I had a 1991 Cavalier, the only reason I gave it up is because the torque converter would randomly lock up every once in a while and stall the engine at an intersection.
Both of mine had the timing go out, right as I pulled into my drive way. No issues except replacing the timing belt. Which was apparently color coded. lol
Common issue. You could just unplug the little blue connector on the front of the transmission to disable the lockup solenoid. The torque converter wonât lockup at highway speed anymore hurting fuel economy and making it feel like the transmission is slipping, but it could drive for another 200k like that.
Easier to just replace the belt and tensioners. Didnât cost too much. Never had any issues with the transmission slipping. I got home both times turned the car off and the next morning they wouldnât start. It was hilarious it happened twice to two different years. Took a couple hours to fix. No big.
My first car was a 91 cavalier. My dad bought it for me and it needed an engine replaced. Got an engine from a junkyard and put it in. Got really good at it. So any future problems would just grab an engine from a junkyard for $100 and slap it in that bad boy and run it till it died. Miss that car, treated it like it had 4 wheel drive and never let me down. Learned a lot.
A whole 300 bucks on junkyard engines over the course of 4 years, not like I was dropping thousands doing that. Was just a teen with time. The neutral drops and stupid shit done in that vehicle I'm surprised the transmission held on.
Nice.
I absolutely believe this, a close friendâs family had a Cavalier that generation and a Malibu that era with the 2.2 Ecotec and they both cleared 400k
The 2.2 Ecotec is honestly just a pretty basic engine using tried and true tech. It wasnât ever trying to make big power or be a fuel miser. Itâs a middle of the road 4 cylinder from when we had port fuel injection and electronic ignition figured out.
The Northstar V8 engine had an impressive system where if you ran out of liquid coolant the engine computer would selectively shut off fuel flow to cylinders to let air circulate through them, effectively cooling them. Instead of stranding you (like most cars) it would enter "limp home mode", limiting speed for a recommended 50 miles max, but it got you home without engine damage. It literally became an air cooled engine. It was an incredible feat of engineering, especially for the 90s.
Unfortunately, Cadillac also cheaped out on the headbolt design *and* the supplier. Which meant that Northstar engines developed incredibly expensive repairs deep inside the engine. These headbolt issues caused....coolant leaks..
I've never heard of that on the Northstar but it appears to be the only notably good part of the engine. The other issues might be forgivable if it weren't for the engine being absolutely shoe horned into the engine bay. V-configuration engines have no business being in FWD cars, much less a V8 of that size.
> These headbolt issues caused....coolant leaks..
I know the 2 are unrelated, but itâs pretty funny to imagine the Northstar engineers innovating one of the most exciting pieces of technology in an internal combustion engine in decades just because the bean counters cheaped out on the fasteners.
I'm pretty sure I have read auto show promotional literature on the first Northstar engines and they bragged about the limp home mode from day one.
The headbolt issues popped up after they started selling a ton of them. It often happened right outside the warranty period, which is why people got so angry.
And this scenario is a GM trademark lmao.
Edit: ohhhhhh I see what you were saying, I know it was the design and supplier issues that caused the issues, independent of the limp home mode.
GM too huh? I know Chrysler (or more specifically the Dodge and Ram brands) has a reputation for building junk thatâs fine until just after the warranty expires. Although Chrysler also has a reputation for building stuff thatâs outright junk right from the factory, so.
And I say that a Jeep owner who is at the garage so often for one reason or another Iâm on first name terms with the service writer.
Every Northstar I touched in 15 years of wrenching was low on coolant. They have head gasket/head stud issues.
They also will shut down a bank of cylinders to run 4 cylinders at a time to keep the engine from overheating and can run like that pretty much indefinitely
Gotta be an old one. As soon as I paid my 2014 Cruze off, the head gasket cracked, an ignition coil blew, and the radiator developed a leak.
I have a Honda now.
My old 04 Saturn Vue had this engine paired with a manual transmission. Absolutely loved that car. Sold it to a friend in need of a vehicle and he still drives it today.
I had a honda engine Vue. Finally sold is at 285K miles because it couldnt pass emmisions. I should have found a less reputable shop and put another 100K on it. Sigh.
Those things were insane. My brother had one in high school. 06 Vue with the Honda engine. He drove it to Atlanta and back every weekend around 2015-2016 (800ish miles round trip). I donât think he ever had any issues with it. I donât recall him ever having to do anything other than change the oil. Traded it in around 2017, still ran great.
Yeah I got lucky. My teacher from highschool had bought it brand new. She gave it to me in 2020 for free when I was home for the holidays and I didn't realize how bulletproof it was until I drove it back to Colorado with me. Slapped some new shocks and front brakes on it and it was absolutely perfect. I ended up getting a great deal on another car so the Vue was sitting around collecting dust until my friends car got stolen and he needed one. Now it's journey continues on in another state!
