# 2011 Cruze Stalling



## SwinkTech (Jul 11, 2011)

It's possible that the computer just had a glitch, since it automatically puts the car in neutral when you stop. It may have put it back into gear a second to early, before the motor had enough rpm's to support it. I personally have not had any issue, 36,000 miles and no trouble!


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## skiisme753 (Jun 21, 2012)

SwinkTech said:


> It's possible that the computer just had a glitch, since it automatically puts the car in neutral when you stop. It may have put it back into gear a second to early, before the motor had enough rpm's to support it. I personally have not had any issue, 36,000 miles and no trouble!


That's what I am thinking since I haven't heard of anyone else having issues and it has only happened to me once.


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## rb889 (Aug 9, 2012)

The exact same thing has happened to me twice with our 2011 cruze ltz auto. The first time was not long after purchasing it new at very low mileage. It just happened again at 23,000mi. Both times sitting in traffic, very hot with ac running took foot off break and car stalled. Started right back up. Dealer checked it out both times but could find no error codes, or reproduce the stall themselves. The service desk guy today said he had never heard of this issue with the cruze. I googled the issue on my phone while he was talking and showed him your post. He said that there are no suggested solutions from GM and nothing he could do.


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## skiisme753 (Jun 21, 2012)

When it happened to me it was also hot and I had the a/c on high. It only happened to me the one time, but it seems like more and more people are experiencing this same issue.


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

A bunch of the posters are 1-post wonders. I'm wondering if they're spam or not.


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## rb889 (Aug 9, 2012)

sciphi said:


> A bunch of the posters are 1-post wonders. I'm wondering if they're spam or not.


If you are referring to the stalling claims as "spam" I assure you that mine is real. My wife drives our infant in this car and as another poster said, this issue could kill someone under the right circumstance.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

*I will begin by addressing each of your concerns individually, followed by a generalized statement to all of you. *



rb889 said:


> The exact same thing has happened to me twice with our 2011 cruze ltz auto. The first time was not long after purchasing it new at very low mileage. It just happened again at 23,000mi. Both times sitting in traffic, very hot with ac running took foot off break and car stalled. Started right back up. Dealer checked it out both times but could find no error codes, or reproduce the stall themselves. The service desk guy today said he had never heard of this issue with the cruze. I googled the issue on my phone while he was talking and showed him your post. He said that there are no suggested solutions from GM and nothing he could do.


Please contact GM customer support and file a case with them. Once you are done, please report back with GM's response and any actions they have taken to set up you up with a dealer. 



beverlypolo said:


> Same thing happened to me at Stop Light but also going 70 Miles per hour down I 10 with the cruz control on in the middle of desert, engine just stopped, coasted to side and started back up. Local dealers could not find problems but called GM also at 866-790-5600 and filed a complaint, in shop again but if they cannot find the problem they will send a factory rep to look at it. This could kill us. We have about 17,000 miles on it.
> 
> CALL NOW They need to fix this


I've never seen anyone being killed by a car that loses power and coasts to a stop. There's usually enough time to pull over to the side. Peoples' old cars break down all the time and coast to a stop. Sure, it shouldn't happen, but there's no need to incite a riot and blow an issue out of proportion. Just trying to keep things civil here. 

Please keep us posted on what their factory rep finds. 



dmike777 said:


> My 2012 Cruze 2K MILES 1.4 turbo 1LT 6 speed stalled twice over the weekend. Restarted ok but has a serious lack of power too. Taking back to selling dealer and can't wait too see what they say. "operates as designed", "unable to duplicate problem", "contaminated fuel", "driver doesn't no how to stick shift"..... although I drive tractor trailer for UPS..... VERY DISGUSTED WITH THIS GM PRODUCT.


Please post back reporting what you have found. I trust that, as disgusted as you are, you have every intention of letting us know how this went. 



whitecruze12 said:


> I have a 2012 Cruze LS with the 1.8l and its happened to me about 7 times now. I noticed it only happens when its hot and I have the a/c on full blast. I only have 6800 miles on it and I took it to the dealer that sold it to me twice and they found nothing. However, the 3rd time I took they said it was the intake manifold. They replaced it and when I got the car back it drove better then it did when I purchased it, but it has stalled on me once since then.
> If it happens again dont start it back up. If possible, have it towed to the dealer and they should be able to hook the car up to a computer and come up with some kind of explanation as to why the car shut off.


