I was on a family trip last weekend and on my way back home Sunday I saw a first generation cavalier sitting in somebody's backyard. I stopped by to look at it and found out it was a convertible. The car was sitting under a tree next to a rusted out 72 C10 so it was kinda hard to see it from the road ( I got lucky I saw it). Anyways I asked the owner about the car and she didn't really tell me much but it been sitting for a year and told me if I give her $200 dollars she will give me the title and everything. This was before I even walked up to the car and I look at it from 100 feet I knew the front bumper was in good shape so I was really thinking about parts for my car. It was kinda funny because I couldn't get my wallet out my pocket fast enough lol. I gave her the money and she wrote me up a bill of sale and signed the title over, The only sad part was the battery was dead and my home was 100 miles away :/ I told the owner I will be back with a trailer the following night. When I was heading home I got to thinking the engine might be bad or something is terribly wrong with it so when I got home I took the battery out of my 84 convet and hooked up the trailer and went on my way to pick the car up. When I got there I put the battery in the car and it started right up... I drove it on the trailer and went on home. It was yesterday when I got looking at the car it had new tires, new brakes,the front suspension redone and I found all the receipts of all this. I HIT the jackpot! The back window was no longer attach so I zip tided it back on there and it looks alright on the outside. Anyways the problems I found so far is the oil pressure light and the low coolant light doesn't come on when I do a bulb check. I have replaced all the bulbs and I have seen the low coolant light come on one time during a bulb check but that was it. (I need to look into that) The other two problems I have found is the AC is locked up and I don't think the radiator fan comes on when its suppose to. when I turn the ac switch on the fan should come on right? It does in my 84, Of course I do have the AC pump disconnected because its locked up. I can get the fan to come on when I scan the codes so I know the fan works and the relay but other than that it don't come on. I know I have got the car warm but maybe I'm not getting it hot enough to kick the fan on? I don't know. My 84 was a little less complicated. So can someone help out with the radiator fan and tell me if its working right or not. The car has the 2.8l in it. (Lot more power than my 2.0l 84 cavalier)
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Matthew-
You got that white Cavalier for $200?
Holy Crap! Best Deal Ever! Sharp Car! I paid $200 to get a new interior for my Sunbird and I thought I got a great deal
Your fan should come on when you command it from the dash. If you don't have a shop manual you should get one. I can scan the troubleshooting diagrams and post them if you would like.
I got a wire diagram and it says the fan wont fan come till it see pressure in the AC. My pump is locked up and disconnected so I guess that's why I cant get it to come on when I hit the switch. Anyways I hooked up my scanner and when the coolant temp got to 232 the fan kicked on high till it got down to 215 and the fan shut off.. I guess its working like it should.. I rather it always be on. But yeah the picture I posted is the cavalier I bought for $200 Dollars. Ha I got more money in my 84 cavalier convertible and its not even as nice lol.
Picked this out of an old thread:
2.8 Below refers to the V-6
2.8: The electric coolant fan on this engine is totally controlled by the Electronic Control Module (ECM). The ECM will ground the coolant fan relay, which turns "ON" the fan, when the following conditions are met.
-Coolant temperature sensor signal indicating a temperature greater than 106°C (223°F).
Or
-A/C head pressure greater than 1380 kPa (200 psi).-And vehicle speed less than 70 mph.-When the cooling fan is turned "ON," it will stay "ON" for a minimum time of 30 seconds.
Sounds like you are right within specs.......
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Here's the diagram for the cooling fan is anyone out there needs it.
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Apparently I cant type today.
That car looks great. Is it a 5 speed?
I paid more for my last two parts cars than you paid for that beauty!
Post up more pictures.
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Whoa that is clearly a walmart price.I am pretty tired so nice find and buy and keep it covered!!!!!!!! Ebay is your friend on waterproof covers for low cost.Ask orlen he will verify my recommend in this dept.
Its not a 5 speed sadly.. And I forgot how to add pictures by using the url link so once I figure that out ill post more pictures
Wow!
http://www.autorentalandsales.com/images/2004Cavalier005.JPG
to add a pic, have the url copied and ready to go; then when typing a reply, you will see in the upper right corner next to bold, italic & underline, there is an icon of a picture. Click on that or use ctrl + p and then paste the url.