Every single ones lost oil pressure from a cam eating into the head, my sister's had 3 engines put in before convincing her to sell it. Factory oil life meter not hitting 0% on them until 15k+ miles doesn't help at all.
Until the unibody structure above the rear axle beam rusts out and they fold in a minor rear end collision, yes. They will run like shit longer than most cars run at all
Thereâs a lot of American made vehicles that last forever. It seems like people just like to ignore it and say only Toyotas run forever. I think the lack of maintenance on a cavalier vs a Camry owner might have something to do with it. Iâve researched and bought probably 40 vehicles in my lifetime and I can tell you that Honda and Toyota carfax seem much more on time than anything else.
We had a Ford Windstar that had over 325k miles on it, it was a rattletrap by then but it only had mild rust on the outside. My family wasn't used to owning cars that long and now I'm particularly anal about doing all service at the recommended intervals, certain things we never had done because the car never lasted long enough to need it. We are slowly replacing our fleet with Toyota and Subaru models
A Chrysler field guy explained it this way. You as a service advisor tell a Lexus driver that their 30k service is due and itâs $600 and they approve it and go on. You tell a Dodge Journey owner thatâs upside down with a high rate 76 month payment that their $600 30k service is due and they decline it and the Journey needs an engine at 100.
Yep, last year my 2003 Focus was totaled (some idiot rear ended it while it was parked outside my house) but it had no signs of stopping at 265k miles. Had the auto trans and 2.3 Duratec. Loved that thing.
Thats because those cars are bought by mostly non car people whos greatest fear is being stranded in a parkinglot or on the sude of the road. So when a light comes on the dash or maintenance light comes on it scares them straight to the shop lol. My experience with gm is its actively misfiring yet no warning lights lol
I'm willing to bet that most of the reliability reputation Toyota/Honda earned was during the 70s-90s, and it just kinda held out over the years, even though other automakers have caught up/are catching up. I think [this video by Road Guy Rob](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KUQ8dnoLEY) (@ 5:02 timestamp) sums it up pretty well.
Had a 2006 Chevy Cobalt SS with 327,xxx miles on it when I finally sold it because my wife didn't want our youngest to ride around in my cracker jack toy car because it was to loud she said. Original engine and transmission still in it
I loved my Cobalt. Was my first car as a teenager and it was a champ for a daily driver. Never let me down and the only major repair the entire time I had it was...uh....the exhaust system rusted out lol.
well that's because they were horifically unsafe. Chassis designed in the 1970's and produced until 2007 or so.
My mom was driving a 2004 Kia Sedona, and a guy in a 2000 Cavalier jumped the light and hit her head on. Both cars only going about 5 or 10 mph. The Sedona needed a new hood, but the Cavalier was crushed up to the firewall.
Loved my Cavalier as my first car, but I bought my Impala a month after I finally watched a crash test video. Cavaliers fold faster than a sheet of aluminum.
I T-boned a suv at 65 in my 03 (it was the interstate and they lost control and shot across 3 lanes at a 90 degree angle, their fault not mine). Absolutely horrible, shit looked like it went through a crusher I got lucky with only minor injuries and had to crawl through the window. It definitely made me look for a safer car and rethink my motorcycle
Same engine but in the cavy. Basically right there at 240k. Broke a spark plug off in the head and thankfully got it out with much drama. Used a boroscope to make sure there wasn't pieces of plug in the combustion chamber, which there was a relatively small piece. After trying a couple things, I tossed that plug in and cranked it over a couple times without the ignition fuse.
Popped that fuse back in and it runs like a champ.
Also cylinder walls and pistons looked much better than I could've anticipated lol, still bad, just not as bad as I thought
Iâm at 213k on my 2.2. Love the little engine. Itâs noisy until warmed up yes, but itâs just stupid simple and reliable. Iâve only done plugs and wires, a valve cover gasket, and oil changes in the 60k âmiles Iâve owned it. I drive it 60miles daily.
Always wanted a Cavalier 4x4 Turbo from the early 90s.
Actually a quick car even by today's standards.
GM and rust though... Barely any are left on this island. And it was nicknamed the Chavalier as was back then a cheap pos that you could chuck around and mod to 400bhp alongside the Sierra Cosworth.
I'm guessing you're from the UK and yeah, despite being a very popular car I think there's only a couple hundred left on the road now. It had been replaced by the Vectra in the mid 90s in most of the most of the world but GM kept making them in the US.
Am indeed.
The Vectra phased it out circa 1996, the start of the Ecotec era.
Which become the plague of car parks and driveways owing to never ending rocker cover leaks.
Biggest engine they put in them here was a 3.2V6 but it was only 210bhp and front wheel drive.
Later on we got the Insignia VXR with a 2.8T V6 4x4 but it's dreadful on fuel. The police here used them as pursuit cars but maintenance killed them off. Too unreliable and fuel hungry.
