Crazy week of travel! Put 1105 miles on the old Cavalier between Houston, Baton Rouge, Austin, etc. I love getting out on the road and driving, but I have to say I'm a little sick of being behind the wheel right now.....

 

Does your Cavalier run any different with the ac on? Mine runs great but when I have the ac on it shakes when idling up to about 25 mph then goes away and runs great again. I also noticed when idling with the ac the scan gauge showed 12.8 volts.. Once I accelerated it jumped to 13.7 and stayed. With ac off it always stays at 14 volts

 

I never notice much with the AC on, although you can obviously tell there's a slight load on the engine. The one thing I have noticed this past week is that the idle on mine seems unusually low -- from the tach I'm going to guess around 700 rpm's.....??? Not sure what it's supposed to be, but I'd almost swear it's going to stall, yet it never does.

 

With the ac on mine is about 600 rpm touching the high side of 500 mark. Knew I shouldn't have hooked up the scan gauge. Now I think I have a problem

 

Nieces team won tonight 68-30....on to the championship round tomorrow night

 

And she thought she was just sneezing....

 

Mornng

 

Ugh!

 

Funeral today. I'm getting to that age where either my friends are getting married or their parents are dying. Or in this case both in the same month. I've been flooded with weddings and funerals lately!

 

Weddings used to be opportunities to con out-of-town bridesmaids into allowing you to "hang out" with them at their hotel room that evening.....

Now they are just a reason I have to drag out the suit-and-tie and make three hours of small-talk with disinteresting people over a plate of lukewarm grilled chicken......

 

Yeah -- it looks like the idle is supposed to be in the 700 range, so I guess I'm good. I think the thing that throws me is that when I'm at a stoplight in my wife's '05 Escape, you definitely know the engine is running because of obvious noise and vibration. With the dang 4-banger in that Cavalier I don't hear the slightest sound or feel any vibration and I end up having this unconscious feeling that the engine isn't running......

Very weird -- you'd think it would be the opposite considering the Cavalier is 18 years old and rather "low tech" when compared to the Escape.....

 

Removed a loose heat shield

Still making rattling sounds

 

Just turn up the radio......

 

Lol, I am

But that's not a great permanent solution...I'm thinking my muyffler is kicking the bucket inside

 

this poor rat bastard...