One Savvy Cavvy, the $500 Craiglist car

"-Amateur" (amateur) 12/24/2018 at 19:16 • Filed to: None

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I have a weak spot for old, problematic and cheap FWD GM cars that turn into money pits. This ‘97 Cavalier was bought on a whim without even a test drive.

I saw it for $500, it had the 5 spd Isuzu trans option paired with the super simple 2.2 ohv LN2 motor. The seller was the 2nd owner and parked it after it developed a coolant leak. Now he says it was sitting a “few months” but I think it was more like years seeing how the last oil change this thing had was in 2015.

It being the Midwest, rocker rust was rampant on it with it just barely reaching the structural level on the inner panels. That repair is already going to cost more than the car itself, but that’s okay. Everything else looked solid; someone had the foresight to give it a good undercoating spray on it which is all the black you see in the photo just to preserve some steel. Now I was on my way to work and time was a luxury, I didn’t want this diamond in the rough to slip away. I bought it and kinda just hoped for the best. Next day I picked her up, she fired up without skipping a beat and I drove her home.

One thing I like about Cavalier’s of this vintage is that they have such airy cabins with great 360 greenhouse visibility.

Fun fact, they actually sold these J-bodies in Japan as Toyota’s with the more sophisticated 2.4 DOHC LD9 as standard equipment.

I don’t know anything about the condition of this car, so I like to see what I’m working with. I hit up all the usual suspects like changing the air filer. Then taking care of that coolant leak which involves a new radiator and water pump.

New brake pads and rotors since the old ones were toast:

The car handled liked rubbish and to my surprise, it didn’t even have a swaybar bracket to tie down the bar on the F. driver’s side. I have soo many questions:

$3 later and a 20 minute stay at my local junkyard got me the parts I needed to make quick work of that. I ripped apart the head and took a peek at the timing chain to see if all was in good knick.

I cleaned her up, put on a new head gasket, new spark plugs, new wires, and a new fuel pressure regulator before buttoning her up.

The Savvy Cavvy got a new fuel pump and filter for the hell of it:

Now it threw a blinking multiple misfire code which is never a good thing.

It had a rough idle and would get bogged down at WOT and actually stalled out once. My suspicions lied with the ignition coils. One of them had a ginormous crack in the housing that I am 99% sure isn’t OEM design. It did good for 21 years of service.

Money’s tight with the holidays so I buy cheapo grade coils this go. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess.

I have plans to prep this for SCCA Rallycross and winter ice trials racing at a local car club so more fun stuff to come with this fun project.

Forrest > -Amateur 12/24/2018 at 19:22

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David Tracy would be proud 

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > -Amateur 12/24/2018 at 19:42

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You're one impressive fella with all that work and dice-rollin'. That interior is fresh!

GM should have never abandoned that nameplate. When I first met my wife, she drove an ‘86 Cavalier. Absolute tank.

Brickman > -Amateur 12/24/2018 at 19:55

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Wow, your cheap-o ignition coils came with the little gasket. My $30 AC Delco coil sure doesn’t

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > -Amateur 12/24/2018 at 19:59

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Nice to see you putting it back on the road! Hope you c an get that rust fixed!

UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy > -Amateur 12/24/2018 at 20:01

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We had two cavaliers (I ended up owning one) , a 97 and 02, both 2.2 manuals. I loved it. They both ran well and still continue to run to this day, all it took was just keeping up with all necessary routine maintenance. Without that they become problematic quite quickly.

404 - User No Longer Available > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 12/24/2018 at 20:12

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GM should have never abandoned that nameplate.

And it lives in China now.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > -Amateur 12/24/2018 at 20:27

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When I married Mrs. BaconSandwich (then Ms. BaconSandwich), she had a Cavalier - I think it was a 2000. It was actually a pretty solid car for us. I think there were only two mechanical issues that gave us any grief - a corroded ground cable going to the fuse box (corroded from sloshed wiper fluid), and a reverse sensor that knocked out both reverse lights. It had the same issue with rocker panel rust - jacking it up was a bit of an experience.

Kudos for you for keeping one running.

-Amateur > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 12/24/2018 at 20:58

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Agreed, I still see tons of cavalier/sunfires roaming the streets desp ite be ing out of production going on 13 years. Yeah, seeing that interior for the first time blew my mind! Not a tear or trim piece out of place...90's GM was an interesting time.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > 404 - User No Longer Available 12/24/2018 at 20:59

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Pretty soon most everything GM will be from China.

-Amateur > BaconSandwich is tasty. 12/24/2018 at 21:06

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I used to own a 2003 sunfire that knocked out both headlights f rom corroded wires. A ‘98 Cavalier I had briefly had some weird electrical gremlins that lighted up my instrument cluster like Christmas tree while knocking out the tach and temp sensor sporadically. My old ‘95 Chevy Beretta had a bad ground that caused all sorts of issues. This cavalier has given me no electrical grief...yet. I’m wary of GM electricals on any FWD compact they make.