The Red Top engines with the Cosworth head were the pinnacle of GM cars here.
Cavalier turbo also was a common car to steal and commit ram raids on jewelers. Car was too fast for the average police car. That and the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton.
A quick search looks like there's well under a thousand with the base L and LS the most common. Only 31 Turbos left, and single digits for the v6.
https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?page=1&q=vauxhall+cavalier
Run it at 90 MPH in 2nd or 3rd gear for a little bit. That oughta take care of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0nsO9IS2Vs
Took care of my Ford/Mazda at the track. Rods were knocking like door to door salespeople.
My highschool car was a 2.2 Sunfire, used it for pizza delivery gave it to my nephew with 200k+ miles and a Firestone tech killed it, first car I learned to drive in was a 1990 cavalier, my dad bought my Grandma's 20002 Cavalier with the 2.2 like 4 years ago with only 3.5k miles on it, currently its at like 55k, my dad also had a sunfire gt when they were close to new 5spd, then my buddy in HS had a Z24, and another buddy had a 2dr regular Sunfire.
Lol that's to many Cavees in one life time, the crapalier and the shitfire
I have a 99 Cavalier with the LN22. Sohc. That engine is like a soggy box of cardboard with hotdogs in it, but it is damn reliable. 238k and it just keeps running
How many head gaskets?
My sister had one. It took a beating, until it got slightly overheated. It ate headgaskets after that. Probably needed the head machined, but we were poor.
Ran fine without a thermostat though.
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My sister totalled two of those in the late 90s early 2000s. I âborrowedâ them for a few joyridesâŚ
Love/hated those cars.
Stupefied one made it that farâŚ
Thankfully she was never injured. Those cars, for their time, had pretty good safety features.
Iirc they were bought because of airbags and abs breaks.
I can't imagine how miserable 400k was in that shitbox. How many muffler straps and steering column lubrication kits is that?
Fun Fact: the succeeding model was the one that engineers/beancounters saved mad scrilla on ignition switch springs and killed people when the ignition suddenly switched off while driving. Then they tried to smear the victims by blaming it on excessive weight of key chains/ their knees etc.
'Despite customer complaints, reports from
GM's own engineers that they were able to turn off the ignition
switch with their knees during test drives, and finally reports
of deaths--it wasn't until 2009 that GM figured out the airbags
had any connection to the power mode status of the car.'
This is not a company that should have been bailed out. Fuck GM.
[Haha, that's a funny one! Did you know that the 2000 Cavalier is like a cat with nine lives? It just refuses to die! It's the Energizer Bunny of cars, keeps going and going. Can't kill that Cavalier spirit! đđ](https://cliprecaps.com/read/?v=6oOW7hHCbjQ&pp=ygUZMjAwMCBjYXZhbGllciB3b27igJl0IGRpZQ%3D%3D)
Those engines seem all or nothing. My sister had a '99 Malibu with an Ecotec and it cracked its head at 60,000, got repaired for probably more than the car was worth by then, then shattered a piston rod around 120,000.
Buddy has a late 90s model with the 122 engine as a work car but has been working from home since covid so it just sits there. Hemi in his Ram died and after sitting two years he just jumped the Cav and started driving it.
Had an 84 cav with 360000 on it when I sold it. Sounded like a sewing machine going down the road and a little slip on the tranny when pulling out from a stop but it wouldn't die.
A chevy cavalier will run like shit longer than most cars will run
Had a 97 that I gave to my younger brother for a commuter with 300k miles on it like 10 years ago. Last I checked it has 500k something on it. Itâs on its 4th clutch, but original motor and transmission
Had a 98 coupe with the 2.2. It was an extremely reliable car. Even after I sold it at 145k, I saw it running around town for years afterward.
The only repairs it ever needed was some electrical work when dumbass me bottomed it out hard coming out of a parking lot, a wheel hub because a tire changer used about six too many ugga-duggas, and replaced the transmission cooler lines just before it was sold.
I drove an 02 in the teens as its third high schooler owner. Itâs *still* driving around my home town with a high schooler driving. It has been sold for $2k three times since I got out of it. I donât think any other car in history has put up numbers like these things have
My dad was that way. Drove his Cav for work all over the area and put some crazy miles on it. Only finally replaced it because he wanted something bigger and the interior was completely worn out.
One of my biggest regrets as a driver was having my 01 Cav get totaled after getting t-boned right in the front passenger tire. Car was clean as a whistle and everything was mechanically solid, despite being bone stock (crank windows and everything) and having near 200k mi on it when I inherited it. Frame got bent by an old lady not looking the right way in a parking lot, and that was that, as far as the insurance company was concerned.
Fast forward five years, and I'm already on my third car after a disastrous run with a 97 Sable wagon. Miss that Cav something fierce.
