# 2011 Chevy Cruze reliability questions



## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Welcome to CruzeTalk and congrats on your new ride.

The water pump is a known issue and is warranted for 10 years/150,000 miles. I would replace the spark plugs now - we know that a lot of the 2011 and 2012 Cruze had improperly gapped spark plugs coming from the factory. For general service I would get a hold of the 2014 or 2015 owners manual and use the severe service schedule in there. Also, try 89 or even 91 octane to see if that smooths out the engine.


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

OP?

By nature, folks that are having concerns often vent on the forum, and, the 2011 model year had some growing pains same as any other first year vehicle.
All the testing in the world cannot duplicate real world usage and Chevrolet has provided many warranty extensions to help out the early owners.

I'll repeat myself here.....Chevrolet Lordstown averages 25000 Cruze units per month......if the failures had been on that order I think we would have run out of bandwidth several years ago, heh heh.

The 2011's have some driveability differences related to the autobox but seem to be sorted out.....all the autos shift quality/intensity is different than units from the past.
Extremely low failure rate though, so not of much concern......if yours is healthy today it likely will be healthy (with your good maintainence) for the forseeable future.

Water pump had to have been done correctly or it would have suffered a second failure by now.....and you have coverage to 2021 and 150k miles on it.

Coolant outlet is likely the updated design so you have a better part there as well.

Pump module is odd....I don't think I've run across any trend on this forum.....but parts do fail.

Based on your success at the vehicles history I think you found a good example.

You have not mentioned ground cable replacement......there was a rather high incedence of failure due to a poor crimp where the cable goes into the terminal lug, usually noted as as the radio and various other electrical things shutting off and then recovering.......the failure was high but not all vehicles were affected.

Give it a set of plugs, rotate the tires, adjust the rear brake shoes and enjoy the ride.....I think you'll be fine.

Rob (also)

WHOOPS!

Nevermind on the brakes....you have discs (LTZ) Brain slow-----fingers fast


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

One of the ongoing complaints that's been difficult to resolve has been the smell of coolant. Since you didn't mention that, I think you're good.

Yes, a few cars have been a real nightmare (given a big enough group, there's always a few), but by and large, must just need to have known issues sorted out. I think you'll be fine.


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## Vetterin (Mar 27, 2011)

While I've had my share of problems (piston rings, manifold and water pump), they were all resolved in the first 40,000 miles and all under warranty. Car now has 86,000 miles and hasn't had a problem since.


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## Rob617 (Jan 1, 2016)

Sorry for the late response guys, wanted to update everyone. So about a week after this post I found a coolant leak coming from the connector to the reservoir hose(common problem). Got it fixed for 113$(connector fell under powertrain but not hose). I also ended up doing my spark plugs ahead of maintenance(74K) because i had kind of a rough idle that felt like a slight misfire once in a while not consistently. Fast forward 800 miles and on my way to work yesterday morning i tryed to accelerate to about 4000rpm to pass someone, car gets up to 4k then the power cuts out and "service stabilitrak" message pops up and CEL flashes(indicating a misfire i imagine) no "power reduced" message or anything and once the rpms drop back down below 3500 the car regains power. The engine never stalled so i continue on about a half mile to work and talk with service. They say theyll pull it in hook up the car and read the codes. Lunch comes they hadn't checked it yet cause it was busy so I decide to take it home to see if i can replicate the problem and scan it at home with my scanner. Get home check the codes and nothing because it wasnt staying in the system and throwing the code consistently. So i drive back to work and on the way Tryed to accelerate at one point to see if i could replicate the problem and this time the power cuts out and the CEL flashes 5 times but no "service stabilitrak" message...odd. So they finally get it hooked up and find a misfire by the end of the day but couldnt diagnose it before i left with the car. So now I'm leaving work and wanted to try a few things so i take traction control off and put it in manual mode and floor the thing, response was fine no lights or anything going up to 5500 RPM's so i put it back in drive and floor it and it hesitated a little and i got the CEL to flicker so i stop experimenting and drive home. Well on the way home the car finally throws a code and it permanently stays, code ends up being p0301 so I'm thinking maybe a bad coil pack but i wanted to make sure it wasnt internal so i get to work today pull the car into service and compression test the engine. Started with cylinder 4 and had a compression of 200PSI then i move over to cylinder one and pull the spark plug...what do i find? Oil. So now that i know it is internal I'm leaving the car here its gonna be a little while before i know the exact cause but I'm happy it happened now seeing as my powertrain warranty runs out in a month hahah hopefully i get a new engine, but i wanted to thank everyone for the replies! It certainly eased my mind about a couple problems i was curious about like the water pump. Now all I can do is hope i get my car back soon:joy:


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## Robby (Mar 1, 2013)

Oily plug, meaning not the firing tip, but the body of the plug indicates a leaking cam cover gasket.
It would be leaking around the plug wells......evidently recent though since you didn't indicate a problem when you changed the plugs.

The code will be a different issue....maybe the coil as you speculate.

Rob


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## Rob617 (Jan 1, 2016)

The oil was on the tip of the plug which has me thinking maybe piston rings are worn? I also believe I read somewhere that it could possibly have something to do with valves or a valve cover but im still researching, as of right now cars been in service at my job since Friday (2/12/2016) still no definitive answer from anybody as to what is causing it.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Rob617 said:


> Hello everyone,
> Basically what i'm getting at is if i keep up with the maintenance (everything's up to date just need to do spark plugs at 100K but the car sometimes feels rough when its idling so i may do those early) will this car be a reliable mode of transportation that wont cost me an arm and a leg?


I'm surprised nobody pointed this out already, but you really need to download the 2016 cruze limited owners manual since it has a more updated maintenance schedule(see pages 308 and 310 for the normal and severe maintenance schedule). I mention this since GM changed the spark plug recommended service from 100K down to 60K in 2012+ model years. There is no major differences with the plugs or anything in 2011, I suspect this maintenance change was due to dealer feedback and real world testing.


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## Rob617 (Jan 1, 2016)

Ended up being leaking water pump + cracked cylinder head got her back 2 days ago and yeah i did the spark plugs early anyway 100K is too many miles


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Rob617 said:


> Ended up being leaking water pump + cracked cylinder head got her back 2 days ago and yeah i did the spark plugs early anyway 100K is too many miles


I'm assuming this was a warranty repair.


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## chevrasaki (May 1, 2015)

Welcome to the forum, glad to hear you got it fixed, sorry for the late welcome haha. Hope all is good now!


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## FYTR29 (Feb 26, 2016)

wow, glad the only issue i am having with mine is the blue tooth module. Happy to see you got it fixed!


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