Chevy mechanics or any mechanics?

[CHCRandy]

I got a 2017 Malibu I bought brand new, has 45,000 miles. Within the first 36,000 miles I had a check engine light come on about 3 different time, usually around 8,000 miles apart. I would take it to dealer and they would say map sensor was dirty and needed re-flashed. Light would go out and it would be fine for 6-8,000 miles and it would happen again.

So right before warranty expired I took it in when ce light came on, told them to check it good because warranty was expiring. Well once again they said it was dirty map. So about 2 months ago, about 42,500 miles it did it again. I took it to another respected mechanic instead of the dealer, he called me 30 minutes later and said map was dirty...that turbo has a small oil leak causing map to get dirty. So I went back to Chevy dealer and raised hell that they never seen this in the 3 times they serviced it under warranty. SO now I have to pay them $150 for diagnostics and them look for oil leak in turbo, if it is turbo leak they will cover under powertrain warranty and give me back my $150. I was gonna schedule it last week but with holidays I waited until this week.

Well today the check engine light came back on but now car went into reduced power mode! Can that be caused by a dirty map sensor or will oil eventually ruin a map sensor? I am afraid they will say it is a bad map sensor and say it is not covered under powertrain, even though the turbo is the problem. Thank you in advance.

 

[indykid]

When the Manifold Air Pressure sensor is found to be dirty after only 8000 miles a good tech should figure that something was causing it to become dirty as they should never have that kind of failure mode without something else causing it. They should not charge you for their not fully diagnosing the issue.

If they do try to charge you for fixing something that they should have fixed 30,000 or so miles ago I suggest getting in touch with Chevy directly as the next step in getting the root cause repaired.

Good luck.

 

[churchmouse]

When the Manifold Air Pressure sensor is found to be dirty after only 8000 miles a good tech should figure that something was causing it to become dirty as they should never have that kind of failure mode without something else causing it. They should not charge you for their not fully diagnosing the issue.

If they do try to charge you for fixing something that they should have fixed 30,000 or so miles ago I suggest getting in touch with Chevy directly as the next step in getting the root cause repaired.

Good luck.

Service writer sent it out the door.
Warranty's.....they can be a joke.
Been there.

 

[Jaybird1980]

I got a 2017 Malibu I bought brand new, has 45,000 miles. Within the first 36,000 miles I had a check engine light come on about 3 different time, usually around 8,000 miles apart. I would take it to dealer and they would say map sensor was dirty and needed re-flashed. Light would go out and it would be fine for 6-8,000 miles and it would happen again.

So right before warranty expired I took it in when ce light came on, told them to check it good because warranty was expiring. Well once again they said it was dirty map. So about 2 months ago, about 42,500 miles it did it again. I took it to another respected mechanic instead of the dealer, he called me 30 minutes later and said map was dirty...that turbo has a small oil leak causing map to get dirty. So I went back to Chevy dealer and raised hell that they never seen this in the 3 times they serviced it under warranty. SO now I have to pay them $150 for diagnostics and them look for oil leak in turbo, if it is turbo leak they will cover under powertrain warranty and give me back my $150. I was gonna schedule it last week but with holidays I waited until this week.

Well today the check engine light came back on but now car went into reduced power mode! Can that be caused by a dirty map sensor or will oil eventually ruin a map sensor? I am afraid they will say it is a bad map sensor and say it is not covered under powertrain, even though the turbo is the problem. Thank you in advance.

stop by O,Reilly (or whatever is closest) and see if it's a P1101 or P015b code. (I believe that's it). Then grab a can of cleaner while your there. GM turbo cars are plagued with MAF and PCV problems. Your MAF is located before the turbo, MAP make sure you use good a air filter and always keep it clean. I believe there may also be a bulletin for an o ring failure on the air cooler charge pipe.
Your warranty should be at least 5yr/60k powertrain
Good luck

Edit: should have clarified that it may be MAF and/or MAP sensor causing your problem.

 

[hopper68]

Do you have all your receipts? Proving this is an ongoing problem from the warranty period may help get it fixed. And you may need to call GM to get anything done.

 

[thunderchicken]

Have you considered going to a different dealer? On a warranty repair the tech maybe just getting it in, hosing off the MAP sensor clearing the code and sending it out the door. Unfortunately on flat rate, warranty labor times are cut about in half compared to customer pay times. That doesn't motivate a tech to go the extra mile

 

[Jaybird1980]

Have you considered going to a different dealer? On a warranty repair the tech maybe just getting it in, hosing off the MAP sensor clearing the code and sending it out the door. Unfortunately on flat rate, warranty labor times are cut about in half compared to customer pay times. That doesn't motivate a tech to go the extra mile

Almost guaranteed that they just sprayed out the throttle body and sensors and called it a day

 

[thunderchicken]

Almost guaranteed that they just sprayed out the throttle body and sensors and called it a day

Yep that would be my bet. No real money to be made on warranty work so the less time spent on it the better.

 

[CHCRandy]

Yep that would be my bet. No real money to be made on warranty work so the less time spent on it the better.

I agree. That is why I went back in and raised hell with the Chevy service manager. I just went thru receipts. They had it at 21,000 miles for throttle body cleaning and idle relearn, 28,500 miles throttle body cleaning and idle relearn...amongst several other small things, then at 38,000 it came on again and I pulled the code myself and it was P1101 again, and out of warranty. This time I cleaned it myself and light went off, then cam back on at 42,000 miles. I went back to dealer and they wanted to charge me $150 to diagnose it and I figured why give them $150 to tell me it needs clean and idle relearned, so I took it to another certified, respected mechanic...just told him check engine light was on and nothing else. He called me back quickly and said throttle body needed cleaned and re-flashed, that turbo seal was leaking oil and will ruin throttle body over time. That is when I returned to dealer and raised hell. I just don't understand how an outside mechanic can find it in 15 minutes but his guys couldn't find it in 3 visits? I told them long ago there has to be a reason this throttle body always needs cleaned. I told the service manager if it was just that his guys didn't want to do the work to tell me and I would find another dealership, he promised me he will have them get it resolved. I dropped it off earlier....see how this goes.