-Amateur > UnderSTeerEnthusiast - Triumph Fanboy 12/24/2018 at 21:25

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I’m a sucker for the 2.2 manuals. They have the refinement of a tractor engine, but are simple honest engines. I’ve now owned 3 cars with the 2.2 manual option and they were all relatively pain free.

-Amateur > Brickman 12/24/2018 at 21:27

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You pay the extra bu ck to get factory grade OEM equipment and they can’t spare the $0.10 to get you a gasket with it, blows my mind every time. 

-Amateur > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 12/24/2018 at 21:30

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It’s for sure on the bucket list, rocker panel reproduction panels are surprisingly cheap for this car. I also have a donor J-body car with some great sheetmetal to tap into just in case.

404 - User No Longer Available > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 12/24/2018 at 22:17

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Quick, someone tweet that. I’ll grab the popcorn.

It might actually end up being a good thing, someone around here pointed out the Chinese- built Envisions are actually better quality than the locally built cars.

winterlegacy, here 'till the end > -Amateur 12/24/2018 at 22:32

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Open Oppo question: Would you recommend a manual Cavalier to someone who needed a simple car on the cheap?

Brickman > -Amateur 12/24/2018 at 22:33

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Exactly

shop-teacher > -Amateur 12/25/2018 at 01:11

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Are you in the Chicago area? Warrenville is pretty close to where I am. You should come Rallycross that thing with us out in Byron.

Www.statelinerallycross.com

Future Heap Owner > -Amateur 12/25/2018 at 01:23

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Man, I live for this kind of post. Thank you. And good work on the Cavvy!

BaconSandwich is tasty. > -Amateur 12/25/2018 at 01:27

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Electrical gremlins do seem to cause grief for many. They are tricky to diagnose, like how even a faulty ground can do all sorts of odd things to a car.

pip bip - choose Corrour > -Amateur 12/25/2018 at 06:47

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well done

I like cars: Jim Spanfeller is one ugly motherfucker > -Amateur 12/25/2018 at 10:11

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You should do a full restoration. Just for kicks. 

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > -Amateur 12/25/2018 at 10:11

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That is a lot of work for a Cavalier. At least it’s manual. The 3 Speed auto in my wife’s was soooo slow and stupid. Maybe I would have like the car is if was manual, but even then it had that willowy soft American suspension. We got ride of here because one day a 2”x”36” stripe of rocker panel fell off she she Carlos’s the rear passenger door. However credit where credit is due it’s still chugging along we sold it locally so we still see it from time to time. That 1000 dollar car has lasted the new owner about 3.5 years now.

Oh it’s worth mentioning that my wife once went 15,000 miles w/o an oil change in that car and it didn’t seem to hurt anything. She was 17 at the time and no one had told her that oil changes were a thing 

-Amateur > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 12/25/2018 at 22:22

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Talking about willowy soft suspension, The Cavalier had a base model with an FE0 suspension package which literally came with zero swaybars as standard equipment. That must’ve felt like a ship capsizing every time you had to make a turn

-Amateur > shop-teacher 12/25/2018 at 22:31

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W ow that’ s amazing! I will totally try to make it out there once the season starts up again. I’ve done track days and autocross before but want to try something different for ‘19 and figured R allycross would be a fun and challenging way to learn some new skills.

-Amateur > Future Heap Owner 12/25/2018 at 22:32

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Thanks!!

shop-teacher > -Amateur 12/25/2018 at 22:35

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Great! Its a ton of fun, and the people there are super friendly.

If you search the tag RallyMetro, you can read all about the stuff I've done and seen there. Still searching for my next Rallycross beater. I'd love to find a cheap 2.2/5-speed J-body.

-Amateur > winterlegacy, here 'till the end 12/25/2018 at 22:56

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They definitely aren’t as reliable as Japanese cars, but yeah, you can scoop up j-body’s on the cheap these days. The 3rd gen Ecotecs would be my first choice, they pack almost as much power as the 2.4 twin cam with a much more bulletproof design. I had a 2003 sunfire and the only repair I really had to do was put in a new alternator; the car has 190,000 miles right now . The older 2.2 ohv LN2 is a solid engine, they only parts I really had to address on those things are the headgasket after 150,000 miles (hit or miss really and you’ll have plenty of warning when the headgasket starts going south) , the t hrottle position sensor and the throw out bearing on the tranny for the manual; other than that, worry free package that can take a lot of abuse. Rust spots are usually the rocker panels originating from the rear wheel well and the rear brake hard lines near the rear torsion beam axle which are prone to rusting, turning porous and cracking. The 2.4 LD9 is a fun engine, but the ‘98 Cavalier Z24 I had was actually pretty needy. I’ve had to replace the water pump, it leaked oil from the headgasket (spilling a quart every other week) and the water outlet housing was made of plastic...which was super prone to cracking and warping all the time from the heat of the coolant and engine. This was all before 110,000 mile mind you.