Cavalier :: 2002 Sunfire / Growling Noises From Transmission / Axles?
Aug 13, 2012
Brief history: Took possession two days ago - wife's car (we've separated). In December she put the car in a ditch during a snowstorm. The car has been driven less than 100 miles since that happened. She said that she thought she'd damaged something, since it made a strange sound when driving. I figure it would make a good work transportation vehicle.
I jacked it up today to have a look and there was some plastic splash guards on the pass. side which were damaged and rubbing on the tire. I thought! Removed them and still had the noise.
It appears that the pass. front wheel took the brunt of the impact (broken splash guard and the wheel cover was cracked). I thought maybe the wheel bearing/hub may be bad, but after checking it out (pulling top to bottom, side to side), it didn't seem too bad. I checked at the point where the axle enters the transmission and there is a bit of play when pushing up on the axle. I could also hear a click inside the transmission while doing so, like a gear hitting into another.
It also looks as if the axle is pulled out about a 1/4 inch or so from the transmission seal, as the metal is shiny and not rusted as if it had been this way for a long time. ( I have pics of this but no site to host them).
my question is this - could it be the differential bearing (hope not, don't feel like cracking tranny apart)? Should I attempt to try and whack the axle back in that 1/4 inch? Has ever heard of an axle pulling out of the tranny after an accident?
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98 sunfire 2.2L
Basically the only way we can get my car to start is by hooking another battery up to it. Like, we plugged the tractor's battery up to it as we were going to jump it, but we didn't turn the tractor on. Then my car would start. The second we take the jumper cables off my battery it will die though. One time it did hold a charge for a minute or two before shutting off.
Also, my battery light is constantly on, even when hooked up to another battery, like the tractor one. We replaced the alternator today (got a brand new one) thinking that was the problem but still no dice. What else could it be? Could it be my battery that's less than 7-8 months old? It shows 11 volts when we put the meter on it. The new alternator is also showing that it's getting charge.
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My sunfire is not shifting from 3rd to 4th gear. I will shift fine all the way up to 3rd and then ir revs like it is in neutral when i hit about 43 mph. it gets a little bit of a jump if i get off the gas all the way and then back on it and i can get it up to 55 but the rpm's are at 4.5. I read a few different posts that seemed like they may have had the same problem but they werent describing the way my car is acting. I went and got the fluid exchanged today and also changed the throttle position sensor on a whim because someone told me it could be the problem.
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I have 99 Sunfire 2.2L doesn't like to start right away. You turn the key and it cranks, cranks, cranks, and does that for about 5-8 seconds then start. If I shut the car off and turn it back on within an hour it seems to start pretty quick,(my only crank for a second or two).. It seems to be when it sets for a few hours it just hates to start. It always cranks strong .. i.e. it doesn't crank weak or slow like when your batter is very low.
I put a new alternator in it about 3 years ago and new battery in it last week. I do not have a system or any accessories that maybe causing any interruption. I have had this problem for year now and I have had it.
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2000 sunfire SE 2.2 L engine. Firstly, I should mention the present temperature out here is -37 C.
So here is the issue I am experiencing. The car does not idle smoothly. In fact I find it idles a lot lower then my fiances 2005 sunfire (hers idles at about 1000 RPM). My car idles around 750 RPM. and I've noticed for last couple months when just idling its not very smooth. The RPM will idle at 750 and then drop down a bit and back up again. It never has been a big problem till now.
While driving it yesterday, whenever I would let go of the accelerator the RPM would drop right down to 500RPM, and you would hear as the heater (air blowing) would completely drop down, and lights would dim significantly, and then within a split second, RPM would jump back up to 750 and blower and lights would return to normal. It almost feels as if the RPM is too low for Alternator?? That it's not able to produce enough power for electrical devices. As well, while braking if the ABS kicks in again I see this drop in RPM along with lights dim and blower airflow drop. Once again only for a split second though.
Here is the big problem. the drop in RPM and amount of disruption it causes actually had my car stall when I let go of gas and hit brake and had ABS kick in.
I am not sure if this is a problem with having the idle set too low, spark plug problem or something do with alternator?
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I have a 2001 Pontiac Sunfire with a 2.4 liter engine.
I just had the waterpump replaced and the lower coolant tube, I believe it's called, by a mechanic, which was quite a long job and a bit of a costly bill.
I went to pick the car up earlier and as soon as I started it up, the car was shaking back and forth as I was sitting in park. I immediately got out and went and told the mechanic. He looked under the hood, and the engine was very clearly shaking back and forth.
