# The infamous cracked piston



## yelly90 (6 mo ago)

18 Cruze about 74,000 miles 

6 weeks ago as I was on the freeway I noticed my car felt like it was having a hard time keeping power and as I was in a drive thru the stabilitrak service light came on. Car was idiling extremely rough and kind of jerking. 2 days later I took it to pepboys and otw the check engine light came on. Diagnosis was low compression in 1st cyclinder, but warranty company wanted further diagnosis. Ie; tearing down the entire engine. Well 6 weeks later, yes I’ve been without a car for 6 weeks, and a shop change, it’s been determined it’s a cracked piston that’s caused scoring on the walls and needs a whole new engine costing almost $9000. Thankfully Fidelity warranty approved the repairs and I only have to pay $100 deductible. I’m now considering just trading it in to avoid any further issues. I also still owe on the loan though. Should I trade or keep the car with the new engine? Chevy has me so nervous seeing as how this issue even happened in the first place.


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## gid58 (Mar 23, 2020)

yelly90 said:


> 18 Cruze about 74,000 miles
> 
> 6 weeks ago as I was on the freeway I noticed my car felt like it was having a hard time keeping power and as I was in a drive thru the stabilitrak service light came on. Car was idiling extremely rough and kind of jerking. 2 days later I took it to pepboys and otw the check engine light came on. Diagnosis was low compression in 1st cyclinder, but warranty company wanted further diagnosis. Ie; tearing down the entire engine. Well 6 weeks later, yes I’ve been without a car for 6 weeks, and a shop change, it’s been determined it’s a cracked piston that’s caused scoring on the walls and needs a whole new engine costing almost $9000. Thankfully Fidelity warranty approved the repairs and I only have to pay $100 deductible. I’m now considering just trading it in to avoid any further issues. I also still owe on the loan though. Should I trade or keep the car with the new engine? Chevy has me so nervous seeing as how this issue even happened in the first place.


 Me? trade trade trade....hurry !


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## CRUISE-CRUZE (Nov 8, 2010)

yelly90 said:


> Should I trade or keep the car with the new engine?


Is it a new engine or the existing one has been fixed? If new engine, I would keep it!


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## thebac (Jul 29, 2017)

Fix it if its covered and keep it. The engine will be new or low mile used. 

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk


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## Barry Allen (Apr 18, 2018)

The GM TSB is to replace the pistons (yes, all four!) and connecting rods with a parts kit. If the bores of the cylinders are not damaged, it's all good - but this depends on if the person doing the rebuild is skilled. If the cylinder bores are damaged, it's a total engine replacement and you get a new or rebuilt unit.

Keep the car if the repair is done correctly. It's fine. It should come with a new engine computer calibration to reduce the chances of piston cracks in the future.

Use premium unleaded if you haven't been doing so.


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