Pontiac Sunfire Care and Maintenance

rousea

I noticed yesterday on my way home that the light for my odometer wasn't working. Is this an easy fix?

msokol87

I have had a 2000 pontiac sunfire coupe for nearly a year now. It began giving me trouble from the time I bought it, which was all anticipated since it had over 150K. The panel cluster and for that matter ALL lights were not working within the car. I had to get the pontiac dealer to reprogram the computer and now the lights have been working ever since. However, not two months later, the transmission died-- not surprisingly, the auto place notified me that it was nothing but broken parts. 2 G's and perhaps 2 months later, I felt that there was still something wrong w/ the transmission but when I sent it to get fixed, they told me that the brake pads and spark plugs were bad so that they couldn't even check out the transmission until they were fixed. After this, I was getting thoroughly irritated and felt I'd just live with the grinding I experience from time to time. Since then, I've also had to get the heater core bypassed as it was leaking coolant some time over summer. The head gasket is leaking oil but not too bad that I'm losing any-- I just check it once or twice a week. Too, way too many issues to deal with. Now that is care and maintenance for ya.

mrjd

hi all ive got a 98 sun fire : with 164000 miles today i went to stop amd no brakes just a clicking sound i pumped the pedal a few times and they were back then my abs light cam on for a while then went out any ideas what i need to fix before this happens agin?????

artsam

There isn't the trans dip stick on a sunfire. You only have a oil dip stick.
Oil is 5W-30, when you take a oil dip stick out- you will see in on the bottom.
I put 10W-30 synthetic.
Try Ebay for the owners manual.
Best,
Sam.

dawnyadiesel

If your sunfire is anything like mine (05), the oil pin is a nut underneath the car and you need a wrench to loosen it. The oil filter is in the most half assed place, between the radiator and the engine buried kinda far down in it. You'll need a 1" socket to get it off with many extentions, or hand held vice grips. Good luck!

dawnyadiesel

Is the car actually overheating? Because my temp gauge is just straight broken.. it says my car is overheating, but I know better.. it's just the gauge reading stupidly

bottlefed23

hi i hope to god someone can help me........ i have a 97 sunfire with a 2.2 and 70,000 miles on it ....its a great car....im having a problem with overheating....i replaced the thermostat then i had flushed the block and radiator with water getting all the old dex cool out...... still overheating....... so then i had replaced tempature sending unit........still reading hot about 225-230 on the gauge.........so then the only thing left would be the water pump so i replaced that also............when im driving it seems to overheat.....but if im at idle it dont wanna heat up to quick???? so i hard wired the fan directly to the battery .......still says its over heating.....i turn the heater on in the car and its not blowing super hot (like its overheating) but its warm so i open the overflow res. and the waters hot but not super hot like it be overheating???? can anyone please give me any info???? im thinking it maybe the actual temp gauge in the car .....can these go bad??????PLEASE HELP ME!!!!

bottlefed23

no the car dont over heat....i hooked a buddys snap on scanner on and drove around and the hottest it got was 223 degrees??? i dont know the nor temp range....... but its pissin me off something fierce....idk what else to do ....today i replaced the thermostat and temp sendin unit again and still the same......im ready to put a aftermarket gauge in it and see if thats the problem????does anyone know how to get all the air out of the block when you do a coolant change??whats the easiest way to bleed it?? thank you bunches......

kkatgirl

my water pump went out, i think ! is this going to be difficult and costly to replace?

jeffy_finch

I have a 98 sunfire convertible 2.4l, and i recently replaced the spark plugs, only now it idles @ 1500 rpm instead of the previous 1000 rpm. is this normal? if not How do i adjust the idle

jeffy_finch

is it 2.2l or 2.4l?

shanekrenek

Did u get this problem figured out? Mine 02 2.2 is doing the exact same thing...I have done the exact same thing...

shanekrenek

I am having the exact same problem on my 02...have changed thermostat, pump, flushed, was gonna do compression test this eve...(Head)...but found a post on here about the temp sensor...gonna change it and level sensor...did u figure out the issue?

hpack

what causes water to run out of the drain line of a radiator on a 2000 sunfire?? need answers asap! thanks

shanekrenek

I finally figured this thing out...greater innovation by GM! :-p...I filled overflow, pulled bleeder screw on heater hose line (driver's side of engine on mine), and kept filling till water ran out. put bleeder back in... keep refilling till stands full for five minutes...I also "pumped" top radiator hose a little occaisionally to help push out air...I then started and let run for 15 minutes refilling when water level dropped, which it didn't much...some of this description is found in owners manual under overheating...mine has been fine now for a week...before it would heat up in 5 minutes...btw, it was spilling over before...

rebride

Check/replace radiator fan relay. It is in the black box under the hood.

malibu2005

My wife has a 2002 Pontiac Sunfire the radiator cooling fan has stopped working. After switching the relay switch out it still doesn't work. Can anyone tell me what I should try next before replacing the fan or motor.

loganhankins

What you can do is find a way to hook up the positive and negative leads from your battery to the fan motors positive and negative leads. if you unplug the radiator fans power you should be able to try it. careful that you are only doing the positive negative leads or you could take out the relay. if it cuts on then its something other than the fan motor itself. Like a broken wire not allowing power to reach it. but if it does NOT cut on, then it is the fan motor. they are usually 20-40 bucks and real easy to replace. only replace the fan motor not the whole radiator fan assembly, those are way more money and actually harder to replace lol.

Claires

Thanks for the walkthrough on that, loganhankins! Hope to see more of you around here.

ClaireS, Host
Automotive News & Views | Coupes & Convertibles

malibu2005

Thanks for the info I really appreciate it.

mimisofly

My father has a 2000 Pontiac Sunfire and the engine cooling fan stopped working! Any suggestion?

malibu2005

My wife has a 2002 sunfire we had to replace the relay switch twice I would start there.