I just purchased a 2001 Cavalier at an impound auction. It appears to have a 95-99 Sunfire steering wheel in it, (it's definitely a Sunfire wheel though, Pontiac logo) and I assume the column is also out of an older model. It's a tilt column, no cruise, this is a basic car I'd be surprised if it should even have tilt wheel, but it is in tight and the tilt feature works smoothly. The airbag probably is incompatible though, I would think, unless 98-02 airbags are the same and this is a 98-99 column by chance.

Instead of trying to fix this busted up steering column which has a household light switch for a starter button, I think it would be best to replace the entire column with one from a 00-02 Cavalier that includes the key and everything. I'm wondering what the differences are between the different columns, if an 03-05 column would also work, if the 95-99 style will work, if a 00-02 airbag wheel can work in a 95-99 column, what years might have had chipped keys, things like that. Tell me all you can. I'm in Wichita Falls TX and might get a chance to go to a DFW yard if none of the local yards (Henson's, Gary Miser, WFAS, Reliable) have any 00-02 columns I can use.

By the way, I just came back inside from a jump start session. The battery in there is dead dead. So that'll have to get swapped out. The car was hard to start but once it started it died immediately. Passlock. I HATE PASSLOCK. But I will get a good battery and let it sit there for ten minutes in the run position and hopefully it will start on its own. If I need to, I can just go locate that yellow wire and disable the system for good and not worry about it. Once it actually started it sounded great for the 1.5 seconds it ran, no knocks, it didn't kick out any smoke, I think this is a good car it just needs un-redneck-engineered and it'll work. My stepdaughter is not excited at the thought of driving a 4-door Cavalier but since her '00 Cougar got killed she hates asking for rides. This will solve that problem.

There's a second BCM plugged in under the floormat. I think maybe they swapped it out thinking the one was no good. Probably why they changed out the column too. When this is all said and done I'll probably have a spare BCM and maybe a column to throw on eBay.

I figured out how to plug the ignition switch back into the ignition lock cylinder and it works fine, but I only have one of the two screws needed to hold it in place. Oh well. It works, I actually didn't even have a Passlock issue when starting it with a fresh battery. Fired right up. I do have some new issues to report but none of them have to do with the column. I replaced every single fuse in the dash fusebox because they were all wrong because whoever had it before had a fusebox lid from an older model laying under the passenger seat and changed all the fuses to match that (it seems to match a diagram I found online for a '99 Sunfire). I'm willing to bet the column is from that same 1999 Sunfire the fuse box lid came from. What a mess. But it's fixed now because I have a giant 500pc box of generic mini fuses from 5 to 30 amps and all the time in the world to search for diagrams on the computer.

Plenty of work left to do before it's good enough for my stepdaughter. There's a heat shield laying on the exhaust pipe making an awful racket at idle. One tire is completely flat and another has a knife-cut sidewall. There is some kind of oil leak under the hood although everything I see is dry. The SES light is on, the wrench icon with the service light is on, the ABS light is on, and the DRL's just flicker a few times and go out when you turn the headlights on and off. The cooling fan isn't wired up yet so there's loose wires up by the exhaust manifold and the fan motor, and there's loose wires over by the passenger front wheel. The odometer still only reads partially (12xx5x) so I might get another cluster (might as well upgrade to the tach cluster), and it still has that dang Sunfire wheel with half the foam eaten/torn off, and the seats still have cuts in them and need covers or something, and then there's that plastic piece on the left rear door where the fixed glass goes, and that door's window crank handle is missing, and it has dents on the hood, front fenders, and decklid, and some scrapes on the bumpers and the left side doors.

But you know what, it runs now, on its own, no jumper cables. I call that progress for a $475 car and a $68 battery.

OK I wiggled the trip odometer button and the mileage is 92525, I thought the first position was a 1 but it is a 9 and the last thing was only partially lit up because it's messed up.

Wow.

I had to do the passlock relearn today. Half hour of my life I may never get back but at least I didn't pay a dealer $45 to $1000 to do it for me, hell yeah!!!

I got the rest of the Betty Boop stickers removed. Tried to get the LOC off the radio display but I'm either gonna have to take that to the dealer or find a scantool that can reset it. Got the donut on the left rear and yanked that heat shield off. No more rattle, no more gazingazingzgingzginazazainga sounds at idle. I still need a battery hold-down rubber thingie and lots of other stuff. But I like that the parts for this car and my labor to fix it costs $ or $$ and not $$$$$$$ like the fuel pump on my Suburban. 1100 to replace a damn fuel pump because the wife insisted it go to the dealer. I could have done it for $180 in my driveway!