Cruze water pump

[sciphi]

My Cruze has always consumed a bit of coolant. Nothing new there, it's a known issue with the coolant system overflow tank or water pump on some 2012 cars with the 1.4T engine. AFAIK, GM redesigned the water pump on later years. I always topped it off every 20-25k miles, and never though anything of it. The last time I topped it off was 3500 miles ago.

Well, last night a squeak started at low RPM/high load. I thought it was a motor mount at first. I popped the hood, saw the empty coolant tank, and started looking for any leaks. It didn't take long to see the coolant on the splash shield underneath the water pump. The pump itself was soaked behind the pulley, so this is a pretty easy diagnosis.

We'll see how much of a runaround I get at the dealer. The pump is covered under powertrain warranty, so I'll let the local dealer fix it.

 

[gregk24]

Nice, why didnt they fix it early on?

 

[sciphi]

Originally Posted By: gregk24
Nice, why didnt they fix it early on?


I wasn't going to bring the car to a dealer to have them blow me off when the coolant loss was quite minor and would have needed an eagle eye to pinpoint it as the water pump. Now that the water pump is clearly failing, ie, the tech can spend 10 seconds eyeballing it, see the wetness all around it/hear the bearing chirping and know that it's the part to replace, I'll take it in.

78k miles on the car with a water pump known to have issues on some cars isn't too bad. As long as it gets taken care of, I'll be a happy camper.

 

[The_Jeff]

Wow, you're racking up the miles!

 

[antiqueshell]

I would have had them pressure test the system when it started leaking, if they added some dye it would have shown up as well.
Of course considering the general competence of most $tealers I wouldn't trust them to wipe my butt without damaging it either.
LOL

 

[stevejones]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
Originally Posted By: gregk24
Nice, why didnt they fix it early on?


I wasn't going to bring the car to a dealer to have them blow me off when the coolant loss was quite minor and would have needed an eagle eye to pinpoint it as the water pump. Now that the water pump is clearly failing, ie, the tech can spend 10 seconds eyeballing it, see the wetness all around it/hear the bearing chirping and know that it's the part to replace, I'll take it in.

78k miles on the car with a water pump known to have issues on some cars isn't too bad. As long as it gets taken care of, I'll be a happy camper.


I follow the same philosophy, too. Break it real good so there's no question what the pathway to correction is.

 

[sciphi]

Originally Posted By: antiqueshell
I would have had them pressure test the system when it started leaking, if they added some dye it would have shown up as well.
Of course considering the general competence of most $tealers I wouldn't trust them to wipe my butt without damaging it either.
LOL


Like I said, I wasn't about to go to a dealer until I could present the flat-rate-chasing techs with a bonafide problem that can be taken care of under powertrain warranty.

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Wow, you're racking up the miles!


I've driven it about 30k a year since new. That will change downward as I no longer travel for a living, but still have a fairly lengthy commute. We also take this car on all our long trips since it gets 40 mpg at 70 mph fully loaded.

 

[sciphi]

Bringing this to a close:

The water pump got replaced under powertrain warranty. I thought the heat worked well before, it's back to blasting me out of the car. I'll see how the coolant levels are going forward.

The squeak is still there. But that's for another thread.

 

[Vikas]

somewhat disappointing to see such a new car needing this repair but at least you were quick to notice and for the manufacturer to fix it without hassle.

how would somebody who is is not car savvy handled this? possibility of getting stranded? possibility of destroying head gasket? etc

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
somewhat disappointing to see such a new car needing this repair but at least you were quick to notice and for the manufacturer to fix it without hassle.

how would somebody who is is not car savvy handled this? possibility of getting stranded? possibility of destroying head gasket? etc


Anyone that owns/depends on a vehicle should know how to check & monitor fluids.

 

[sciphi]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
somewhat disappointing to see such a new car needing this repair but at least you were quick to notice and for the manufacturer to fix it without hassle.

how would somebody who is is not car savvy handled this? possibility of getting stranded? possibility of destroying head gasket? etc


It's new in years, not miles. The pump failed at 78k miles, so it had a long run behind it. GM knows all about Cruze water pump failures that occur on some 2011-2012 Cruzes, there's a redesigned part, and it was fixed at no cost to me. I also knew to check the coolant periodically, so the problem was caught and addressed before it became more than a scheduling nuisance. The local Chevy dealer was great to work with, too.

The non-car-savvy folks have needed their cars flat-bedded to the dealer. The engine computer is pretty aggressive at de-rating at the first sign of any trouble. Considering that these engines run at 220*F normally and routinely see oil temperatures above 250*F, they're not that affected by low coolant. The WP gets replaced, the engine checked out, and the driver drives off.

 

[Vikas]

Didn't realize that! Looks like Chevy is handling this right.

 

[sciphi]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
Didn't realize that! Looks like Chevy is handling this right.


They've done okay by me. I was glad to hear it was covered, as DIY'ing would have taken far longer than the 1.5 hours the flat-rate book pays for this job.