# Took my Cruze to the dealer about transmission not shifting



## RWise (Sep 23, 2013)

So I took my 2014 Cruze LS Automatic in to the dealer today because it's not shifting right. When I'm out riding around it acts like it's getting stuck in 4th gear, sometimes 2nd. It just randomly does it. The SM said he couldn't find anything wrong. He said there wasn't any stored codes. They took it out for a drive and no problems. I've got 6700+ miles on it and it's only gotten stuck in 4th two times and in 2nd one time (yesterday). When I say it gets stuck in a certain gear I mean that I'll be taking off in a normal manner and when it should be shifting into the next gear the engine RPM just keeps going up and up until I let off the gas then it's like hitting the break because the engine is revved so high. Yesterday I was at a stand still making a right turn down a steep hill, just gave it enough gas to get the car moving and when it started down the hill it got stuck in 2nd and wound the engine out until I got to the bottom of the hill where it then shifted. Anyone else have this problem and if so how long did it take before they fixed it? 


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## getblended (Jun 15, 2011)

My transmission has been crappy since i bought the car. Cruzes are notorious for this. A tune pretty much smoothed all that out. Never took it to dealer as mine wasn't as bad as yours sounds. Mine would skip 3rd on a 2nd to 3rd shift.


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## Erastimus (Feb 9, 2012)

This has to be the second biggest cover up in Chevrolet's history. It won't be fixed. It's an unfixable problem and Chevrolet knows it. I had a 2012 LS automatic out on lease and the problem was so bad I got the dealer to take it back on trade in after one year and they gave me a new lease at the same price on a 2013 LS with manual transmission. I understand that this is not the answer for everyone, but it sure did make me feel special. I have always enjoyed driving manual shift cars. Many never learned. Seeing this myriad of posts on this forum about the automatic transmission, the anti-freeze smell and the early water pump failures has convinced me even further to switch 100% to Ford/Lincoln products. Already own a 2013 Taurus and a 1997 SVT Cobra Mustang.


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## RWise (Sep 23, 2013)

Hmm that's depressing news. I've searched this site for similar problems but nothing showed up for the exact way that I described it. 


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Erastimus said:


> Seeing this myriad of posts on this forum about the automatic transmission, the anti-freeze smell and the early water pump failures has convinced me even further to switch 100% to Ford/Lincoln products.


LOL with that one, ford makes some pretty crappy vehicles too. 40% of all current F-150 come with their ecoboost V6, unfortunately they all have a known issue with condensation build up in the intercooler. Ford keeps building these trucks with this issue and thousands of owners are being stranded with a $40K+ truck that won't run when its raining, humidity is high or the temperature is close to the dew point. Ford supposedly released a fix in 2012, but people still are having problems. 

I have not heard crap about this on the news, wonder how much money ford has to pay to get this news buried? The F-150 has been the number one selling truck in america for 16 years, I'm sure if 40% of them have a potential issue the news should be covering it.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

To the OP, these 6 speed autos quirks take a bit to learn. The first 3000 miles I would say the transmission is still learning your throttle inputs and what gear to choose. Once beyond that things smooth out considerably. 

The best bet with the automatic is to not always keep the same throttle input and to ease off slightly to force the shift. do this before you get to high into the RPM, and consistently drive that way so the learning trans learns to shift exactly how you want. 

I drove that way for thousands of miles or used manual mode, now I can just keep an easy foot on my car in D and all shifts are around 2500RPM.


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## RWise (Sep 23, 2013)

spacedout said:


> To the OP, these 6 speed autos quirks take a bit to learn. The first 3000 miles I would say the transmission is still learning your throttle inputs and what gear to choose. Once beyond that things smooth out considerably.
> 
> The best bet with the automatic is to not always keep the same throttle input and to ease off slightly to force the shift. do this before you get to high into the RPM, and consistently drive that way so the learning trans learns to shift exactly how you want.
> 
> I drove that way for thousands of miles or used manual mode, now I can just keep an easy foot on my car in D and all shifts are around 2500RPM.


That's just the problem. When I let out it still doesn't shift. It remains stuck. I'm hopping your right and the problem works itself out. But I do plan on taking it in every single time it messes up just to have it documented. 


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## RWise (Sep 23, 2013)

To think of it this car will never learn how I drive. Every other weekend I travel 600 miles to visit my son and I hypermile to get the best fuel economy. (37.8mpg) Then the rest of the time I'm just sporting around town (33.0mpg). My cars never seen WOT because I think that's just abusing the car. 