He couldn't give me an explanation as to why it would be shaking like this - and it wasn't doing it before I brought it in to have the water pump changed. It's the weekend now and he's closed on the weekend, but he said to just drive it for a couple days to see if it evens itself out.
What would be causing this and if there's any issues that could have occurred when he was replacing the water pump that could cause the engine to do this? Also, the engine light is not on.
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Posted a while back about a rattling/clunking noise coming from my front suspension. Since my car had nearly 100k miles on it and was still all stock, I went through and replaced ever single part of the front suspension. (Control arms, ball joints, got some Koni coil overs, strut mounts, sway bar end links, swar bar bushings). Turns out the noise wasn't actually related to the suspension. I've got massive play in both of my front axles. They make horrible rattling/clunking noises going over any sort of bump, even the REALLY small ones.
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My airbag light flashes six times when I turn my car on. Then it remains on while I'm driving. I have no clue what this means.
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Our 46K mile 2012 Tiguan starting making some pretty loud whining/growling/rattling engine noises recently so I took it to the dealer shop and they diagnosed a bad accessory belt tensioner. However, they didn't have one in stock and would have to order it. Well, that's fine but it's a 300 mile round trip to the dealer so I came home and ordered one from ECS Tuning.
I found a copy of an official VW (ETKA?) procedure on the web for replacing the tensioner for the TSI in a Golf so I suspect the procedure for a Tiguan is similar: remove the bolt for the secondary water pump and move the pump out of the way, remove the end bolt on the tensioner mounting shaft, remove the three bolts from the pendulum/dogbone, support the engine, remove the top two bolts from the passenger side engine mount, drop the engine about 2 inches and pull the tensioner out.
To be honest, I was very surprised that the dealership didn't have a tensioner in stock. This was a rather large and pretty good dealership shop (three service advisors). I guess accessory tensioner failure is really rare on the TSI.
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I have been experiencing some odd noises/wiggles/vibrations/growling/etc.... lately. I am pretty sure it's on the left (driver's side), but I can't seem to pin it down to front or rear. I am pretty sure my front brakes are trashed, as the inner pads were paper thin a month ago, and I haven't had time to change them yet ( new pads, rotors, calipers are already in my closet waiting to go on).
I went on a 100 mile drive the other day, and on the way down, and then coming home yesterday, the truck felt and sounded real weird. It wandered and had the noises described above. I jacked up the rear to check if I had bad axle bearings or something. Here's where I start to freak out. With the trans in gear,(6spd manual) both wheels off the ground, I can still turn the rear wheels. That shouldn't happen, right? Put the trans in neutral and turning the tires will turn the driveshaft. Trans in gear, the tires will turn free. There does seem to be a bit of "slop" when switching direction of rotation.
With the wheels off the ground, I ran the truck, in 1st and 2nd gear. It seems to turn the driver side faster, with the passenger barely turning.
For the time being, the rear axle is certainly still pushing the truck forward under power. With the wheels on the ground, truck on a hill, putting the trans in gear will stop the truck from rolling. This doesn't seem right? By the way, it is an "open" rear ( no limited slip). Between work and weather, I can't really do anything with it until the weekend. I just have to hope it holds up for the rest of the week, and a few hundred miles.
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when u turn the key it starts to turn over for half a sec then stops. when u stop it sounds like the starter is still spinning. battery is good. it use to do it some times but if she tried a couple times it would start. could it be where the wires go in or the whole thing? could it be somthing else besides the starter?
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Sounds like I may have a problem that is not all that uncommon i have a 94 honda accord with 100k miles, runs great, handles great
Just last week I noticed a resonant humming / growling sound coming from the engine - it's very "vocal"it only occurs around 2000 rpm, and is more pronounced when decelerating there's no apparent loss of power or fuel efficiency the sound occurs with or without the transmission engaged and seems to be worse after the car has heated up a bit
Cat converter? Intake manifold?
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Check engine light issue. For the past 3 months, my check engine light has been turning on. The first time it happened, the garage replaced the EVAP Purge Solenoid (which includes the vapor can purge solenoid and the EVAP canister purge solenoid). Of course, a few months later, the check engine light turned on again. The second time, the garage replaced the gas cap. Then the check engine light turned on again the next day.
