[ghostrider]

Folks,

I received a call from my GM Service Center (Nikhil Auto) the other day and they told me they were doing a zero-cost recall to change a minor part in the cruze.
When I asked what the recall was for the operator on the phone was wither hesitant to give me the whole picture or wasn't able to.
Apparently it's for a PVC bracket in the engine bay that holds some wiring in place and needs to be replaced or adjusted. It'll take two hours to do and there are no cost implications to the customer.

That's all I could get out of her.

Anybody else have any details on this?

Cheers.

(Mods: I checked and couldn't find a related thread. Please move / merge this post if you see fit).

[rahul_sinha]

I too got a letter from GM yesterday in this regard. Any idea about the issue being addressed?

[itwasntme]

Wonder if it is linked to this US recall:

http://www.courtesychev.com/cruze-recall-faqs

[MDe]

I got a letter too. I havent called the service center so far to schedule an appointment. Will get it done sometime next week probably. The earlier recall for some fuel delivery changes were done on my car earlier and free of cost. That took an entire day, I hope this really is a small job.

[RishiSuri]

As per the link shared for USA recalls it's for cars manufactured in 2011 / 2012.
Mine being of 2013 I am assuming I will not be getting a call. Nevertheless my car is due for servicing will inquire myself if mine is eligible for free replacement

[Tushar]

GM India has issued a silent recall of the Cruze sedan. While Chevrolet has not officially announced a recall or mentioned it on their official site, dealerships have been getting in touch with Cruze owners.

Link to Team-BHP news article

[luvtandon]

Its nothing major nor even related to any emission norms, its just that they are brushing a side of the engine plastic cover which sometimes fiddles with the hose pipes on its left and can damage them.

This was already reported by me on the Chevy cruze official review thread at post no. 318 and 320 on 03rd November, 2014 and 24th November, 2014 respectively.

Link - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/offici...ml#post3587599

Just received a call from Triumph Motors, Peeragarhi, Delhi for a pro-active recall of sorts to check the PCB bracket in the Engine of Chevrolet Cruze LTZ MT and it will be changed if found to be broken or faulty.

Just wanted to confirm whether any body else has faced such scenareo, received any call as such or has got it changed and what can be the consequences of running on a broken PCB Bracket in the engine.

FYI going in to get it checked on the coming sunday and will report accordingly.

Went for the re-call to Triumph Motors yesterday, they just trimmed a little plastic on the LHS of the engine cover as according to them it sometimes touched with the pipe assembly and led to wear and rupture of pipe.

They also said that there was a campaign going on for certain cruze vehicles under which they surprisingly changed the RHS axle drive shaft costing 22,8xx plus labour FOC.

[Crash04]

Hey BHPians.
Attaching a picture of the letter I got from Chevrolet on the 3rd of Dec 2014.
Sorry for the bad pic quality. But according to the letter , it says that they need to replace the RH Drive Shaft.
Any similar incident?
Serioulsy wondering what Chevrolet was doing all these days? I don't feel safe driving my so called DIESEL ROCKET anymore!!!

ps : my first post on teambhp. Feels great.

[itwasntme]

Thanks, was putting of going to the service center just for the engine bracket but driveshaft is serious. Contacted my trusted service adviser, he will immediately check and revert!

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by Crash04

replace the RH Drive Shaft.
Any similar incident?

Couldn't understand something when it comes to Recalls.
Letter says the vehicle that are manufactured between June 2009 and March 2011 were only affected.
- What was changed at March 2011?
- Why was it changed at March 2011? (if this problem was unaware at that time)
- If this problem was already known and hence something was changed at 2011, why wasn't the pre-2011 cars were not recalled and replaced immediately?
PS: Sorry for being OT

[itwasntme]

Probably dependent on the particular vendor manufacturing the RHS driveshaft during that particular time period. They would have noticed elevated levels of issues cropping up hence such a specific recall.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

- What was changed at March 2011?
- Why was it changed at March 2011? (if this problem was unaware at that time)
- If this problem was already known and hence something was changed at 2011, why wasn't the pre-2011 cars were not recalled and replaced immediately?

A recall procedure by any manufacturer is a herculean task that holds high responsibility and authority to the QA/QC department.

Every material used in manufacturing (Raw and finished) is kept as samples ('n' number) in batches from 'every' vendor for a specific time of 2-5 years. These samples are given a specific code along with the data from every vendor is compiled and store in their database for future requirement 'IF' an issue arises - This whole thing is called 'Traceability'.

Now the letter as it says is for cars manufactured between 2009 to 2011 are a part of the recall for the RHS drive shaft replacement where the affected part is narrowed down and the vendor who manufactured it is informed regarding the problem being faced by customers. Now how does the company know which batch is the faulty one?! They keep track of customer complaints and do a trend analysis for the complaints to see how frequently the issue recurring. The high the delta value the specific part is narrowed down.

