I am about to be the proud owner of my step-daughter's Sunfire. The history of this car is sketchy, but here's what I know if it. She got into a wreck while at the beach and it crumpled the front end on the driver's side. She told me it cracked the radiator because it spilled coolant out. Since the wreck, she rant it just long enough to load it on a trailer to tow it home. After it was home, I drove it off the trailer onto the driveway where it sat until she could afford the parts for me to fix it. The battery was weak, but it started and ran onto the driveway. I remember the coolant light was on, but I didn't pay attention to any other gauges, since it was late when they got home.

I began replacing body panels - the radiator, driver's fender, hood, front bumper cover, air filter box and driver's headlight were all replaced as well as prying back the front structure right behind the headlight to straighten it. I made the car Sunfire-shaped again, filled the new radiator with coolant and tried to fire it up. In the process, the battery had dies, but coolent began pouring out in the area around the water pump. By that point, I had wrapped up quite a bit of time into it and didn't want to mess with a water pump, so I told her that a shop would have to repair the rest. (I hadn't done any research, apparently a water pump is pretty easy to replace on it since it's not a DOHC motor). Her father's mother had it towed to a shop who informed her that it had a blown head gasket and it was not worth fixing. Now, I was never able to get it to start after doing the body work, but I know it ran to get it on my driveway.

In the meantime, my step-daughter (with the help of her father's mother) has bought a new car and is willing to give me the car in exchange for a couple month's worth of her phone bill baing paid (about $200).

I know it will need a new battery, water pump, head gasket, tires and probably some other odds-and-ends. I'm hoping to get it running again for under $300 and sink another $300 into tires.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why the car would crank, but never fire after the body work? Would a well drained battery do that? It was really struggling to crank and finally just clicked the starter solenoid.

Are you doing the work yourself? If not, there is no way you're getting all that done for under $300.

After a massive loss of coolant like that, I would suspect that there is more than just a bad water pump and head gasket, even if it was only run for a short time, and it looks like it's been running a few times after that too. Yes, a battery on it's last legs may cause a crank/no-start problem.
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Yes, I'll be doing the work myself. Only reason I didn't do the work to begin with is because she was getting on my nerves asking when the initial work was going to be finished. People who don't pay for labor don't get to complain about how long it takes. Doing all that work and trying to take care of a 3 and a 4 year old, plus get a 7 year old and a 17 year old to and from school, etc takes some scheduling.

If need be, I can get a rebuilt head locally off craigslist for like $350, or a fresh pulled motor with 100,000 miles on it for $500. I REALLY don't want to replace a motor if I don't have to, so I'm hoping that the head gasket takes care of the problem.

I do know that she is the world's WORST about maintenance, though so I will go through everything prior to buttoning it all back up just to make sure.

My goal with this car is to either fix it up to sell it, or have a vehicle for the 17 year old to drive when she finally gets motivated enough to get her license. Either way, It will be done right, not just thrown together.

where do you live if you live in the easter minn. or western nd i can drop by to help ya out i own a 97 fire lol

Donavin McKinney wrote:where do you live if you live in the easter minn. or western nd i can drop by to help ya out i own a 97 fire lol

wow i was a little drunk last night i meant: Eastern ND and Western MN.

Well, that would be a bit of a drive... I'm in Lexington, NC - but thanks for the offer!!!

I would not do an engine unless you absolutely have too. a 100K mile motor will need a headgasket soon and you'll be doing the job all over again. pull the head and see if it's warped with a straight edge or feeler gauge. You can send it to a machine shop to have them check if if you don't know how. If it's warped get a rebuild head.