tips for cavaliers
 

I just joined about 10 min ago. I have a '97 cavalier and am getting 30mpg almost to the dot. are there small things that will save me gas? I have a scan gauge II and plan to try the grill block on my lower grill out of plexi glass and want to experiment with the warm air intake. are there any other tricks out there? anyone know how to make your windshield wipers stay vertical on these cars? I am more confident about the WAI now that I have the scangauge because I can see the IAT with it. I plan to play with that this weekend. I am still calibrating my scangauge. the mileage above is actual calculated mileage.

any suggestions are welcome thanks

Welcome. :D I'm not sure how to get the wipers to stay vertical, but I would say that the grill block will be more effective. Just use the scangauge to keep an eye on your intake temps and coolant temps. I was fine with my grill blockoff over winter, but now that we are seeing some warmer temps, I think I may have to put a hole in it to let some air in. Is your Cavalier an automatic or manual? Be sure to have your gauge set to the right engine size or the readings will be off.

If your wipers stay vertical when the ignition is shut off (assuming that they were in motion when you shut the ignition off), then you'll just need to run a switch to the wiper motor power fuse and cut the power when the wipers are vertical.

Don't worry about the wipers too much, air will kind of shortcut that corner there at the base of the windshield a bit and they don't make much drag.

mine is an auto but it is the 4 spd. also the best I have ever gotten on a tank is 35.95 and that is calculated. right now I have about a 220lb weight in the passenger seat almost everywhere I go that is killing my gas mileage.

a buddy of mine got out of the military and works where I do now (lives with me too) we drive about 22 miles one way to work so it is stupid to take two vehicles.

I wanted the scan gauge for the temperatures more than anything. I am getting roughly 30 mpg recently (stopped keeping up with it after I moved) I used to live 52 miles from work. that got old fast. any recommendations on intake temperature? I have heard that between 100? and 140? is where you should be optimally. any thoughts?

what you could do is find out a sweet spot for your car, say 40 mph and its getting 50 mpg on the scanguage. keep it at or around that sweet spot as much as possible and that will help alot

mr. pig

I am thinking about doing a 3 piece grill block. I am talking about the lower grill that looks like an oval (kind of) I was thinking of putting two pieces of plexi glass (one on either side) with a 4 inch or so gap in the middle. use a third piece that will overlap the first two pieces (just slightly) and that way if I need to remove some because of overheating, I can just remove the smaller center piece. I was thinking of using carraige bolts with wing nuts on the back with 1" washers on them. (I don't mean actual carraige bolts but ones with domed heads maybe with a flat head slot in it)

civic 94

I have noticed several sweet spots. it really likes 63 for some reason. I am getting 32-40 mpg at that point on a flat road which is pretty good for me. I live in a hilly but not mountainous region. it is more rolling. that seems to be my biggest problem. 20mpg up the hill and 40+ going down.

My grill block off is fashioned out of aluminum flashing. I made a cardboard template, then traced it onto the flashing and cut with tin snips. At first I tried to make it all one piece, but because of the curvature of the front bumper, the bottom wanted to bunch up, so I made it out of four pieces. I'll get some pictures soon. You're idea should work with plexiglass, but that stuff is expensive to buy. You definitely want to be able to pop a section off if you have to, no matter what it is made from. Mine has stayed pretty steady at 200-205 deg. F so far, but a few times it's went as high as 215. I am guessing once it really starts to warm up outside I will make a few holes in it.

A Saturn will take as high as 180 F for IAT pretty well. The Cavalier is a GM too. Sorry I don't have experience with them but I am certainly curious what you find out with respect to IAT. I had a 2000 Mazda protege and on a hot day without heated IA it ran as poorly as my Saturns at about 200 F. Just curious how it goes for you. Welcome.

mr. pig

I cut out the plexi glass yesterday. it was a bear to work with. $13 for the sheet (24x48"). I used the I guess eighth inch stuff. anyway it was really thin and I am thinking of leaving a space big enough for a lisince plate and then getting a vanity plate (needs to be metal) and shaping it to cover the gap. mine never had the bracket so I can curve the plate to fill the gap. that also saves me from trying to form another piece to go over the gap. I know what you mean about the curvature. it was a bear.

usedgeo

I am really curious about the WAI I have read several places that it depends on how your computer does the mixture. what sensors it uses to whether its worth it or not. I plan to play with it but I want to see how the grill block does first. the scan gauge is going to help in that respect. watching temps and what not. I plan by first just plugging the existing hole and cutting a new one so that it takes air from the engine compartment. if that doesn't get me where I want to be then I will run some flex tubing. I'll keep you posted.

