2015 2.4l Equinox, blown rings / piston, oil consumption issue, lawsuit?

[daneast]

We have a 2015 Equinox 2.4l that I posted about several months ago. It now has 79k miles on it. We are the only owner, and it was meticulously serviced by the Chevy Dealership. Several months ago, after a dealership oil change, we noticed the oil was low (not even reading on the dipstick). After searching found out about the issue with the defective oil ring design. I checked the PCV vacuum and that particular issue was not present. However piston #3 was burning a lot of oil, and fouling the plug.

Since then we've kept a log and added oil whenever it was low. We were adding a quart of oil about ever 300 miles at one point. I had resigned myself to constantly checking the oil, and replacing fouled plugs as needed.

A couple days ago, after topping off with a quart of oil, we did some interstate driving in 10F temps. On the way home the engine started running rough. My guess is that we were hit by the PCV orifice hole issue and it froze up in that cold temperature. We limped home, and now, checking compression, I have almost 0 in cylinder #3. It will pressure up to about 60 PSI while cranking, then quickly bleed off. Piston #2 gets around 190 PSI, so I know my gauge is good. So we either have blown rings or a damaged piston. I couldn't see anything obvious on the piston with my scope, but it's just a cheap one and not very good visual quality. I believe the frozen up PCV orifice increase pressure that caused these already bad rings to totally fail.

So what is our recourse? We had already talked to the dealership about this, and they basically said we're screwed and they'd be happy to put another motor in it for $6k - $7k. Now it's toast, and needs pistons and rings replaced. We're in Virginia. Are there any class action lawsuits on this for Virginia? Any other recourse on Chevy fixing this terribly designed engine?

 

[Jbowling]

I had the rear main seal blow out on my 2014 Chevy Equinox 2 days ago. It is was also the frozen PCV crankcase over pressurization. There are is a current Class Action lawsuit in process that covers the Equinox up to 2017. until the law suit is settled we are screwed. keep all of your receipts when you get it repaired. There is a special extended service bulletin 14882 but it does not cover 2015 equinox. Which even if it did I am certain that your vin would not be included in the service bulletin. I was told that my Vin# was not among the ones listed for the extended service bulletin even though I have a 2014 Equinox built in June of 2014. I am fairly certain that they are instructed to tell customers that there vin is not included so they do not have to pay. This is a very none issue that has plagued the 2.4L Ecotec engine for many years and GM is going to lose a lot of customers over their failure to repair what they know is defective.

 

[tahoebuilder]

I had the rear main seal blow out on my 2014 Chevy Equinox 2 days ago. It is was also the frozen PCV crankcase over pressurization. There are is a current Class Action lawsuit in process that covers the Equinox up to 2017. until the law suit is settled we are screwed. keep all of your receipts when you get it repaired. There is a special extended service bulletin 14882 but it does not cover 2015 equinox. Which even if it did I am certain that your vin would not be included in the service bulletin. I was told that my Vin# was not among the ones listed for the extended service bulletin even though I have a 2014 Equinox built in June of 2014. I am fairly certain that they are instructed to tell customers that there vin is not included so they do not have to pay. This is a very none issue that has plagued the 2.4L Ecotec engine for many years and GM is going to lose a lot of customers over their failure to repair what they know is defective.

Hi. Daughter had this exact same thing happen on her 2016. It is in our garage right now. Is there any place to check as to how this class action suit is progressing, she did find a place online and filled out the information for the suit. I worked at GM many years and am not real happy that they did not do a recall. I will add it was very cold here below zero and it was outside.

 

[daneast]

I'm going to be pulling this engine and replacing the pistons and rings. In our case, the problem was directly the rings. We were burning a quart of oil every 300 miles with 70k on the engine, due to the #3 piston, for the last 8-9k miles. All my checks showed the PCV was not clogged up and we had good vacuum through the intake manifold. I believe what happened is the PCV orifice froze up in the 10F degree weather, and that crank pressure blew out the already compromised rings on #3. I guess in some way that might be better, because that is where the pressure relieved itself instead of blowing out the main seal in the rear. After new pistons and rings (supposedly the after market pistons address the poor ring design by GM), and perhaps one of the PCV modifications, the vehicle should be good for a long time.

