# Almost to 100k miles what should I have GM fix before out of warranty?



## bostonboy (Apr 8, 2015)

I would let them fix as much as they can if things are wrong with it. I would have not waited till the last 3k miles IMO


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

No dealer is allowed to perform 'pre-emtive' services.

It is true a higher percentage of cars displayed certain failures, such as the pcv/cam cover thing.....and yours may have this failure down the road, but, it has to fail during the warranty period to be covered.

Same would apply to a water pump, now covered for ten years or 150000 miles.......if it fails at 149999 miles it is covered, if it fails at 150001, technically it isn't covered. (It would be in this case though because Chevy knows it failed before it crossed the 150000 mark)......but at 150500, you haven't much of a chance.

So, if you want to do pre-emptive repairs, they are on your dime.
Not to make you angry, just the way it is.

Advice: If potental failures are causing excessive brain damage it is time to trade it in and start anew......new car, new warranty.

Rob


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## SneakerFix (Jul 28, 2013)

I don't get how you say your car is a lemon but yet you still have it? And your still paying on it.

the 2011 and 2012 cruzes all had rear brake issues mostly not being adjusted from the factory and on the early 2012s and 11s they had a rear drum issue that was a easy fix. But looking at other other posts of yours IMO a lot of your issues could be do to the driver.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

You might want to read the California lemon law again, with that many miles on your car it doesn't seem to quality. Believe one of the stipulations is defects within 18 months or 18,000 miles whichever comes first. The same problem needs to be repaired 4 times, vehicle out of service for 30 days with multiple problems. Don't forget they also deduct value for all mileage driven.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Nice to learn that the Cruze still runs when hitting that 100 K mile mark.

Rear brakes in our 04 Cavalier are still original and in fine shape with 140K miles on this car already, reading about a lot of rear drum brake problems with the Cruze, went back to a 1941 design, wonder if the rear brakes from the 04 Cavalier would fit on the Cruze. 

Emission sensors have an 80K mile or 8 year warranty enforce by the EPA, but this law was written in 1972, cars today are doing a bit better, write your congressman. 

Automatic transmissions are a newly created problem, all that mechanical stuff is history replaced by an 89 cent microcontroller along with skyrocketing prices. Got around this by buying a manual transmission. Also have a whole bunch of electrical switches all over the place with these transmission that cause problems, along with the cheapest wire you can buy and connectors. 

Switching to neutral is yet another newly created problem, done to replace that cheap undersized torque converter and poor cooling. These suckers get hotter than hail when stopped in traffic. Solution, use an 89 cent microcontroller to shift the transmission into neutral.


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

bostonboy said:


> I would let them fix as much as they can if things are wrong with it. I would have not waited till the last 3k miles IMO


Believe me I haven't waited, the original dealership I bought the car from brand new found numerous problems up till about 35k miles when they told me either go forward with the lemon law buy back or take it else where because it was costing too much money to fix all the problems whichI have documentation of and have been pursuing a case with GM for years but they have to apparently go through a bunch of hoops.



Robby said:


> No dealer is allowed to perform 'pre-emtive' services.
> 
> It is true a higher percentage of cars displayed certain failures, such as the pcv/cam cover thing.....and yours may have this failure down the road, but, it has to fail during the warranty period to be covered.
> 
> ...


Sorry I implied it was pre-emptive, what I mean is can people give me suggestion on things that normally go wrong at around this mileage because I've been to one dealership saying my waterpump is fine and the next one who has never seen me before says "no your waterpump is shot" I just don't trust the fact that between the 3 dealerships I've gone to get repairs at have all fixed and denied finding things that others have fixed and confirmed broken. It's happened multiple times where I go to a dealership after they've repaired something and I say can you check this out it's not right and they go "oh no it's fine" and then I drive to the next city over and that dealership says "wow yea it definitely is broken"



spacedout said:


> You might want to read the California lemon law again, with that many miles on your car it doesn't seem to quality. Believe one of the stipulations is defects within 18 months or 18,000 miles whichever comes first. The same problem needs to be repaired 4 times, vehicle out of service for 30 days with multiple problems. Don't forget they also deduct value for all mileage driven.


In this case GM specifically is handling my "lemon law" case as a buy back whenever it clears. They refused to trade my car for a brand new 2012 cruze at the time because they worried I might continue to have problems so they told me year after year that until they find and approve such a car that I'll have to wait but did notate on my account that my car is defective from the factory and does qualify for extended warranty blah blah which so far has been true. I've gotten many things that were only covered under bumper to bumper fixed under my 100k power train warranty because they know of the cars history. Such an example is the computer system which was replaced at about 69k miles. 