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## Eddy Cruze (Jan 10, 2014)

For all the problems I have reported here, and I can count them on one hand as a brand new owner I found it very impressive the Shop Foreman from my new non selling G.M. Dealership went for an extended ride, heard my noise even when I didn't? , ordered a giant replacement part that was overnighted to the middle of the Dessert and put on. While it didn't fix the problem, I was really impressed with the effort of the Service department and hopefully when I go in for my free provided Oil change their will be a fix for all the problems and they can fix them all, apparently the Transmission too while I wait! No charge to me for the next 80 months! Meanwhile our company leader is working on a fix for a 2005 problem~


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

RWise said:


> My cars never seen WOT because I think that's just abusing the car.


Thats the problem right there, the learning trans does not know what to do when you get on it. I had the same thing happen around 3-6K on my cruze, took off at full throttle and would not shift out of second. Was sitting at 5K with my foot entirely off the gas for 5-6 entire seconds. 

My car has never done this again, however since I never normally jump on it like that whenever I do it will hold the gear longer that you would like(due to programming). Its not 5-6 seconds now, more like 1-3seconds depending on gear and speed. Think of it this way, you demanded over 1/2 throttle acceleration and then a car slows in front of you. Would you want the transmission to shift up then require a downshift just to get back in the power again 1-2 seconds later? 

Holding the gear a few seconds longer when you demand acceleration seems like a good idea when you think of it that way, especially considering the cruze weight and tiny engines.


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## RWise (Sep 23, 2013)

spacedout said:


> Thats the problem right there, the learning trans does not know what to do when you get on it. I had the same thing happen around 3-6K on my cruze, took off at full throttle and would not shift out of second. Was sitting at 5K with my foot entirely off the gas for 5-6 entire seconds.
> 
> My car has never done this again, however since I never normally jump on it like that whenever I do it will hold the gear longer that you would like(due to programming). Its not 5-6 seconds now, more like 1-3seconds depending on gear and speed. Think of it this way, you demanded over 1/2 throttle acceleration and then a car slows in front of you. Would you want the transmission to shift up then require a downshift just to get back in the power again 1-2 seconds later?
> 
> Holding the gear a few seconds longer when you demand acceleration seems like a good idea when you think of it that way, especially considering the cruze weight and tiny engines.


I have to say I agree with you. What you described is exactly what my car is doing. But I'm not jumping on it just not driving it for MPG. If I could reset the computer to forget the hypermilling the transmission proubably wouldn't give me any more problems. I'd give up 5MPG to have a trouble free car. 


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Eddy Cruze said:


> For all the problems I have reported here, and I can count them on one hand as a brand new owner I found it very impressive the Shop Foreman from my new non selling G.M. Dealership went for an extended ride, heard my noise even when I didn't? , ordered a giant replacement part that was overnighted to the middle of the Dessert and put on. While it didn't fix the problem, I was really impressed with the effort of the Service department and hopefully when I go in for my free provided Oil change their will be a fix for all the problems and they can fix them all, apparently the Transmission too while I wait! No charge to me for the next 80 months! Meanwhile our company leader is working on a fix for a 2005 problem~
> View attachment 71017


She's going after multiple problems at the same time, some of them potentially serious. The ignition switch recall is just one issue. GM has several simultaneous recalls going on right now - only one of which involves pre-bankruptcy products.

It sounds to me like you found a much better service department. Work with them to get the kinks out of your car. While I agree that you shouldn't have to deal with the problems you've been having, it unfortunately happens with extremely complex mass produced products.


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## RWise (Sep 23, 2013)

Err


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## RWise (Sep 23, 2013)

spacedout said:


> Thats the problem right there, the learning trans does not know what to do when you get on it. I had the same thing happen around 3-6K on my cruze, took off at full throttle and would not shift out of second. Was sitting at 5K with my foot entirely off the gas for 5-6 entire seconds.
> 
> My car has never done this again, however since I never normally jump on it like that whenever I do it will hold the gear longer that you would like(due to programming). Its not 5-6 seconds now, more like 1-3seconds depending on gear and speed. Think of it this way, you demanded over 1/2 throttle acceleration and then a car slows in front of you. Would you want the transmission to shift up then require a downshift just to get back in the power again 1-2 seconds later?
> 
> Holding the gear a few seconds longer when you demand acceleration seems like a good idea when you think of it that way, especially considering the cruze weight and tiny engines.


