Holden Cruze Problems

The turbocharged petrol-engined Cruze was the pick of the bunch; smoother and sweeter than the turbo-diesel and packing a lot more punch than the non-turbo petrol version. But they’re not without their potential traps.

The good news is that the car you’re considering is a 2015 model, so it got the bigger 1.6-litre turbocharged engine and a build date that should have put it beyond the earlier transmission failures of some Cruzes. The earlier, 1.4-litre engine was known for coolant leaks from the water pump, although the later 1.6-litre also seems susceptible to overheating. Some Cruzes with this engine required new thermostat housings to be fitted to correct this, so make sure this has been done by a previous owner.

The 1.6 turbo also showed problems with the cooling system for the turbocharger unit (as distinct from the above cooling problems). It seems as though the coolant hoses for the turbocharger were underdone when it came to Australian underbonnet heat levels, and a leak could ensue.

To be completely honest, these cars were a Daewoo design (even though they were built by Holden in Adelaide after 2011) and they seemed a bit short on engineering in some areas. They’re also a car that will become more problematic – relative to some of the competition - as they age. It wouldn’t be my pick for a long-term purchase.
 

If the engine is still revving up but the car isn’t moving, logic says you have a transmission (gearbox) problem. Transmission problems are very well known in the Holden Cruze, and must surely be classified as an inherent fault. Fundamentally, the automatic transmission in your car was a dud from day one, and Holden even announced an extended warranty for it as part of a special service program to replace consumer confidence in the unit. It didn’t work.

Many Cruzes exhibited the precise behaviour you experienced, and the loss of all drive as well as the check-engine light illuminating are classic indicators of a transmission that either needs new components such as sensors, a valve body or torque converter, or is totally done and needs to be completely replaced. An inspection will be able to determine this. Error code P0776 is what I’m tipping the car will offer up when it’s electronically scanned (which should be your next step).

Once Holden had fixed these transmissions, it was extending the warranty to five years from when the car first entered service or 150,000km, whichever came first. Obviously, your car is older than that, but it has covered low kilometres and since you’ve had it from new and can verify its service history with a Holden dealer, I reckon it would be worth your while to contact Holden’s customer service division and state your case. Let’s face it, less than 120,000km on a modern car before the transmission blows up is not really good enough, is it?

You may not get anywhere, but even if you can convince Holden to help with the cost of parts (labour would be nice, too) the financial picture changes dramatically. Without a bit of help from Holden, it may just be that the cost of repairs will be higher than the actual value of the car itself.

Thanks for getting in touch. As we've outlined in earlier questions about the Cruze, the automatic in cars built between 2011 and 2013 has been an issue, and so the subject of recalls, repairs and/or full transmission replacement. If it starts to shudder, take its time shifting up under acceleration or not go into gear at all, then there's a problem.

If a Holden dealer carried out the repairs, then they should honour the warranty under Australian Consumer Law for a minimum of five years or 150,000km unless the car is then neglected and/or abused, given that the transmission and coolant system (known problem areas in Cruzes) are major components and thus come with a reasonable expectation of reliability and durability since they're new.

Unfortunately the Cruze has a reputation for unreliability beyond these issues as well, including ECU (engine control unit) and PCM (power control module) failures (often due to water ingress), positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) valve failure that makes the car perform sluggishly, and rough engine running due to faulty ignition coils.

As most of these problems have already been dealt with in the car you're considering, we reckon you might at least have a few years of reliability given the warranty work performed under Holden.

We hope this helps. Good luck.

The six-speed automatic transmission in the Cruze built between 2011 and 2013 was, indeed, a bit suspect in some cases. Unfortunately, that puts the vehicle in question right in the middle of things. Holden instigated a fix which was applied when a car with gearbox dramas was brought in for repairs. Sometimes individual parts of the transmission could be replaced, at other times the transmission was replaced as a whole unit.

Any Cruze with a gearbox that flares during shifts, shudders, refuses to select a particular gear (including reverse) or loss of drive was covered by this special service directive. When fixed, Holden was extending the warranty of the transmission to five years or 150,000km. That won’t help you now, but it would pay to check whether the car you’re looking at has, in fact, had this work carried out. A car with these repairs carried out would be a better choice than one that hasn’t.

It used to be the case that you could simply, quickly and easily check a car’s transmission fluid by looking at the transmission dipstick. In the case of the Holden Cruze, that’s not the case and clearly, the manufacturer doesn’t want anybody unauthorised attempting to check the fluid level. That and the fact that a transmission without a dipstick is cheaper to make.

