[jdc6773]

My girlfriend has a 2000 Cavalier with a 2.2l engine. It is her only way back and forth to college and work so i need to find out what is wrong with her car ASAP. I was driving it down the road yesterday and it just died on me. It acted like it was outta gas but it still had a quarter of a tank. It wouldnt start back up for nething. I waited about 30 minutes of letting it sit and it finally started enough to make it a bit further down the road. From there i put 93 octane in it and changed the fuel filter in a parking lot. It still didnt start so i towed it home. i got home and it started right up and i let it run for 30-40minutes and it done fine so i thought maybe it was just bad gas. Well i filled it up today with 93 and it drove fine all day but tonight it broke down on i-24. The car only has 50k on it so its still in good condition(for a cavalier) I checked the ignition and its getting fire, the plugs arent fouled out, i put treatment in the fuel to take water out and injector cleaner, the air cleaner is brand new, etc.. etc.. i am completely stumped as to what this might be?? Ne help is appreciated. Thanks

 

[venom_5]

first you need to get a good tank of gas in there ... the car DEFINITELY doesnt call for 93 octane so all youre doing is hurting it, and whatever shit treatment you put in there probably isnt helping it either

if it calls for 87 oct, give it a full tank of 87 ... also, if you checked spark then check fuel next ... also check around the intake, those are the 3 things the car needs to start/run - so that would be the obvious place to look

 

[sir-t]

Man i dont know anything about cavaliers but what it sounds like to me if the car died then started back up after sitting and took you a little farther before dying again then maybe the alternator went out and or you have bad connections somewhere wether it be you positive & negative on the battery posts or the connection coming off the alternator is loose or corroded. So i suggest taking the alternator off and the battery and take it down to the parts to to get that shit tested ( its free so that is the best things to check first) and during the process clean the cable ends and battery posts (coke or baking soda and a tooth brush work well).

It dying then starting back up after sitting then not running again at all tells me its most likely the alternator cuz your batttery starts you car then the car runs off the alternator while the alternator also charges your battery. So your alternator quit working causing your car to drain the battery then die. It sat and the batt was able to gain a little juice from not being used. Which allowed you to start it and get it a little farther down the roaded thus draining the batt the rest of the way down so now it wont start at all

 

[jdc6773]

Its definitly not the battery or alternator... the car has plenty of power and charge as far as thats goes. It never looses battery power. The car kind sputters like it runs outta gas. Then it dies. The plugs are good, its getting fire, its getting fuel, the air filter is brand new, so its getting air. I put the 93 in the tank to make up for the watered down 87 bad gas. Im not saying the gas is watered down or bad, but thats all i could come up with, so i tried to even it out with more potent gas and the mixture i put in there was plainly for cleaning the entire fuel system.. vaves, injectors, and gas. After i did so i ran it all day, and ran a quarter of a tank through it before it messed up that last time. So with all that said, I can only narrow it down to an ecu problem maybe?? OR.. the fuel pump itself may be going out by working good until it gets hot from trying to over work itself from going bad?? As for getting a diagnostics check, the car has to be throwing a code or doing the problem while getting checked. I cant say exactly when its just going to quit on me again so theres no possible way to get it checked because it is not throwing ne codes... not even when it dies out, and i cant take the chance of taking it back out on the road, just to tow it back to the house again. All suggestions or help is appreciated...

 

[bluetlr2001]

Im not sure if the cavalier has it but on the mid 90s pontiac grand am's they had a module in the distributor that would go bad and would make the car die when it got hot. You could wait alittle bit for the car to cool down and it would start back up but when it got warm again it woudl die again. I would call around and see if any shops or the dealer ship has had that problem. Has the car thrown any check engine lights if so get a scanner and check them. They may tell you what your problem is. And as for running 93 octane it is not going to hurt your car just your wallet, plus you will get better gas mileage, not much but a few more miles.

 

[invisibledemon]

im going to have to go with fuel pump.
if you think the gas is bad then syphon it out of the tanks and fill up with 87. no need for 93.

 

[jdc6773]

there has not once been a check engine light. The dist thing your talking about sounds pretty much like what is happening. i know the fuel pump is working because when i changed the fuel filter i turned the key on when i had the filter off and it shot gas out no problem.. but still wouldnt start.

 

[jdc6773]

ttt... ne one else have advice?

 

[crfextreme]

The plugs are good, its getting fire, its getting fuel, the air filter is brand new, so its getting air.

if this is so then all thats left is compression and timing in which case i dont think would be sporatic but these have problems with the crank sensors which could drop out injector pulse so look at that when it wont run.gas may be getting to the rail but is it getting past the injectors?you said the plugs arent fowled so that leads me towards lean system.