# 2012 Cruze shuts off while driving, no end in sight



## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Cindy,

Contact the Chevy Customer Care account here on CruzeTalk. They may be able to arrange for GM Europe and GM North America to collaborate to get your Cruze fixed. The problem you're running into is the parts aren't interchangeable.

Mike.


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

BetweenColorado and Germany It's not clear to me where the selling dealer and servicing dealer are?

Incidentally I did a stint with NATO in Germany many moons ago.


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## sunnyc212 (Aug 13, 2015)

The vehicle was purchased in Colorado Springs. The shop working on it here is the authorized GM repair shop for US Spec vehicles, not a dealer. They handle all recall and warranty work in the area through some agreement with GM. They order all of the parts directly from GM stateside so they're not putting Euro spec parts on the vehicle. 
When I contacted GM USA they referred me to GM Germany who won't even return my calls or messages. They originally told me to go back to GM USA since its US Spec/US purchased. The shop has been in contact with techs here and stateside to no avail. It's pretty much been a 7 month nightmare for us and the shop at this point.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

There have been some reports of Cruzes just shutting off. I don't remember seeing a cause. Unfortunately, this may well be a tech's worst nightmare: an intermittent. Those kinds of problems are a major pain for all involved.


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

Has anyone replaced the negative battery cable? Common cause for a lot of things electrical on the Cruze.

https://www.automd.com/tsb/bulletin_b376511/

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/25-s...al-coverage-14311-negative-battery-cable.html


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## sunnyc212 (Aug 13, 2015)

Thanks Jim. They said they "checked" all the cables and wiring, but I am going to send this to them on Monday and see if they have done it. I hope they have not since it would at least be something new to hope for!


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## sunnyc212 (Aug 13, 2015)

ChevyGuy said:


> There have been some reports of Cruzes just shutting off. I don't remember seeing a cause. Unfortunately, this may well be a tech's worst nightmare: an intermittent. Those kinds of problems are a major pain for all involved.


I feel for the tech too because they are as tired of looking at the car as anyone. The issue is definitely not intermittent anymore. Lol! It hasn't run at all for nearly 3 months. It's becoming such a huge hardship on our family since we are diligently paying for a vehicle that is inoperable. A huge issue here is that if we don't figure it out, I can't ship the car home, sell the car, or even re register the car here. 

Cindy


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

sunnyc212 said:


> The issue is definitely not intermittent anymore. Lol! It hasn't run at all for nearly 3 months.


Normally, I'd say find another dealer, but somehow I don't know as you have that option. A dead car is far easier to fix.

Have they at least figured out if it's fuel or spark?


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## sunnyc212 (Aug 13, 2015)

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have phrased it like that. The vehicle starts. It runs for approximately 60-120 sec and the completely shuts off, engine, electricity, everything. Doesn't matter if it's in gear or park. There are no dash lights that remain on, just totally off. No check engine light, no codes. There were codes for the first several incidences and they were for a variety of things and they replaced all of them. They have replaced fuel pump module, catalytic converters, o2 sensor, engine control module, camshaft sensor, crankshaft sensor, ignition coil, ingnition housing and scoured it for loose or damaged cable or wires. I'm writing them about the battery cable Monday. It seems hopeless. 

Cindy


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

Cindy - is it possible that the car was damaged by (salt) seawater in shipping to Europe?

this would explain somethings.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

sunnyc212 said:


> The vehicle starts. It runs for approximately 60-120 sec and the completely shuts off, engine, electricity, everything. Doesn't matter if it's in gear or park. There are no dash lights that remain on, just totally off. No check engine light, no codes.


Regardless. A problem that can be reliably repeated in 60-120 seconds is fixable. The ones that drive techs crazy are the one that strikes rarely.

All lights out is a major clue. Does your model have an ignition key or is it keyless? This smells of a power problem. Perhaps the BCM (Body Control Module) is crashing and resetting the car to "off". I'll have to review what controls the power in the car. At this point I think it's less of a "engine" problem and more of a "control" problem. The engine isn't dying, it's being told to shut off by a defective control.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

sunnyc212 said:


> I'm sorry, I shouldn't have phrased it like that. The vehicle starts. It runs for approximately 60-120 sec and the completely shuts off, engine, electricity, everything. Doesn't matter if it's in gear or park. There are no dash lights that remain on, just totally off. No check engine light, no codes. There were codes for the first several incidences and they were for a variety of things and they replaced all of them. They have replaced fuel pump module, catalytic converters, o2 sensor, engine control module, camshaft sensor, crankshaft sensor, ignition coil, ingnition housing and scoured it for loose or damaged cable or wires. I'm writing them about the battery cable Monday. It seems hopeless.
> 
> Cindy


Your symptoms point to a complete power failure or a faulty BCM. I'd be looking at the cabling going to the battery - negative battery cable is the first place to start - and then at the BCM. Lights are controlled by software in the BCM.


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## Tomko (Jun 1, 2013)

I'm thinking salt water has attacked the main fuse block under the hood.

Did German officials require that your car be steam cleaned before allowed entry from America?

GM has long ago established that steam cleaning a vehicle will cause enumerable problems.


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## sunnyc212 (Aug 13, 2015)

Tomko said:


> I'm thinking salt water has attacked the main fuse block under the hood.
> 
> Did German officials require that your car be steam cleaned before allowed entry from America?
> 
> GM has long ago established that steam cleaning a vehicle will cause enumerable problems.



