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Mystery of the 1988 Cavalier - READ ONLY

14 messages,  Last post on Jan 18, 2003 at 12:12 AM

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What is this discussion about? Chevrolet Cavalier, Sedan

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#13 of 14 That does sound a bit high... by andre1969 Jan 14, 2003 (3:58 pm)
...and does seem like an awful lot of fluctuation in temperature for a newer car. On just about all the cars I ever owned that had a temp gauge (some just had idiot lights that told you when it was too late!), it was very rare for the needle to creep up beyond the middle, unless the car was overheating.   As for how long a thermostat lasts, that's a good question. I really don't know. I've only had one new car in my life, which is my '00 Intrepid, which currently has about 74,500 miles on it. I've had to replace thermostats in old cars before, but I don't know how long they had been in there before.   I think thermostats are usually designed to fail in the open position, which should make the car run cooler (and also take longer to warm up in the mornings). Occasionally though, I'm sure they can fail closed, which would make you overheat pretty quickly!
#14 of 14 dchroust, it's the tcc solenoid by albuterol Jan 18, 2003 (12:12 am)
dshepherd3 is right, it's the tcc solenoid. Happened exactly as you described on my '89 Cavalier. The easy way to test is to unplug the power connector to the tcc solenoid. I did that for a while until I replaced the solenoid -- $20 from rockauto.com and pretty easy -- just pulled off the driver's front tire, removed a small wheel-well cover, removed the tranny valve body cover, and it was right there. Oh yeah, had to drain the tranny fluid first, but that was no big deal. Runs great now.

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