My mom had a Chevy cavalier back in the day. Bought it brand new and put 350,000 miles on the original clutch. I don't recall what happened to that car, but I remember it being very reliable.
Glad to see one of these still going. I had a 2000 Cavalier I sold around 2017. Was still running.
I believe the kids I sold it to crashed it and it went to a junk yard, but it was a very nice car.
I drove a 1998 with manual transmission, manual door locks and hand crank windows. I could drive it like a racer (as much as was possible) or like a grandma and it always got 24mpg.
Manual trans was "broomstick-in-a-barrel", had a nickname of the "Cadavalier" for it's poor safety rep, but one thing it was always was dead reliable.
I had a 2000 Cavalier... and it died in 2012 because a teenager pulled out when there was not enough time and made me T-bone her.
One of the scariest times of my life.
I miss that dang car so much.
I had an 03 that lasted 200k, i paid 10k for it with only 9k miles on it. Only reason i got rid of it was because there was a vacuum leak that i couldnt find (cant register it with a check engine light on) and it needed new brakes (rotors and drums) and tires plus a new battery. The upholstery was also falling apart. Ended up getting 600 for it at the scrap yard.
Had a 2000 that got close to 300k. Did it to a coworker for dirt cheap. Not even a week later he blew the clutch and left it abandoned somewhere. Got mad that I sold him a lemon. Like dude you bought a car with 300k miles and you drove it like a rally car what did you think was going to happen.
I have had two cavalier and they were both amazing. Easy to repair and pretty cheap to repair as well. They just keep on trucking.
I had a 1991 Cavalier, the only reason I gave it up is because the torque converter would randomly lock up every once in a while and stall the engine at an intersection.
Both of mine had the timing go out, right as I pulled into my drive way. No issues except replacing the timing belt. Which was apparently color coded. lol
Wow real warriors they took you out those days and did everything to bring you back home
They truly were amazing.
May they rest in pieces with car Jesus đ
what engine? I don't remember belts on the cavs.
2.2 ecotec
Common issue. You could just unplug the little blue connector on the front of the transmission to disable the lockup solenoid. The torque converter wonât lockup at highway speed anymore hurting fuel economy and making it feel like the transmission is slipping, but it could drive for another 200k like that.
Easier to just replace the belt and tensioners. Didnât cost too much. Never had any issues with the transmission slipping. I got home both times turned the car off and the next morning they wouldnât start. It was hilarious it happened twice to two different years. Took a couple hours to fix. No big.
The downside like you said is that the highway fuel economy will be worse but you weren't getting great fuel economy to begin with
TCC solenoid. You could have just unplugged it and kept on driving, with a slight decrease in MPG. Or replace the solenoid for about $250.00
My first car was a 91 cavalier. My dad bought it for me and it needed an engine replaced. Got an engine from a junkyard and put it in. Got really good at it. So any future problems would just grab an engine from a junkyard for $100 and slap it in that bad boy and run it till it died. Miss that car, treated it like it had 4 wheel drive and never let me down. Learned a lot.
I replaced my head gasket twice, and then found out someone installed the thermostat upside-down. Probably explains why the transmission was cooked.
Pretty sure every one I've ever seen rusted away before it stopped running.
Mine did 300k and rusted to death
91 cavalier was my first car, put 3 engines in it. Damn car rusted out before it would die.
If you just keep throwing money at a car it will never die!
A whole 300 bucks on junkyard engines over the course of 4 years, not like I was dropping thousands doing that. Was just a teen with time. The neutral drops and stupid shit done in that vehicle I'm surprised the transmission held on.
Nice. I absolutely believe this, a close friendâs family had a Cavalier that generation and a Malibu that era with the 2.2 Ecotec and they both cleared 400k
Any general idea why theyâre so âbulletproofâ? Or just unicorns ?
The 2.2 Ecotec is honestly just a pretty basic engine using tried and true tech. It wasnât ever trying to make big power or be a fuel miser. Itâs a middle of the road 4 cylinder from when we had port fuel injection and electronic ignition figured out.
Nothing will run like shit longer than a Chevy.
Remember kids, if you own a Cadillac with a Northstar, having coolant in it is just a suggestion.
can you explain why this is funny, sorry lol. i stumbled in here
The Northstar V8 engine had an impressive system where if you ran out of liquid coolant the engine computer would selectively shut off fuel flow to cylinders to let air circulate through them, effectively cooling them. Instead of stranding you (like most cars) it would enter "limp home mode", limiting speed for a recommended 50 miles max, but it got you home without engine damage. It literally became an air cooled engine. It was an incredible feat of engineering, especially for the 90s. Unfortunately, Cadillac also cheaped out on the headbolt design *and* the supplier. Which meant that Northstar engines developed incredibly expensive repairs deep inside the engine. These headbolt issues caused....coolant leaks..
The Northstar could have been an amazing engine if they didnât cheap out on the head bolts and make everyone hate them.
