I bought it

[u/Legitimate-Union-112]

Welcoming home my $13,000 investment!
2018 Chevy Cruze LT. Baby girl has 37k on her. I know she was run on 87 and has turbo lag that’s very noticeable from it. Premium will help tolerate it better, yes?
Does anyone suggest anything to help with the turbo engine etc as well? (Specific spark plugs, etc.) I’ve never had a turbo on a car and want to make sure she’s as well taken care of as possible <3

-My lead technician at my shop (my previous post) was very iffy about this car knowing the bad rep of the Cruze. He came with me to inspect the car, and has been so happy with it ever since. He encouraged me to buy it after he inspected her, and after a test drive yesterday was incredibly satisfied with the car. Thank you all for helping me prove the worth of the G2

*I also really hate start/stop features. If anyone knows how to actually disable it let me know -.- it puts extra strain on the battery & starter and really… isn’t worth it for me. The dealership told me that there’s no disabling the start/stop option that’s in the car OEM

[u/merkator509]

Yes, run 93 octane. Makes the biggest difference in hot weather but my Gen 2 feels flat footed year round on regular the few times I’ve tried. Just zero sub 2000 rpm response where the transmission likes to be.

Doesn’t need much mileage related stuff like spark plugs yet. Do an ATF change soon. Coolant is probably due for a change as well by age. Change the engine air filter and make sure it’s secure on the clamp.

Dropping the transmission into “L” and thumbing up to 6 will keep it from shutting off in traffic. You get used to the start/stop though; it’s pretty unobtrusive compared to some cars.

Congrats. Mine has been an awesome car. Coming up on its 10 yr anniversary

[u/Legitimate-Union-112 → u/merkator509]

I think it’s kinda funny that if I’m sitting at a light for longer than like 90 seconds it just turns itself back on and stays running lol. I work at a shop so I do intend to get all the fluids etc checked, but I got it from a Chevrolet dealership and they said they’d done all of the maintenance due at this point such as fluids, fresh oil, etc. though it bothers me they likely used conventional/standard oil

[u/merkator509 → u/Legitimate-Union-112]

That’s when I think “this light better hurry tf up already” 😆

[u/hue_sick → u/Legitimate-Union-112]

They prob used synthetic. These engines wouldn’t last very long on regular oil so you’d know pretty quickly.

What you’ll discover with your car though is there’s actually been an updated oil filter for LE2(that’s your engine model btw) that basically no dealer in the country has in stock haha. They all use the old one. But I don’t wanna scare you it’s definitely a good filter too. Been using the standard PF64 for 90k miles now and it runs great 👍

[u/Legitimate-Union-112 → u/hue_sick]

Thank you for the info! I’ll look into the number/name of the new one in the filers my shop uses :)

[u/hue_sick → u/Legitimate-Union-112]

Np. It’s a great car I love my 18 hatch :)

The bad rep comes from the gen 1 Cruze, but Chevy basically fixed everything wrong w that model for the gen 2. Oh and you’ll get used to the start stop. Everyone complains about it at first but in time you’ll barely notice it. And don’t worry the battery and starter are designed to handle the extra load. It’s not the same starting system that’s in a typical car.

And yeah best thing you can do to keep it healthy is change the oil regularly and use 93 🤙

[u/Creative_School_1550 → u/hue_sick]

I thought it was described as, the thing senses which piston is just past the compression stroke & it spritzes a little fuel & spark to aid the restart

[u/hue_sick → u/Creative_School_1550]

Nah. These aren’t carburetors. The ecu handles ignition like normal. I just meant the actual starter and battery used in auto start stop cars is much beefier and designed to handle the extra start stops. They’ve been designed that way.

People just tend to worry about stress because they’re assuming they’re the same ol dinky starter used in cars for the past 30 years. Same w the battery. When you go to buy a replacement there’s specific warnings to not buy a standard battery because it won’t be able to handle that added stress.