 

[2012Equinox2.4Turbo]

We have a 2015 Equinox 2.4l that I posted about several months ago. It now has 79k miles on it. We are the only owner, and it was meticulously serviced by the Chevy Dealership. Several months ago, after a dealership oil change, we noticed the oil was low (not even reading on the dipstick). After searching found out about the issue with the defective oil ring design. I checked the PCV vacuum and that particular issue was not present. However piston #3 was burning a lot of oil, and fouling the plug.

Since then we've kept a log and added oil whenever it was low. We were adding a quart of oil about ever 300 miles at one point. I had resigned myself to constantly checking the oil, and replacing fouled plugs as needed.

A couple days ago, after topping off with a quart of oil, we did some interstate driving in 10F temps. On the way home the engine started running rough. My guess is that we were hit by the PCV orifice hole issue and it froze up in that cold temperature. We limped home, and now, checking compression, I have almost 0 in cylinder #3. It will pressure up to about 60 PSI while cranking, then quickly bleed off. Piston #2 gets around 190 PSI, so I know my gauge is good. So we either have blown rings or a damaged piston. I couldn't see anything obvious on the piston with my scope, but it's just a cheap one and not very good visual quality. I believe the frozen up PCV orifice increase pressure that caused these already bad rings to totally fail.

So what is our recourse? We had already talked to the dealership about this, and they basically said we're screwed and they'd be happy to put another motor in it for $6k - $7k. Now it's toast, and needs pistons and rings replaced. We're in Virginia. Are there any class action lawsuits on this for Virginia? Any other recourse on Chevy fixing this terribly designed engine?

At this point, you're better off fixing the problem yourself. Put in better aftermarket pistons and replace your timing chain with a Cloyes kit. You should see well over 300,000 miles on this engine, provided you maintain it properly. I ran my 2012 Equinox to 225k miles before I decided to pull the stock pistons. The engine isn't a terrible design; GM is simply terrible at fixing problems after the fact. This engine design has been around for a long time. There are many versions of this engine, ranging from 2.0L to 2.4L, dating back to early 2000. I've owned almost every variation of Ecotec. GM has already been sued for 'some' 2010–2013 models and settled. I say 'some' because somehow, they get to decide which vehicles 'qualify' for a repair? My 2012 Equinox did not qualify, so I was left to figure it out on my own. Supposedly, there were 'refinements' for later models, but let's be honest. GM didn't do squat to fix the problem, which was crappy piston rings to begin with.

So how did I get 225k out of my Equinox 2.4? Seafoam and Marvel Mystery Oil. Prior to an oil change, and when the engine was about a quart low, I'd top it off with Marvel Mystery oil and drive for about a week. The night before I changed my oil, I'd pull the spark plugs, dump Seafoam down each cylinder, and let it soak overnight. The next day, I put the plugs back in, started it up, and let it run for a few minutes before performing the oil change. I did this every 30k miles or so, starting at around 85k miles when the engine first showed signs of excessive oil consumption. My 2.4 would always use about a quart between oil changes, so when it was down over a quart at 50% oil-life remaining, I knew come the next oil change it was time to do it again. You wouldn't believe how dirty the oil filter can get after this procedure.

In response to your earlier post, where you mentioned rebuilding your Samurai, If you can do that, you can fix your Ecotec. It's actually a very easy engine to work on. You can replace the rings or change out the pistons while the engine is still in the vehicle. You will need to remove the head and pull the oil pan to unbolt the rods, but then you can push the pistons out of the top. In fact, that is how the book says to do it. You may as well do the engine timing chain assembly while you're at it, but I'd leave the water pump and chain assembly alone at that mileage. You can pull the timing cover off without removing the engine mount on the passenger side. Don't let any of the electrical connections scare you. It will only go back together one way. You can't even mix up the connections for the VVT solenoids. As far as the timing chain goes, there are 3 colored marks on the chain that correspond with marks on each cam and the crank. Once you put tension back on that chain, it won't jump. I've done so many that I can put a complete timing kit on in about 45 minutes. 20 minutes if I'm just doing the timing chain. Easy money.

