hey y'all. well my new g/f has a cav, and it has a few bugs in it. so here goes

when in idle the oil pressure drops dramatically. it sits at 1/2 way to 550 or w/e when the gas is slightly pressed in park or when the car is moving, but at idle it drops to 1/4 instead of the steady 1/2 way on the gauge. ok, so what's the prob here?

also the horn doesn't work. it clicks when pressed but that's it. is there a bad wire somewhere or is the horn its self gone?

also for a 3.1l it seems kinda bad on gas. my dad's 3.1 grandam gets almost double the distance per tank. is a tune up and all that in order on the car?

ok thanks for helping me out and sorry for this being so long and about cavs

 

Ok,

I am just going out on a limb to get you some help hopefully this is useful for you:


Adam:
He has all the problems I have
Bad compression when idle, and especially when going quickly from gas to brake
Seems that way in every Cavalier (even my sisters)
Also, my horn doesn't work
Never bothered to look to see why> I just beat on it alot


There ya go,
Chado


*not to technical but maybe will make you feel better.

PS my sunbird doesn't idle good either

 

My friend has a 96 Cav, and his girlfriend has similar year Sunfire (basically same car). Both their horns quit sometimes if they try to use the cig. lighter. I think all they have to do is change a fuse, but it seems like there is more to it than that. I'll ask him when I see him again.

 

it idles strange. very rough and unsmooth. seems liek it's not running right, but my ex's cav never did that but it was a 2.5l

 

Isnt this a FORD site?throw the offending pile of crap away






78 F150 4x4
429 CID
Dana 44 spooled Front,
9"Locked rear,
5:13 Gears
17/40/15 Gumbo monster mudders
18/39.5/15 Swamper Boggers
BIG,BAD,and UGLY.

 

>
>Isnt this a FORD site?throw the offending pile of crap away

That would be a better idea, wouldn't it?

 

>>
>>Isnt this a FORD site?throw the offending pile of crap away
>
>That would be a better idea, wouldn't it?

she might be getting her dad's 2000 supercab f350 powerstroke desile 4x4. but until then the cav is all she has

 

Hey Vampro,

Try changing the oxygen sensor in the manifold, if it is bad it will definitly idle bad and have bad fuel economy.

-Brents

 

The issue here is oil pressure -

If the lower end is starting to go, not to mention the internal pump clearances, at idle the oil pressure could be expected to dip big time. At the same time, it may not show any obvious signs of "Overhaul Me" syndrome (no smoking, etc) especially if a ring job was done, but the crank was never checked out.

Also - smaller engines tend to get run a lot harder and the wear can be faster than otherwise.

You might try running a thicker visc oil in it, but we're coming into the cold season so that may not be a great idea.

You can try replacing the oil pump, it may be mounted externally (datsuns were like that). But I would be looking for a chance to rip the pan off it and see what the lower end shells really looked like...

 

thanks for the help guys. since she says the car still has a warrenty on it she/or me togheter will take the car back maybe today and ill have them fix it right.