Purchased this 2014 Chevy Cruze in 2019 with 40,000 mi on it. Couple weeks ago my daughter was driving from work and engine overheating came on. She called me and I've had her car towed to our home. By my investigation, I have found that Thermostat was bad and cooling inlet housing was cracked (plastic). I have replaced thermostat, housing and little hose for overflow. After all this replacements, and bleeding air of the cooling system, it still overheating.

I have noticed that if I keep RPM at 3000 it work fine, anything below that, it goes to overheating. Any solutions? It seems to me that water pump defective from manufacturers it won't pump antifreeze at low RPM.

Of many other things I could complain about on this engine, this one has to be the most damning for us.

We have had the water pump replaced at least twice on this vehicle, including radiator hoses. The first repair was not proper and satisfactory which resulted in melted hoses and a steamy coolant mess. These repairs were done

This most recent repair was done at home using a Duralast water pump, simply because it was cheaper than forking over $600 in parts and labor at the local GM dealership. It was performed on 9/22/2019 for reference.

The car overheated at least twice, but we were smart not to let it cook long enough to cause permanent major damage to the engine. We babied the car and kept it in town until we could buy the part without throwing off our budget. The old water pump was put on by a "Certified" GM technician at our local Chevrolet dealer in October of 2018. It almost lasted a year! Almost. What I observed were that the bolts holding on the water pump were too easy to crack loose which concerns me about the quality of repair done to this vehicle since then. For anyone who is considering owning the turbo-4 variant of the Cruze, consider the water pump being one of the things you need to replace in order to keep this car in good running condition.

While driving my car on March 7, 2019 all the sudden a msg popped up on my dash that said, "turning off A/C due to high engine temperatures". I looked down and the car was hot so I turned the heater and fan on which cooled the car right down immediately. This happened 3 times on that drive so the next morning I took it to the dealership I got it from to have it checked out, thinking the thermostat was going out in it. They called and said the radiator had a leak/crack and they would get permission from the warranty company to replace it. The next Monday they got the approval and ordered the radiator. It was finished Tuesday and driven for four days without incident. See the next complaint to see a repeat of the problem... different results.

Saturday evening March 16, 2019 my son was driving my car home when the message, "turning off A/C due to high engine temperatures" came up on the display again. He pulled over and shut it down and opened the hood. He looked for any signs of water leaking. There was no signs of water leakage so he let the car cool down and proceeded to limp it home. He was not more than 6-7 miles from home, and it took him 2 hours because every time it started to get too warm he would pull over, shut it off and cool it down before proceeding. (Note: this is more than the manual says to do, the manual says to pull over to the side and 'idle' the car to cool it down). His last stop was down the street from our house so he just walked home. An hour or so later I went out to drive it home and it would not start. It was towed to the dealership on Sunday March 17, 2019. The next day the service dept called me (Monday 3/18/19), he said that they had figured out that the problem was the water pump had gone bad! But the bad news is “there is no compression”. I asked so what does that mean?... my engine is blown up? He said, yes. He said that I could have them pull off the heads to see if there is damage in there, but he didn’t recommend it because the warranty company won’t pay for it if it got too hot and I would have to agree to sign a form promising to pay them $800-1000 if the warranty co. wouldn't pay it. They said there was no water in the radiator and that somehow the water drained out a little tiny 'weep' hole in the water pump.

They say we drove it too long if it has damage from getting too hot, whether that damage happened in two minutes due to instant loss of water in the motor, or driving it hot for an hour straight.

This appears to be an ongoing problem with these cars, which they get out of being responsible for by saying, "YOU DROVE IT TOO LONG". From the research I have done it starts out as different problems (the radiator, the water pump, or the head gaskets) but the end result is overheating and ultimately engine damage. A mechanic told me that heads going out or the water pump going out can cause the radiator to spring to crack, the question is: what came first, the chicken or the egg in each situation? Chevrolet dealerships have to know this is an ongoing problem and are not being responsible to fix it when it first comes up. Also there have been Class action lawsuits against Chevrolet for radiators leaking and coolant poisoning people. If that is happening (AND THEY WON IT), that is the step brother to the radiator leaking and the car overheating!!

Car has overheating issues for over a year. I’ve had it in the Chevrolet dealership service dept several times and they have replaced several things including the water pump, a coil pack and the thermostat. Each time the car would run fine for a month or two and then over heat again!

I had an outside mechanic look at it and he told me the heads were bad. I told the dealership the next time we went for the issue and they to,d me the heads and the engine were FINE! That it was just the cooling system. Now after many more times in the shop and more fees to fix the car overheated again and they are telling me it MAY BE ENGINE FAILURE! I knew that 9 months ago!

They are saying since we are now over the 100,000 mile warranty (by 8000 miles) they won’t cover any of the cost. I have reached out to Chevy but have not heard back yet! BEYOND FRUSTRATING

The day after Christmas my car overheated and the engine actually shut itself off. I was able to turn it back on again, but the head had warped. Had to completely replace the new head, all the work was just under $3300.

This past Saturday evening (only 5 months later) a message popped up saying that the AC is being turned off due to High Engine Temperature. I did smell what seemed like something burning at some point earlier that week, but it went away pretty quickly and so I attributed it to the road or something. The smell came back at some point on Saturday, hours before the engine started getting a high temperature. I had just had the oil changed 5 days before and I checked the coolant level, everything looked normal.

I don't know what to say about this vehicle except that I don't think I'll ever buy a Chevy again. It's been an absolute nightmare since January, I had to take it back on 4 separate occasions since I got it back. I would not suggest buying this car. I'll be taking it in to the same dealership that worked on it before to see what's wrong with it this time. I'll post something here about what it is.