Do a Google search on Ecotec Build Book. You should see a Google Doc titled GM SPORT COMPACT Performance Build Book. While it doesn't cover these engines specifically, the procedure is still the same for the Ecotec engines it does cover. The LNF isn't much different aside from being a boosted 2.0L and having stronger internals.

Good luck whatever you decide.

 

[daneast]

replace your timing chain with a Cloyes kit

This engine has less than 80k miles on it. Do you really think the timing chain needs to be replaced too?

 

[2012Equinox2.4Turbo]

This engine has less than 80k miles on it. Do you really think the timing chain needs to be replaced too?

I don't trust the GM timing assembly. Especially the timing chain tensioner and top guide. Since you will be there anyway, yes, I would replace the aforementioned at a minimum. Especially if you plan to keep the vehicle.

 

[scan2]

any word on were to find information on the class action?

 

[Tico007]

This engine uses a fixed orifice PCV system. Nothing wrong with that. The problem is the location of the orifice. Someone at GM made the assumption that because fixed orifice does not use a mechanical PCV valve, there is nothing to be serviced, just stick it inside the manifold. Well, that wasn’t the best idea. The orifice can plug with carbon from blow by. Once the orifice hole is plugged, blow by has nowhere to go. Pressure builds. That pressure prevents the rings from sealing on the cylinder wall tightly which can lead to oil consumption. Or blow the main seal. Or come out the clean air intake tube. You know that’s happening if the clean air intake side has milky foam. It should never have that. People put catch cans on the clean air intake side to try to prevent moisture from clogging the clean air intake tube. Or put on the FC219 cap to relieve pressure. None of that fixes the problem which is a blocked orifice. A google can explain different ways to poke the manifold orifice hole. Don’t want to do that all the time so I’m going to create a external orifice mod. The parts are on order. When I get it set up, I will show some pictures.

 

[GirlDriver]

I got my vehicle used, but lucky for me I did some research and found out about the PCV orifice before any issue.... until my son sat idling in the car for hours in 100 degree heat and the a/c on. Lucky for me I'd put this oil cap on 2 weeks prior.
It did its job - lol. Blew oil all over the place - no other damage.
ACDelco GM Original Equipment FC219 Engine Oil Filler Cap
I'll tell ya what I did to clean out that PCV orifice that no one else has researched enough to figure out. You can "wash out" that area real good doing this. Because I'm convinced that sludge builds up on the back of the manifold where that PCV orifice is, just drilling a hole in the front of the manifold and poking something through there isn't going to clean it to where it would last any period of time.
Take off the valve cover. The front of the valve cover is part of the PCV system. The PCV system makes a loop through there. There's nylon baffles in there. You'll see a breather hose on the left side that goes into the throttle body - so you get the idea of how it works.
Anyway, the PCV orifice is smack dab in the middle of the intake manifold on the back side.
Remove your valve cover and the center rectangle space (in the front, butts up to the back of the intake manifold where the PCV orifice lives) get a rag to cover the rectangled opening and spray some throttle body/intake cleaner in there with the hose, facing towards your intake manifold. Then with your blow gun chuck on your compressor, blow it out (don't forget the rag). It won't go in your engine, I promise!!
I had to repeat 4 times before it was clean. LOTS of stuff came up after 105,000 miles. The car sat for a couple days, and no problems and it's been 4,200 miles. I'd let the car sit until you're sure any cleaner residue is dry.
If you live up north where it can get iced up, you drill a hole in the front of the manifold - real small - enough for a paper clip where you can poke through the orifice - there's a video about that somewhere on youtube. Then use a screw to seal up your hole and access later.
But seriously being a direct injection engine, you need to do the CRC GDI cleaner process to ungunk your valve tops and that cleaner will keep the PCV free flowing once you've "washed out" the PCV orifice area good a proper with my technique.

