# Another what's this noise thread.



## KoruptData (Mar 30, 2011)

Hello fellow Cruzers. Just bought my 1.8 Cruze LS about 3 weeks ago and love it. Just one concern, when idling at a stop, the engine is making a pulsing noise. Its not loud, you have to turn the radio off to hear it. I know its from the engine as I pop the hood and hear the noise pretty good. Sounds like its coming right from the top somewhere. Injectors? Air intake? Exhaust?


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## ChevyPower (Nov 9, 2010)

not sure what you mean by pulsing noise, do you mean a clicking?/ticking noise?

This happened in my friends Acura TSX, i know it's not a chevrolet but sounds in most cars lead to the same problem. It could be your Cruze drive belt, are you able to locate where about on the engine it's coming from.

Next time you take a look at the issue, see if it's coming from the belt, i have a strong belief it's that.


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## gfxdave99 (Feb 26, 2011)

Being that the car is new to you, it could be totally normal as well. 

Maybe stop by your dealer sometime and ask to hear another LS run and you can see if you hear it, if you do then you know its normal and not to worry about it. If you don't then walk over to the service department


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## ChevyPower (Nov 9, 2010)

gfxdave99 said:


> Being that the car is new to you, it could be totally normal as well.
> 
> Maybe stop by your dealer sometime and ask to hear another LS run and you can see if you hear it, if you do then you know its normal and not to worry about it. If you don't then walk over to the service department


THIS!! too

I should've mentioned that. I find a lot of things in new cars that seem awkward or unusual to me, but it turns out to be normal, this could be it, lets just hope your cruze has no problems. 

If it is a problem, Chevrolet should be kind enough to help you get through it and do the best they could, now there better with customer service unlike before. If its not all nice and dandy like I just explained, Walk all over them, if you bother them enough they will help you out.


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## KoruptData (Mar 30, 2011)

Yeah, I have an appt. with them next Friday. I used Onstar and ran diagnostics and nothing came back. This is my first new car purchase and I could just be worrying. Thanks for the input. About the belt, it could be coming from there but its hard to pinpoint. Maybe ill use my phone and make a video later and upload to youtube.


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## KoruptData (Mar 30, 2011)

Here is a video. Probably need headphones to hear the pulsing noise and better towards the end. Another thing I noticed from inside the car is the pulsing noise but when I gas it a little I hear a noise like a metallic rattle. Anyways, I moved up the appt, and im dropping it off tomorrow. Let you guys know.


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## gfxdave99 (Feb 26, 2011)

yeah ive never heard a 1.8 but that doesnt sound right at all


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## Chefmaster87 (Mar 30, 2011)

I had a clicking noise when I had m car for about the first 2 weeks and after that I haven't heard it, it most have stop or I just got used to the noise. Let us know what u find out thanks


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## KoruptData (Mar 30, 2011)

Sorry for the lack of updates. Tech at the dealer said it was nothing to worry about and nothing to worry about. Can't even remember what he told me it was. Think I was upset that it took them all day with my car to tell me that. 

Fast foward too two days ago. Usually have radio on and can't hear it but this time I'm at a light, I feel my wheel vibrating. Turn the radio off and the pulsing noise is pretty loud. Never got loud again but concerned me. On my lunch today, I drop in at the dealer and ask to talk to a tech. I've pinpointed the source of the noise to what he tells me is part of the air conditioning system. The noise goes away when the ac is on and I only hear it when I'm stopped, radio off, and the fans off. Ill keep an eye on it.


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## MaximusPrime (Mar 23, 2011)

Yeah, keep us informed. This is my first new car purchase too (Coming from my baby, a gas guzzling 1985 el camino) and the service guys are probably sick of me, because I bring it in for every odd noise or hiccup that I notice just to be safe.


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## txlatino (Feb 25, 2011)

I have also noticed that every morning when I turn the car on and wait before putting it in drive.. I hear a noise which after 10-15 secs gets louder.. I popped the hood and when i get out the car the noise goes away.. I close the hood and after a couple secs the noise is back.. I stepped back out of the car without opening the hood and the noise was there. I pressed on down on the front of the hood by where it hooks and the noise went away.. Once i let go, noise came back on.. I made sure the hood was closed properly yet noise remains when in idle.. Not sure if something is lose or what..


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## Japa (May 27, 2011)

Hey guys! This is my first new car purchase too and I have the same problem! Just wanted to know if you guys came up with a final conclusion!

Amazing thread and awesome answers, btw! 

Thanks!