Okay I think I got a problem and how I ended up with the car. I was driving it down the road the other day and it just quit like I had switched it off, I tried to crank it back up and it just spun over, it didn't even try to start up. I had a can of brake cleaner and sprayed it into the breather and the car cranked up but shut off when I ran out of brake cleaner.. I was only a half a mile from my house so I just walked home to let it sit for a while. When I came back to the car an hour later it cranked right up and I drove it home it ran fine. It did the same thing today, I drove it around the area and after I put 14 miles on the car it quit again and wouldn't start back up. This time I had starting fluid and it would run off of that but only that. Like my injectors wasn't getting power or something. I heard my fuel pump coming on and I had pressure in my fuel rail so I'm pretty much lost. My CEL didn't come on but when I scanned the codes I had a code 33 which my book says MAP or MAF. I was thinking the ICM was going bad but I'm still getting a spark so I'm not all that sure whats wrong. After a few hours the car did crank back up and make it back home.
I knew of some 80s GM cars that would do this, and every time it was the MAP
.....and now you have likely discovered the clue as to why this ragtop was parked to begin with.
Wouldn't it be ironic if this convertible wound up taken off the road and sold for $200 only because of a simple MAP sensor. Life really is like a box of chocolates sometimes.
I will be tuning in to read how it goes!
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I won't get technical tonight as the day was long and enuff said.I have some steps to check the map that are easy and a couple of jumper wires and a multimeter.I however would say fuel pump and or fuel filter are my primary thoughts.If you can hook up a fuel pressure regulator to check the psi at the Schrader valve would be my first step.On the cheap side I would at least take the fuel filter out and check for any bad odor fuel as I myself with my own car just went thru this! I would lay odds the pump has never been replaced and classic symptoms of pump failure are very similar to your issue.Granted the code popping is worth a check and let me either find my old post to show or just do a quick tutorial on how to check the specs required.I assure you the info I will provide will fix your low cost buy ride.I will follow up wed when not just wiped out.
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=28&i=11739&t=11739 Go to the 1st page dec 9 on checking the map sensor.I might re evaluate my thoughts after some sleep.I see you have the 2.8 and IT could be your CPS crank position sensor is either going bad,or a crappy connection as this feature was def on the 87's close to the crank (or rather crank pulley) area on recall.I am stopping before I get too carried away and even tired'er now after a few brews winding down.I am done and my charge for this info is well abosuletly FREE!
I was looking under the hood of the car today to see make sure all the connectors and plugs were tight and I found out while my oil light never came on.. It was unplugged. Okay I plugged it back in and checked everything else it all looked good. I went to crank the car up and the oil light came on (yaay) but it didn't go out once the car started.... The light isn't bright like it is when doing a bulb check and when I rev the car up it gets dimmer.. I have put over a 100 miles on the car and it hasn't started ticking or knocking so I'm going to hope the oil sending unit is bad.. Also when the car just shuts off it does it after it warms up and if I'm easy with the car it'll run for a while but if I just like floor it it'll shut off and might not start back up.
Try pressing the throttle 1/4 - 1/2 as you crank when it dies on you. If it runs this way it might be your Idle Air Control Valve.
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Ive tried that. Normally what it does is crank for a few seconds then fire and go back to just spinning over then fire and it'll just keep doing that where ever you have your foot on the throttle. I hear the fuel pump coming on so I don't think its going out? It seems to start dying out and not wanting to crank back up when the car gets warmed up.
UPDATE: Okay I was going to drive the car down the road and make it quit again so I could make a video of what it is doing but it didn't shut off.. I did realize I was drive it extremely easy (like grandma). I would slowly ease on the gas when I was at a stop sign and slowly get up to 55mph. Its usually when I give the car some type of gas like 1/3 of the throttle it'll shut off and wont crank back up. if I am in park I can rev it up all I want and it'll be fine. Anyways after I ended up putting 50 miles on the car and got home switched it off it didn't crank back up... It'll spin over and fire and start spinning over again. More of like this. It will spin over 5 times and fire once and spin over for 5 times and fire and it just keeps doing that.
I am just toast tonight after 563 miles and idiot traffic.Just because the pump is running means zero to a weak or failing pump!It would be wise to check the fuel pressure imo.However since it seems to do this once warm points more toward possible the coil packs going,as heat affects how they work ironically.The oil pressure being dim means it is not grounding properly and or could be a sender going bad internally.Done as I am struggling to stay awake a bit while I wait on a load of clothes in the wash.
When I had some problems a while back, Motorman mentioned some sort of kill switch near the oil filter on a 1.8 that will shut down the motor if the oil pressure drops too low.
Considering this happens to you when you push the gas down a bit (causing the need for increased oil pressure), maybe there's something to that?
