$800 Cavalier

[MP81]

Good deal $40 for that sway bar!

Absolutely! I was excited to find that one for about 10-20 cheaper than other 22s. Just need to pick up end links and brackets, but those are all cheap!

[MP81]

Wow, I definitely have a lot to add to this piece of shit.

[landstuhltaylor]

If you really want to liven it up you should try and find a Shine style rear sway bar. You have to drill through the rear beam but it's much lighter and stiffer than a conventional bar.

vwgli23.jpg

[MP81]

That looks like a solid setup.

If my interest 69% of the time with this vehicle wasn't either A) pushing it off jackstands or B) pushing it off a cliff, I'd probably look into that. How pricey is it?

[landstuhltaylor]

That looks like a solid setup.

If my interest 69% of the time with this vehicle wasn't either A) pushing it off jackstands or B) pushing it off a cliff, I'd probably look into that. How pricey is it?

That particular bar is pretty expensive, like over $350 new. I was able to find one locally used for closer to $100 last year. I don't even know if there is one available for the Cavalier as all my experience with them comes from a MK4 Jetta.

[MP81]

I could probably make one pretty cheap, I'm guessing, haha.

[MP81]

Boy, looks like I've got some updating to do on this one...

[MP81]

August 19th, 2013.

For the week before, the car was exhibiting some very odd behavior - as the vehicle would shift through the gears, you would have to turn the wheel more and more to go straight - and half the time, when it would shift into third, you'd have to turn the wheel about 90 degrees in the opposite direction. I was thinking this was probably a trans or engine mount since it was trans-dependent. About two miles from home on the 19th, I found out I was very wrong in my diagnosis. Turning onto the street our street is off of, the car shoved the front right tire into the back of the wheel house. Luckily we were only doing about 25 or so at this point, so there really wasn't any danger. We had the car towed home and I was able to really get under there and see what had happened.

Left side wheel - in the correct position, for reference:


Right side wheel. Note how it is further rearward - I had jacked it up waiting for the tow and was able to position the tire from in the wheel liner to the center of the vehicle - so coming off the tow truck moved it more centered. Still off, though.


First look under the car, from the front. The culprit should be visible from this photo...and if not, don't worry, I have more.


See it yet?


How about now?


A view from inside the right wheelhouse - there is definitely daylight where there absolutely should not be.



Bingo. Yahtzee!



Yep, that is what it looks like - the front right section of the subframe is separated from the entire rest of the subframe by a nearly 360-degree crack! This means the area of the subframe that the front of the control arm bolts to and the where the rear bolts into is not the same part anymore, shoving the tire backwards. Apparently J-bodies are notorious for this (rust and thus cracks). I'd say this one waited quite some time to do it, at around ~230k miles and 15 years old. Just glad we weren't on the freeway when it went! Besides the crack, you can see the sheer amount of rust on the rest of the subframe as well.

Couple more pics. Front mounting point for the control arm. Not rusty at all..nope...


Pretty easy to see why the exhaust is so loud...


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August 21st, 2013

Left front wheel and tire removed, along with brake rotor, caliper hung up.


Right front wheel, tire, brake rotor and caliper removed, as well as the spindle.


The reasoning that the left front spindle was still on in the first picture...ball joint was...less than enthusiastic about separating from the nut...fixed that.


Engine torque strut mount (right side). This is supposed to be straight...


Torque strut mount front bushing is pretty well destroyed.


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August 22nd, 2013

Shock absorber brace nut gave me some serious hell. Still on at this point, and, as you can see, not very hexagonal...



Right control arm removed.


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August 26th, 2013

New engine torque strut mount


New front left control arm (was cheaper to buy brand new control arms with ball joints and bushings than even think about replacing the ones in the stockers)


Used subframe off a Southern car. This thing was a lifesaver...really got lucky it was on ebay at this time...



Finally got that ****ing shock brace bolt out, using a bolt-extractor socket hammered on.


Brace and bolt off the car


Left front control arm off the car


Left front subframe cavity. Rust city.


Getting dark out...I got a lot of mosquito bites nightly.



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August 29th, 2013

Stock downpipe off the car.


Bad flex pipe.


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September 2nd, 2013

With some help from DJ, we were able to get the subframe off to this point. The back right most bolt sheared off before all of this happened (when I went to install the swaybar - not what caused all of this, though), so it was still in the body at this point. Notice, though - that we were able to merely BEND the subframe downwards without using a ton of effort. It was good to note that using the subframe as a lever arm, we could turn it - meaning the bolt was rusted to the subframe, not the body.




Off the car...well...most of it. We just broke it off of the spot that had the broken bolt, though it means we lost our lever arm - it didn't turn far, as it'd just hit the jack stand.