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## ch200200 (Jun 21, 2011)

*Same EXACT problem here! Just dropped it off at the dealer*

This has been driving me nuts! It is the pulsating/vibrating at idle that I am getting as well. You can feel it in the steering wheel and even hear a little rubbing sound. This cant be right! The service manager at the dealer immediatly noticed the vibration just by holding on to the open door. So there you go. Is it normal? I hope not! We will see what the mechanics come up with tomorrow. Also I brought up the ticking noise (only noticed when the hood is open) and from what I was told thats completely normal. No problem there. Oh and yeah... not sure if it is at all connected but at start up (cold) my rpms stay at 1250 for no matter how long I sit there. Thats annoying because your fighting the car when shifting in reverse. 

Just hit 900 miles
Cruze LS Automatic




Any input or comments would be great... Thanks


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## 72buickgs (Mar 20, 2011)

i do not know about the turboed engines, but the 1.8 l engine in my wife's cruze & my '08 astra, have solid lifters and u will always hear them.
for a vibration, perhaps u have en engine out of balance condition. do these engines have internal balancers (crank) or an external harmonic balancer? a vacuum leak will cause the same problem. let the mechanics determine the source.


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## ch200200 (Jun 21, 2011)

*Yep its the AC unit/causing the pulsating vibration*

I posted my update in another thread but thought I would ad it here too. As far as the idle goes I was told the same thing by an engineer that it sounded like the AC pump. Dealer couldn't duplicate and the service tech had nothing for that particular problem. SO!!! Ummm hmmmm As I mentioned earlier the service rep felt it when I pulled up yesterday. So WTH! 

So we got a hold of that engineer at the Tech Center and was told to use the **** out of the AC for a little while and it should improve/loosen up. So sure enough as someone mentioned on here it goes away when the AC is turned on. That was a key factor in pinpointing the fact that the compressor itself just needs to be used/broken in. When its off its just spinning with some friction/tightness/drag hence the pulsating/slight vibrating. You turn it on and its fully enagaged and smooth ahhhhhhhhh ha! Thats def not exactly how it was eplained to me but im just wrapping it up in a nutshell here. Im sure a techy could do a better job but hey!

OK fine is this all BS?

So far its all adding up... to tell you the truth just using it on the way home and then going back out later with it off it was a lot better. Definete improvement anyways. 

That was the first time using my AC by the way!!! So the question here is... has everyone been staying away from the AC and babying the ride for the first few hundred miles like me? Maybe this is the problem with myself and others. My first new car in many years and I wanted to baby it. Not such a good idea I guess? So the idea... when new drive it like you stole it maybe true after all and from what I understand that helps with the tranny learning to shift better. 

Oh yeah and theres more. I had a high idle on cold start up. It stayed @ 1250. I was sure that wasnt right and sure enough it wasnt the dealer had a updated calibration for "cold drivabilty' Reprogram ECM (J6354.4) Problem solved! So if your having that issue get that update!!!!! As well I got the latest trans cal/reprogram and it shift awsome now!

Hope all this helps at least someone. Its a pain in the ass dealing with service techs/dealers... We got to stick together! lol


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## Quazar (Apr 28, 2011)

I think its a good idea to baby the ride for the first couple hundred miles. I destroyed the test drive car before I got my M/T Eco. I only drove it 3 miles, but I pulled some hard turns and accels, and brought it back with the check engine light on and smelling like burn oil and making noise.

So are you saying you can get the EMC to not run the high RMP on start up, I would love to kill that.


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## fastdriver (Jan 7, 2011)

*RPMs*



ch200200 said:


> This has been driving me nuts! It is the pulsating/vibrating at idle that I am getting as well. You can feel it in the steering wheel and even hear a little rubbing sound. This cant be right! The service manager at the dealer immediatly noticed the vibration just by holding on to the open door. So there you go. Is it normal? I hope not! We will see what the mechanics come up with tomorrow. Also I brought up the ticking noise (only noticed when the hood is open) and from what I was told thats completely normal. No problem there. Oh and yeah... not sure if it is at all connected but at start up (cold) my rpms stay at 1250 for no matter how long I sit there. Thats annoying because your fighting the car when shifting in reverse.
> 
> Just hit 900 miles
> Cruze LS Automatic
> ...


I never really thought much about the RPMs when first starting up, but have noticed that it seemed kind of high because of the way it shifted into reverse. Today, I started it up- about 90 degrees outside, AC off. It started at 1500 rpms for a short time, then went to 1250 for a little while longer, then down to a 1000 and seemed to settle around 800 or so. Sorry I didn't get the exact amount of time at each level. It might even be a tad lower, 750, at complete warmup.


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