It was cleaned prior to entry. We brought it over a few months after purchase. It ran two years here prior to the first shut off incident. I will have them check the fuse block though. Thank you!


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## sunnyc212 (Aug 13, 2015)

ChevyGuy said:


> Regardless. A problem that can be reliably repeated in 60-120 seconds is fixable. The ones that drive techs crazy are the one that strikes rarely.
> 
> All lights out is a major clue. Does your model have an ignition key or is it keyless? This smells of a power problem. Perhaps the BCM (Body Control Module) is crashing and resetting the car to "off". I'll have to review what controls the power in the car. At this point I think it's less of a "engine" problem and more of a "control" problem. The engine isn't dying, it's being told to shut off by a defective control.



I definitely agree that it is a power problem and not the engine itself. It seemed very strange to me that suddenly all of the parts I mentioned would come up faulty in codes one after another. Catalytic converters do not typically fail on their own. I have thought all along the problem has to be something in the electrical system sending weird signals. I will have them look into the BCM. Thank you!


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## sunnyc212 (Aug 13, 2015)

obermd said:


> Your symptoms point to a complete power failure or a faulty BCM. I'd be looking at the cabling going to the battery - negative battery cable is the first place to start - and then at the BCM. Lights are controlled by software in the BCM.


Thank you! I will have them look into this.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

I had a chance to look at things. The BCM controls the relays which controls the power. (The BCM is the real ignition switch - the switch you touch is just a command to the BCM.) The ECM (Engine CM) controls the check engine light. Most dash lights are controlled via the bus - I'm not clear who is controlling those. Depending on exactly what is still on when the car dies, I'd look at the BCM, relays or even a flaky fuse. I can't rule out the ECM or something on the bus causing a massive data crash, but they're further down on my list.

Without being able to see this myself or have any test equipment, if it was me, I think I'd buy a large package of fuses and maybe the main ignition relay and change those and see what happens. Just because those are cheap things to change.


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## slswhs1 (Aug 20, 2015)

Hi
My name is Sharon and I have a 2011 Cruze with 33,000 miles I live in Arkansas. I bought this car last year. The dealer sold it as a certified car. I have owned it for less than 16 months and only put 3,000 miles on it. My problem is that 3 times I have been driving down the road and all of a sudden everything electrical will shut off for about 20 seconds. At the same time even though I give it gas it slows down. The motor is still running. I have taken it in to the dealer twice and both times they said they could find nothing wrong and no codes show up. This has happened in the summer and winter.
Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone have any suggestions to try and fix this?
Thank you in advance for your help.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

slswhs1 said:


> all of a sudden everything electrical will shut off for about 20 seconds. At the same time even though I give it gas it slows down. The motor is still running.


A few have mentioned a complete shut off - I think your's is the first where the engine keeps running. I'm not sure which module handle the throttle-by-wire. But feeling is that it's the BCM taking a nap. But these kinds of problems are hard to trace, and I don't think we've heard back from the others that experienced a shutdown to know what fixed their problems.

If the dealer is game for swapping parts on a guess, they can try and change out the BCM. Ultimately you need to keep pushing with them or some other dealer - you've got a problem and they need to work with GM on getting it fixed.


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## slswhs1 (Aug 20, 2015)

Thanks ChevyGuy for your input. I will talk to my dealer again about this.


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

sunnyc212 said:


> Hello everyone.
> My name is Cindy. I am writing in hopes that maybe someone has an idea that may lead me to answers regarding my Cruze. My family is active duty military and we are stationed in Germany. We purchased out vehicle new prior to moving in Colorado. Our location has severely compounded my situation because GM has been unwilling to help me in a significant way because of our location.
> 
> In January of this year my Cruze shut off while I was driving down the highway. I was able to get to the side of the road and it restarted. A day later it did the same thing and would not restart. The roadside assistance service here came out and fiddled with the keys and computer and restarted it. I immediately put a call in to the GM authorized repair shop here and took the vehicle in. They reported a bad fuel pump module. They told me it was ok to drive the car while waiting for the part. Within a week the vehicle ended up back at the shop with blown transmission lines and could no longer be driven. After a full month I received the vehicle back only to experience the same problem again within a few days.
> ...


Hello Cindy,

We are genuinely sorry that you have experienced such difficulties with your Cruze for so long, and certainly don’t want it to remain in this condition. As per obermd’s suggestion, we are more than happy to look further into your case. If you could please provide your case number to us via private message, we can then research into possible resolutions.

We look forward to hearing from you soon, and please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any additional questions.

Warm wishes,

Helen
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

slswhs1 said:


> Hi
> My name is Sharon and I have a 2011 Cruze with 33,000 miles I live in Arkansas. I bought this car last year. The dealer sold it as a certified car. I have owned it for less than 16 months and only put 3,000 miles on it. My problem is that 3 times I have been driving down the road and all of a sudden everything electrical will shut off for about 20 seconds. At the same time even though I give it gas it slows down. The motor is still running. I have taken it in to the dealer twice and both times they said they could find nothing wrong and no codes show up. This has happened in the summer and winter.
> Has anyone else had this problem? Does anyone have any suggestions to try and fix this?
> Thank you in advance for your help.


Hello Sharon,

We can understand how repeated concerns with your Cruze’s power could be frustrating, and would love to assist in the best way possible. Please reach out to us via private message with the following information: VIN, mileage, involved dealer and contact info.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,

Helen
Chevrolet Customer Care


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