* you could put a manual switch in the line going to the motor and shut them off when vertical.

* the wiper motor has a set of contacts in it...if it's like the ones I've seen...that park the wipers down on the cowl....you could modify this?

several people have said that I won't get a lot from the vertical wiper thing. It is still a possibility but for now it is on the back burner. I have found out that basic maintenance is getting me pretty good results. I have always been one to change my oil and to change it regularly. I never really did the fuel filter thing or the spark plugs (came from a famil that traded at 100k or 4yrs). I recently changed my fuel filter and sprayed the throttle body with throttle body cleaner. I am not done with the tank yet but I can tell there is an improvement (gas log will follow with next fill up). I intend to change my plugs next and maybe my plug wires.

also grill block going on this weekend. hopefully at the beginning of the next tank or so.

The fact that you are thinking about it and hopefully changing your driving style will gain you the most improvement. Other than that, the easier things to do are air pressure adjustments, and coasting in neutral as much as you can. I usually accelerate 5-10 mph as I crest a hill and coast until I am 5 below the limit and then put it back in drive and creep back up to the speed limit. I need a five speed bad. :( This three speed auto is really holding me back.

the tire air pressure trick makes me thing that the tires are going to wear out faster and the neutral trick makes me worry about the tranny.

I do care about the planet and all but it is stupid to save a few miles to the gallon if I am going to have to replace tires twice as fast and have to replace a trans because of it. I may just be peranoid too.

I am really hoping that the summer weather helps me out too. I live in north carolina and we see 100 deg weather during the summers (not much) so my mileage should be better.

even I will say that the 3 spd is a dog. that extra gear makes a lot of difference. that being said, I wouldn't mind a 5spd either. I have one in my truck but it gets 18 to the gal. built for speed not mileage.

My 02 Cavalier is loving the warmer weather;averaged 37mpg today and got my tank mileage back up to over 35mpg. I do have a 4 speed automatic and Raleigh is a bit less hilly than Reidsville.

The wiper motor will have an internal switch with a cam that breaks the circuit when the arms are in the park position. You can disable this so that the wipers shut off at any position.

Turn the ignition switch off with the wipers running, on many cars they will stop where they are. Turn off the wiper switch after the ignition switch.

regards
gary

sorry it doesn't work on my Honda.

regards
gary

I recalibrated my scangauge and now it is saying that I am getting 34 or so for the tank. I figure it will take a few tanks to get the calibration right. especially since I keep doing things to the car.

update: changed plugs, wires, installed grill block.

I did all this tonight so it is hard to tell what difference it made. I filled up today but am too lazy to go out to the car and get my gas log. I will probably do this monday.

hateful, do you have any tricks specific to the cavs? you seem to be doing pretty well at 35ish and how do you see the tire pressure thing?

I have my air intake rerouted to an after market air filter right by the exhaust manifold for warm air. I started with a grill block that grew into a rather silly looking nose extension/air dam; for which I get many looks. The underside is screened with window screen and partly painted. Wheel wells are partly covered;more in the back than front. I made side skirts that hang from the lip weld along the sides.Hub caps are taped up closing all the holes and painted. All this done with soda bottles and cans and duck tape. I did replace my rear duck tape wheel well covers with fake leather from an old sun roof cover.

I have my tires at 44psi.That was one of the first things that helped my MPG.

I watch the scangauge all the time and I do cut the engine off for lights.
BTW; if you are coasting with the engine off,the scangauge has to be set for HYBRID and the ignition switched to ON position to give credit for the extra distance.https://www.gassavers.org/garage_imag...9uz0v2v2zs.jpg

what air temp are you running with the WAI I heard that 100deg to 140deg was optimum. also I see you are running with more air in your tires. how much does that actually help.