To elaborate on that the computer system starting going haywire and rolling windows down, turning wipers on, cutting one side of my headlights and fog lights off, randomly switching radio stations, the first time I took it into Chevy the tech was like nothing is wrong and then once they got in to bring me my vehicle he looked like he saw a ghost because he's never seen something like that happen! I would love to post the wrap sheet of crap I've had wrong with this car from the get go but sadly I don't own a copier and I doubt 20+ pages of stuff would be allowed on the forum


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

SneakerFix said:


> I don't get how you say your car is a lemon but yet you still have it? And your still paying on it.
> 
> the 2011 and 2012 cruzes all had rear brake issues mostly not being adjusted from the factory and on the early 2012s and 11s they had a rear drum issue that was a easy fix. But looking at other other posts of yours IMO a lot of your issues could be do to the driver.


GM waived my payments on the car at 25k miles because of already having 6 repairs in less than 30 days. There would be no way in **** I would still have this car after having this many problems and STILL pay!


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

larlar75 said:


> To elaborate on that the computer system starting going haywire and rolling windows down, turning wipers on, cutting one side of my headlights and fog lights off, randomly switching radio stations,


Oh, that's a good one. I hope they changed the BCM. It's either that or something on the bus is messing up.

I hope you don't have one of these devices plugged into your diagnostics port. Such as for insurance discount?


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## SneakerFix (Jul 28, 2013)

The computer system repair is covered under the 80k/8year not the bumper to bumper. Also I think someone is pulling your leg on the repairs and what is wrong with your car the 1.8 engine doesn't have many issues with the water pump. 


Can you post what issues you've had with your car?


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

ChevyGuy said:


> Oh, that's a good one. I hope they changed the BCM. It's either that or something on the bus is messing up.
> 
> I hope you don't have one of these devices plugged into your diagnostics port. Such as for insurance discount?


No I don't have anything plugged into the diagnostics port.



SneakerFix said:


> The computer system repair is covered under the 80k/8year not the bumper to bumper. Also I think someone is pulling your leg on the repairs and what is wrong with your car the 1.8 engine doesn't have many issues with the water pump.
> 
> 
> Can you post what issues you've had with your car?


Off the top of my head in no particular order 
- Speed sensor x 2
- ECU x1
- Rear brake drums x2
- Water pump x3
- Thermostat x2
- Fog lights x2
- TCU x2
- Oil Heater x1
- and some computer stuff they swapped out twice which I don't recall the name of

*EDIT* oh and I have documented paperwork from a Chevy tech feeling a jerk in the tranny when down shifting into 2nd after I hit about 12k miles which has been getting progressively worse since 69k


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## SneakerFix (Jul 28, 2013)

larlar75 said:


> No I don't have anything plugged into the diagnostics port.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Was all this work done by the same dealer? Once you hit the 100k mark your out of luck on any lemon law or powertrain coverage. 


Water pump and tstat is normal so is the drums for that year was a tsb out for that and for the 6t30 Trans.


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

SneakerFix said:


> Once you hit the 100k mark your out of luck on any lemon law or powertrain coverage.


Sure sounds like a "jinx" car to me. They happen. 

That's certainly not typical for a Cruze. But given all the problems, it's time to get out. Start over with a whole 'nuther car.


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## wallbngr (Feb 2, 2012)

larlar75 said:


> So I'm sitting at almost 97k miles and I already have a ticket at GM about my transmission getting replaced because I've had nothing but problems since 25-35k miles. I do qualify for a lemon law but I have my reasons for waiting it out.
> So because I'm almost out of warranty what should I have GM fix? The thermostat, water pump, and speed sensor, rear drums, etc. have already been replaced multiple times, and I mean MULTIPLE! Close to 12 different repair orders on my Cruze all within 65k miles which is why I qualify for the lemon law, so before that 100k mile mark comes along I would like to have GM check and replace a few things that anyone can suggest here. I heard talks of a PCV Valve? Anything else?


I had some of the same problems with my 2011 .. I traded it off at around 90,000 ,got a fair trade in value .Got a 2014 Malibu


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

SneakerFix said:


> Was all this work done by the same dealer? Once you hit the 100k mark your out of luck on any lemon law or powertrain coverage.
> 
> 
> Water pump and tstat is normal so is the drums for that year was a tsb out for that and for the 6t30 Trans.