 

[Jaybird1980]

I agree. That is why I went back in and raised hell with the Chevy service manager. I just went thru receipts. They had it at 21,000 miles for throttle body cleaning and idle relearn, 28,500 miles throttle body cleaning and idle relearn...amongst several other small things, then at 38,000 it came on again and I pulled the code myself and it was P1101 again, and out of warranty. This time I cleaned it myself and light went off, then cam back on at 42,000 miles. I went back to dealer and they wanted to charge me $150 to diagnose it and I figured why give them $150 to tell me it needs clean and idle relearned, so I took it to another certified, respected mechanic...just told him check engine light was on and nothing else. He called me back quickly and said throttle body needed cleaned and re-flashed, that turbo seal was leaking oil and will ruin throttle body over time. That is when I returned to dealer and raised hell. I just don't understand how an outside mechanic can find it in 15 minutes but his guys couldn't find it in 3 visits? I told them long ago there has to be a reason this throttle body always needs cleaned. I told the service manager if it was just that his guys didn't want to do the work to tell me and I would find another dealership, he promised me he will have them get it resolved. I dropped it off earlier....see how this goes.

This will not be resolved, it is an issue that will continue.
basically your throttle body gets dirty and the computer has to compensate by opening your throttle to maintain correct rpm. Computer compares readings of TPS, MAP, MAF and boost pressure sensor. When one gets out of spec it trips code and can put it in reduced power mode.

Service says that a code shouldn't be set until TB idle air compensation gets to like 90%, but it just isnt true. I have seen it will less than 30%.
You may be able to clean it yourself by unplugging the TB and then cleaning it. Might be able to get it to relearn by driving it for awhile without having to do a throttle relearn. I would be interested to know what the TB Idle air compensation is on yours (you definitely seem to have issues more frequently than most i have seen)

Make your next purchase a non turbo car, they have their problems

 

[CHCRandy]

This will not be resolved, it is an issue that will continue.
basically your throttle body gets dirty and the computer has to compensate by opening your throttle to maintain correct rpm. Computer compares readings of TPS, MAP, MAF and boost pressure sensor. When one gets out of spec it trips code and can put it in reduced power mode.

Service says that a code shouldn't be set until TB idle air compensation gets to like 90%, but it just isnt true. I have seen it will less than 30%.
You may be able to clean it yourself by unplugging the TB and then cleaning it. Might be able to get it to relearn by driving it for awhile without having to do a throttle relearn. I would be interested to know what the TB Idle air compensation is on yours (you definitely seem to have issues more frequently than most i have seen)

Make your next purchase a non turbo car, they have their problems

Will it be resolved though if they put a new turbo on it or fix oil leak in turbo? Would an oil leak in turbo cause dirty throttle body more often?

 

[jkaetz]

Coming from a totally different turbocharged engine but could be a similar issue. The PCV system on ours is positioned very close to the turbo inlet and as such sucks a lot of oil vapor through. Only solution is to disconnect or relocate the PCV from the intake track.

Good luck getting it covered. Warranties are feel good measures to help sell cars. Consider yourself lucky when something major gets covered. Most times it will be the simplest possible solution to resolve your issue and get you out the door.

 

[churchmouse]

Trade it In....

 

[Jaybird1980]

Will it be resolved though if they put a new turbo on it or fix oil leak in turbo? Would an oil leak in turbo cause dirty throttle body more often?

A small oil leak doesn't help it any, but this has been ongoing, bad manifold and PCV design, ive redesigned the PCV system and it didn't help any, its a dirty evironment to begin with and bad nature of turbo engines
Good oil and oil change frequency, clean and good air filter (even take it out and blow it off between changes). Dirty air and oil are very hard on these engines. Usually every 30-50k or so throttle body clean and reset, so yours is more frequent than i normally see.

I definitely would be interested to know Throttle Body idle air compensation % is.

 

[Jaybird1980]

On the Cruze 1.4 turbo, i bet the majority of PCV failures are within 10-15k miles. It is pretty ridiculous

 

[Jaybird1980]

Not sure if you do your own maintenance.

The best thing i have found is to just spray and wipe out the TB and sensors every oil change, just be careful not to go opening the butterfly wide open or it may need a relearn. I have not tried to do the relearn process by simply driving it but it may do it itself, it might take a bit of driving to do.

 

[Route 45]

Trade it In....

Best advice in the thread.

 

[Jaybird1980]

CHCRandy, This guy does a decent job of explaining it

 

[CHCRandy]

Trade it In....

I have already been thinking about that, lol. The only thing is, what to trade it in on? I sure as heck don't want another Malibu...and Ford just has the Fusion, is it any better? Guess I could get a Charger.....

 

[Jaybird1980]

I have already been thinking about that, lol. The only thing is, what to trade it in on? I sure as heck don't want another Malibu...and Ford just has the Fusion, is it any better? Guess I could get a Charger.....

if you're happy with the mpg's and how it dries i wouldn't trade it. It is a machine and people tend to forget machines need maintenance.

The fusions have trans problems, leaks, steering issues, everything is gonna have quirks. The more we ask of the machine, then the more problems can arise