I have recently changed my plugs and wires and added a grill block. I think it may take a while to see if this helped because I reset my PCM to get some jumpiness out of my idle (didn't work) I let my car sit and idle for a while hoping it would relearn the idle.

also, does our transmission lock out reverse when we are in drive? I don't know a lot about the specifics of the cavaliers. I have had it a while but didn't really care until recently.

I noticed that there are not a lot of cavaliers on here so I am trying to see what the cavalier drivers are doing. I finally updated my gas log and I am now over 30mpg solid and hope to stay there and possibly get to the 35 mark. I have a 2 door, I am hoping that it helps a little because the back glass is smoother and more aerodynamic (kind of like a fastback) I do have a spoiler but the 3rd light is in it so I can't easily remove it.

thanks for the help

I have no way of knowing what the exact temps coming in are( unless scangauge does it and I didn't know), It did go into the filter box and pulled air from the underside.I didn't think that was good on cold rainy days(I'm not one of those that think water makes a good fuel additive).Not real sure how well the air is collected as it rushed by as a crosswind. Air is more stationary under the hood with the grill blocks and screen.

Tire pressure helps a lot.I can roll a greater distance after letting off the gas.Great for slowly rolling up to a light giving it time to change and traffic moving before you get there and takes much less gas to get going again. Full stops really hurt mpg.Usually the people that need to get to the red light first will pass you but not often dive back in front of you. When the light changes the line ahead of you is shorter.You can then roll past many of those that raced to the light as they have to wait for the longer line to get moving again.
I like to test my rolling on a hill near home where I get down to 40mph before the steepest part begins,throw it into neutral and coast down gaining up to about 52mph.( I'm speeding at this point in a 45mph zone). I roll up hill ( now entering a 35mph zone) still about 40mph,reengage the transmission and ease into the gas to maintain 35mph to the top of the hill. Then I can cut the engine and coast over a half mile down hill to get home You may want to pick a down hill run near home for testing.
My last half mile coming home is always with engine off. Makes up for the 10mpg I get going up the hill from a cold start.

the scan gauge will do incoming air temps. mine says fIA with the f being the degrees. also I have a '97 as your is an '02 it may not be available for your car. this is one of the big reasons I wanted the scan gauge to monitor temps and other such things.

my side wall says that the max on my tires are 51psi so I am thinking about doing around 40 to start to see how it works. hopefully it won't wear them too fast. that is a concern that I have about upping the tire pressure.

I am still not comfortable with changing into neutral or cutting off the car while running down the road. that may change with time but for now the grill block and the newer plugs and filters should do me good.

thanks again for the input and if you happen to be playing around with your scangauge and find that incoming air temp. (may not have it on there) just let me know. I have found that the 4 displays aren't enough. I would have payed extra for one that had say 6 or 8. oh well

I just got back from my mom's which is only 5 miles away; had been there 3 hours like most Sundays. I went back out and looked for the FIA. I do have it,just didn't know what it was. My water temp was at 200 degrees and the FIA was between 100 and 103 degrees. I had not been home 2 minutes before going back out to crank it. It's just got done raining and 55 degrees. Looks like I have a good intake temp.
On the transmission locking out; I have accidently put it into reverse before. the shifter did go into the R position,but didn't lock up. It just geared down like I had put it into low 1. I wasn't going very fast and never seemed to hurt it. Of course it didn't take long to figure I had not gone into neutral and shifted back quickly.
On the tires wearing, I've heard that under inflated tires wear quicker than over inflated. My front tires need replacing( for safety inspection). I've been running 44psi since September. The tread is worn on the outside more,though that is suppose to be a sign of over inflated tire wear. Under inflated tires are said to wear in the middle more.I do take 90 degree turns at 30 to 35mph regularly so that could wear on the outside a little more.Back tires don't seem to show any wear at all and I'm sure I've had them at least a year.

I think I've seen where 2 ScanGauge can be daisy chained together and have 8 read outs. I like having RPM FWT MPG and MPH just so I can look at all the info without moving my eyes below the dash and moving my hands off the steering wheel to see the speed ( I drive with left hand at 12 o'clock; habit from driving a manual 5 speed for years).

