New Turbo owner (but already own one)

[sonicboost14]

Hi all!

I'm the new owner of a '14 Sonic Hatch Turbo 6m. I got this thru the mistake of buying a Spark and having it **** the bed. Here is the story in a couple post I have on oppositelock.com

Lemon?

My long fight is over! Kinda long

We bought a '13 Sonic Sedan 1.8 for my wife last February and then a Spark for myself in August. That was a mistake. After a long drawn out fight, GM coughed up a good amount of money on trade and I got the Sonic for 3,500 under sticker. Whole thing came out only $9 more than the Spark!

All and all, I'm happy with the Sonic. Only things I'm doing are: full tune, Forge BOV, true CAI, springs, and a quiet freer flowing exhaust. I'm old and loud pisses off neighbors.

Is there another tried and true tune other than Trifecta?

 

[sonic J]

bullydog i don't have one yet but I'm looking at one over trifecta

 

[sonicboost14]

I've looked at them briefly. Will it do the same tuning as Trifecta? New at this whole tuning thing....

 

[rdss]

All and all, I'm happy with the Sonic. Only things I'm doing are: full tune, Forge BOV, true CAI, springs, and a quiet freer flowing exhaust. I'm old and loud pisses off neighbors.

I would pass on the BOV and stick with stock or run the Forge BPV, I'm like you and wanted a quite/free flow exhaust and didn't care for the extra noise of the BOV and luckily had the option to swap out easily to the forge BPV. You get all the right noises with the intake.

 

[Yosemite Sam]

Welcome to the family sonicboost14!! :banana:

 

[slammer0]

Hello

 

[sonicboost14]

I would pass on the BOV and stick with stock or run the Forge BPV, I'm like you and wanted a quite/free flow exhaust and didn't care for the extra noise of the BOV and luckily had the option to swap out easily to the forge BPV. You get all the right noises with the intake.

I really hate to say it but I like the ricey sound of the BOV. I can't deal with the loud exhaust but I can have one vice.

Also, with all the **** I dealt with on the Spark, I knew the Sonic would be more of a stout car. Then I started to get the 1-2 trans grind. 370 miles into ownership. Ugh.

 

[Swordsmith]

I wonder if GM is more interested in swapping out transmissions in light of their recent bad press.

On the bright side, I have put about 45K on my transmission with the grind and it hasn't shown any sign of getting louder or developing any other problems. And I probably have more power and treat the car worse than you will..

 

[sonicboost14]

Compared to my car, my wife's 1.8l sedan sounds coarse and the auto trans sucks balls. The turbo/6m car sounds, feels, and drives like a GTI. Might be a stretch but the motor sound and ride remind me of my 03 GTI. Another comparison is that every VW I've owned had the 1-2 grind under hard acceleration. Never failed but never went away.

 

[sonicboost14]

Now the wife's cars front bearing are growling. Nice.

 

[Hulty]

If I had to pick a tune all over again, I'd look in my area to see who supports what. That's been my only real beef about Trifecta, the anonymity and inherent lack of "caring" about a customer that gave you $500. The ability to actually drive to a shop and physically show them an issue or work through a tune hiccup, for a fee or not, would GREATLY effect my choice in tuners.

 

[sonicboost14]

Funny you should say that. I went to the Super Summit show for Summit Racing today and there were a ton of reps there. I talked to Diablo tuners and they will have a Cruze/Sonic tuner later this year that will do all the same things as the other tunes. Pulls the stock tune out and saves it while putting theirs in. Superchips has one now but I'm skeptical. Jet Tune said they should have one by August that increases boost, adjust timing, fuel, etc. The Diablo rep seemed the most knowledgeable and was aware of Trifecta and said they are comparable except they use a canned tune and a tuner you own to adjust it.

 

[rsSteve]

Funny you should say that. I went to the Super Summit show for Summit Racing today and there were a ton of reps there. I talked to Diablo tuners and they will have a Cruze/Sonic tuner later this year that will do all the same things as the other tunes. Pulls the stock tune out and saves it while putting theirs in. Superchips has one now but I'm skeptical. Jet Tune said they should have one by August that increases boost, adjust timing, fuel, etc. The Diablo rep seemed the most knowledgeable and was aware of Trifecta and said they are comparable except they use a canned tune and a tuner you own to adjust it.

This is the first i am hearing about the Diablo tuner, thanks for sharing. I used Diablo on my mustang and was quite happy with them. I was looking at getting the Trifecta on their next sale but i may wait to see what Diablo offers. opcorn:

 

[Casablanca]

I talked to Diablo tuners and they will have a Cruze/Sonic tuner later this year that will do all the same things as the other tunes. Pulls the stock tune out and saves it while putting theirs in.

Heyyyyy..... now that's my plan. I used one of these on an 09 Ranger. Great product.

 

[SourKandi]

I have been hard on, but happy with, our 13 Turbo. In the end, anything plastic with tons of eco sh*t = PITA

 

[Joshpan]

My plan is to find a local shop in Houston to dino tune my 13 RS. The dino tune will produce a better tune anyways. Plus you can go back when ever there is a problem. You dont have to data log, send email, and wait.

 

[jalovec]

I'm sorry to hear all of the problems you've been having. I too have had the 1-2 grind, occasionally. I never thought much of it, until a couple of days ago. I was accelerating to merge onto the interstate. The 1-2 shift when fine, but 2-3 felt kind of vague, and somehow I ended up in 5th. When I hit the 5-6, my shifter was flopping, and would not shift. At first I thought I was looking at a broken shift cable, but shifter wouldn't move at all from left to right. I decided to ride it too my exit since I was already in 5th, then inspect the situation further. Unfortunately that was right around 5:00 and traffic began to slow down as I approached the next town, so I had to bail. I stopped at a coveneince store and popped the hood. Rather than a broken shift cable, one of the shift levers on the tranny was completely stuck. It wouldn't budge from fifth gear. At that point I decided to try to slip the clutch and get it rolling enough to get to the dealership(because ironically enough, I had an appointment with the service center because my A/C quit working about a week ago). This turned out to not be the best decision as I thoroughly smoked the clutch. $85 tow truck bill later, and my car is at the dealership awaiting new clutch, tranny, and whatever it take to fix the a/c.

 

[sonicboost14]

Ouch. I'm the type of person that, after all the b.s. with Chevy I've had, pull over and let them pay the tow!