cost to repair
2) Is it urgent
3) Could it be a computer malfunction?
4) Should I go to a chevy dealer for this as my mechanic's _shrug_ may be very costly?

Please advise


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## Jshepherd103 (4 mo ago)

What year is your Cruze? Depending on that I might be able to provide some educated guesses.


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## Johnny B (Jun 4, 2019)

Hey there Lemon 

1) While it is possible the turbo is bad, I'm not convinced it is. If it actually is the turbo, I'd say about $3000 Canadian funny moneys.
2) If you don't have a Check Engine Light you are most likely OK.
3) Not a chance. Well, let me quantify that. I would have a better chance winning the next lottery than this being a computer malfunction.
4) I don't know what kind of warranty you have, or don't but I would try the dealer first. That said, before that I would scan the car for any OBD codes.

As you may already suspect, many mechanics lose their minds when they see a turbo. For example....


LemonHelp said:


> mechanic who put scope thingy on it and said was Turbo Lag


Well well. Turbo lag. Tell the "mechanic" these cars for all intents and purpose have no turbo lag. None, zero, nada, nope. I have heard so many lame mechanic lines, turbo lag really. He must have woken up 1993 or something. FFS



LemonHelp said:


> maybe the computer didn't like somethiing and may have triggered this.


Well, if he meant the "computer" errored, not a chance. If he meant a bad sensor "triggered" the car computer to back off the power, sure.

FWIW, you need to stop going to that mechanic. Seriously.
Get the car scanned, and try to give us a bit to go on. Any maintenance history, mileage, etc.


LemonHelp said:


> I find the turbo issue is a notorious problem with this make and year


Well, it is true the turbos don't last forever. I personally would give the turbos on our cars a passing grade. Just rough numbers, 150K from a turbo is expected. That said, I'd say 50K to 250K is the range. Maybe it is me, but I haven't heard of any turbos on gas engines that will last the life of the engine.

Get back to us with more info.


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## LemonHelp (4 mo ago)

Jshepherd103 said:


> What year is your Cruze? Depending on that I might be able to provide some educated guesses.


2014. Automatic 1.4 ltre


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## LemonHelp (4 mo ago)

Johnny B said:


> Hey there Lemon
> 
> 1) While it is possible the turbo is bad, I'm not convinced it is. If it actually is the turbo, I'd say about $3000 Canadian funny moneys.
> 2) If you don't have a Check Engine Light you are most likely OK.
> ...


Yes the engine light came on, 2x in 2.5 weeks.
Don't have the OBD code but the scanner said turbo problem.

He may have meant sensor like you mentioned, just explained to me that maybe the computer didnt like what it read and was the best offer it had to give.

3k is an awful lot.
I was seeing ranges, but not that high!
It is at 140+ k.
About 2k overdue on oil change.
No smell of burning oil.

No warranty. Bought used and way overpriced as was as most are post covid sadly, so I didnt opt for dealer 1k ask for this.

I am very worried about the problem leading to worse problem.

The reason to go to dealer is because I dont want to patronized by my mechanic if this is a serious issue.

Thank you for your previous reply


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## Johnny B (Jun 4, 2019)

LemonHelp said:


> About 2k overdue on oil change.


That right there is what kills turbos. 

Running a Dexos1 Gen3 oil, then changing it and the filter every 5K (-ish) miles is what I do and recommend. IMHO the OCI for all vehicles has been jacked up to far and usually leads to premature failures.


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## LemonHelp (4 mo ago)

Johnny B said:


> That right there is what kills turbos.
> 
> Running a Dexos1 Gen3 oil, then changing it and the filter every 5K (-ish) miles is what I do and recommend. IMHO the OCI for all vehicles has been jacked up to far and usually leads to premature failures.


So I am over by about 1200 miles.
139000 was the tag on windshield.
Ill get this done right away. 
What is a Dexos 1 Gen3 oil mean?


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## LemonHelp (4 mo ago)

And another question please.

If the engine light was reset to "wait and see" until next time, will the error code show up if I take it to be checked again, or does this erase the OBD code until next time?


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## chilehed (Sep 3, 2020)

LemonHelp said:


> So I am over by about 1200 miles.
> 139000 was the tag on windshield.
> Ill get this done right away.
> What is a Dexos 1 Gen3 oil mean?


Dexos is the GM oil specification, just use the most recent spec.
I also strongly suggest using GM filters from the dealer, not aftermarket.
And don't go by the 3,000 or 5,000 mile interval that people give, that's just a number that someone stuck in the '80's pulled out of their ass. Go by the oil life monitor on the dash, if you don't know what that is or how it works look in the owner's manual.