I'll check the FIA again to see what I'm getting on longer rides. Thanks for letting me know about that.

what you say kind of confirms my thoughts on the WAI as far as it being at 100deg or so. I did a lot of research on the scangauge before I bought it. even though it would be nice to have more screens, I can't see myself putting another 170 into buying another one. I also like the instantaneous hp feature ( you have to use the X-gauge and put in a code).

last night I upped my tire air pressure to 40 and I am going to see how that goes for a while. my goal (which is really out there) is to get to work and back on 1 gallon of gas. that is 44 miles. it is always good to have goals, achievable or not.

I have been doing the stick shift thing for a while myself. first car was a metro with 5-spd. replaced it with a 4cyl 5-spd dodge dakota and that with a V8 5-spd dodge dakota. this car just kind of fell into my lap. at twice the mileage of the dakota (roughly) I couldn't turn it down. I payed 2K for it over 4 years ago. everyone I tell about it says I have well got my money back on the invesment.

the truck gets about 18 to the gallon but will run about a 14.5 second qtr which is pretty good for an almost 2 ton truck that is rear wheel drive with no weight in the back. it is almost 4.5yrs old and just hit 17k miles not too long ago. that is more my play toy.

let me know if your intake temps swing really high. I have heard that they can go as high as 180 but I am not sure how good that is for the engine

I drove about 13miles this morning to Wal-Mart and the air temp only got up to about 100 degrees. Averaged 34.9mpg. I went inside for maybe 30minutes and it had gone up to 110. It dropped back down when I started moving.It went as high as 114 a couple miles down the road at 55mph.The trip back I got about 38.5mpg. I always do a few mpg better coming back since it's warmed up already. The screen on the underside and the side skirts tend to keep the car warm longer while parked.
I might look into getting the air temp up a little more,if the coming of Spring doesn't take care of it for me.

the temp of the IAT seems to be a little of a game. I have heard 100-140 but I haven't done any testing to tell where a good spot is yet. I assume it is
under the 200 mark as that is just blazing hot but I am not sure where the "sweet spot" is.

a friend of mine pointed out that I should get a few more tanks in before I start playing with that because I have been playing with so much other stuff. I have recently change fuel filter, plugs, plug wires, and added a grill block to my car. all of that within just a week or so. I need to get a better baseline before I start to play with the intake. if you find a sweet spot, let me know. I am not sure how much flexibility you have with your intake. if you can simply adjust it closer to the manifold it might work or put a heat shield to block the cold air coming in (I guess it would be an anti-heat shield) or you could just see what the summer brings. mine has almost gotten up to 100 just because of the weather(didn't stay there long).

Yeah, part of my problem is I don't do just one thing at a time and test it for a couple of tanks. I start doing modifications in spurts, so I can't say for sure which one thing did more good than the other. I got 38.6 mpg on my way home from work on Friday, and that is about 70% highway, 30% city. Hopefully that trend continues as warmer weather stays around. My personal goal is to have a 40mpg tank. So far my best is 35, but that was last fall before it got cold. Maybe the things I did over winter will push me to 40.

I've been doing the neutral drifting since I got the car last summer, and I've put 14k miles on it with no tranny issues. I also shut off the car at lights I know are going to take a while to change with no starter issues yet (knock on wood). In reality it really isn't saving much money considering the possible wear on parts, but to me it's just become my own personal challenge/game to see how good I can make an old three speed cavalier with 134k miles do. I'd never go this extreme with a newer/nicer car, but some of the things I've learned will definitely be applied to my next ride. I too kinda fell into this Cavy. I was selling my GTO because of three tickets I got last spring, and the friend I was selling it to tossed in the Cavy to sweeten the deal and I've just been beating around in it since, tearing things out, etc. :)

Same here; I don't stop doing things for the sake of testing.My little roll down the hill the back up again spot helps to test the aero or rolling resistance mods.
I also came close to 40mpg last fall but didn't make it before it cooled off and the holiday traffic season began. I admit I chose my Cavalier from the pre-owned lot at a dealership. It was $7K with 21K miles. It has over 80K miles now and hasn't had any mechanical problems.I'm going to get something smaller next time,but I'll keep the Cavalier as long as it will go.

You should be fine with that, as long as the pump runs in neutral. (That's why it be bad to tow most autos with wheels down, pump doesn't run, unless it's a rear drive pump)

update on the intake temp: I went to get 2 tires driving 18miles each way.On the way back the FIA got up to 162 degrees while the FWT got up to about 220.
My mileage was 33mpg going and 37mpg coming back. Just did average 35mpg for the day which is just about the tank average so far. A little under half tank left.
I bought 2 new steel rims and went down to 185/75 R14 from the 195's.

there is a guy on here that drives a saturn that says to run it between 160 and 180.

