What's next?

[Joe Wilson]

I'm almost afraid to drive my 2004 Cavalier for fear that something else will go wrong with it! GM must have stuck this car together with chewing gum. Today I drove it to work and one of the windshield wipers quit working. After a few minutes I determined it was a plastic holder that holds the actuating arms together, like a tie rod end, only plastic. How much more trouble would it have been for GM to just do it right? So now I have at least 3 things to try to repair, both strut mounts are shot, the check engine light is still on after trying to fix it, no luck, and the clutch feels kinda funny when I push the pedal in, not sure about it. Think I'll drive my truck to work tomorrow.

[J-Ri]

It's sad to say, but everyone's going to plastic these days. It's lighter, cheaper to produce, and they can sell another one when it breaks. I'd rather have 100 lbs more on the car and have all this stuff made out of metal.

[mexiNAMEDsqueak]

That's why it's sad but I fucking loved the economy cars from the 80's lol. I had an 87 maxima and it was a tank for being only 900 pounds. My girlfriend also just got an 88 ford escort and it's all like one sheet of metal with only 53k miles on it...insanity.

But yeah as per to your post, that is one downfall of my cavvy; that it's GM. I'm sure you should be fine as long as the major shit doesn't fail. Just keep your tabs on the transmission, brakes, and change the oil regularly and you should be good...

Best of luck

[Joe Wilson]

Amen to the metal!! Plastic might be alright for drag racers but for bearings and things like that on my work car I prefer metal. What ever happened to the plastic wheels that somebody was going to produce? I guess you have to draw the line somewhere.

[jakegday]

i bought my grand prix in november. ive made only 7 payments on it. it had 75,000 miles on it when i bought it. the carfax history report came back PERFECT. i have put nearly $3000 into repairs in this thing since november (and that does not include my mods), and alot of those repairs ive done myself

i know where your coming from

[Joe Wilson]

I guess the next project on the Cavalier is front strut mounts. This is another item that was made to wear out quickly. My 2004 needs both I think. My car has several miles (115k) but I still think strut mounts should be made a bit sturdier than GM makes them. Most parts on my Cav. I could take a pencil and paper and design better than it has. But I'm sure that with the current financial problems they try to get by as cheaply as possible, which won't sell me on their products in the future.

[jakegday]

what a coincedence, my grand prix currently needs new front struts (putting the total over $3000) it also needs a new taillight since one of them leaks moisture like theres no tomorrow

i never did them on my cavalier but the rear struts on my grand prix were EASY AS HELL, and the procedure for the fronts doesnt look much different

[Joe Wilson]

I think my struts are all right...I need the upper strut mounts with the bearing that self-destructs after you buy the car. That took some engineering!

[PlanetDude]

[quote=jakegday;5989926]i bought my grand prix in november. ive made only 7 payments on it. it had 75,000 miles on it when i bought it. the carfax history report came back PERFECT. i have put nearly $3000 into repairs in this thing since november (and that does not include my mods), and alot of those repairs ive done myself

And herein lies my personal beef with carfax......only stuff that gets reported to carfax goes on one...... so if I run my car into a brick wall, pay cash to a bodyshop to fix it and then sell the car.... bingo! clean carfax.

They are also bad for being slow to add stuff.

Does carfax cover other repairs, or only body and major damage?

As for the plastic, it`s a sign of the times. Up into the 80`s, people didn`t care about gas mileage so much.... they wanted a car. Now, with the oil crisis and skyrocketing fuel prices, everybody cares. What`s one way to get great mpg? Lighter vehicles. How do you make it lighter? Less metal, more plastic.

-Lightweight rotors that you replace 3 times before you wear a set of pads.
-Plastic interiors, bumpers, etc....
-Lightweight oil pans that rot through.

Being from the bitter cold of Canada, I don`t like plastic parts.... they get cold and break! What once would be a dent in a bumper turns into a new bumper, because the thing shatters like a house of cards.

Ok, ok.... end rant.

[PlanetDude]

J-Ri, i`d take your truck any day of the week, hands down, if the price of gas wasn`t so damn high.

I saw a 78? 79? half-ton for sale not far from my place, looked like the body was re-done.... ohhhhh, if only I could......

Insurance would be half of what I expect my Cav will be once it`s on the road, but the gas would be wayyyyy more.... I commute 25 miles a day, and there`s no way a 350 could be anywhere near what a Cav can get for mileage.

[J-Ri]

Yeah, I do love the truck. It's really only for snow and mud anymore, gas is just too much to drive it 30 miles to/from work every day. Insurance on it is about $30 a month and registration is $35 a year. For that little, it's worth it to keep it even driving it less than 3,000 miles a year. Almost pays for itself in one day when I can get to work through a foot of unplowed and drifting snow . When I first got it, I could get 18 MPG highway... since then I F-ed up the carburetor, now I'm lucky to get 12. Let that be a lesson, when you snap off the secondary metering rod holder screw, don't JB weld it back on, it drips down inside and the secondary rods stick open a bit... and prevents the carburetor from being disassembled So a Cavalier gets double the mileage of a 4x4 3/4 ton truck with a 350, and has a much smoother ride.

[PlanetDude]

I`d still take the truck any day of the week, if I could afford the fuel.

Carbs are so finicky, but once you get them done they (hopefully) stay that way for a while. I do miss the simpleness of carbs.

[Joe Wilson]

Well, I finally got around to changing both the front struts, springs, the whole works! I bought the completed front strut assemblies because I couldn't get the old ones apart. They must have welded that nut on the top of the strut. I used an impact wrench and it still wouldn't budge. I put the new struts on and the bottom hole in the strut was elongated for setting the camber so that made it so I'd need to align it also. I made myself a camber tester out of some aluminum stock and also made 2 toe plates to check the toe in. It was quite an ordeal but the car doesn't pop anymore when you go around corners or hit a bump.