It's really amazing how rusty this thing is for how clean most of the rest of the underbody of the car is...




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September 5th, 2013

None of the tools I had could get the piece with the broken bolt in it off. Channel locks could grip it. Rifling through Megan's dad's tool box, I came across a nice pipe wrench...gee, I wonder if this might work.

Yup! My new trusty favorite tool! Was able to dig it's teeth into the cylinder that houses the bolt (where it fused together), and after an hour or so of swearing and a ton of patience and effort, it came out.


This is an understatement of how I felt at the time about that part. My personal feeling at the time was pure accomplishment.


Rust sucks.


Area where it was mounted to.


Subframe comparison. Massive difference.



Broken old subframe bits.


More ****ing rust



Some VHT Anti-Rust paid on the shock brace


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September 5th, 2013

22mm swaybar installed on new subframe


Piles of rust from all the beating, hammering and removal of the old subframe/components. It was more impressive in person.



New subframe installed. What a difference visually! Two people would've been nice here, but oh well.






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September 13th, 2013

New vs. old right side control arms.


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September 14th, 2013

New right control arm installed


New (not bent) vs. old (bent) engine torque strut mounts



Right spindle re installed.


Left control arm old vs. new




Left control arm and spindle installed


Coming back together. Shiny parts always look nice.


New engine torque strut mount in place



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September 16th, 2013

New shock brace bolt installed. This one is shiny, new and not round.


Which means...shock brace installed.


Moog poly swaybar endlinks. These were quite ingenius - it was a barrel nut on the end instead of a regular one you can barely get onto one thread...made for a much much easier install.





Was starting to get a bit darker out so it was crunch time to get the exhaust back on - we wanted to take this down to work the next day (to transfer stuff to a rental Cruze we had to get that day), as we were leaving for North Carolina from her house the next morning - and this has a lot more room for shit than my car.

New vs. old downpipe




New downpipe installed. Rest of exhaust..."installed". Due to the cluster**** of rust on the cat flanges, there's no way I was going to be able to bolt anything together...this for the time being would work OK until we had it welded up. I must've used yards of mechanic's wire to make sure that shit didn't move.





Tires back on! Getting close (you can tell it's pretty dark out by now)



Back on the ground. Time for a test drive!


To make a long story short (quite frankly - that took longer to post than I thought and I'm tired and want to go to bed ) - we ended up packing my car and taking it down to work instead. When I took it out, it was so terrifying to drive and made a quiet-ish tire squeal the whole way down the 45 mph road. Any steering input was horrifying. The toe-out was so incredibly bad on it, there was no way in hell we were driving that down to Auburn Hills without an alignment. If I recall correctly, one side had around 3 degrees of toe out, and the other side around 2...it was a lot.

Well, that's the largest update down. It took forever to do (I'm speaking the actual repair), and it was really a pain in the ass - but honestly, only about $400-500 later and the car was back to completely driveable, with newer components. I'm sure this would've been a 2-3k repair at a shop or the stealership. Talk about feeling accomplished after finishing that, though!

[Iroc'nthe87]

Bravo sir

[MP81]

Had the vehicle aligned after we returned from our trip to NC (took it to Patsy Lou, since they're nearby - and driving this thing was...difficult), and asked them to give me a quote on how much it would be to weld a flange to the cat and bolt it up to the new downpipe. I got some outrageous figure, so I said no thanks, I'll just order all new stuff.

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October 3rd, 2013

New catalytic converter - complete with $40 rebate - once I get some money for the old one, it will be damn near free.


New intermediate pipe


New vs. old piping.


New cat vs. old. You can see how shitty the flanges are on the cat (and what remains of the bolts) - hence the cutoff wheel being my friend here...


After a lot of swearing, dropping the rear torsion beam as far as I possibly could and some patience, everything is all installed, complete with stainless bolts, washers and nuts. Not dealing with rusty bolts if it needs to come apart again.



Awaiting reattachment of the muffler (I had to cut it off of the old piping, so it still needed to be cleaned up before being reattached)

[MP81]

Had noticed a fuel leak during fuel-ups, appeared to be coming from the filler neck. Under the car, you could see a wet area where the bracket is welded to the filler neck. Time to replace it...figured I might as well drop the tank and replace the aging fuel pump as well...more on that later...

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October 26th, 2013

Up on shiny new jack stands


Old filler neck. The wet part isn't fuel, it's PB Blaster for the bolt. The leak was at the bracket on the main pipe.



Nice and shiny new filler neck vs. old


New neck installed. Bling bling.


Yes, that's a zip tie. The bolt decided to break when trying to remove it. This works well enough for now.



