My P0013 adventure! 2009 Aveo5.

So I bought a 2009 Aveo5 that had an active P0013 code stored in it (see new member intro for more details, if you have nothing better to do).

I started off by Googling something like "Chevrolet Aveo P0013" and got a bunch of matches for GM owners of that era having cam phaser solenoids that have packed up at various times. Since this car had 115K on the clock, I decided it was worth replacing the solenoids. So off to AutoZone I went. They were able to get me the new parts (I replaced both) overnight. It turns out that the "Duralast" parts I bought actually had the GM service parts labels still on them. YAY!

So I unplugged the battery and replaced the solenoids, but unfortunately the P0013 code came right back. Ok, so it must be in the wiring somewhere.

I pulled the connector for the exhaust and intake solenoids, and tried to get some readings on them. At this time, I didn't have a wiring diagram, so I couldn't tell if they were high or low side drives and what the wiring looked like, so I was poking around a bit. Well, I found that the ECU must have both ends of those circuits, because there wasn't much I could find at all.

Time to see if the wiring has a break in it. I unplugged the ECU and got to work with a DVOM set to beep on a completed circuit.

I found the intake phaser brown wire had continuity to Pin 32 on the larger ECU connector, but the exhaust phaser was nowhere in either connector. Since there isn't really a convention on which pins are used for which component, I had to go on a search for a GM service manual. I needed to know where the brown wire for the exhaust phaser was supposed to be. This took a while, as there aren't many sites that have service manuals for this year and it's a different engine than the previous years.

I finally located the service manual and found that ECU Pin 14 is supposed to have the the exhaust phaser connected to it. I double checked, still no connection. I left my meter hooked up and wiggled the wiring around a bit to see if I could get the wire to connect (this would tell me where the break in the harness might be), but not a peep out of the meter.

Time to overlay a new wire.

I CAREFULLY cut back the wiring guard at the ECU side, so I could isolate the brown wire on Pin 14 with enough length to solder on a new wire. I cut it about 4 inches away from the ECU connector, got out my marine grade heat shrink and then added a new wire. I ran it on top of the existing bundle from the ECU to the engine, and then soldered it back in about a foot from the connector to the actuator.

Put the ECU and battery back in, added some protective conduit to replace the stuff that had cracked, fired it up. Bingo! P0013 code is gone!

I took it for a drive and it has a lot more power and runs much smoother through the rev range. I'm not going to outrun any Mustangs, but it works.

Info for techies who might come across this later: The phasers are a high side drive with PWM power being supplied through Pins 32 (Intake) and 14 (Exhaust), both brown wires. The grounds are unswitched and are through Pins 15 (Intake) and 13 (Exhaust), both pink wires.