Without a dipstick, the fluid level is set when the transmission fluid is changed as part of a service. The transmission when refilled is then warmed to a pre-determined temperature and a small bung removed from the side of the transmission near the driveshaft. If the level is correct, there should be a drop of two of fluid leak from this hole. Clearly, this is not a job for the home mechanic, but that’s how a workshop does it.

On the diesel-engined Cruze, the fuel filter is located in front of the driver’s side rear wheel, under the floor and next to the fuel tank. You may have to remove the plastic under-floor panels to gain access to the filter. In the petrol version of the Cruze, the filter is located in the driver’s-side rear wheel arch and, in either case, you’ll need to get under the car to change them, so make sure the car is safely supported.

The six-speed automatic in your car has experienced a lot of serious problems, Linda. Various components have been blamed, but the symptoms include failure to select Reverse which sounds like the problem you’re having. Other symptoms include flaring between gears, loss of drive, inability to select forward gears and a warning light showing up on the dashboard.

You might be lucky and simply need a top up of transmission fluid, but going by the history of this gearbox, you need to have the car electronically scanned to know what’s really going on.

I’d definitely be talking to Holden’s customer service department. I agree that 92,000km is a long way short of what I’d consider to be the lifespan of a modern motor vehicle, even if it has taken you more than five years to reach that mileage. In any case, nobody will be buying new Holdens any longer as the brand no longer exists.

Meanwhile, you’re right, transmission failures are a well known fault with this make and model and Holden did extend the factory warranty on them to 130,000km. Unfortunately, the five-year limit also applied which is where you’ve run out of time. I would hate to think that Holden’s demise as a brand will leave existing owners high and dry, but I can imagine that’s just how you’re feeling. Without an active factory presence in Australia, though, it might be difficult to get much joy from Holden.

To connect your mobile phone to the Holden Cruze’s optional Bluetooth system for hands-free phone operation, the first step is to check your phone settings to ensure that Bluetooth is enabled and that the phone is `visible’ or `discoverable’.

From the info-screen in the car, select Add Device (Handsfree) at which point the car’s Bluetooth system will search for and find the signal from your mobile phone. When that happens, a four-digit code should be displayed on the screen which is then keyed into the phone’s keypad to make the connection. The car will then ask you if you want to pair your phone and you press `Yes’ to complete the pairing process.

As many as five mobile phones can be connected to the Holden Cruze Bluetooth system. You can then choose a different phone to pair by choosing one from the device list displayed on the info-screen. Once the connection is established, you can operate many of the phone’s functions through the car’s information screen including your address book and adjusting the volume of the phone call.

For more instructions on how to play music through the system, more setup options, and troubleshooting problems, refer to the vehicle’s owner’s manual.

Like a lot of relatively modern engine designs, the Cruze uses a spark plug centrally located in the cylinder head. That means that it’s between the two camshafts in the Holden’s case, and that means the spark plug lead needs to effectively pass through the rocker cover to attach to the spark plug. In turn, that means that the spark plug sits at the bottom of a tube that forms an oil-tight chamber between the inside of the tube (where the plug lives) and the inside of the rocker cover (which has oil flinging around inside of it when the engine is running).

The problems start when the seal at the bottom of that tube fails and allows oil to seep into the tube from the rocker cover. That’s when you’ll see the oil you described. The fix is to remove the rocker cover and replace either the whole gasket, or the O-ring seal (depending on the design). If it’s the latter, don’t just replace the one that’s leaking now, replace all of them as the rest won’t be far behind the one that’s already leaking. O-rings and gasket start to become hard and brittle as they age, and that’s when leaks will occur. This is not a huge job to fix, but left unchecked, it can allow the engine to begin to misfire.

The short answer is that home servicing is, indeed, possible. The expanded version of the same answer is that you need to know not only the basics of the mechanical bits and pieces you’ll be dealing with, but also have a clear idea of what’s involved in each service.

We think of servicing as changing the oil and spinning on a new oil filter. But it’s not that simple. Modern cars (and I’ll put a 2010 Cruze in that category) have a strict regime of things that need to be attended to at each service interval, and that list changes as the car covers more kilometres. Ignoring any one of the prescribed servicing tasks means you run the risk of having something fail, wear out or somehow go wrong at the least convenient time.

Depending on the distance your car has travelled, the next scheduled service could include things such as changing the air filter, pollen filter, rotating the tyres, changing the automatic transmission fluid, replacing the park plugs and leads, flushing the cooling system, replacing the timing belt, checking brake rotor and pad thickness, and checking dozens more things like the car’s bulbs, drive-belt condition and wiper-blade condition.