No more fuel leak while filling up.

But I created a new one when I attempted to remove the tank. Disconnected all the fuel lines (this was before reinstalling the filler), and went to unbolt the straps, only to find the weld nut wasn't much interested in being welded to anything anymore. Left it as is, and reconnected all the fuel lines.

Someone who had the vehicle before Megan bought it managed to break the plastic fuel connections on the return line and fixed it with a compression fitting, and did a pretty shitty job of making a clean cut on one side of the lines. Didn't notice it at the time (since the leak only occurs when the engine is running), but have tried many times to fix it to no avail...

[MP81]

Finally got around to cutting the rest of the old piping of the muffler and cleaning up the pipe end to slip fit correctly with the new intermediate pipe. Bought a Jegs stainless band clamp since we had already determined welding the muffler completely was damn near impossible the first time.

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November 29th, 2013

Muffler (re)installed


Band clamp. No leaks here. Does it's job effectively and was nice and cheap.


Having a muffler in the space where the muffler should be is a good thing. Does not draw attention from police anymore, both by sound or the blatant lack of muffler.


Other than a small exhaust leak up front, which is at the downpipe to manifold (due to the gasket not being centered - new downpipe didnt have the inset gasket area the stocker did), the exhaust is a million times quieter. When I started it up it was almost unnatural, because of how used I was to the car's prior volume...I do miss engine braking in gear with no muffler...it sure sounded cool.

[Lucky SOB]

Great work Kyle! Remember, a bigger hammer is always better.

[MP81]

Thanks Fred! And yes, BFH is quite the help!






Considering I just ended up writing a lot, I guess I'll start the next update with the following story.


In late January, during one of our 50-minute-turned-2.5-hour drives into work (for no legitimate reason, other than the fear of other drivers over literally nothing at all - as in, there was nothing we ever passed, we just stopped going 5 and went back to 70, roads were fine, but I digress...), I noticed the brake pedal seeming to grab quite a bit lower than normal, near almost to the floor...and considering it was 5-15 mph for an hour...it made me a bit nervous, in the event that they just...didn't grab anymore.


Since it was one of those brutally cold mornings, my plan to check the master was put on the back burner to making the 1/4 mile walk from the car to the building without freezing to death. What turned out to be a blessing in disguise was my fiance feeling sick enough at work that we had to go home at about 11AM - a good time when the roads are empty... I checked the reservoir and found it with no brake fluid at all in there. I then proceeded to drive the car the 50 miles back home without once touching the brakes. Downshifting, parking brake and no traffic FTW!


Obviously this meant I had to add fluid and bleed the brakes to remove all the air that had made the brake lines its home. I figured I would replace the caliper slides and pins with new ones I had bought (still had some uneven pad wear that I could notice) while I had the wheels off. I also wanted to replace the right front wheel liner that was damaged when the subframe broke, shoving the tire into it and grinding a hole in a portion of it. I also intended to install the new trunk weatherstrip I've been meaning to as well.


Little did I know that, as usual with this car, it would not be so simple...


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February 9th, 2014


Fired up my new propane heater and got to work...


Up on Stands, wheel liner removed.



Wheel liner removed (with mudguard still attached), hole from the tire easily visible.



Right side caliper slides/pins removed, with a long metal punch...



Right side caliper without pads or slides.



Right side pad wear is a bit uneven



New vs. old (damaged) wheel liner




Wheel liner installed



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February 10th, 2014


Picked up a pair of Speed Bleeders for the front, and after an hour of trying every thing I could to get the right side bleeder out and having it just grind it away, it finally allowed me to grip it enough to shear it right off...great.


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February 11th, 2014


Bought a pair of new reman calipers (a whole $15 each, so why not)



Speed bleeder (left) vs. regular bleeder from reman caliper



Speed bleeder installed into one of the calipers



What's left of the right side bleeder...




Right side calipers, new reman vs. old.




Right side caliper installed



Left side bleeder. This is what the right side bleeder looked like before it ground apart and sheared off.



Right side broken bleeder...



Old bleeder comparison



Left side caliper replaced




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February 13th, 2014


Old brake fluid...definitely not clear.



Old trunk weatherstrip...




4


New trunk weatherstrip installed. Had to loosen and lower the trunk latch down a bit to get it to latch down, but shouldn't leak anymore.



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February 16th, 2014


Right wheel back on, back on the ground.




Shiny new caliper



Left side all back together as well.



Glad I bought this, kept me nice and toasty while it was about 10 degrees outside!


I also have to say: speed bleeders are magic.

[MP81]

Put a new (used) mud guard on last Friday - one without a hole.

Old vs. non-damaged used.



Installed.