# Hi All...problem. Exhaust Fluid Poor Quality DIC...?????



## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

@Snipesy


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## MOTO13 (Mar 26, 2014)

Thanks MP81...Are the nox sensors something a person could replace themselves w/o going to the dealer? I seem to remember that GM extended the car to a 125k warranty for def exhaust issues though. Not sure if this applies here.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

I don't think the NOx sensors are covered under the special coverage, but I could be wrong. The NOx 2 sensor is under the car and fairly easy to replace (it's usually pretty **** tight into the exhaust, but that part aside).


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## MOTO13 (Mar 26, 2014)

Thanks again MP. I actually called the dealer I bought the car from. They did my timing belt as well as a few other things over the years. They are going to try to look at the car and do whatever they can under warranty. Even replacing the DPF. I am sure I'll have to pay something though. These are such good cars I hate to ever let it go.


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

"DEF Quality Poor" has little to do with DEF quality.
It basically means the vehicle doesn't see the NOx reduction it wants as measured by NOx Sensor 1 and 2. Soooo why did GM call it that? I don't know, but GM is really stubborn. If they can find any possible way to blame it 1% on the customer they will. Hypothetically poor DEF quality can cause this issue but in my entire life I've only seen 1 instance of bad DEF quality.... But even in that case the DEF was fine, something was just throwing off the sensor.


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## 15cruzediesel (Sep 30, 2019)

There are a ton of posts on this subject and if you search enough you'll find what your looking for.










DEF Quality Poor Message - Countdown To Limp Mode


Okay for a 3rd highjack on this thread? It sounds like I'm late to the party, from what I gather I might be close to bumpinalta (~1600mi round trip to rose bowl from northern utah) and we could have shared parts. So anyways I got the DEF quality poor light on, I drive 45mi one way all highway...




www.cruzetalk.com


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## arledy1234 (Oct 1, 2021)

might want to look into getting a def refractometer, optimal def concentration is 32.5% and usually it needs to be pretty close to that. depending on where you got the def, and how long ago that was, you might genuiely have bad def.


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## Snipesy (Dec 7, 2015)

arledy1234 said:


> might want to look into getting a def refractometer, optimal def concentration is 32.5% and usually it needs to be pretty close to that. depending on where you got the def, and how long ago that was, you might genuiely have bad def.


30% is the cutoff for GM on DEF concentration if the vehicle has a quality sensor.

The Cruze does not have one, so the quality sensor is simply the SCR performance. It's impossible to say how low you can go simply because there is so much variance in the NOx sensors and overall health of the SCR. Urea also degrades into ammonia which will linger in solution for a while. Ammonia works fine beyond being carcinogenic, so it's in theory possible to have a fully functional system with like 10% Urea.


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## mike_D (Dec 16, 2019)

MOTO13 said:


> 2014 Cruze 2.0 diesel...119k on the Odometer. My DIC gave me a warning that my exhaust fluid is poor quality. 100 mile count down to 65mph mode. I have about 4" of DEF left in the tank. Has anyone encountered this before? Do I simply siphon out the def in the tank and refill with new...or is this also a nox sensor problem? Thanks in advance for any help.


Here is what I did to fix mine. 
1.) Drain and replace the DEF fluid.
2.) Make sure exhaust bolts on pipe under the middle of the car are not broken. This is a know weak point. Replace gasket there you may have to drill out old stud, to do this you must remove the exhaust from up front. These are very hard bolts, I used a grinder and cut off wheel, replace with grade 8 bolts I double nutted mine too.
3.) Replace DEF injector or you can try to clean with water. I replaced mine.
4.) Replace NOX2 sensor this is the farthest one back behind the SCR.
5.) Replace DEF pump. 

Must perform 1, 2 and 3 before going for test drive, this is real tricky since you are probably on the death countdown. Your choice, I did get limited to one of the slower speeds which made clearing the code real difficult.

Testing and clearing the error. ECM must clear the error itself by being satisfied the system is fixed. 
Go for the test drive, must drive about 30-40 minutes, for the first 8-10 minutes ECM does not monitor NOX2 because everything had to get hot.
What you will see.