In this case it was the drive shaft IMO. Now the QA/QC department get the samples for that specific batches of drive shafts and does the required testing in their labs for faults. Once the fault is diagnosed and confirmed the recall procedure is initiated.

The faulty drive shafts that were found have a specific code (Batch number) which is kept in the database as to which cars (read VIN) had these faulty drive shafts used on them during the car manufacture. Those specific VIN's are traced out and the customer to whom that car was sold is contacted for the replacement under the recall program.

In some programs the batch number given to the faulty part is large in number so the year of manufacture of the faulty part zero'ed down to the nearest affected car is put in the recall program hence the month is also bought into picture.

Many people here feel it is a insult and a negative opinion on the manufacturer but IMO it is great job to initiate this and successfully get the cars recalled along with the parts changed FOC. It is a loss for the manufacturer in terms of part cost, labour, man-day spent for the repair job (An occupied bay).

Hope this clears your doubt on the Recall programs by manufacturer.

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Probably dependent on the particular vendor manufacturing the RHS driveshaft during that particular time period. They would have noticed elevated levels of issues cropping up hence such a specific recall.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Hope this clears your doubt on the Recall programs by manufacturer.

That's a good explanation, but not addressing my question. Being associated with OEMs for years together I knew the process of recall. But the question is "Why only 2009~2011 manufactured parts were affected?" Means something got changed after 2011 (be it a vendor, manufacturing process, design spec, material, etc) What was changed and Why? There must be 'something' which made manufacturer / vendor to make 'some changes'. Without understanding this change content, how do we assure about recurrence prevention?

[i74js]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

What was changed and Why? There must be 'something' which made manufacturer / vendor to make 'some changes'. Without understanding this change content, how do we assure about recurrence prevention?

The car manufacturing process is not a one shot process, in many cases we see that the initial niggles are there and the manufacturers - since the alarms are quick responds to the same and make appropriate changes to make the product trouble free.

In many cases, the problem with a component is not immediate and thus the same component is produced and used in the assembly process. In due course the companies take up minor changes (read-internal / non visible facelifts) to - say improve emission performance, part tolerance, cost effectiveness etc. and thus such changes are accommodated in the production.

This could exactly be the case here and the change of component was not triggered due to immediate failure / complaints as the component was able to perform well at the time of production. The lot was doing duty as usual, the discovery of repeated complaints is a later discovery and by then company had already changed that component as part of manufacturing improvement. Please note that the lots produced before this date are not part of recall. Practically speaking this one internal upgrade / change of component backfired on them and the company is taking necessary action to make it good.

I as a buyer of car will not take it negatively.

Cheers

[twin_turbo]

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

"Why only 2009~2011 manufactured parts were affected?" Means something got changed after 2011 (be it a vendor, manufacturing process, design spec, material, etc) What was changed and Why? There must be 'something' which made manufacturer / vendor to make 'some changes'. Without understanding this change content, how do we assure about recurrence prevention?

You are absolutely right Boss.

Coming from an automobile industry, there are some possible reasons that comes to my mind as to why cars till 2011 are recalled in 2015.

It could be that Chevrolet never detected this failure mode until now. That is the supplier identified a process fault at his end and corrected it in 2011 itself without informing to the OEM. This is against rules and Cheverolet can easily sue the supplier for this. So only now Cheverolet realized this and decided to correct it.

It could also be that Cheverolet identified this issue in 2011 itself (Design issue or manufacturing issue at supplier site). After conducting various test and considering various factors like number of failures, causes, cost etc decided that the fault is not critical and need not be corrected in already produced vehicles. But now, they would have seen the number of failures increasing drastically and decided to do a recall to replace the part.

It can also be that they have seen a number of failures only in parts manufactured till 2011. There can be numerous reasons for this starting from raw material supplier, Operators who were working in the stations, tools used for the process etc. etc. which could have resulted in parts only produced till 2011 failing, which is generally accounted to process variability. They need not always be the first two reasons, in which the OE knew about the issue.

Originally Posted by a4anurag

Many people here feel it is a insult and a negative opinion on the manufacturer but IMO it is great job to initiate this and successfully get the cars recalled along with the parts changed FOC. It is a loss for the manufacturer in terms of part cost, labour, man-day spent for the repair job (An occupied bay).

Hope this clears your doubt on the Recall programs by manufacturer.

Absolutely agree with you anurag. It is indeed a great loss to the manufacturer. Especially in India, outside forums like Team-BHP, recalls means major issues with the design of the car and affects the reputation badly. But i do not agree to silent recalls like these without informing the public as to what is changed and why. I Respect the last recall done by Ford on Ecosport. As GTO said it was a textbook recall.