# 2011 Chevy Cruze 1.4 L4 Trbo, Piston Slap



## zerogravity (Jul 21, 2013)

My LS1 suffered from the dreaded piston slap. Can you post the pics for us?
Dont let GM push you around. I won my Lemon law case back in October. Dont back down, and don't take no for an answer. Also go after the dealer for poor maintenence practices. I am sure that dealer has a Facebook page. Post on it about the issue. As well as GMs various Facebook pages. I did!!!!!
I also got mylocal media news outlets involved, bot TV and papers. And I am sure they have Facebook as well.
The power of social media....... GM knows me well


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

56,000 miles. Curious as to what oil you have been using and what OCI you have been doing. Were you having oil consumption? Not questioning your methods, just wondering what they are. Never been exposed to piston slap in all the years and cars I've been driving.


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## sx sonic (Nov 25, 2013)

That's most unfortunate. First I've ever heard of such an issue on the 1.4T which would make it an incredibly rare fluke.

Atleast It's not a kia 2.0T which has an entire thread dedicated to the #2 cylinder getting wiped out because of a catastrophic sparkplug failure.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

Out of 14,000 members, this is the first we're hearing of something like this. 

Rust in the engine? I'd use a better oil if you were planning on storing the car or driving short trips that don't bring the oil up to speed. 

Sorry to hear about your experience. Canadian owners don't get treated as well as the US owners from what I've seen.


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

The flash rust the OP mentions is because they put the car outside with the engine opened up.
What a bunch of dip snits eh?

Love to see some piston photos.
As far as the repair path being taken, although as described I disagree with it, the dealer can only take the path the corporation is telling them to.

Rob


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Hmm... I'm going to PM the OP on this. I'd like to see some pics to back up the claims... one post on the forum and it's a doozy.


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## drector (May 14, 2013)

I have also experienced piston slap in my 2011 Eco. I am currently at 30k and in the process of figuring it all out. I currently pulled plugs and tried to take a look at the cylinder bores for scoring or zebra strips, which couldnt actually see anything but what i did notice was a large amount of carbon build up on the outer circumference of the pistons. im talking huge chunks of carbon around the valve reliefs on the intake side. maybe slightly off topic now that i found that issue in search for another. By the way i have read on here about the notorious knock retard that no one has yet to figure out why some cars knock all the time no matter how much timing is pulled or octane of gas is used. well my car is one of those cars. it started around 15k and progressively got worse, and now knocks all the time. Today i poured some carbon cleaner in my cylinders and let it sit all day to try to dissolve that carbon and it seemed to have fixed that knock issue. i will check the pistons tomo to see if there is anything left.


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

drector said:


> Today i poured some carbon cleaner in my cylinders and let it sit all day to try to dissolve that carbon and it seemed to have fixed that knock issue. i will check the pistons tomo to see if there is anything left.


After pouring solvents in to the cylinders I would consider an oil change... that stuff could do nasty things to your oil.

BTW, how were you looking into the cylinders on any kind of angle? Do you have a boroscope? Can it take pictures? Looking forward to your follow-up.


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## drector (May 14, 2013)

Yea sorry oil change was a given. I hate doing that but honestly a regular induction cleaner methods wouldn't have touched that carbon. I am a master cert tech and been doing this for a while so I'm not going in blind ha ha. Yes my current borescope does not take pictures looking to see what my snap on dealer will give me for trade for there new model that does. Such an odd build up in a confined area wish I could take a picture. Unfortunately I think I've fell victim to cracked piston issue. I am not loosing noticeable amount of oil between oil changes, top tier gas, regular fuel treatment and once a year induction cleaner.


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

No word back from the OP and the piston slap. Not sure what to make of that...

drector, I bought a cheap boroscope camera on the weekend. Probably not the quality camera you'd get from Snap-On, but for $40 it takes pictures! 

Here's a shot of my #4 piston:









Gladly, no deposits to be seen here. 22k miles, 91 octane Shell E0 V-Power for a while, this tank is the first tank of Petro Canada 91 I've run in quite a while.


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## 70AARCUDA (Nov 14, 2010)

Borescope = 'automotive' proctology (ha,ha)


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