I am just having a hard time with the air being that hot coming into the engine and it not being bad for it. when I run a few more tanks I am going to start playing with it myself.

After today I'm just going to let it stay that way; the airtake has been under the hood for several months so I assume it's been getting that hot all along. Being where it is,the fan cools the filter and the radiator when it comes on,but the air temp doesn't drop as quickly.

I think you are right about the temp reaching those hights before. it is just now you have a way to monitor it better. if you aren't getting any negative affects from it, I would leave it in. I wouldn't try to go any higher on the temp side.

one thing to think about (and this is just a random thought) if your aftermarket air filter is like mine (on my truck) it is an exposed filter, if you get it too close to the exhauste manifold you may have some issues with scorching or burning. the IAT sensor is a good distance down the pipe from your filter so the air is hotter at the filter. just something to think about.

I was more worried that it would melt. I just changed it after 6 months. It wasn't scorched nor melted. Didn't get as dirt as the factory filter did.The end of the road I live on is dirt,so getting the intake higher off the road probably helped with that. I read the Saturn post also, so I feel safe at these temps now.

I am a huge fan of the baby-step so I will be progressing with caution. I plan to fill up tomorrow and I will probably run one more tank through my car and then play with the intake after that.

I'll keep you posted. thanks for all the info.

Warm air intake; North Carolina safety and emissions ( OBDII) test was overdue as usual,so I went today.They made me reattach my intake to the old filter box for the OBDII emissions test.I never thought it would matter since it's before any of my sensors. It was no problem as I just tore off some tape and pulled the hose back over the opening to the old filter.

I was thinking about removing that rather bulky intake filter box but it's good I didn't as I'll need it for a few minutes each year.

I left it like that when I left. The car was warmed up as I had to go downtown( crowded parking deck included) to pay county tax and to get my plate sticker earlier (killing me at 28mpg). My intake air temp barely got to 85 degrees.I pulled over into a parking lot, got out the tape and screwdriver and reattached my warm air intake. Immediately back up to between 130 and 160 degrees.Mileage recovered to get tank back up to 32mpg at 55miles.I'm confident that I can get the tank average back up before the next fill-up.

I was thinking of putting a new hole in mine and plugging the other with metal tape (the good duct tape) and just running flexible exhauste pipe to the manifold.

I don't think they would say anything to that because I am still using the existing box and haven't put anything past the filter or altered the filter location. they haven't said anything about my truck which has an aftermarket cold air intake for power.

maybe you just got a hold of a jackhole that just wanted to get you for something since your car looked funny. either that or they just got busted for letting someone slide on something and the shop is on edge about it or something.

I just got inspected in april so I feel like if I did it now, then I would have almost a year to make it right before my next inspection. also I may just trade up to a yaris or something before the next year.

also, did your side skirts in the back help any? I am playing with the idea but I am not sure if it is worth it since my usual drive doesn't get much over 50mph. I was thinking of using high impact acrylic sheeting (really thin plexi-glass) I used the regular (not high impact) for my grill block. the high impact is expensive. I covered most of the bottom grill and decided to do something with the gap inbetween so I took a heat gun and bent a piece to have a seam running down it so that it had the same curvature as the car (ponited on the front). I think I can take and put tabs on the half circle and bend them in for mounting brackets and use fender washers to spread the force on a larger area so it doesn't crack.

I am just worried that I am going to put a lot of time and effort into it and get little to no return on my mpg. what did you see when you did your skirts?

The back wheel skirts did help. I'm not sure about how much mileage I got from it,but I picked up 3 to 5 mph coasting in neutral. It was getting to about 47mph without the skirts and would roll up to 52mph with the skirts. Both starting at 40mph at the top of the steep part.

The rear wheel wells were way to big for my 195/70/R14's. I'm going to change them to 185/75/R14 soon. The tires are still good but I have extra rims now that I bought 2 steel rims($52each) with my new front 185/75/R14's ($35each)

You may be right about the intake; I had gone to the same place when they didn't even open the hood ( just plugged in the OBDII).