hello, my name is george, I bought a 2002 cavalier new and it has been a good car so far, my wife has used it mostly, and it is pushing 88000 miles.
right about now I started to consider it a used car, untill now it was still new, so as a gearhead that I am I am planing on doing some preventative service, to bring it up to par.
bit of history the car has been great, well as good as a car can be, it did give me some fits over time but I like the way it stood the test of time, it is working on it's seventh year and bearely any corosion, I do belive it was built well but it has some tipical cavalier glitches.
it is a 2.2 auto, ls , came with an inalfa sunroof
the sunroof has been a pain from the get go, we took it in several times, eventualy it worked for a while now it is acting up again, so it is on my to do list.
the power windows started acting up 2 years ago, narowed it down to the swich, been cleaning it so far, lasts a while, haven't seen many at the junkyard so far.
the breaks gave me the worst head acke ever, still have no Ideea why, I noticed them 2 yrs ago when I drove the car on ocasion, they were rubbing, did the back though wasn't needed, but the probl was in the front, did rotors and pads, problem came back shortly, rotors were allready warped, kept blaming it on the wife, took them apart , cleaned and greased everything, again no luck, by now I am pised and I am thinking what is is causing it and what else could have gotten damaged while it had this issue, the breaks were rubbing so they overheating. chances are it was just the hoses but this time I replaced everything in between the driveshafts and the wheel and seemed to have taken care of it.
I am looking for some tune up info, it is still running on the original sparkplugs, so come spring time I plan on going through it, that's where I could use some sugestions like:
best spark plug to use
best wires
best oil ( curently valvoline high mileage)
best oil filter ( curently fram high mileage)
best tranny fluid
also I would apreciate any feed back if anybody had any similar issues so far and what did they find as well as any issues that came along after 100 000 miles. I'd rather replace them ahead of time.
thanks to all
PS there is a piece of metal running along the engine bay, it is on the drivers side, what is that for, it seems to be only hooked up towards the driver loose towards the bumper

Tune ups and such (wires,spark plugs,oil, and other fluids and such) would be best to do asap if its been longer then recomended, with winter comeing up it would put more strain on your car if you left the old stuff in to fight the conditions.

as for the oil I could be wrong (and will be corrected by someone who knows better) just keep using what you have since taking over ownership, as I have heard switching over from say a non synthetic to a syntetic would eat up seals or gaskits as it trys to clean sludge or build up.. same thing with other fluids ..again, I could be wrong and please excuse me if I am.. I could have just been given bad info..


your best best just get the tune up issues taken care of before winter really kicks in..

the winter has been here for some time now, in michigan, don't get me wrong the car is fine, I want to update a few things just because i can, there is no rush, I just did an oil change, I am just trying to gather some info on what's best to use, for instance i am not sure which tranyy oil to use, I know atf is for mopar, I belive these are dextron, but there Is 1,2,3 I belive it says on the dipstick, but which brand these cars like best?

Hi George,
As for your oil, if you're happy with what you're using, then stick with it (and the filter). I wouldn't really consider your car to be "high mileage", but stick to it if you want - it won't hurt anything. Mine's nearing the 150,000 mile mark (236,300km), and I've just stuck with conventional oils for the warmer months, and synthetic for the winter with no issues. I still don't like to think of mine as "high mileage" just yet - maybe once the odometer starts with a "3" I'll start to consider it...

As I'm sure you can find on many other threads on here, stick with the AC Delco plugs. They seem to work best for these cars. If you need to replace the wires, just don't go with the cheap "no-name" type - most others are likely just fine. I paid less than $25 for the NGK ones I have on mine - but it just happened to be what was in stock. They've been fine for about 2 years (81,000km) so far. The ends seem to be well assembled, so I'd probably buy another set the same if the need arose. I had a boot beginning to split on my originals, which is why I replaced them. At your mileage, if it isn't indicating any kind of misfire, you can likely put that job off until spring when the weather's nicer. GM doesn't specify the plug change until 100,000 miles anyway, and I've seen people go well past that on some vehicles around here before running into problems. Just be sure to clean well around the plugs before removing them - probably lots of road salt/sand and related crap built up in there by now - and you don't need that falling down inside!

For tranny fluid, I believe that any Dexron III type will be suitable for you. I would stick to a main name brand - but I doubt that you'd see or feel much real difference between brands. I think that the newer spec Dexron VI is back-spec'd for use in older trannys, but I could be wrong. If it is, then it may offer slightly better performance in cold weather, and since you've only put on 88,000 miles in 7 years so far, it would probably be the last change you'd have to do. I'd look into this option if you're trying to do things a little better than stock. Just make sure you change the filter and pan gasket when you do the change - otherwise there's probably not much point. Also don't use any Chrysler spec ATF-4 or Mercon V fluid - I doubt your tranny would do well with either one. The Mercon V is supposed to meet Dexron III spec, but I wouldn't bother experimenting there with your automatic.