LemonHelp said:


> And another question please.
> 
> If the engine light was reset to "wait and see" until next time, will the error code show up if I take it to be checked again, or does this erase the OBD code until next time?


You can't put out the light without clearing the codes, so you'll have to fail the diagnostic again in order to have any failure data stored. Most of them need to fail twice in order to set the light.


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## JLL (Sep 12, 2017)

LemonHelp said:


> And another question please.
> 
> If the engine light was reset to "wait and see" until next time, will the error code show up if I take it to be checked again, or does this erase the OBD code until next time?


And "engine light reset" clears all codes in the ECM.

The engine light may come on again if the ECM monitors the fault a few times. The code may display as a pending code without the engine light being on.


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## Johnny B (Jun 4, 2019)

chilehed said:


> Go by the oil life monitor on the dash


I agree with this, mostly. But consider that the 2000-ish GM vehicles were programmed to about 9K miles. And my Cruze will pop at about 7.5K Notice a trend here.
I completely understand the OLM is a complicated algorithm, and is a good thing. But people abuse it. Run it down to zero, and then think about changing it a month later. 
I just drove a GM car that the OLM got stuck at 4% and the owner didn't change the oil for almost two years. It is better to aim for a reasonable interval and go over, than stretch it to the limit constantly. Oil is cheap compared to engine repair costs.


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## chilehed (Sep 3, 2020)

Johnny B said:


> I agree with this, mostly. But consider that the 2000-ish GM vehicles were programmed to about 9K miles. And my Cruze will pop at about 7.5K Notice a trend here.


Some driving styles result in surprisingly high oil life in some applications, and yes, the algorithm reflects that.



Johnny B said:


> I completely understand the OLM is a complicated algorithm, and is a good thing. But people abuse it. Run it down to zero, and then think about changing it a month later.


That's not the fault of the algorithm; such people are just as likely to do the same thing with whatever random mileage they might be told.



Johnny B said:


> I just drove a GM car that the OLM got stuck at 4%.


I find that extremely hard to wrap my head around. Exactly what vehicle, year and engine was it?



Johnny B said:


> It is better to aim for a reasonable interval and go over, than stretch it to the limit constantly.


Sure, if you change oil sooner than you need to you're just wasting a relatively small amount of money. And if your driving habits mean you need to change after 500 miles the monitor will tell you, so it's fine unless you ignore it and wait until 3,000. But without the monitor the only way to determine the reasonable interval is to take regular oil samples and have them analyzed - which they did a lot of when developing the algorithm.


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## Johnny B (Jun 4, 2019)

chilehed said:


> Exactly what vehicle, year and engine was it?


Chevy Volt 1st Gen IIRC 1.4L non-turbo


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

LemonHelp said:


> And another question please.
> 
> If the engine light was reset to "wait and see" until next time, will the error code show up if I take it to be checked again, or does this erase the OBD code until next time?


P0299 underboost codes are very frequent occurrences on this car.

Run through this checklist before throwing a turbo at it:


https://techlink.mynetworkcontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/GM_TechLink_08_Mid-April_2017.pdf


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## chilehed (Sep 3, 2020)

Johnny B said:


> Chevy Volt 1st Gen IIRC 1.4L non-turbo


I suppose that if it spent all its time running on battery, and only ran the gas engine for maintenance cycles, then it could take a really long time to decrement. It certainly seems a startling claim, but I don't have any specific knowledge of the situation with the hybrids.

However, the owner's manual does clearly say to not go longer than one year between oil changes. Also, when the Change Oil Soon message comes up, to do it as soon as possible within the next 1,000 km (600 miles).


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## Johnny B (Jun 4, 2019)

chilehed said:


> I suppose that if it spent all its time running on battery, and only ran the gas engine for maintenance cycles


I was thinking that myself, at first. I drove the car for 6 days straight, and after the first day the battery was fully discharged. I drove it for about 500-600 miles all engine, it started the week at 4% and ended at 4%. So it is stuck, I've never seen a OLM do that. Ever.



chilehed said:


> the owner's manual does clearly say to not go longer than one year between oil changes.


Yes it does. Because the car used its battery a lot, the car had its oil changed every 10 months like clock work. Until he forgot. So when I brought it up, the oil was about two years old. And trust me, just full of gas. Not super dirty, just a lot of gas in it. Not a good situation IMHO. And yes, the car messaged and beeped at me every single start up. My understanding is the OLM algorithm times out at 1 year, and gives you the warning regardless of actual engine miles. So that message was ignored for about 10 months by my estimation.


