98 Cavalier

Your car is 16 years old and poorly maintained, it's a miracle it runs at all.....If you are not willing to throw money away trying to fix it, scrap it....

Take it to a shop.

Cavaliers have fuel injection. You should never have to, "put the pedal to floor to start it".

Take it to a shop, you can't fix it yourself.

What, exactly does "Going up to 80 clicks and 110 it feels like it jumps a little" mean?

Take it to a shop, you can't fix it yourself.

Or, try some Cavalier forums you can find on the web.

It's really quite hard to explain. It's like it lunges forward but very very little. It's just noticeable it continuously does this unless I change my speed

Drive it to the breakers, and walk away.

Not to be rude, but judging from your (less than technical) descriptions of symptoms and not knowing where you are, I still say take it to a shop.

Also the fact that you've already put $1200 into for breaks brakes muffler wheel baring bearing etc. must mean that a shop did the work, not you.

You may have a vacuum leak.

Have you visited any Cavalier forums, yet?

Why does this POS thread have 5 stars?

You need to do 3 things, 1) replace your coolant temp sensor. 2) replace the engine coolant thermostat. Both will cause the ECM to run in the "open loop" and never reach the "close loop" circuit, thus causing all the problems your describing.

And 3) sell this thing asap, it's beyond the point of starting to nickle and dime you to death, you'll be money ahead.

Are these things cheap? I already made the mistake of buying it for $900, putting $1200 into for breaks muffler wheel baring etc. Selling it I can't really get my money back. So if I can get rid of the engine light and maybe get it to run smooth I have a better chance of selling it for atleast $1500.

Ii your half way mechanically inclined and can change them yourself, a temp sensor costs somewhere between $10- $16 and a thermostat runs around $8 and the gasket about $2-4. So about $30 for parts.

You may want to replace the coolant recovery tank cap also, their about $7 to CYA.

They're pretty simple to change if your mechanically inclined. If not, then you"ll be another victim of the "Auto Repair Shop Syndrome" aka ARSS.

could be the muffler bearings again, they just don't last

That's because nobody uses the correct type "MB" muffler bearing grease.

You have the wrong attitude about this car.

This car is what's known as a station or beater car. You will never get your money back from any repairs performed on a beater car. What you will get from a beater car is basic, short haul transportation for as long as the repair costs do not exceed a certain value you choose at every repair incident. At any repair point the car may be deemed by you as a lost cause. Any financial returns from the demise of a beater car plus the anticipated cost of the immediate repair will be the cash available to acquire a newer beater car.

Most successful beater cars are owned by people that can perform the minor maintenance themselves.

My only suggestion for you, yourself, to replace the parts the codes indicate have failed. If a reset after these codes do not return after several weeks of use then this vehicle dodged the scrap yard once again. If these codes return then I would suspect a wiring harness failure somewhere between sensor and controller. Frequently the first harness failure is an indication of many more harnesses to fail soon. That is unless you the harness failure point is due to some understandable, repairable, and unique cause.

Good Luck

They do have good balance though....

I think the BREAKS squeak on that one

A host of problems surface when the temperature sensor goes out of whack ...False signals effecting the idle mixture and set RPM for idle are logged into the main fuel control computer ...The gauge for temp. reads wrong or not at all because the sensor mounted on the engine block has died and all your troubles come at once. For $20--$40 you can replace the sensor and get it back together ...be careful not to twist the wiring harness when trying to loosen the unit and try 15 -20 ft/lbs of torque on tightening the new piece...let me know how this solution works out for you ,John DeLaney

John, take a look at post #8, I already suggested that. And like so many of these people that come here with Cavalier problems never return, let alone what their resolve was.

There are books that cost about $15 in auto parts stores that will tell you what the codes mean. Also your public library is likely to have books that do too. Most OBD2 code readers also tell what the codes mean.

I have driven many beaters over the years with mostly good luck. The insurance is cheap, you hardly notice new dents & rust, and thieves usually aren't interested in them. Beaters aren't for everyone. The primary drawback is the need to make frequent repairs to keep them running. If you go to the shop each time, it adds up in a hurry. If you are going to drive a beater, you need to learn a bit about auto mechanics and be willing to try to do at least the minor stuff yourself.

I'm wondering if you tried my solution to your problem that is changing out the temperature sensor mounted on the engine block that it was sending false signals to the main fuel control module Please reply John DeLaney

I haven't had a chance to do much about it I've been busy working. That is probably one of the problems though. I was thinking about taking it into a mechanic this week