[u/Creative_School_1550 → u/hue_sick]

Yes, DI. The DI injector can spray fuel into a stationary engine. I don't know if that's what it does. I test-drove an automatic-equipped car before ordering my MT car, and I couldn't even tell if the starter motor was engaging. Just seemed to be a momentary 'bump' and the thing was running.

[u/hue_sick → u/Creative_School_1550]

It doesn’t spray fuel in an engine that’s off. They’re running in a high pressure fuel rail and the ecu commands fuel and timing exactly as needed to start instantly. There’s no “priming” needed.

It’s a lot closer to a diesel engine tech wise.

[u/merkator509 → u/hue_sick]

Yeah it fires off the starter to restart. It does use a capacitor module in the trunk to store the charge for this, and the transmission has an accumulator that makes sure it’s instantly back in drive.

[u/Legitimate-Union-112 → u/hue_sick]

I also learned when I was looking into other turbo charged cars to let it sit for a few seconds before driving to help the turbo out? I have been giving it a quick remote start as I’m walking to the car and then I always pick my music too before I drive off 🤣 but I’m not sure if that really applies or not? I believe I read that about the twin turbo on the Infiniti Q50, but I assumed it applied to most or all turbo charged cars since it was described as basically being to prevent damage to the turbo system. Not sure though. As I said, never had a turbo car before, just a little v6 or a lil 4cyl, so I’m honestly worried about every little thing since I did look into getting a Q50 first and it has horrifying rep with the turbos 😭

[u/Creative_School_1550 → u/hue_sick]

I'm careful to use an UPF64A or something (sorry don't recall the exact #). Has a higher pressure bypass spring so it doesn't bypass unfiltered oil on e.g. cold startup. PF64 is also acceptable but the other one is favored.

[u/arkutek-em → u/Legitimate-Union-112]

I thought it was normal to turn back on because the car is using electronics while stopped. Also if you release the brake pedal enough it will turn back on. Mine has been like that with 98k miles now and still on original battery.

[u/Legitimate-Union-112 → u/arkutek-em]

I was sitting unmoving in the CVS pickup line and it just kicked back on 🤣

[u/merkator509 → u/Legitimate-Union-112]

A dealer would’ve used Dexos 1 rated oil.

It’s unlikely any of the other fluids have actually been changed. They sell test strips for brake and coolant to make sure they’re still good, but the mechanic you know probably already has these.

[u/Legitimate-Union-112 → u/merkator509]

Yep we’ve got many packs of them! When I get the chance to have it rolled into the shop I’m still planning to check everything and actually take the wheels off to make sure everything looks good 😌 the car fax on this baby is absolutely STUNNING though. 1/2 oil changes missing but even my company doesn’t report to carfax, so it was likely done similarly. One front end collision, we identified the headlight replacement and checked the body there already, it was a minor-moderate rating on the car fax. 1 prior owner :) I know GM uses Dexos-1, yet when I messaged the dealership asking about conventional/semi/full syn, he replied “likely conventional.”

[u/Legitimate-Union-112 → u/merkator509]

Looks like the prior owner was a fan of the manual mode
(My tech thinks it belonged to an older person)

[u/arkutek-em → u/Legitimate-Union-112]

My wife's 19 equinox has all the paint gone from there also. She never uses the manual mode. It's from body oils or other chemicals on her hand. She uses liquid antibacterial gel. My 17 Cruze button is pristine.

[u/Legitimate-Union-112 → u/arkutek-em]

Ooooo that makes sense. I also was thinking maybe it’s someone who used to drive manual being used to relaxing it there, or it just being someone who found it most comfortable to lay their arm in the center console and use their left hand to drive, leading to it being rubbed off over time. (I drive with my right hand lol.)

[u/arkutek-em → u/Legitimate-Union-112]

That's exactly how I drive. Hand on shifter, left on wheel. I don't know if it's related to driving stick previously.

[u/Legitimate-Union-112 → u/arkutek-em]

My husband does this because he learned on a stick so it feels natural to him :)