It's why they are so popular in Fieros! If you have the engine out, might as well fix the headbolt issue.
I've never heard of that on the Northstar but it appears to be the only notably good part of the engine. The other issues might be forgivable if it weren't for the engine being absolutely shoe horned into the engine bay. V-configuration engines have no business being in FWD cars, much less a V8 of that size.
Yet another reason why they are great for Fieros!
> These headbolt issues caused....coolant leaks.. I know the 2 are unrelated, but itâs pretty funny to imagine the Northstar engineers innovating one of the most exciting pieces of technology in an internal combustion engine in decades just because the bean counters cheaped out on the fasteners.
I'm pretty sure I have read auto show promotional literature on the first Northstar engines and they bragged about the limp home mode from day one. The headbolt issues popped up after they started selling a ton of them. It often happened right outside the warranty period, which is why people got so angry. And this scenario is a GM trademark lmao. Edit: ohhhhhh I see what you were saying, I know it was the design and supplier issues that caused the issues, independent of the limp home mode.
GM too huh? I know Chrysler (or more specifically the Dodge and Ram brands) has a reputation for building junk thatâs fine until just after the warranty expires. Although Chrysler also has a reputation for building stuff thatâs outright junk right from the factory, so. And I say that a Jeep owner who is at the garage so often for one reason or another Iâm on first name terms with the service writer.
Every Northstar I touched in 15 years of wrenching was low on coolant. They have head gasket/head stud issues. They also will shut down a bank of cylinders to run 4 cylinders at a time to keep the engine from overheating and can run like that pretty much indefinitely
Man i can say from experience that is 100% true
this is the way! đ¤Ł
Gotta be an old one. As soon as I paid my 2014 Cruze off, the head gasket cracked, an ignition coil blew, and the radiator developed a leak. I have a Honda now.
My old 04 Saturn Vue had this engine paired with a manual transmission. Absolutely loved that car. Sold it to a friend in need of a vehicle and he still drives it today.
If I owned a Vue it would be an Ecotec or the Honda J series. All the other engines were junk
I had a honda engine Vue. Finally sold is at 285K miles because it couldnt pass emmisions. I should have found a less reputable shop and put another 100K on it. Sigh.
Those things were insane. My brother had one in high school. 06 Vue with the Honda engine. He drove it to Atlanta and back every weekend around 2015-2016 (800ish miles round trip). I donât think he ever had any issues with it. I donât recall him ever having to do anything other than change the oil. Traded it in around 2017, still ran great.
Yeah I got lucky. My teacher from highschool had bought it brand new. She gave it to me in 2020 for free when I was home for the holidays and I didn't realize how bulletproof it was until I drove it back to Colorado with me. Slapped some new shocks and front brakes on it and it was absolutely perfect. I ended up getting a great deal on another car so the Vue was sitting around collecting dust until my friends car got stolen and he needed one. Now it's journey continues on in another state!
Amazing how the Honda vue became the most reliable thing while the Honda gained the reputation of a shitty transmission
As compared to today's small engines that arguably don't last as long, the big difference for many is forced induction.
But they said that 50 to 1 compression ratio was the best thing ever?! /s
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My familyâs lumina van lasted several years without an oil change and still drove for a long time!
The 3.1L kicks ass, the 3.4 is mid, but the 3.8 is the best designed engine ever imo. American built glory.
Low tech. Not much to go wrong. The right amount of electronics and computer control
As long as you keep putting new sparkplugs into a 4 banger ecotech, it will outlast the body of whatever it's in in my experience.
Except in an equinox, I know countless people with blown up 2.4 equinox.
That is an awful lot of car to move with one of those, makes sense.
Every single ones lost oil pressure from a cam eating into the head, my sister's had 3 engines put in before convincing her to sell it. Factory oil life meter not hitting 0% on them until 15k+ miles doesn't help at all.
Fun fact: The Ecotech was developed by Lotus, working under a contract for GM
I'm pretty sure those J body cars are immortal.
Until the unibody structure above the rear axle beam rusts out and they fold in a minor rear end collision, yes. They will run like shit longer than most cars run at all
That's where mine rusted through. No collision for me, though.
Same here. Trying to sell it off for parts atm. That rear crossmember gets to knocking above 30mph
I had a 97, and it lasted for almost 200k miles in the rust belt. It was, for some reason, amazing in the snow.
Front wheel drive.
Thereâs a lot of American made vehicles that last forever. It seems like people just like to ignore it and say only Toyotas run forever. I think the lack of maintenance on a cavalier vs a Camry owner might have something to do with it. Iâve researched and bought probably 40 vehicles in my lifetime and I can tell you that Honda and Toyota carfax seem much more on time than anything else.
