what is the major problems on geo prizm?

I'm lookin to forward to purchase a geo prizmautomatic what should I be aware of tranny?motor? or oil leak?
Thankz in advance.

non. toyota engine an tranny is strong

Personally Prism's really s*ck, I've owned one for the last year and it cost me more to mantain it then my past two cars put together. I agree with bigirb2002 that the engine is really strong and so isn't the tranny, but the cv shafts and wheel bearings keep going on mine and so does the alt. Just my 2 cents

CV Joints
Altenator Failure
Faulty Fuel Injector
Exhaust Manifold break easily

That is about it on the car it is the powertrain is pretty beefy.

yup thats just about it

well, i just sold my 95 prizm about 3 mo. ago because i couldnt stand how slow it was... I think that was the dumbest idea i have ever had in my life!!!

it had 157,000mi on it, never replaced even the spark plug wires. engine tranny mechanically was the best iv ever seen much less had, and i romped on it all day every damn day till i sold it..

BUT...

wheel bearings/struts are a different issue.
but the solution is simple. when you replace either one (i had to replace all 4 struts and wheel bearings on mine. 2 wheel bearings i replaced twice) BUY THE BETTER BRAND!!! dont go el-cheapo or you'll regret it. buy the good stuff the 1st time, and make it the last. youll never have to rpl any of it again, and the alternator... well yeah i rpl'ed it 2 times.. i was also running 900watts worth of car amps off of the little boogers too without bass caps so you do the math on that.

bottom line is you wanna car thats dependable as hell and wont cost you a damn thing on gas or tag/insurance. go with this car. if you want to go fast... turn your head away from it.

btw, i had the 1.6l - 115hp and never had any engine problems.
i now have a 95 cavalier z24 2.3l - 150hp. just rpl'ed engine, about to rpl the transmission, and oh yeah there are other problems..:banghead:

Has ne one ever had probs with the door locks? On my 95 geo prizm I tried to turn off the child safety lock and now neither back door will open or unlock from the inside or out!

Never mind bout the dr problem, did some looking and found this from a couple yrs ago...my problems solved on that tip



Hi,

I am going through posts on stuck rear doors with the Rodeo's and came across your post. I too had a stuck rear door and managed to get it open yesterday. It turns out that both rear door locks were rusted and I had to grease the hell out of them to get them working again. I got instructions from "AllDataDIY.com" how to open the door and I'll attempt to describe how to do it:

You first have to make a tool out of roughly 1/8" diameter metal (I used a thick coat hanger - I tried to draw it out here but it won't display properly) approximately 12.5" long - you need two 90 degree bends at each end and in the same direction so that the tool will be roughly bent .625" on one end, straight for about 8.25" and bent on the other end approximately 3.5".

Once you've made this tool, go lift the rear door handle of the stuck door and you'll notice a small opening at the back of the handle - you want to put the small end of the handle facing down through the hole and you're trying to get to/catch the release lever and push up on it. It took me about 20 minutes of feeling around before I finally got it. Spray WD 40 or some other lubricant into the hole if it won't budge. Be careful as I knocked loose the door lock linkage and with too much force you can bend it. (I didn't care that I knocked the linkage loose since I had to pull the door panel off anyway to get to the rusted lock). In my case I first got the door 1/2 open since the lock was so rusted, sprayed WD40, let it sit a while then tried it again with success.

If you manage to get the door open and pull the panel off, you'll notice the lock and linkages completely rusted. You can replace the locks or do what I did, lubricate the hell out of them. I hope this works for you and good luck. I just finished my project this morning.