GM 1.5 liter engines melting themselves.

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The linked news article said it's a three-cylinder; is that true ?

"The 1.5L will turn itself into an even more economical three-cylinder giving you a rough ride, insane blow by, and a bad headache. It will take some time for GM to perfect the 1.5L but for the mean time, I would stay away from an engine that will deem your new car inoperable."
 
Originally Posted By: NoNameJoe
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I'm not a huge fan of where a turbo makes most of it's power on a tiny engine. There's nothing wrong with turboing a decently sized engine to make decent power but creating a high strung engine is gonna pose issues for the average consumer.

Yeah I don't like that either, dreading the idea of having to go car shopping in the future for this reason. Pretty soon every car is going to have that and a CVT. I felt the same about electric power steering too.


So far , at 38,000 miles , our Sonic has had no problem with electric power steering .
 
If you wanna buy a new vehicle with a gasoline engine in the future, it will have a turbo or you can buy a hybrid or plug in electric.
 
Originally Posted By: SatinSilver
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I'm just sitting here smiling smugly...


Any particular reason other than looking goofy?


I told those guys it was a mistake to power a 2 ton car with a 91 cubic inch engine.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
The linked news article said it's a three-cylinder; is that true ?

"The 1.5L will turn itself into an even more economical three-cylinder giving you a rough ride, insane blow by, and a bad headache. It will take some time for GM to perfect the 1.5L but for the mean time, I would stay away from an engine that will deem your new car inoperable."

The engine they're talking about is the LFV, that's a straight 4. They're talking about what happens when one of the pistons fails and welds itself to the cylinder, now you have a straight 3.
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So far , at 38,000 miles , our Sonic has had no problem with electric power steering .

I heard the feel is awful and on some cars they can have issues where they'll get an EPS light on the dashboard and suddenly lose all power steering. It just seems bad to me because I've owned four cars with power steering and some of these cars were over 100,000 miles and sixteen years old or older, none of them had any issues with power steering (especially a complete failure) even without fluid changes.

Yet there are newer cars with EPS where some electric gizmo or motor has a fault and suddenly the EPS stops working entirely.

I see the EPS situation as being in the same bed as the turbo situation. The root of the decisions is to eke out every last bit of fuel economy. They wanted another belt-driven pump removed for fuel economy (and maybe what, 5HP?). That's where I think the government kind of failed, I get why the government wants to do it and I think it's a good thing for them to say cars should become more efficient, but I think if the end result is that car companies are making stuff like this where steering suddenly fails or any of the myriad DI and turbo issues, then maybe that's not where we should be headed.

They also probably want EPS to make it possible for software to control the steering for the future.
 
Turbo engines require better engineering however domestic brands are inexperienced and learning. Especially in arena of turbos for efficiency instead of goal of elevated HP.
 
As I said , no problems with EPS on the Sonic .

On the other hand , the PS Pump on our 2006 Buick Lacrosse CX 3.8l is " buried " kind of under the alternator & a pain to get to ! :-(

The UIS car makers will probably get the current crop of turbos down pat . I just do not wish to be one of the " beta testers " .
 
Were they not engineered/developed by Opel - edyvw previously mentioned just where - don't recall the city ...
 
I think the 2.0L and larger are the best for turbos, they have enough native torque to keep the car cruising at speed with little boost and can nearly double their output under boost
 
Originally Posted By: Rat407
Not sure if this was posted already. Sorry if it was. Have a friend that works at a chevy dealership and said that they have had 4 vehicles in so far with pistons that have cracked or broken ring lands.

1.5 engine issues


This is actually an LSPI issue. The piston cracking and broken rings are a common occurance after a pre-ignition event. I've seen many engine parts not only from GM but from other Turbo GDI engines with the same problem.

The main solution for this to GM is to move over to a new Dexos1 oil (2015 specification). For everyone else the solution is GF-5+.

These engines also have issues with injector deposits as well. Cleaning GDI deposits is something everyone is worried about, but if you look carefully at the gasoline claims in the USA - no one is claiming to clean GDI deposits.
 
my 2001 1.8T VW went to 200,000 miles without issue + it was modified to make 300 ft lb compared to 162 stock it required 93 octane since it was port injected + high boost!! todays GDI whatever it in allows higher cylinder pressure either thru high compression or turbocharging while using lower octane fuel, but GDI engines usually carbon up the valves that do not get cleaned by gas flow since NO gas sees the back of the valves as its injected directly into the combustion chamber. things are getting better with GDI but having both port + direct injection is the cure, + there are a few now but very few!!!
 
GDI is another technology with which I do not car to be the product tester / guinea pig .

I am pretty happy , so far , with our Chevy Sonic 1.8l naturally aspirated MP FI engine .
 
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