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Not disputing anything you said about wet belts but just want to add that the majority of the bad press about wet belts in the U.S. is generated by the Ford ( 3 cyl. Eco tech ???? ) wet belt failure recall. Caused by a silicone bushing failure that then caused the belt guiding system to misalign the belt and wear it prematurely. We can only hope that GM got it right but knowing GM’s past history I’m not that optimistic.
Thanks ... was going to report the same, another thing to make the belt last ALWAYS use a full synthetic oil like Mobile One or Castrol over reg/synthetic blend oils. And the second thing use a ready to use GM Coolant GM's AC/Delco Dexcool 50/50 premix (about $11) one jug will last/keep forever. You not just protecting the timing, belt but the engine an turbo as well.
 
It just happened to me yesterday morning on my way home from work. The exact same thing. I got a warning saying engine power is reduced, then the pop, smoke and all the oil poured into pavement. I had it towed to a Chevy dealer and they called later saying my engine needed replacing but they have no ETA on my engine.
Excessive Fuel in oil has been a issue with this engine.
 
Rod and crankshaft bearings are always made of high strength steel backings with a nonferrous metal wear surface, that's not what causes them to fail and it wasn't GM going cheap. If the entire bearing were hardened steel the crank and pistons would eat the bearings and the bearings would eat the crank and pistons causing failure very quickly.
Fuel dilution in the oil
 
I bought a 2024 Trax 1rs in Dec 2023. In may I had 3900 miles on it. Was driving on an express way. Went to accelerate and heard a pop bang sound in engine. Then black smoke poured out my exhaust. Everything started to shut down and the screen said to pull over. Oil was pouring out onto the pavement. I had the car towed to the nearest Chevy dealership. Here is what the service person told me:
"Hello sir per your request I put together a description of the failure that took place for the motor on your vehicle
It would seem that one of the engine piston rod bearings flew out of place and out of the motor at high enough force to create a hole in the motor causing the motor to have catastrophic engine failure. The vehicle will be getting a replacement motor covered under your factory warranty."

He told me they had one other Trax with the same problem already. He had no idea when they would have a replacement engine. A couple weeks later I went back to the dealership to get things out of my car. And it was just sitting there untouched. When I opened the door the cabin smelled like burnt oil. The car was covered in oil.
My brother who was a mechanic said the catalytic converter may need to be replaced. And probably the air filter to the cabin. When I asked the service guy about this, and asked if the car can be detailed and cleaned, he said no GM will only pay for an engine replacement.

My salesperson at a different dealership happened to call me a few days later. I told him what happened and asked if he could help. He spoke to their service manager. He said it's a minimum of 60 to 90 days to get a new engine from Korea. My salesman said they hadn't had it happen at their dealership yet, but I guess they did now since I bought from them. He said he knows all the dealerships around them had at least one with the same problem. He did say that they had another model Chevy recently have this happen on a test drive.

Has anyone else experienced this or heard of this on the 2024 Trax?
Yes, I had this same thing happen to me on my 2024 Trax LT. I purchased mine on August 19, 2023 and while on the highway on August 24, 2023 the engine blew. There was white smoke coming from the vehicle, and I got the message on the dash to pull over. There was also a lot of oil leaking everywhere. I was towed to the nearest Chevrolet dealer and I was told that engine had to be replaced and would be covered under my factory warranty. I was fortunate enough that they were able to find a brand new engine in about 3 weeks that was at a different Chevy dealer. I had my vehicle back about 5 weeks later. I haven't had any problems since. There were only 533 miles on the vehicle when this happened to me.
 
"why aren't we hearing about it"

What about all the turbo-oiling, EGR, and main bearing failures all over the net for the A14NET(ecotec 1.4 turbo) going back to 2013?

They are especially famous for the 10k mile EGR valve replacement, but second come turbos oil feed which will nuke a engine quick as described..

A14NET also has some weird valve tolerance issue that are well documented..

To be fare: Every time any car has been made that was <200HP and at least 2.5 tons it's ended up in a junk yard before 200k without heavy investment. Trax is a 2.5 ton car with a 140HP i4.. It's a recipe for spun bearings and blown head gaskets, and add the poorly engineered turbo..