I can't do my own oil changes, but about this same time, I did 3 oil changes in around five weeks time and put in the Pennzoil Premium, natural gas, full synthetic oil. I didn't have any oil loss til around 1,000 miles and the oil started getting dirty. That stuff actually cleaned the varnish off my dipstick!!​

So I will come back here and tell you what good, if any, the LiquiMoly Motor Oil Saver did with the Pennzoil Premium high mileage, natural gas... oil this time. They didn't carry the high mileage version last time.

Firestone carries this oil, which is where I got the idea to try it with a coupon. I think it's totally worth it. It's cleaning junk in the engine, so the oil gets dirty quicker, but I think eventually that will slow down.

 

[Neatherlin]

I had the rear main seal blow out on my 2014 Chevy Equinox 2 days ago. It is was also the frozen PCV crankcase over pressurization. There are is a current Class Action lawsuit in process that covers the Equinox up to 2017. until the law suit is settled we are screwed. keep all of your receipts when you get it repaired. There is a special extended service bulletin 14882 but it does not cover 2015 equinox. Which even if it did I am certain that your vin would not be included in the service bulletin. I was told that my Vin# was not among the ones listed for the extended service bulletin even though I have a 2014 Equinox built in June of 2014. I am fairly certain that they are instructed to tell customers that there vin is not included so they do not have to pay. This is a very none issue that has plagued the 2.4L Ecotec engine for many years and GM is going to lose a lot of customers over their failure to repair what they know is defective.

Do you know how to be added to the lawsuit

 

[TDW1954]

We have a 2015 Equinox 2.4l that I posted about several months ago. It now has 79k miles on it. We are the only owner, and it was meticulously serviced by the Chevy Dealership. Several months ago, after a dealership oil change, we noticed the oil was low (not even reading on the dipstick). After searching found out about the issue with the defective oil ring design. I checked the PCV vacuum and that particular issue was not present. However piston #3 was burning a lot of oil, and fouling the plug.

Since then we've kept a log and added oil whenever it was low. We were adding a quart of oil about ever 300 miles at one point. I had resigned myself to constantly checking the oil, and replacing fouled plugs as needed.

A couple days ago, after topping off with a quart of oil, we did some interstate driving in 10F temps. On the way home the engine started running rough. My guess is that we were hit by the PCV orifice hole issue and it froze up in that cold temperature. We limped home, and now, checking compression, I have almost 0 in cylinder #3. It will pressure up to about 60 PSI while cranking, then quickly bleed off. Piston #2 gets around 190 PSI, so I know my gauge is good. So we either have blown rings or a damaged piston. I couldn't see anything obvious on the piston with my scope, but it's just a cheap one and not very good visual quality. I believe the frozen up PCV orifice increase pressure that caused these already bad rings to totally fail.

So what is our recourse? We had already talked to the dealership about this, and they basically said we're screwed and they'd be happy to put another motor in it for $6k - $7k. Now it's toast, and needs pistons and rings replaced. We're in Virginia. Are there any class action lawsuits on this for Virginia? Any other recourse on Chevy fixing this terribly designed engine?

It could be a valve issue or a blown head gasket, but your oil consumption and low compression in one cylinder sounds like stuck piston rings. There are ways to unstick the rings using a cleaner down the spark plug hole demonstrated on Youtube.

 

[outback]

It could be a valve issue or a blown head gasket, but your oil consumption and low compression in one cylinder sounds like stuck piston rings. There are ways to unstick the rings using a cleaner down the spark plug hole demonstrated on Youtube.

