Overheating/Rad Fan not working? ABS etc.

Cold_Silence · #1 10-19-2005, 09:32 PM

Hey guys, im brand new to this forum, it looked like a good helpful place to be so i joined

. Anyways i have a 1996 cav 2.2l everything stock. It has 215k km's on it. Anyways to the questions.

First of all i have noticed that the car will overheat if it idles or driving in town too much. The needle goes a little past the halfway when driving in town, but when idling, it can get up to like 3/4 or even a bit more! This scares me, it kinda bugs me, it shouldnt be doing this. Upon inspection/knowledge the radiator fan is not operating.. No matter if i just start it or it is 3/4 hot, it will never spin, ive never seen it spin. I think my dad replaced the thermostat once and it didnt seem to be the prob, if i knew that was the prob i might get a new one. What do u guys think?

Also, another odd problem is that my ABS light stays on all the time. When i start it up the abs light comes on as usual, but it doesent go away it stays on. The funny thing is a couple months back it used to be tempermental, sometimes it wud go off, sometimes stay on, now it stays on all the time. Ive also noticed sometimes when accelerating from a stop it makes a funny lurch as if someone tapped the brake, but i think its the abs kicking in for no reason. This leads me to believe its not just a dash fuse problem, maybe the ABS sensor is broken/dirty? Is this common? Its kind of annoying and could be dangerous.

And one more thing, i think is normal for a car with this many kilometers. It makes a clunking sound coming from the back, im 95% sure its the struts, because if i push on the trunk area on the back, when the suspension flexes, it clunks. Does this require new struts or something else? If so how much would that be?
Anyways if anyone has any suggestions and advice it would be greatly appreciated. Im semi car literate so dont be afraid to be technical. Thanks alot!

Xx ReasoN xX · #2 10-20-2005, 12:16 AM

hey im honestly dont know about the other problems but i was going thru the same thing with the over heating. Honestly with me it got so bad that after driving it wouldnt start. What i did was rewire the fan cable thru the firewall to the ignition fuse. After that the car has been working fine.

jakegday · #3 10-20-2005, 08:38 AM

other then them both being part of the cooling system, the thermostat and radiator fan switch nothing to do with each other, on mine, my temp guage goes past 3/4 before the fan kicks on, and sends it back down to the halfway point, what you should try is sometime when you get home and you dont plan on going anywhere for a while, just sit in your car and let it idle till the temp guage gets as high as it can without getting to the red, if it goes all the way, then youll KNOW your radiator fan has a problem, but mine goes pretty damn far before the fan kicks on,

as for your abs i dont know what the exact problem is but from what ive heard its (brakes in general) a common problem with these vehicles

airwave_assassin · #4 10-20-2005, 04:41 PM

yeah the fan doesnt really kick on till it gets pretty hot, at least thats what i've noticed. i was told that you could take out the thermostat or something and the fan would run the whole time your car is on, i havent personally done it but a friend has on his car and he claims it worked fine. as for the abs light, i'd just take it in and get a diagnostics done on it.

Cold_Silence · #5 10-20-2005, 05:58 PM

Ok thanks guys. So shouldnt the cooling system be keeping it from overheating then? I guess i will try to let it build up and see if it works. As for ABS, ill see about that. Also im kinda a newb for thermostats, where is it located on the 96 cav and what does it look like? Does anything need to be replaced? Because its not very good for it running it hot. I wonder if my head gasket needs replacing.

One more thing, ive noticed my car slowly burns oil. It doesent use too much but enough to be a pain, is there any way to check for sure if it is and how to fix? Thanks

airwave_assassin · #6 10-20-2005, 06:04 PM

when was the last time you changed your oil?
and also how hot has your car gotten before it started burning oil?
supposedly the head gaskets on cavy's love to go out, i've never had that problem, but if your car has overheated hardcore you might want to look at that.

Cold_Silence · #7 10-21-2005, 12:36 AM

Ok i will, will a new head gasket help from overheating? And it needs an oil change soon, why do u ask?

kcapstudios · #8 10-21-2005, 07:37 PM

Hey guys, I had the same problem in my 81 corvette. It did it because the radiator is angled ( design flaw on GM's part ) so I figured if I could have the fan running all the time it might help the problem. So...............run the electrical cable from the fan to your alternator, so when your car is running the alternator will power the fan. DO NOT run it to the battery, as it will still drain power when the car is not on. Try it.

Cold_Silence · #9 10-23-2005, 02:23 AM

Is there any negative effects of this? Will it put more wear on my alt.? How simple is this to do?

nynewyorkcool · #10 10-23-2005, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cold_Silence

Hey guys, im brand new to this forum, it looked like a good helpful place to be so i joined

. Anyways i have a 1996 cav 2.2l everything stock. It has 215k km's on it. Anyways to the questions.

First of all i have noticed that the car will overheat if it idles or driving in town too much. The needle goes a little past the halfway when driving in town, but when idling, it can get up to like 3/4 or even a bit more! This scares me, it kinda bugs me, it shouldnt be doing this. Upon inspection/knowledge the radiator fan is not operating.. No matter if i just start it or it is 3/4 hot, it will never spin, ive never seen it spin. I think my dad replaced the thermostat once and it didnt seem to be the prob, if i knew that was the prob i might get a new one. What do u guys think?

Also, another odd problem is that my ABS light stays on all the time. When i start it up the abs light comes on as usual, but it doesent go away it stays on. The funny thing is a couple months back it used to be tempermental, sometimes it wud go off, sometimes stay on, now it stays on all the time. Ive also noticed sometimes when accelerating from a stop it makes a funny lurch as if someone tapped the brake, but i think its the abs kicking in for no reason. This leads me to believe its not just a dash fuse problem, maybe the ABS sensor is broken/dirty? Is this common? Its kind of annoying and could be dangerous.

And one more thing, i think is normal for a car with this many kilometers. It makes a clunking sound coming from the back, im 95% sure its the struts, because if i push on the trunk area on the back, when the suspension flexes, it clunks. Does this require new struts or something else? If so how much would that be?
Anyways if anyone has any suggestions and advice it would be greatly appreciated. Im semi car literate so dont be afraid to be technical. Thanks alot!

the abs problem could be a wheel speed sensor malfunction,,,try changing out the old pads and rotors and see if this fixes the problem,,if not then you are looking at one of the sensors..check to see if the wiring to each sensor is intact..they are located directly behind your rotors, the only wires that connect to the hub assembly

Cold_Silence · #11 11-06-2005, 06:42 PM

Ok i will try checking the wires, where is the hub assembly located?

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