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## chilehed (Sep 3, 2020)

Johnny B said:


> I drove it for about 500-600 miles all engine, it started the week at 4% and ended at 4%. So it is stuck, I've never seen a OLM do that. Ever.


Wowwwwww. Has it been reset yet? i imagine that someone at GM might want to know about this; isn't there someone from GM that hangs out here to bring stuff like this up to?


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## LemonHelp (4 mo ago)

Thank you all
My oil life was at 32%
So i'll go and have done soon!!


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## Johnny B (Jun 4, 2019)

Yup, the oil got changed and the OLM reset a couple days after I used it.

GM used to hang around this site a bit many years ago, you can still find some of their comments on old posts.

Here is what I think is the deal. Myself and my family drive GM products almost exclusively and have never ran into an OLM malfunction issue. I drive a Volt for the first time and it is OBVIOUS this car was engineered by at least 3 teams that didn't talk to each other. And one of their shared main goals was to cover up the fact the car has an engine in it. Sounds stupid, so for example. The exhaust tip is tucked way under the bumper, totally hidden unless you put your head on the pavement. The engine compartment is so insulated you can't hear the engine start, not even a cold start. The DIC is crammed full of battery BS, and the little engine status is disguised so it is nearly unrecognizable. The gear selector is crammed in a stylized flipping gopher hole that I could barely operate without skinning my knuckles.

All that was to say I just saw a trend, engines are out. And batteries are what counts. Doesn't surprise me much the OLM software probably got tweaked to account for battery only miles and it had a flaw introduced in the process. Don't know for sure, don't really care


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## LemonHelp (4 mo ago)

jblackburn said:


> P0299 underboost codes are very frequent occurrences on this car.
> 
> Run through this checklist before throwing a turbo at it:
> 
> ...


This is fantastic! It gives me hope and something I can print off for my mechanic! before he gives me heart failure, lol

Thank you so much! <3


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## chilehed (Sep 3, 2020)

Johnny B said:


> Doesn't surprise me much the OLM software probably got tweaked to account for battery only miles and it had a flaw introduced in the process.


That would surprise me very much.

I wonder if a comm issue between the controllers could do it. Were there any codes?


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## Jersey613 (4 mo ago)

LemonHelp said:


> Hi, and thank you in advance.
> 
> I purchased this car recently through fairly reputable used dealer - May, 2022.
> Have a 4 yr payment plan on it.
> ...


I just bought a 2012 chevy cruze and a week after my engine lights on. Turbo problem and guess what? Gm turbos are on national back order. Now what?


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

Jersey613 said:


> I just bought a 2012 chevy cruze and a week after my engine lights on. Turbo problem and guess what? Gm turbos are on national back order. Now what?


Check the things in the link I posted above before throwing a turbo at it. 

Turbos are needlessly replaced for underboost codes often when they are not the root cause of the underboost condition.


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## Johnny B (Jun 4, 2019)

chilehed said:


> That would surprise me very much.
> 
> I wonder if a comm issue between the controllers could do it. Were there any codes?


Yup, the whole thing surprised me.
I didn't have my OBD reader with me.


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## 2014 Encore (5 mo ago)

chilehed said:


> Dexos is the GM oil specification, just use the most recent spec.
> I also strongly suggest using GM filters from the dealer, not aftermarket.
> And don't go by the 3,000 or 5,000 mile interval that people give, that's just a number that someone stuck in the '80's pulled out of their ass. Go by the oil life monitor on the dash, if you don't know what that is or how it works look in the owner's manual.
> 
> ...


Never go as far between oil changes as the oil life monitor suggests on any vehicle ! No turbocharged engine should go longer than 5000 miles between oil and filter changes.


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## chilehed (Sep 3, 2020)

2014 Encore said:


> Never go as far between oil changes as the oil life monitor suggests on any vehicle !


I have what I believe to be good reasons to disagree with you (which I won't discuss), but you're certainly entitled to your opinion.


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## 2014 Encore (5 mo ago)

chilehed said:


> I have what I believe to be good reasons to disagree with you (which I won't discuss), but you're certainly entitled to your opinion.


🤷‍♂️ thanks !


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## Jersey613 (4 mo ago)

jblackburn said:


> Check the things in the link I posted above before throwing a turbo at it.
> 
> Turbos are needlessly replaced for underboost codes often when they are not the root cause of the underboost condition.


Thank you!!


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