Work has been done between 3 dealerships


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## CruzzieQ (Dec 26, 2014)

Hi I have a 2011 1.4 auto With 60,000. Kilometers just purchased 4 weeks ago. What is the rear brake fix ?
My warranty is up soon.
Thanks


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

The rear brake fix is to properly adjust the rear drums. The 2011 and 2012s came with the drums so far out of adjustment they didn't work or hold the car with the handbrake set.


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

CruzzieQ said:


> Hi I have a 2011 1.4 auto With 60,000. Kilometers just purchased 4 weeks ago. What is the rear brake fix ?
> My warranty is up soon.
> Thanks


My rear drums have been out of adjustment since I got the car.. Chevy claims to have fixed it and even replaced the drums twice after finding something.. Now they won't even look at them which is annoying but the high quality pads I get for the front last me 2 years so I don't care.


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## SneakerFix (Jul 28, 2013)

larlar75 said:


> My rear drums have been out of adjustment since I got the car.. Chevy claims to have fixed it and even replaced the drums twice after finding something.. Now they won't even look at them which is annoying but the high quality pads I get for the front last me 2 years so I don't care.


they won't look at them anymore? Or do you mean they want you to pay for them?


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

SneakerFix said:


> they won't look at them anymore? Or do you mean they want you to pay for them?


Both they said since they've replaced them twice and its over 65k warranty that they won't look/attempt to adjust them without paying $130 for inspection + however much for labor.. It's not even worth it because my front brakes have been holding up nice for years.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Was told brakes were not covered under warranty, could have a point, knew some people the way they drove needed a full brake job every 4,000 miles. Had a battle with mine with rear disc brakes, never was plated, a pile of rust, and refused to ratchet.

Rear drum brakes are suppose to be self adjusting when you hit the pedal in reverse, 2 mph is sufficient. Front calipers are inherently self adjusting. Prior to around the mid 50's, all brakes had to be periodically adjusted, any full service gas station, would charge a buck to adjust all four.

Assuming the self adjusters are not working properly for drums, with rear discs, have to work the parking brake. If the brakes are too tight, rare, drums would be smoking red hot. If too loose, your brake pedal will go clear to the floor, was my problem, had to pump the brake pedal before coming to a stop, but not a good situation if you had to hit them hard.

Only way to manually adjust the calipers was to remove them and turn out the piston, can't do this if they are rusted shut. Neither of my two GM dealers in town knew nothing about brakes, kind of criminal since they call themselves, experts. Didn't even know with discs, have to work the parking brake to adjust them. 

With shoes, and has been this way for the last 60 years, when you back up and hit the brakes, if there is excessive clearance, a dog advances on the adjuster, when the pedal is released, spring compression pulls the shoes back that moves that adjuster one click to take up the play. But if the shoes are binding, adjusted is a pile of rust, or the springs are weak, this won't happen.

Simple. obvious, but not when dealing with complete idiots that are supposed to be experts in this area. With road salt, brakes need constant attention, but sure don't expect brakes to freeze up after a years of use. Lack of corrosion protection can be a major problem. But and advantage of drums, more protection than wide open exposed calipers. 

With the OP, major concern is his AT, don't know until its looked at, could be a binding solenoid valve where a flush would cure this, or the transmission would have to be replaced due to a burnt up clutch disk. Rest of his stuff, I consider minor.


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

The backing up method works but only for 30-60mins of driving and then it gets unadjusted again, what is the cause?


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

What are your symptoms, low pedal or brake noise, or maybe both?

This is what a brake adjustment tool looks like.










Purchased one way back in 1954 to save a buck on having my brakes "professionally" adjusted. still have it, but haven't used it for years with the advent of self adjusters. Just leave my shoes on the loose side, back up and constantly tap on the brake pedal to be darn sure the self adjusters are working. But do have to use it to loosen the shoes so I can pull the drum off if a ridge is worn into it. 

This is Xtreme's photo.










Kind of object to the Cruze using only one spring to both pull the two shoes together and hold in the adjuster, Chevy on this older style use to use three springs. Those forks at the end of the adjuster can be installed backwards so the adjuster won't work. Binding in the shoes can be the problem, even an over tight parking brake cable.

Any guy worth his salt can see this. Couldn't find any recalls on these drum brakes.


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## SneakerFix (Jul 28, 2013)

larlar75 said:


> Both they said since they've replaced them twice and its over 65k warranty that they won't look/attempt to adjust them without paying $130 for inspection + however much for labor.. It's not even worth it because my front brakes have been holding up nice for years.



bro you have to pay if you want them to do the work. Or take them somewhere else nothing is free after your B2B is up


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

NickD said:


> What are your symptoms, low pedal or brake noise, or maybe both?
> 
> This is what a brake adjustment tool looks like.
> 
> ...