1.) NOX 1 comes alive, starts giving normal readings, hard accelerations NOX1 goes way up say 500-900 PPM. 
2.) Next, NOX 2 comes alive and will start reading lower but is very slow to follow NOX1. THERE MUST BE A 30% reductions from NOX2 to NOX1, example
NOX1 reads 700 PPM NOX2 should not be over 210 PPM. Best to check this when at a constant speed cruse on level ground so NOX1 will be somewhat stable.

Also you will need to do a few full throttle accelerations and then let completely off the throttle, on ramp works good.

I shot gunned mine because of the death count and not wanting to pay the dealer $120 an hour plus 2x the cost of parts compared to ROCK AUTO.

Good Luck 

Mike


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## forqalso (Dec 14, 2019)

I got this warning after refilling my DEF. It ended up Auto Zone had accepted a return of a jug of DEF from someone that had refilled it with water and I ended up putting the water in my reservoir. The manager of the store looked through the returns and saw when it happened. But, I couldn’t even get them to replace the water they sold me. I drained the tank, refilled it once and drained it again. Then I reset the code. I learned to check the seal on the DEF jug from now on.


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## mkohan (Dec 19, 2015)

OUCH, Glad to hear draining & refill solved the problem.


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## MOTO13 (Mar 26, 2014)

Well, just got the call from the dealership. It's my def injector that is bad. Not a warranty part I was told.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Luckily that one isn't too expensive (showing $107 on Rock Auto) - pretty easy to swap if you wanted to do it yourself. Probably won't cost a fortune for the dealer to do it though.


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## MOTO13 (Mar 26, 2014)

I am swamped at work so I am getting bent over. $616.00.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

MOTO13 said:


> I am swamped at work so I am getting bent over. $616.00.


Holy ****...book time is only 0.4 hours on that with up to 1.0 allowable for diagnosis...is all the rest the part cost??


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## 15cruzediesel (Sep 30, 2019)

MOTO13 said:


> Well, just got the call from the dealership. It's my def injector that is bad. Not a warranty part I was told.


Let's hope they got the diag correct.


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## BDCCruze (Jul 12, 2017)

forqalso said:


> I got this warning after refilling my DEF. It ended up Auto Zone had accepted a return of a jug of DEF from someone that had refilled it with water and I ended up putting the water in my reservoir. The manager of the store looked through the returns and saw when it happened. But, I couldn’t even get them to replace the water they sold me. I drained the tank, refilled it once and drained it again. Then I reset the code. I learned to check the seal on the DEF jug from now on.


Good reason why the bottles have a seal on top. If it's broke, don't use it.


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## MOTO13 (Mar 26, 2014)

Well, I pick up the car tomorrow...that's the soonest I can get a ride from my neighbor. Because of MP81's advice...I called yesterday and just asked why it was a $616 bill for a part that is really not expensive and the labor really shouldn't be too bad because it is actually a simple part to install. Well, this morning, 5 minutes ago, they called back and knocked $200.00 off the bill. *So, a HUGE shout out and THANK YOU to MP81 for all his advice. *


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

MOTO13 said:


> Well, I pick up the car tomorrow...that's the soonest I can get a ride from my neighbor. Because of MP81's advice...I called yesterday and just asked why it was a $616 bill for a part that is really not expensive and the labor really shouldn't be too bad because it is actually a simple part to install. Well, this morning, 5 minutes ago, they called back and knocked $200.00 off the bill. *So, a HUGE shout out and THANK YOU to MP81 for all his advice. *


Happy to help! Did they say _why _it was $200 more before?


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## MOTO13 (Mar 26, 2014)

Well, I picked up the car this morning. Went to pay the bill. Originally $616...then a $200 discount...$416 (plus tax probably) should be the number on the planet I'm from. My bill came to $595. W...T...F? $21.00 off????? Pretty fuzzy car dealership math right there. Alec, the service guy, wasn't there today so I just said I'll pay it and call later to see how I got my math so wrong. And then dealerships wonder why 99.9999% of people who walk into their place of business don't trust them.


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## MP81 (Jul 20, 2015)

Yep...that's some shady ass **** right there...


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## BDCCruze (Jul 12, 2017)

MP81 said:


> Happy to help! Did they say _why _it was $200 more before?


Because they hope you're too stupid to know better.


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## MOTO13 (Mar 26, 2014)

Monday morning they're getting a call to explain the bill a bit better. But, the car runs great.


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