Hello! My name is Michael. From south florida. I have a 2001sunfire coup. I will probably a lot of questions but so far Penelope (yes I named my car!) has had dogbone and upper passenger side mounts replace. I will tell that twisted tale and up load pics when I can. New water pump. Alternator. Currently planning to do shocks, struts , tie rods. I will be honest, never wanted a American car, but she grew on me so now I'm keeping her till the old girl dies on me. 150,000+ miles. Auto sadly. Any and all help Is appreciated! Update later this weekend..

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Welcome to Jbody, there's lots of info on the site, some is hard to find sometimes but if you look hard enough you can find it. What size of wheels do you have? Do you plan on lowering the car at all or just looking for stock suspension? Its quite a bit of work but many members have done 5 spd swaps before, should be a write up in transmission forums I'd image.


2000 Cavalier Z24 5spd - Intake, Dynomax muffler, Hawk Pads, Powerslot rotors, Sportlines/Koni reds, Neon Coil, MSD 8.5 Wires - **SOLD**
2014 Kia Forte Koup SX 6spd - 1.6L Turbo - My new car
2015 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD - Wifes Car

Thanks! I've been looking for answers to two questions I have, I'll go in more detail when I'm off work but I was looking to lowering springs(found a deal on eBay for shocks and springs) I have 225-45-17. I wanted wider tires but was told I couldn't -_-

The swap would be last...if I replace or buy a new motor, then I will swap. I've heared of crazy things to do like getting a monte carlo ss swap?? Again that only a slight possibility.

Most of the stuff on ebay is junk, there is some good brand name stuff but most is junk. What is your budget like? Good quality suspension parts are pretty expensive. Another more affordable option is to buy used brand name stuff, check out the classifieds on this site. There is also a suspension faq sticky in the suspension forum, it is a little outdated but some good info there, it also list the amount of drop each spring has. 225/45/17 is a good sized tire for our cars, shouldn't need to go any wider unless you are making lots of power or get into auto-x. Too wide of a tire can affect performance as well if you don't have the power to turn them. I still have 205/55/16 but in a W speed rating and I have lots of grip.

There is lots of swaps, some that don't require much work but others have a lot of work involved.


2000 Cavalier Z24 5spd - Intake, Dynomax muffler, Hawk Pads, Powerslot rotors, Sportlines/Koni reds, Neon Coil, MSD 8.5 Wires - **SOLD**
2014 Kia Forte Koup SX 6spd - 1.6L Turbo - My new car
2015 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD - Wifes Car

Hello again! Here is the update, and before anything I've never worked or knew anything about American and am learning as I go.

I have replace the; water pump, front mount, dog bone mount, alternator, fuel filter, regular oil changes…spark plug…

Problems…the check engine light was on when I bought it and hasn't turned off, can’t remember the code but I think it was egr? Sunroof is stuck close (I already looked up here how to fix it-soon) Back dashboard is ripped (junkyard-soon) I have a rear motor mount i don't know how to install. Outer tie rods are bad. Anytime I turn my car on from a cold start (it’s been sitting for a few hours, motors cold) when I start to pull off, the motor builds revs up to 2500-3000 rpm…the car seems to stall, loss of power like the car is in neutral. (100 dollar month budget)

Future plans…fix all that^^^front end conversion (Don’t like the sunfire front…)…repaint…want to get a little lower. After that…depends on money (motor swap and stick conversion are the dream goal)

Almost sounds like transmission problems, but either way, it sounds like there is a lot of stuff wrong with the car. Lots of good help here but you may want to consider looking into a new car? Could look at a similar car in good cond and use yours as a parts car? That way if you want a 5 spd, you can find one with one already and it will save you time and money down the road? It's up to you but it seems like there is just too many things that need to be fixed. If it was just one or two things, that wound be okay but seems like too much messing around.


2000 Cavalier Z24 5spd - Intake, Dynomax muffler, Hawk Pads, Powerslot rotors, Sportlines/Koni reds, Neon Coil, MSD 8.5 Wires - **SOLD**
2014 Kia Forte Koup SX 6spd - 1.6L Turbo - My new car
2015 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD - Wifes Car

To be honest I've thought about it but the car runs fine. The only mount that was bad was the dog bone but I got all three to cover my bases you know? I thought it was transmission but after I changed my air/fuel filter it stopped. Now it might happen if I sit ideling for +5mins. Shuts off like the fuel doesn't get to the motor, cuts off. But I can turn it right now and drive away. I was gonna sea foam it to see if it helped? But like I said car runs fine so I don't want to get rid of her like I did my other car when it's still running great

Hmmmm hard to say what might be the problem? Maybe someone else might know? Would you be able to get a video of the car idling bad after 5mins? Maybe bad fuel injectors or something to do with ignition? Also if egr is having problems, maybe there is a lot of carbon build up or something so maybe seafoaming may help? I've never seafoamed a car before so don't know a whole lot about it. Has the car been sitting/parked for awhile since you bought it? Maybe taking it for a good drive with a few higher RPM runs will help the motor?


2000 Cavalier Z24 5spd - Intake, Dynomax muffler, Hawk Pads, Powerslot rotors, Sportlines/Koni reds, Neon Coil, MSD 8.5 Wires - **SOLD**
2014 Kia Forte Koup SX 6spd - 1.6L Turbo - My new car
2015 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD - Wifes Car

It's luckly rare now, but next time I'll try. My friends have seafoamed and it help so I'll try that? How can we make other help? I was gonna post somewhere else but where? What kind of problem is that better said lol. What's a high rpm drive?

It's hard to find help sometimes on these forums, a lot of similar problems have happened to other members in the past, so your best bet is to search through the forums. Sometimes it can be time consuming but usually find the results quicker than waiting for someone to help. Sometimes you have to search for different key words to find the topic you are looking for. There's other forums as well like clubcav.com but not sure if you will find much more over there. The quad 4 and ecotec have engine specific forums but don't think the LN2/2200 has its own forum. Also could try googling your problem. sometimes you will find info from another site as well.
Engines get a lot of carbon build up and that from sitting awhile(not sure if yours has been) or if an older person has owned a car to go to sunday church and thats it, the engine never sees more than 1500-2000RPM, this is not good for the engine. The engine doesn't need to be redlining everyday either but a few good WOT pulls to 5-6000RPMs every once in a while is good for the engine. This will probably not be as effective as seafoaming but can help.


2000 Cavalier Z24 5spd - Intake, Dynomax muffler, Hawk Pads, Powerslot rotors, Sportlines/Koni reds, Neon Coil, MSD 8.5 Wires - **SOLD**
2014 Kia Forte Koup SX 6spd - 1.6L Turbo - My new car
2015 Kia Sorento EX V6 AWD - Wifes Car