With the front brakes rubbing, I found that the problem was with the caliper sliders sticking from lack of lubrication. I'm now using a green synthetic brake lubricant on mine, and it seems to be just the ticket for this. In your part of the world, this should probably be re-done every year or so according to GM. The synthetic lubricant may be able to outlast that, but it's still cheaper to check and re-lube than replace those parts again.

Another real problem with these brakes is lateral runout if the flange isn't perfectly clean (rust-free) before you install the rotor onto it. This will cause pulsation to be felt with a perfect brand-new rotor if not carefully done. If you already replaced the hub assemblies, then you effectively already accomplished this. I like to put a very thin coating of anti-seize compound on mine to help prevent corrosion. So far it's been working - the rotors will still slide off like butter.

I wouldn't expect too many unusual things to just "show up" at the 100,000 mark. Most issues you come across now will likely be more due to the aging process than mileage. You hadn't mentioned your cooling system - but that should be drained and re-filled at the 5 year mark - hopefully it was done. Keep a close eye on hoses and the serpentine belt - mine seem to be aging well so far, but no two cars age (or wear) the same. For the coolant, make sure you stick with Dexcool or a compatible coolant - standard ethylene glycol based coolants don't mix nicely with the Dexcool variety, so read the label carefully.

As for the piece of metal you speak of - it sounds like the brace that goes from the subframe to the lower rad support to me. I don't feel like crawling under mine right now in the snow to look, but I believe it just has one bolt that holds it onto the rad support at the front. If that's the piece, then it definitely shouldn't be hanging loose.

Hope this helps.
John

the piece of metal sounds like the "subframe brace" to me

I think that's what they call it, I noticed it about a year ago, had the wife ask the dealer about it said it is normal.
but at the rad suport I can see a bolt, but something doesn't line up, I'll be going by the junkyard soon, try to figure out what hapened, I remember I hoped a curbe when it was new on that side, wonder if I screwed it up.
by all means I do not consider it old, I just want to keep it new, and no I did not change the coolant, dexcool huh? is that a brand/ type? is it mentioned on the back label?
as for the brakes I did notice the slider pins were caked, every time I took them out, also the pad on the piston was not as worn as the the other, but I did clean them and lubed them, it lasted a bit longer than before, but still hapened, by the third time I figured they been running hot for many miles and may have compromised the grease in the bearings so I got everything new and used a lot of grease on the pins and in those seals.
like I said I am not in a hurry, I am just doing my homework, I figured 100k is comming up some things should be replaced, even if they may last longer.
oh and what do you guys know about the ac clutch, I know it is common, I heard it on many other cavaliers, any beter replacement for this?
our car also has a few dings which I plan to adress, the car is white but I'd like to paint it, maybe do just the bottom under the windows. leave the top white like the old chevys and those plastic pieces in front of the wheels I broke when I ran that curbe, looks like they are part of the inner fender lining or I would have replaced them a while ago.
long storry short I have not had a car payment for a while now and I'd like to keep it that way, now I can think about geting some aloy rims, I do not care much for the aftermarket, I belive it was a factory option too, just got to keep an eye for them at the junk yard untill then the steelies with hubcaps are just fine.

Hi George,
Dexcool is a different type of coolant than the old standard green stuff. The two are not compatible. Havoline makes the Dexcool brand of coolant, but many others (including Prestone for sure) have "Dexcool compatible" coolants that will work fine. This should be clearly stated on the bottle.

I don't have A/C, so I fortunately haven't had any issues with the clutch! Sorry I can't offer much help there.

For the wheels, I would keep your steelies for winter use, and maybe look for some '02 and newer Z24 16" chrome wheels - or at least those are what I like the look of. As you can see in my sig, I had a set of '02 Sunfire GT rims from my brother's car, but they were traded in with it last year, so I'm back to my 14" steel wheels.

Certainly gotta love the "no car payment" thing. I've got another year left on my wife's van still
John
P.S. - I saw about a 1MPG loss with the 16" wheels - probably due to the extra drag from the wider tires - although with current gas prices that doesn't matter much.

so dexcool is the factory fill?

Yes. You will notice that it's orange in color. I believe that GM changed over to this around 1996.
John

apreciate everythig, I checked your post you are compulsive you know that, right?

Who, me?
Nah! I'm much more relaxed about things than I was when I was younger...
John

Go synthetic.

My engine is spotless inside with 105k on it. I switched to full synthetic from full conventional at around 90k. Doesn't consume oil either!

well I do apreciate the time, I got some valuble info so far.