hey there buddy ....I like that you've gone into this engine...mine is a 2016...what a battle axe this thing is....at 30k I noticed it 1 quart down every 1000 miles, could not believe what I was seeing, we bought it brand new... have been meticulously monitoring it since ...trans I change every 10k,5 out 5 in...the engine oil ,at 3000...its so dirty from the direct injection its crazy...at 60k I noticed my ball joint boots ripped and my rear lower front control arm bushings torn apart...I replaced all with Moog parts,,,now at 70k the steering is all jazzed up, I put it on the lift only to realize that the dummy put the electric motor for it DIRECTLY behind the catalytic converter , with a little tiny heat shield, o m gourd whats next?. then late last week..the VVT solenoids acted up...no power , check engine light on code po110,,,,am going to change these this week, the steering makes an immediate left turn if I let go of the wheel..have to stop car kick wheel all the way right n then back again to get it to center!!!! this dam thing is the most ridiculous car .....we bought 3 Chevys at once from the dealership 2 sparks n this 2016 equinox.......this is now the HEARTBREAK of AMERICA....not the HEARTBEAT.......am super disgusted...and this is the real deal...im not imagining....gonna try to talk to dealer about all this...the dam steering module has to be programmed....I need to know what parts to buy to fix that now too......no aspirin was offered with the car either .. and the migraine continues...any tips on lemonoscity laws...?...I mean this is nuts! if I didn't have the ability to fix it...I would go absolutely bonkers with this crap...MAJOR SHAME on CHEVY

 

[daneast]

Here's an update since outback bumped this thread.
I pulled the engine and tore it down. I've never seen valves with so much soot / carbon buildup on them. The exhaust valves had 4-5mm (1/4") built up on the back side of them. What broke was an exhaust valve, and the cause was almost certainly a chunk of that carbon broke off and got between the valve and the head, breaking off the edge of the valve.

The cause was piston rings allowing oil around to the combustion side. Burning quarts and quarts of oil has bad implications, which is what you see in these pictures, even if you keep it topped off so it doesn't run low.

I replaced the exhaust valves (they looked horrible - terribly pitted), lapped the intake valves (they looked good), all new timing stuff (chain, guides, tensioner, cam phasers), new Hastings rings, new connecting rod bearings. And of course all seals, etc. Keep in mind this engine had less than 80k miles and was meticulously maintained. I rebuilt a 1.6 liter Suzuki Sidekick engine with 200k miles on it that looked far, far better internally and was still running fine, to give a comparison.

Fortunately the only actual damage was to the valve - the cylinder and pistons, etc, looked fine.

 

[Tico007]

A combination of direct injection and the PCV orifice is to blame for that chipped valve.

 

[ScottC]

It could be a valve issue or a blown head gasket, but your oil consumption and low compression in one cylinder sounds like stuck piston rings. There are ways to unstick the rings using a cleaner down the spark plug hole demonstrated on Youtube.

Yes I used Berrymans B 12 cylinder flush by pouring in spark plug holes and Seafoam before every oil change. I did that almost a year ago. Reduced oil consumption from 1 quart every 500 miles to 8 ounces every 3,000 miles.

 

[Deb Bobo]

We have a 2015 Equinox 2.4l that I posted about several months ago. It now has 79k miles on it. We are the only owner, and it was meticulously serviced by the Chevy Dealership. Several months ago, after a dealership oil change, we noticed the oil was low (not even reading on the dipstick). After searching found out about the issue with the defective oil ring design. I checked the PCV vacuum and that particular issue was not present. However piston #3 was burning a lot of oil, and fouling the plug.

Since then we've kept a log and added oil whenever it was low. We were adding a quart of oil about ever 300 miles at one point. I had resigned myself to constantly checking the oil, and replacing fouled plugs as needed.

A couple days ago, after topping off with a quart of oil, we did some interstate driving in 10F temps. On the way home the engine started running rough. My guess is that we were hit by the PCV orifice hole issue and it froze up in that cold temperature. We limped home, and now, checking compression, I have almost 0 in cylinder #3. It will pressure up to about 60 PSI while cranking, then quickly bleed off. Piston #2 gets around 190 PSI, so I know my gauge is good. So we either have blown rings or a damaged piston. I couldn't see anything obvious on the piston with my scope, but it's just a cheap one and not very good visual quality. I believe the frozen up PCV orifice increase pressure that caused these already bad rings to totally fail.

So what is our recourse? We had already talked to the dealership about this, and they basically said we're screwed and they'd be happy to put another motor in it for $6k - $7k. Now it's toast, and needs pistons and rings replaced. We're in Virginia. Are there any class action lawsuits on this for Virginia? Any other recourse on Chevy fixing this terribly designed engine?