I get a semi loose pedal with a lot of rear brake noise when sitting at a light and I try to coast with the brakes, also when I come to a stop and the car body kind of dips forward and as it rebounds the rear brakes make that grunting sound like they're barely touching the pads in the drums. It's more obvious when they're wet after a car wash or something.



SneakerFix said:


> bro you have to pay if you want them to do the work. Or take them somewhere else nothing is free after your B2B is up


Haha I get that I just find it funny that after replacing the brakes twice because they wouldn't stay tight that they still refuse to adjust them after 65k miles  Kind of like they did a half ass job and don't want to bother with it anymore like everything else on my unlucky car lol.


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## Couch (Oct 11, 2013)

to answer the original question. whatever happens to be wrong with the car is what they should fix. It doesn't matter what car you buy they all have their quirks with specific parts, like the uplander/montana/transport vans have the most garbage wheel speed sensors, the diesels have crap glow plugs, subarus have rusty hatches, toyotas have 11 warning labels about floor mats, i could go on for days.

To guess what might break in the future is impossible. As a former service advisor it was my most hated appointment. "I want to bring my car in to have it checked out before the warranty expires." These cars usually had nothing wrong with them or if it did it was maintenance related. BUT sure enough less than 5000 miles later the car will be back and have some form of issue that could possibly have been covered by warranty. The analogy i use is simple. Warranties on cars are just like having car insurance. If your insurance expired and you were involved in an accident would the insurance company still pay for it? 

On that note I feel your pain, having a car in the shop more than on the road is terrible to experience. I've gone through it. The thing to remember is that MOST dealerships are on your side, and would have no problem pushing through anything under warranty as they get paid either way. But at the same time the repair has to be legitimate as 80% if not higher of the parts replaced under warranty get sent back to GM for inspection, and if they find the claim was bogus, the dealership pays for the repair. 

Good luck with your Cruze.


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

Sadly at this point there hasn't been a single time I've taken my car in where Chevy didn't find something wrong and fixed it. It's kind of crazy, I'm not even mad anymore I'm just going to see how long this thing will last with this many problems popping up. GM said it's a strong possibility I'll hear a yes from the GM of GM Tech services Monday about my transmission getting replaced so if that goes through then I'll probably buy a trifecta tune to fix GM's mistakes and run the car until it blows up


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

This is the shoe return spring GM was using prior to the Cruze:











To the best of my knowledge, was no tool to help install it, took pure muscle power. Wonder if dealers complaint about this as the reason for going to that weak coiled spring. But it was very reliable. The shoes as well as the pads need lubrication to return freely, over the years, found the best lubricant to use is Permatex anti-seize.

If you nose is dropping when coming to a stop, most than likely your front struts are shot, they don't last forever, and even shorter with all these pot holes on our roads.

Not sure why your rear drums are making noise when stopped, unless you have ABS problems as well. ABS not only is suppose to help drivers that don't know how to drive, but also used to eliminate the proportioning valves for the rears as well but constantly pulsing.

*And its a blatant lie that ABS does not interfere with normal braking, The pressure of the master cylinder goes through the ABS modulator valve, and if a solenoid valve stays close due to corrosion or a shorted drive transistor, you will have no braking to that wheel PERIOD. *

Ran into this more than once, but also faced with idiots running this country that don't know a thing about vehicles making laws. Then Stabitrack added at no addition cost that kills your engine if one wheel slips on ice, not even a skid. Pulsing a wheel with brakes is positively stupid! Wears out the brakes, and depends on firmware in flashram for it to work.

Could have added several clutch plates and a couple of springs to the differential and gave us limited slip. But, no, anything to save a buck at our expense.

You are not the only one to have dealer problems with brakes, sure made one **** of a mess with my Cruze. Can't fight with these bastereds, left me with a lot of air in the system. Quoted the manual about using their scanner to activate the ABS pump, we don't do it this way. Can't even do this anymore without a 4,000 buck scanner. 

Just got tired of fighting these idiots and completely redid the job myself, they jammed the pads in causing drag. 

In regards to having recalls, have to wait until at least five people are killed, just wanted to be darn sure, neither me nor my family was one of those.


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## larlar75 (Apr 30, 2015)

Lmao I got a good laugh out of the recall part, sounds like that's actually true!  As far as my brakes go I don't think it's a forward dip like my struts are out but more like the front brakes are working so hard that the momentum causes it to push the car a little forward, I noticed when I drove a loaner cruze when mine was in the shop that the rear brakes did like 10-20% of braking and it actually helped by braking the car evenly kind of like it was balancing the weight out so when the car started dipping forward the rear brakes would pull it back to the middle if you get what I mean? Also I have no idea why my drums make noise and even more so when they're wet, it's so bad that it sounds like a boat horn when I am sitting at a red light and I release the brake pedal enough so the brakes barely grab.. Or like someone is grabbing my frame and bending it slowly and the metal makes that grunting sound. 