If you haven't yet, I would advise that you contact GM customer support and file a case with them. Once done, please report back on what steps GM is taking to resolve the issue. 



skiisme753 said:


> When it happened to me it was also hot and I had the a/c on high. It only happened to me the one time, but it seems like more and more people are experiencing this same issue.





rb889 said:


> If you are referring to the stalling claims as "spam" I assure you that mine is real. My wife drives our infant in this car and as another poster said, this issue could kill someone under the right circumstance.


I would believe it more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed under the circumstances of a car that stalls. That said, we have had many problems before with people posting a so called "issue," making one or two posts on this forum, refusing to respond to anyone's inquiries, and never coming back. One would expect that if you have such an issue, you would at least discuss it with the people you are reporting it to, and report back to tell people what the result was. Unfortunately, many of those problems are only reported once, and given the poster's behavior, are written off as spam. There are more Cruze haters out there than one would expect. 

Not to accuse you of anything, I'm just telling you what the facts are and what we've seen. We'd be more than happy to help you get down to the bottom of this in any way that we can, and if need be, I have resources from within GM Powertrain Global Headquarters that I can call upon to possibly investigate this issue further, but I will use that as a last resort. At ths time, please take my advice as noted above and contact GM customer support regarding this issue. 



*As a general statement to everyone here*, I have a small suspicion that this may be related to the spark plug gap inconsistencies we recorded here in the past. If you are having this issue, please take the time to pull your spark plugs and check their gap using feeler gauges to determine that:

A. all spark plugs are relatively consistent (give or take .03")
B. all spark plugs are within .0235" and .0275"

It would make sense that a spark plug gap as small as the .020 or .019 that some have measured (even a few as low as .018) on one or more cylinders would cause such a loss of power during that it may cause the car to stall under severe conditions. At high heat levels with heat soak, we have timing retard, parasitic loss from the A/C compressor, and a loss of air density. Others have noted bogging, hesitation, and severe throttle lag in severe conditions as a result. Please check your plugs and report back. You can find a tutorial on this here:
http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/57-how-forum/6722-diy-re-gap-factory-spark-plugs.html


*In addition*, this can easily be caused by bad fuel. Please note which gas stations you pumped fuel from, and what fuel octane you are using. While GM states this car will run on 87 octane, please note that NO turbo motor will run optimally on 87 octane, and severe conditions with heavy loads from the A/C compressor, heat soak, and significant timing retard will create knock conditions that may retard timing enough to stall the motor. I very highly recommend that 89 octane be used at minimum, with 91/93 octane being highly recommended when you expect to be driving the car under high stress and high heat conditions. 87 octane will be sufficient for 95% of environments, but unfortunately, this is that 5% where the turbo motor may not respond well to this combination.


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## sciphi (Aug 26, 2011)

rb889 said:


> If you are referring to the stalling claims as "spam" I assure you that mine is real. My wife drives our infant in this car and as another poster said, this issue could kill someone under the right circumstance.


Thanks for responding. I hope your Cruze gets fixed quickly and correctly! 

The other folks with 1 post have just that one post, and have not followed up. If they do follow up, then my wondering will be cured.


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

dmike777 said:


> My 2012 Cruze 2K MILES 1.4 turbo 1LT 6 speed stalled twice over the weekend. Restarted ok but has a serious lack of power too. Taking back to selling dealer and can't wait too see what they say. "operates as designed", "unable to duplicate problem", "contaminated fuel", "driver doesn't no how to stick shift"..... although I drive tractor trailer for UPS..... VERY DISGUSTED WITH THIS GM PRODUCT.
> i
> ''


dmike777,
I would like to apologize for the issues that you have experienced with your Cruze. I understand your frustrations with this issue. I would like you to keep me posted on the outcome of your service visit. If you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact me anytime.
Thank you,
Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

skiisme753 said:


> When it happened to me it was also hot and I had the a/c on high. It only happened to me the one time, but it seems like more and more people are experiencing this same issue.



skiisme753,
Did you have your dealer look into this for you? If you have not and it happens again I would suggest that you take your Cruze into your dealer and have them look into this concern for you. I would also like you to let me know if this happens again. Also, if you have any other questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact me anytime.
Thank you,
Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

beverlypolo said:


> Same thing happened to me at Stop Light but also going 70 Miles per hour down I 10 with the cruz control on in the middle of desert, engine just stopped, coasted to side and started back up. Local dealers could not find problems but called GM also at 866-790-5600 and filed a complaint, in shop again but if they cannot find the problem they will send a factory rep to look at it. This could kill us. We have about 17,000 miles on it.
> 
> CALL NOW They need to fix this




beverlypolo,
I understand your concerns with this issue. I would like to look into your case for you. Can you please send me a PM with your VIN? I look forward to hearing back from you.
Thank you,
Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Having personally experienced cars with intermittent problems I would strongly recommend you document conditions and vehicle parameters such as ambient temps, speed and what you were trying to do when this happens. Make a copy for your dealership when you take your car in. Unless the service techs and experts have some information about what was going on they won't be able to figure it out unless there are stored failure codes in the computer. I'm not saying they'll be able to figure it out with just this documentation, but without it the chance is even lower.


