I have a '96 Cavalier 2.2, 5 speed. I purchased it new, and it now has 228K on it. It has been a great car, but it has one little intermittent problem. When I say intermittent, I mean every 60K to 100K. It started at about 60K.
What it does is:
You will be driving along and all of a sudden the gauges will jump all around, the engine will start to surge, and all the dash lights will come on. The engine will stall.
If you leave the ignition on, you can watch the speedometer fuel and coolant gauges bounce up and down form. You can also hear all the solenoids and relays "click".
When you try to re-start the engine the fuel pump DOES NOT prime and all you get is cranking and no fire from the engine.
If you wait about 5-10 minutes you can go to key on and the pump will prime and the engine will fire. Then you are good for along time.
I am asking for any ideas cause it's reached a point where it wants to act up again.
Main battery grounds and engine grounds are good and clean.
New Battery and Alternator.
Have swapped fuel pump relays.
I am leaning towards the Instrument Cluster, or the ECM.
What do you think?
sounds like a pcm issue possibly. anymore info?
any resolution? I have the exact same problem......exactly
The day I started this thread, is the day I changed the battery and alternator. I also made sure that all the main engine grounds were clean and good. I changed the battery cause I have seen where low batteries will cause weird things to happen and it has been about 5 years since I put that battery in (the battery was testing fine but I changed it anyway) . The alternator was changed because it was the original (230K miles) and was getting a little noisy. I thought that maybe it was allowing some feedback to the computer or the Instrument cluster.
I hate to throw money at the car in hopes that it will fix the problem, but these items needed to be changed anyway. The last item I changed (thinking that it was the problem) was the ignition switch. GM had a recall on the 96 Cavalier to install a relay in the starting system. They had problems with to much amperage going through the ignition switch and frying them. I thought that even though the relay was installed that maybe the switch was still bad. That was almost 2 years ago and hadn't had a problem till now. Hows that for Intermittent?
I have been driving the car everyday since I posted the thread. The driving consists of a 70 mile daily round trip to work and some around town runs , and only had one little "hick-up" the day after changing the battery and alternator. The hick-up consisted of a flutter of the speedo and stutter of the engine (this all happened while driving at 40mph). Other than that, she has been running great.
All I can do is wait until she is ready to quit long enough to trouble shoot.
If anyone beats me to it, please post what they determined to be the problem.
Thanks.
