Many owners (familiar with the servicing requirements of the older overhead valve units that the Family I/II replaced) would often exacerbate the problem by changing the oil themselves within the running in period.

Another issue (also common to the Family II), revolved around the water pump, which sits in an eccentric shaped housing and doubles as the timing belt tensioner.

GM do Brasil specializes in SOHC, petrol-powered and FlexPower (powered with ethanol and/or petrol, mixed in any percentage) engines.

There are two available displacements: 1.0 L and 1.4 L. They feature an SOHC head with 2-valves per cylinder, and is fed by a multi-point fuel injection system, which allows it to run on either E100 (pure ethanol) or E25 gasoline (standard in Brazil).

Major differences between previous engines include reduced friction, lowered weight, individual coil-near-plug ignition, and a new cylinder head design.

The main difference between C16XE and X16XE Ecotec is emission control, C16XE lacks EGR and AIR-system, although the cylinder head is designed to enable these features.

Applications: Updated version introduced from 2000, with lighter cast-iron cylinder block and camshaft driven by toothed belt.

With the release of Chevrolet Cruze, the factory has been converted to produce the Ecotec Family 1 Gen III block.

These engines are manufactured at Szentgotthárd, Hungary, Bupyeoung, Korea, Toluca, Mexico and Yantai, PRC (SGM).

In contrast to their predecessors, the Gen III engines feature lighter cast-iron blocks, as well as higher compression ratios.

These engines also implement DCVCP (Double Continuous Variable Cam Phasing technology, a variant of VVT), piston cooling by oil jets, and an integrated catalytic converter.

Reliability improvements include a wider camshaft drive belt, and a water pump no longer driven by it.