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## skiisme753 (Jun 21, 2012)

Chevy Customer Service said:


> skiisme753,
> Did you have your dealer look into this for you? If you have not and it happens again I would suggest that you take your Cruze into your dealer and have them look into this concern for you. I would also like you to let me know if this happens again. Also, if you have any other questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact me anytime.
> Thank you,
> Stacy Chevrolet Customer Service


It only happened to me once so I haven't had the dealer look at it.


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## rb889 (Aug 9, 2012)

@ Xtreme revolution: Thanks for your detailed response. I reported this issue to GM customer service and have an appointment to bring it back into the dealer for further testing. I'll reply to this thread afterwards on what was found.


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## rb889 (Aug 9, 2012)

_QUOTE=XtremeRevolution;125398]I will begin by addressing each of your concerns individually, followed by a generalized statement to all of you. 

I've never seen anyone being killed by a car that loses power and coasts to a stop. There's usually enough time to pull over to the side. Peoples' old cars break down all the time and coast to a stop. Sure, it shouldn't happen, but there's no need to incite a riot and blow an issue out of proportion. Just trying to keep things civil here. 

I would believe it more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed under the circumstances of a car that stalls._


Google- Stalled Car Death - and you will find examples of fatalities due to stallings. Sure it is rare. More rare than a lightning strike, I don't know, if you found stats on that please share. The point is that a car stalling unexpectantly while moving has the potential to be dangerous. Making borderline condescending statements and trying to downplay the issue does not support your effort to keep things civil.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

rb889 said:


> _QUOTE=XtremeRevolution;125398]I will begin by addressing each of your concerns individually, followed by a generalized statement to all of you.
> 
> I've never seen anyone being killed by a car that loses power and coasts to a stop. There's usually enough time to pull over to the side. Peoples' old cars break down all the time and coast to a stop. Sure, it shouldn't happen, but there's no need to incite a riot and blow an issue out of proportion. Just trying to keep things civil here.
> 
> ...


I chose my words carefully. I understand there are examples, but they are rare and as such, not a reason to be alarmed. Concern, perhaps, but not alarm. I downplay incidents where appropriate to try to keep people from overreacting before thinking critically about the issue at hand, because that's my job. Note, it's not to make the Cruze look as good as possible in the face of reported issues, but to keep people from overreacting when there isn't a need for it. I've stood up for our members in the past when their cars have had issues and I will continue to do so, but I see no reason to cause a scare over an issue that isn't that significant. Now, if mass reports were coming in of brake failures, I'd be sending out emails to every one of my internal contacts at GM demanding an immediate investigation. 

I understand a car stalling would be potentially dangerous, but one can't say that without first considering the degree of risk. It is dangerous for me to drive to work in the morning for fear that someone in a suburban might run a red light and t-bone me in the driver's side at 45mph, but I won't lose sleep over it as the risk is low. 

I do what I can to help, and I took the time to respond and to provide the best information I could. I ask that you consider that first and foremost as my true intention. I've been on this board since January and generally know what works best with regard to getting an issue resolved. I sincerely hope that your dealership can track down the source of your problem.


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## audog (Apr 28, 2011)

I, also, would second the Octane subject mentioned by ExtremeRevolution. I have 24K miles on my Cruze and octane does impact things like hesitation and performance. Does the car stall(engine needs restart) or hesitate? I have had hesitation with 87 octane once or twice, dealer confirmed, but 89 or higher seems to be fine.


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## Johnnyoconnor97 (Jul 21, 2021)

XtremeRevolution said:


> *I will begin by addressing each of your concerns individually, followed by a generalized statement to all of you. *
> 
> 
> 
> ...





XtremeRevolution said:


> *I will begin by addressing each of your concerns individually, followed by a generalized statement to all of you. *
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You may have not heard of someone being killed from, a car coasting to a stop but my uncle was hit by a driver speeding and was killed from his car stalling on the freeway in a coast to stop situation, i don't mean to sound like an a**hole but it is a very serious problem and that's nowhere near out of proportion, because it has happened. At least in Los Angeles, California that is. But I also have this issue with my cruze only difference is mine stalled when I put into reverse.


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