So, the third time, the garage performed maintenance/repair on the vapor can purge solenoid and the EVAP canister purge solenoid. Of course, three days after driving my car, the check engine light turned back on. I've contacted the garage for the fourth time now. I explained that their diagnostics have obviously been exhausted, and they aren't really sure what the problem is. I'm going back in a few days to speak to the lead mechanic hoping to be compensated for their guess-work or at the least to be given an honest "I don't know" answer.
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So I'm in the process of doing a rear brake job on a 2002 Pontiac Sunfire. Drum brakes. And (shocker - especially for a northern car that never had the job done before) the drum won't come off. I've spent two days with a propane blowtorch, PB Blaster, and a 3lb hammer. No dice. It won't even budge.
So now I'm thinking about taking an angle grinder to the drum and just replacing both (probably necessary, as I'm sure it's in terrible shape). I'm really at my last option here.
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I have 1992 Honda Accord, LX. Automatic. 108K miles. There is a "growling" sound that comes from the transmission once the car reaches 40 miles per hour. This sound increases and decreases with the speed of the car. The car shifts fine. Does not buck. The transmission fluid most likely needs to be changed considering the mileage, and I'm not aware if it was ever changed considering I am not the original owner. I have been told a few things are possible causes. Changing the fluid may work. (Questionable) There is a sensor that can cause this. And lastly, it needs to be rebuilt.
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I drive a 2008 Cobalt SS turbo. its been a good car and I haven't had any major problems with it aside from the small stuff.
Well for the past few months I've noticed that, whenever i drive in heavy rain or in snow etc I will get a loud Growling/whining noise from the transmission area. Now it will do it while in Neutral, 1st etc and when stopped it will go away. If I stop the car for a few moments, the noise goes away until I hit another puddle and then it comes back again.
I also feel a "knocking" in the shifter and I've noticed its vibrated really badly for awhile now.
the caveat to this is it ONLY does it when its wet outside. I've taken it to GM a few times, and even showed the service manager the issues when it was raining out and he said everything was fine. The car never did it when I first purchased it.
I should include that there are some aftermarket modifications on the car. Catless downpipe, new intercooler, lowering springs. stock exhaust and stock turbo.
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My '02 has a growling noise only when I turn the wheel to the left. It doesn't seem to matter if it's turned slightly to the left or all the way, the noise is the same and you can feel it in the floor and wheel. If the wheel is straight or turned to the right, there isn't a noise at all. The growl is speed related and seems to be noticeable from 5mph and up. Does this sound like the typical power steering module when it's about to fail?
I took a video while driving to show the steering wheel, speedo and you could hear the growl as I turned the wheel, but I wasn't able to attach it to this message. I did get the PS error on the MFD 2 times in the last 2 weeks. What does the power steering module look like and how tough is it for a DIY'er to replace?
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My future mother-in-law has a 2004 Chevy Cavalier. Last night night when she tried to put it in gear, the car would not go in reverse or drive. She recently had a tune-up on her car a month ago and everything seemed to be working fine. I think the transmission is dead. Does that sound right?
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I have a '96 2.2L Cavalier with an automatic transmission. The car has about 275,XXX miles on it. Recently, I have been having problems with the transmission. Basically, the transmission doesn't shift unless I release the gas pedal and press down on it again. It always happens around the 20-25 m.p.h. mark. If I don't release the gas, my speed doesn't increase much, i.e. it goes up to about 30 m.p.h. and I hear the engine revving hard. Once I do the gas pedal thing though, it accelerates well.
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I have a 96 Chevy Cavalier with about 160k miles on it. Yesterday it started kicking kind of strangely from a dead stop to accelerating while in drive. This evening, after driving it both to and from work, when I backed in to a parking spot, it got stuck in reverse. The car was still pulling in drive and in reverse, it just seems like the gear shifter moves freely.
Idle seems fine, the vehicle just doesn't want to go into park or drive anymore.
Is this just as simple as the transmission being blown, or could there be another problem? Also, now that I've gotten the car turned off, it will not turn over again, since the vehicle won't shift into park.
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I've been fighting this almost a month now.2.2L Engine.
The engine turns over, but want start.
We have fuel pressure (55psi) and a spark.
Sprayed ether in the intake -- nothing.
Changed the crankshaft positioning sensor. Put a simple scanner on it, it stated no errors or faults could be found.
Tried another ignition module, checked the PCM fuse and ignition module fuse, both look fine.
Installed an anti-theft system bypass and followed the reset instructions. Didn't fix.
Just for fun we changed the spark plugs as well.
Now, the person I was with who saw the spark (I was inside the car) says the spark looked "weak" to him. Is this possible?
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