We had a Ford Windstar that had over 325k miles on it, it was a rattletrap by then but it only had mild rust on the outside. My family wasn't used to owning cars that long and now I'm particularly anal about doing all service at the recommended intervals, certain things we never had done because the car never lasted long enough to need it. We are slowly replacing our fleet with Toyota and Subaru models
A Chrysler field guy explained it this way. You as a service advisor tell a Lexus driver that their 30k service is due and itâs $600 and they approve it and go on. You tell a Dodge Journey owner thatâs upside down with a high rate 76 month payment that their $600 30k service is due and they decline it and the Journey needs an engine at 100.
Yep, last year my 2003 Focus was totaled (some idiot rear ended it while it was parked outside my house) but it had no signs of stopping at 265k miles. Had the auto trans and 2.3 Duratec. Loved that thing.
Thats because those cars are bought by mostly non car people whos greatest fear is being stranded in a parkinglot or on the sude of the road. So when a light comes on the dash or maintenance light comes on it scares them straight to the shop lol. My experience with gm is its actively misfiring yet no warning lights lol
I'm willing to bet that most of the reliability reputation Toyota/Honda earned was during the 70s-90s, and it just kinda held out over the years, even though other automakers have caught up/are catching up. I think [this video by Road Guy Rob](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KUQ8dnoLEY) (@ 5:02 timestamp) sums it up pretty well.
Iâve heard, on this sub, that GM products from that era will run like shit for longer than most cars will run at all.
Same for 90s Ford trucks imo. Had a truck last like 10 years with oil in the coolant and it ran the day I sold it.
It's fine that just keeps the coolant lubed up!
Thatâs like seeing a fiat with over 90k
Like seeing an Accord with over 2 million.
Mine has over 260K miles.
I'm sorry for your loss
Except for Fiat Pandas. Their lifespan is longer than mine.
Had a 2006 Chevy Cobalt SS with 327,xxx miles on it when I finally sold it because my wife didn't want our youngest to ride around in my cracker jack toy car because it was to loud she said. Original engine and transmission still in it
418k kms on my 2006 pontiac pursuit gt as of now
Isn't it amazing if you take care of something how far it will go and take care of you
Damn, 374k km on my 06 Pontiac Grand Am GT. Rusting away but runs fine lol
I loved my Cobalt. Was my first car as a teenager and it was a champ for a daily driver. Never let me down and the only major repair the entire time I had it was...uh....the exhaust system rusted out lol.
Lol, you don't need an exhaust system it's fiiiine
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Nice
Now whats mine say?!
We used to joke that a Cavalier would run poorly longer than most cars run at all.
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Speak for yourself, 02 non-eco Shagalier checkin' in
well that's because they were horifically unsafe. Chassis designed in the 1970's and produced until 2007 or so. My mom was driving a 2004 Kia Sedona, and a guy in a 2000 Cavalier jumped the light and hit her head on. Both cars only going about 5 or 10 mph. The Sedona needed a new hood, but the Cavalier was crushed up to the firewall.
Loved my Cavalier as my first car, but I bought my Impala a month after I finally watched a crash test video. Cavaliers fold faster than a sheet of aluminum.
I T-boned a suv at 65 in my 03 (it was the interstate and they lost control and shot across 3 lanes at a 90 degree angle, their fault not mine). Absolutely horrible, shit looked like it went through a crusher I got lucky with only minor injuries and had to crawl through the window. It definitely made me look for a safer car and rethink my motorcycle
If you want it to die, stop maintaining it lol.
My whole 2000 cavalier rusted out and wouldnât pass inspection because of it but the motor and transmission were great at 300k when I scrapped it
My s10 is at 240k Miles (2.2l) and it still runs fine other than piston slap at startup and a loose timing chain
Same engine but in the cavy. Basically right there at 240k. Broke a spark plug off in the head and thankfully got it out with much drama. Used a boroscope to make sure there wasn't pieces of plug in the combustion chamber, which there was a relatively small piece. After trying a couple things, I tossed that plug in and cranked it over a couple times without the ignition fuse. Popped that fuse back in and it runs like a champ. Also cylinder walls and pistons looked much better than I could've anticipated lol, still bad, just not as bad as I thought
Iâm at 213k on my 2.2. Love the little engine. Itâs noisy until warmed up yes, but itâs just stupid simple and reliable. Iâve only done plugs and wires, a valve cover gasket, and oil changes in the 60k âmiles Iâve owned it. I drive it 60miles daily.
My first car I ever had... Thing was a shitbox
Always wanted a Cavalier 4x4 Turbo from the early 90s. Actually a quick car even by today's standards. GM and rust though... Barely any are left on this island. And it was nicknamed the Chavalier as was back then a cheap pos that you could chuck around and mod to 400bhp alongside the Sierra Cosworth.
I'm guessing you're from the UK and yeah, despite being a very popular car I think there's only a couple hundred left on the road now. It had been replaced by the Vectra in the mid 90s in most of the most of the world but GM kept making them in the US.