I plan on doing Xtremes guide on how to adjust the rear drums next Saturday.


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## jdean9717 (Apr 20, 2015)

NickD said:


> This is the shoe return spring GM was using prior to the Cruze:
> 
> 
> 
> ...












Here is the tool that you use to install these springs works quite well I must add. Also you can turn off the stability control so if you do not want to use it just turn it off and you can control the car as you see fit.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

jdean9717 said:


> Here is the tool that you use to install these springs works quite well I must add. Also you can turn off the stability control so if you do not want to use it just turn it off and you can control the car as you see fit.


Oh so there is a tool for this, learned something. First I close the adjuster and easy to put one side of that spring in the hole and hold it in there with a small pair of vise-grips. Other side, use both of my hands with palms on the shoe, fingers on the spring and squeeze it. Problem is hitting the hole, so either knock the shoe up or down with a guess to align it. May take 2 or 3 times, but get it done. 

This spring sure has a lot of tension, so can only guess if the anchors are a bit rusty, still has enough force to close the shoes so the adjuster does work. Sure wonder how well that tiny little coil springs works, but I have rear discs.

Here is another weird thing with the ABS. I have an iCar bluetooth adapter plugged into the diagnostic socket with an on off switch on it. If I get into the Cruze, put on the safety belt, switch on the ignition switch to the run position. Each time I tap on the brake pedal, it sure sounds like the ABS pump is running for about a second.

Just tried this again to make sure I was not cracking up, tapped on the brake pedal 20 times, and each time heard something buzz for a second and sure sounded like the ABS pump. Perhaps if I stuck my wife in there, I could ABS pump bleed the brakes without a 4,000 buck scanner. Have to try this sometime.

Dealer with the minimum amount of brain power removed the rear calipers without putting a stick on the pedal to keep the master cylinder closed. Fluid was spilling out all over his floor, and left air in the system. Ever talk to a wall?

Brake pedal was still going to the floor, so I vacuum bled that never works. Would start the car and hit about 6 mph, stop it and repeat this about ten times to run the pump. Then vacuum bleed again. Took three times doing this until I finally got a full pedal. 

With any other GM vehicle, could hot wire the pump, can't do this on the Cruze, just another bit of some minor inconvenience. Maybe this brake tap method with the iCar switched on will work.


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## jdean9717 (Apr 20, 2015)

Go and buy one of these and you can bleed your brakes by just using a pressure bleeder. This is what we use to do brake flushes. If we replace the EBCM we will use the laptop to bleed the air from the EBCM. So as long as they never installed a new EBCM you can just use this and it will work perfect.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Could be an old set in his way hard head, been dealing with ABS since 1978 and running the ABS pump was the most efficient way. Still the recommended way according to the Cruze shop manual, except now you need a 4,000 buck scanner to do this.

With pressure bleeding, have to pump in solid fluid and if any fluid is left in the system and to pump all that out, will always have some air in the master cylinder, so requires a lot more fluid and a lot more waste. Then when you remove that cap, will have a mess to clean up afterwards.

With the pump running, can bleed a brake in seconds. And with a clear line can see the bubbles and when the fluid runs clean. But have to coat the bleeder with non-hardening Permatex first because that lets air get sucked in as all. 

See no standardization with caps, different vehicle with different caps, and always a new cap to buy at $$$$ prices. Okay, I am just a DIYer, and only need one cap.

With recovering tanks on coolant systems, made a tool. Male quick coupler to a regulator, shut off valve, pressure gauge, female coupler. For the cap, but one, used a 1/4" NPT tap and glue in male quick coupler. Hook up my air compressor to it, set the regulator to around 25 psi, then close the valve to check for air leak down. So only out the cost for the cap.

With AC, made a wye, one leg to the tank that already has a shut off valve, but add another shut valve to the other leg to the vacuum pump. With this valve opened and both manifold valves opened with the red and blue connected, draw a deep vacuum for the entire system everywhere. Not in a rush, so let it run for a couple of hours.

Close the vacuum pump valve in the wye and the high side manifold valve. No switching hoses between vacuum and charge, and no purging of lines. Tank sits on a digital scale, after initial charge, run the engine to put exactly the correct amount of refrigerant in. With no concerns about putting air into the system.

In my book, common sense.


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