The infinite-life trans and PU fluid design is also asking for trouble.. What kind of crazy person would want to check their tranny fluid? huh..

it's designed to fail like every other 2.5+ ton vehicle with a <160HP engine.. ever
 
Have 4300 miles on my 24 rs bought beginning of June last year no problem what so ever, if you read the manual it says to drive about 500 miles then change the oil, the oil in the motor is motor oil but also break in oil, glad I did change it minor glitter but that to be expected when they get filled with oil and just sit until they are bought. Some do have an oil problem so I installed a fuel pump cut off crank the car 5 to 10 revolutions then flip the pump on this was if it's cold at least the motor has some oil pressure there should be an oil pressure gauge also been saved a few times when pressure dropped and was able to kill the car before it blew up
 
Interesting……Break in oil? Glitter in the oil? Turning off fuel pump before engine blew up?
I haven’t heard talk of break in oil in decades. Bearing or ring dust in first oil change definitely something wrong.….and turning off fuel pump at start up will give engine time to build up oil pressure but again shouldn’t be necessary with today’s modern oils.
 
Well an update - took three months to get new engine and the car back. Was like pulling teeth with GM Customer Care but finally got three car payments back.

Now I’m having paint issues which the dealership is saying won’t be under warranty and GM won’t approve a claim as it’s rock chips but here’s the number call them yourself. Great customer service! This is much more than rock chips as the paint is totally flaking off and some are the size of a quarter so definitely a primer issue.

so disappointed in this vehicle can’t wait too see what it looks like in 2 years.

Never buying a GM/Chevrolet product ever again.
 
I bought a 2024 Trax 1rs in Dec 2023. In may I had 3900 miles on it. Was driving on an express way. Went to accelerate and heard a pop bang sound in engine. Then black smoke poured out my exhaust. Everything started to shut down and the screen said to pull over. Oil was pouring out onto the pavement. I had the car towed to the nearest Chevy dealership. Here is what the service person told me:
"Hello sir per your request I put together a description of the failure that took place for the motor on your vehicle
It would seem that one of the engine piston rod bearings flew out of place and out of the motor at high enough force to create a hole in the motor causing the motor to have catastrophic engine failure. The vehicle will be getting a replacement motor covered under your factory warranty."

He told me they had one other Trax with the same problem already. He had no idea when they would have a replacement engine. A couple weeks later I went back to the dealership to get things out of my car. And it was just sitting there untouched. When I opened the door the cabin smelled like burnt oil. The car was covered in oil.
My brother who was a mechanic said the catalytic converter may need to be replaced. And probably the air filter to the cabin. When I asked the service guy about this, and asked if the car can be detailed and cleaned, he said no GM will only pay for an engine replacement.

My salesperson at a different dealership happened to call me a few days later. I told him what happened and asked if he could help. He spoke to their service manager. He said it's a minimum of 60 to 90 days to get a new engine from Korea. My salesman said they hadn't had it happen at their dealership yet, but I guess they did now since I bought from them. He said he knows all the dealerships around them had at least one with the same problem. He did say that they had another model Chevy recently have this happen on a test drive.

Has anyone else experienced this or heard of this on the 2024 Trax?
Hi there, I just had the same problem with my trax, it was 11 months old and only had a 11,000 miles on it. No warning just a clunk in a bang and smoke everywhere. My Car was just towed to the shop a couple days ago. But I was told it needed a new motor. I will have more details in about a week. It is under a warranty and they are replacing the motor. I’m starting to wonder if there’s a problem with these cars
 
High fuel dilution in the oil
Which can only come from bad piston rings or a valve wear that would have been obvious before failure. Maybe some crazy injector or ECM fault that would of also been obvious prior to failure.

If too much fuel came through injector valves it would of washed the cylinders and caused other types of failures before taking out crank bearings.

I don't frequent these forums much do to low community, but FYI: Most shops will swap a used LKQ warranty engine for $3,000.00, LKQ warranty AWD transmission for $2,500(model is 6T40), and a head gasket for $1,400.00; a new head is around $900.00(they warp easy) If you live close to a AAMCO they are a pro shop with 4+ bays and will do any of those jobs in days.

A little secret about <180HP i4 cars that weigh two-tons: You either drive it like a grandma and keep under 3k and let everyone pass you, or you keep doing head gasket repairs and crank bearings every 80k-130k. Something that heavy isn't suppose to have that little power. For reference those 80s v8 conversion vans you use to see were only hundreds of pounds heavier; it's dumb..

I not only work on a lot of these but I own one. I have about 6k in to mine just off swaps alone and I do 3k OCI with maxlife and keep cabin and intake filters changed etc..
 
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