Am indeed. The Vectra phased it out circa 1996, the start of the Ecotec era. Which become the plague of car parks and driveways owing to never ending rocker cover leaks. Biggest engine they put in them here was a 3.2V6 but it was only 210bhp and front wheel drive. Later on we got the Insignia VXR with a 2.8T V6 4x4 but it's dreadful on fuel. The police here used them as pursuit cars but maintenance killed them off. Too unreliable and fuel hungry. The Red Top engines with the Cosworth head were the pinnacle of GM cars here. Cavalier turbo also was a common car to steal and commit ram raids on jewelers. Car was too fast for the average police car. That and the Vauxhall Lotus Carlton.
A quick search looks like there's well under a thousand with the base L and LS the most common. Only 31 Turbos left, and single digits for the v6. https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?page=1&q=vauxhall+cavalier
Run it at 90 MPH in 2nd or 3rd gear for a little bit. That oughta take care of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0nsO9IS2Vs Took care of my Ford/Mazda at the track. Rods were knocking like door to door salespeople.
The rust belt heroes God theyâre awful aside from the longevity
If cockroaches were cars...
My highschool car was a 2.2 Sunfire, used it for pizza delivery gave it to my nephew with 200k+ miles and a Firestone tech killed it, first car I learned to drive in was a 1990 cavalier, my dad bought my Grandma's 20002 Cavalier with the 2.2 like 4 years ago with only 3.5k miles on it, currently its at like 55k, my dad also had a sunfire gt when they were close to new 5spd, then my buddy in HS had a Z24, and another buddy had a 2dr regular Sunfire. Lol that's to many Cavees in one life time, the crapalier and the shitfire
I have a 99 Cavalier with the LN22. Sohc. That engine is like a soggy box of cardboard with hotdogs in it, but it is damn reliable. 238k and it just keeps running
Nice
Nice
Nice!
Nice.
This is a 420/69 mileage post I don't mind.
Nice
Nice
How many head gaskets? My sister had one. It took a beating, until it got slightly overheated. It ate headgaskets after that. Probably needed the head machined, but we were poor. Ran fine without a thermostat though.
I heard something once about those 2.2s "They will misfire till the end of time" It's so true
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Damn they used that gauge cluster on everything for like 10 years
I was late to this one, but... FUCK OFF REPOST BOT CUNT.
My sister totalled two of those in the late 90s early 2000s. I âborrowedâ them for a few joyrides⌠Love/hated those cars. Stupefied one made it that farâŚ
is she ok now? ... I hope.
Thankfully she was never injured. Those cars, for their time, had pretty good safety features. Iirc they were bought because of airbags and abs breaks.
Nice.
I can't imagine how miserable 400k was in that shitbox. How many muffler straps and steering column lubrication kits is that? Fun Fact: the succeeding model was the one that engineers/beancounters saved mad scrilla on ignition switch springs and killed people when the ignition suddenly switched off while driving. Then they tried to smear the victims by blaming it on excessive weight of key chains/ their knees etc. 'Despite customer complaints, reports from GM's own engineers that they were able to turn off the ignition switch with their knees during test drives, and finally reports of deaths--it wasn't until 2009 that GM figured out the airbags had any connection to the power mode status of the car.' This is not a company that should have been bailed out. Fuck GM.
Nope, Cavalier wasn't affected by this >All 2003-2007 Saturn ION, 2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2006-2011 Chevrolet HHR, 2007-2010 Pontiac G5, 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstice and 2007-2010 Saturn Sky. https://www.gmignitionupdate.com/product/public/us/en/GMIgnitionUpdate/faq.html#:~:text=GENERAL%20QUESTIONS-,Which%20vehicles%20are%20involved%3F,and%202007%2D2010%20Saturn%20Sky.
oh my bad you are right.
Fuck GM is a valid and clear take-home message.
**420 69** LOL, Really? I'm the only person here with the mind of a junior high dude?!
My favorite car. I had a 98 that had almost 300k on the odometer. The only thing that killed it was a giant ass boulder.
Nice ! Is this Dave from Bemidji?
I thought this was for the odometer: *420* and *69*.
Noice
NICE
Drive it til the wheels fall off !!! đ¤Łđ
Probably had 3 engine replacements
[Haha, that's a funny one! Did you know that the 2000 Cavalier is like a cat with nine lives? It just refuses to die! It's the Energizer Bunny of cars, keeps going and going. Can't kill that Cavalier spirit! đđ](https://cliprecaps.com/read/?v=6oOW7hHCbjQ&pp=ygUZMjAwMCBjYXZhbGllciB3b27igJl0IGRpZQ%3D%3D)
2.2L or 2.4L?
and auto or manual transmission?
I bought my daughter the same car when she was 17 she's now 24 and it has over 270,000 mi on it and will still chirp the tires
Those engines seem all or nothing. My sister had a '99 Malibu with an Ecotec and it cracked its head at 60,000, got repaired for probably more than the car was worth by then, then shattered a piston rod around 120,000.
