subject makes it sound worse then it is. 2004 cavalier 5 speed with 80k miles. I bought it with 44k miles. Don't know how the first 44k went down but don't think it was the best that is for sure. Ok sometimes when I start it doesn't really want to start. It will seem like it then you let off full turn and it won't start or it will hesitate and then start up it is kind of wierd and very intermittent. For the most part I would say starts right up. As far as idle I have a problem when using my a/c the idle will drop down to 500 rpms whenever going back to idle then come back up to the normal 900 which obviously isn't good. I can turn it off and it will be fine again.
I am getting about 27 mpg right now sometimes a little better or little worse in the city and seems to be about 30-31.5 on the highway. How is this for the car? I was always hoping a little better for the 5 speed. Just to mention i do have the 16" rims with slightly bigger then stock tires i have the 235's on there. Got them cheap they are goodyear assurance with pretty much full tread. So speedo is off like 2.4 at 60 mph. Had the idle and other issues before these tires though when I just had the stock size on the 16"s. I don't know if all these things are figuring into the same problem. Also giving it like more then half throttle or so off of idle and it seems to have a hesitation off idle which has been there for a while/since i got it. I put in the better spark plugs. can't think of which ones maybe bosch iridium. I know I google researched it and went with the ones that people said. Seemed it might have made a very small difference hard to tell. Other then that and new air filter haven't really done anything. Hope someone can help me or give me some input. Using mobil 1 synthetic oil.
Thanks,
Lee
I have similar issues in my 97 2.2L. However, I still have a little water contamination in the fuel I am trying to burn out with fuel additive and stablizer products. My car sat for 2+years and we replaced plugs, wires, coils, coil ignitor, #2 fuel injector (dead missfire was plugged up), TPS sensor, IAT and cleaned the EGR and MAP sensors. Car still has intermittant idle issues when warmed up. in my case unplugging the TCC solenoid on the transmission made it worse... so that does not appear to be it. I think it is just water contamination in the fuel since it sat for so long. Been using Iso Heet and Lucas Fuel treatment to try to get rid of it. She runs better every day, but still hesitates.
Could be a fuel related issue on yours... have you changed the fuel filter? I would also check and or clean the IAT if your model has one. That helps control idle.
97 Cavalier 2.2L 3 Speed Auto.