I thought about this for a while and here is the problem I see with the issue not being fixed. This happen the first time it got stuck in fourth gear. It was rush hour and I was getting on the interstate with a posted speed limit of 70mph. When I got to the end of the ramp to merge into traffic I was still stuck in fourth gear and it wouldn't shift up so all I could do is drop onto the shoulder of the interstate and slow down until the engine RPM's dropped below 1500 then it shifted. Then I had to get back up to highway speed and merge back into traffic that was doing 70+ mph. 



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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

There very well may be something wrong with your car, as it should have shifted well before you let your speed drop that low. You know you could have switched the shifter to manual mode and up shifted on your own right? no need to dangerously slow to a crawl on the hwy like that. 

If I were you I would try another dealer. 

EDIT: Is it possible you accidentally shifted to manual mode? when in manual mode the car will not up shift on its own and will let you bounce off the rev limiter. It also will not downshift on throttle input for acceleration like in auto mode, you need to manually do that. Only time it will down shift is if your speed/RPM drop to low in a gear, it will automatically down shift to keep the car from stalling.


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## RWise (Sep 23, 2013)

spacedout said:


> There very well may be something wrong with your car, as it should have shifted well before you let your speed drop that low. You know you could have switched the shifter to manual mode and up shifted on your own right? no need to dangerously slow to a crawl on the hwy like that.
> 
> If I were you I would try another dealer.
> 
> EDIT: Is it possible you accidentally shifted to manual mode? when in manual mode the car will not up shift on its own and will let you bounce off the rev limiter. It also will not downshift on throttle input for acceleration like in auto mode, you need to manually do that. Only time it will down shift is if your speed/RPM drop to low in a gear, it will automatically down shift to keep the car from stalling.


That was the fist thing I thought of but it wasn't the problem. It was the first time it had happened so it startled me all at the same time. Wasn't much time for decision making due to the amount of traffic and the narrow shoulder I was dealing with. 


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

spacedout said:


> There very well may be something wrong with your car, as it should have shifted well before you let your speed drop that low. You know you could have switched the shifter to manual mode and up shifted on your own right? no need to dangerously slow to a crawl on the hwy like that.
> 
> If I were you I would try another dealer.
> 
> EDIT: Is it possible you accidentally shifted to manual mode? when in manual mode the car will not up shift on its own and will let you bounce off the rev limiter. It also will not downshift on throttle input for acceleration like in auto mode, you need to manually do that. Only time it will down shift is if your speed/RPM drop to low in a gear, it will automatically down shift to keep the car from stalling.


The Cruze I had must have had a glitch. If I left the line in M3 and came to a complete stop it stayed in M3 till I moved up, down, or standard D range.

I was also gonna ask about manual mode as my family would always shift into manual/sport mode on my Subaru when they drove it. In that car shifting to manual mode unlocked sport mode where it would shift at higher rpms and hold gear if you lift throttle if you didn't up or downshift. The cruze I had with 3k miles reminded me of Sport mode where it revved high with 30-35% throttle. Whats the actions/symptoms of these trans if they are low on fluid from the factory like us manuals?


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

> The Cruze I had must have had a glitch. If I left the line in M3 and came to a complete stop it stayed in M3 till I moved up, down, or standard D range.


Normal. M4 or over, it will downshift as you slow down.


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## atienne (Nov 2, 2012)

My 2011 was also doing this. It was like driving a standard shift and the driver wasn't shifting right. After two trips to the dealer, they said they fixed it but it's starting to do it again.

It is my goal to get rid of this car. Be careful if they claim they fix it. Mine was supposedly "resolved" twice.


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## jblackburn (Apr 14, 2012)

atienne said:


> My 2011 was also doing this. It was like driving a standard shift and the driver wasn't shifting right. After two trips to the dealer, they said they fixed it but it's starting to do it again.
> 
> It is my goal to get rid of this car. Be careful if they claim they fix it. Mine was supposedly "resolved" twice.


Yank off the negative battery cable, walk around and tap on the brake pedal a few times, wait a minute or so, and reconnect it. This should make the transmission computer "forget" what it's learned.

I have to do this to my girlfriend's Toyota and dad's Jeep every few months because the transmissions start shifting all kinds of weird.

Cars can't learn. They should stop trying. I liked the old transmissions that were predictable and YOU learned how to drive the car, not the other way around.


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