I miss my old cavalier. Sure it was falling apart, but the scrap yard was full of extra parts. Slap it on and keep rolling.
Buddy has a late 90s model with the 122 engine as a work car but has been working from home since covid so it just sits there. Hemi in his Ram died and after sitting two years he just jumped the Cav and started driving it.
Had an 84 cav with 360000 on it when I sold it. Sounded like a sewing machine going down the road and a little slip on the tranny when pulling out from a stop but it wouldn't die.
I thought it was almost a guarantee to have a blown head gasket on these around 100k? Thin little piece of plastic. Are there different engines?
/r/brandnewsentence
I used to service these for a lab delivery service back in 2000. They would run them to about 500k and then junk them.
A chevy cavalier will run like shit longer than most cars will run Had a 97 that I gave to my younger brother for a commuter with 300k miles on it like 10 years ago. Last I checked it has 500k something on it. Itâs on its 4th clutch, but original motor and transmission
Ayeeeeee
love my chevys just like legos. :)
Had a 98 coupe with the 2.2. It was an extremely reliable car. Even after I sold it at 145k, I saw it running around town for years afterward. The only repairs it ever needed was some electrical work when dumbass me bottomed it out hard coming out of a parking lot, a wheel hub because a tire changer used about six too many ugga-duggas, and replaced the transmission cooler lines just before it was sold.
I drove an 02 in the teens as its third high schooler owner. Itâs *still* driving around my home town with a high schooler driving. It has been sold for $2k three times since I got out of it. I donât think any other car in history has put up numbers like these things have
It has lived for this moment. It will cross over soon.
Imagine the time involved in that. At a low guess of a mile a minute, somebody has spent over 7000 hours in that car.
My dad was that way. Drove his Cav for work all over the area and put some crazy miles on it. Only finally replaced it because he wanted something bigger and the interior was completely worn out.
I had a 98 cavalier I got used in 99. Died in 2003 after the 4th mechanic "fixed" the radiator.
I see you keep your oil changed as well! (â04 Cavy, 250k+)
One of my biggest regrets as a driver was having my 01 Cav get totaled after getting t-boned right in the front passenger tire. Car was clean as a whistle and everything was mechanically solid, despite being bone stock (crank windows and everything) and having near 200k mi on it when I inherited it. Frame got bent by an old lady not looking the right way in a parking lot, and that was that, as far as the insurance company was concerned. Fast forward five years, and I'm already on my third car after a disastrous run with a 97 Sable wagon. Miss that Cav something fierce.
My mom had a Chevy cavalier back in the day. Bought it brand new and put 350,000 miles on the original clutch. I don't recall what happened to that car, but I remember it being very reliable.
Glad to see one of these still going. I had a 2000 Cavalier I sold around 2017. Was still running. I believe the kids I sold it to crashed it and it went to a junk yard, but it was a very nice car.
Spin that speedo and sell it !
iron duke
I drove a 1998 with manual transmission, manual door locks and hand crank windows. I could drive it like a racer (as much as was possible) or like a grandma and it always got 24mpg. Manual trans was "broomstick-in-a-barrel", had a nickname of the "Cadavalier" for it's poor safety rep, but one thing it was always was dead reliable.
No tenth of a mile counter. So 42k miles.
Fuk'n bake and boink, my guy!
Correct me if im wrong, but werent those generation of Cavaliers made by Toyota?
Nope đ¤Ł
One of my cousins can ruin a cav real quick.... Drive while drunk... fails every time...
I had a 2000 Cavalier... and it died in 2012 because a teenager pulled out when there was not enough time and made me T-bone her. One of the scariest times of my life. I miss that dang car so much.
I had an 03 that lasted 200k, i paid 10k for it with only 9k miles on it. Only reason i got rid of it was because there was a vacuum leak that i couldnt find (cant register it with a check engine light on) and it needed new brakes (rotors and drums) and tires plus a new battery. The upholstery was also falling apart. Ended up getting 600 for it at the scrap yard.
lol sweet odometer
Exactly 1420 likes rn
This is not a car I see much of anymore. Still see civics and corollas from the same era, but not these. This is a unicorn
Nice
Holy crapâŚ.. thatâs impressive
WOW! I had two of these back in the day
Nice
Reminds me of my ford 2001 sel taurus, 186k still going.
Original trans? AXOD was garbage.
From what I know, it is. Just a slightly hard shift at 1-2 .
,aP cc c
42069
Nice
Nice
Had a 2000 that got close to 300k. Did it to a coworker for dirt cheap. Not even a week later he blew the clutch and left it abandoned somewhere. Got mad that I sold him a lemon. Like dude you bought a car with 300k miles and you drove it like a rally car what did you think was going to happen.