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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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#5 of 14 I dunno which tranny... by andre1969 Jan 09, 2003 (11:29 am)
...my grandmother's '85 LeSabre had in it (it was a 4-speed overdrive, that's all I remember), but it had problems with the solenoid too, and would shudder and buck when slowing down from highway speeds. I don't think it ever stalled, and they got it fixed pretty cheaply before it got too bad.   My roommate has a '98 Tracker that had just the opposite problem...the converter wouldn't lock up, and would send a code to the computer that made the check engine light come on.   Congratulations though, on keeping your Cavalier for that long! I had two buddies back in college that had Cavaliers. One had a base 1985 4-door sedan that had electrical problems around 1994, with about 110K or so miles on it. One day it just wouldn't start, and a new battery wouldn't do the trick so they got rid of it.   My other buddy had an '89 Z-24 coupe that was a pretty hot car in its day. It blew a head gasket, also around the 110K mark, and his family donated it for a tax writeoff.   Come to think of it, I had another buddy with an '87 Z-24, and it blew a head gasket too. His dad was a mechanic though, so he fixed it for him.
#6 of 14 andre by cutehumor Jan 10, 2003 (5:42 am)
I hear ya on the head gaskets. my g/f 96 pontiac sunfire 2.2 L engine overheats when idling for extensive periods of times at drive thru fast food places. but never overheats at stoplights. I suspect the headgasket or themostat, I checked the coolant level. it's full. I guess I will know when I do an oil analysis on her oil. lol
#7 of 14 by Mr_Shiftright HOST Jan 11, 2003 (10:29 am)
Gee those fast food places couldn't be very fast
#8 of 14 yeah, but it's hot :-D by swschrad Jan 11, 2003 (9:45 pm)
#9 of 14 no, sure weren't. lol by cutehumor Jan 12, 2003 (1:18 pm)
I would say it would overheat when there are five cars in front of you in the drive thru lane. I could hear her fans come on.
#10 of 14 another 1988 by lovetosavegas Jan 13, 2003 (9:36 pm)
My friend drives a '88 Cavalier in Ukraine - it has ~100K on it and car runs pretty good. It has all original parts but third muffler, third front break pads, spark plugs, belts and hoses. With the pace he is driving, he probably can beat you, dchroust.Hehehe. Did I mention there is no unleaded gasoline in Ukraine?(catalitic converter had to be removed:)
#11 of 14 Cutehumor... by andre1969 Jan 14, 2003 (5:17 am)
...how high up does the temperature gauge creep when it starts running hot? Does it actually get up into the danger zone? Electric fans cycle on and off all the time, so the fan coming on doesn't necessarily mean that the car's overheating.
#12 of 14 andre by cutehumor Jan 14, 2003 (2:12 pm)
halfway is the norm on her temp gauge I say about 175 degrees. I can't remember exactly her themostat temps. I think the low is 100 degrees and the high is 250 degrees. it goes about another 1/3 up on her thermostat when the fans come on or 215 degrees. pretty loud and noticeable though. It comes back down to normal (175) when she is driving. I've told her about it, she just ignores it. not a good way to keep a car along time. I'm going to do an oil analysis to check for antifreeze in the oil when I change her oil next time. so she won't know. lol She has that dex cool orange stuff and I heard that stuff was crap. I don't even know if she has even had the coolant changed. I've known her since 99; the car is a 96 sunfire with 89k miles   andre, what are the typical lifespans of thermostats?
#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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