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http://www.geocities.com/auto_world_blog/
When the engine moves, or the radiator moves because it is attached to the body, the housing will break. If an engine mount is in bad shape,the problem will occur more often.
The solution is to get a metallic housing that has been available for a long time. In fact GM decided to use the plastic one, because it is cheaper, but leaves the driver exposed to a failure that can go undetected since the temperature sender will not send a proper reading, showing a lower temperature, since the sender requires coolant to properly read, so the only hint to this problem could be steam coming off the engine or a spill, but sometimes this is hard to see. If this happens, blowing the gasket or seizing the engine is a possible scenario.
Anyway. I got tired of this problem after a second housing broke on me. Now, with the metal housing I think I solved the problem. It was more expensive, in fact dealerships wanted 90 dollars for it, but I found it on Ebay for 70, so it wasn't that bad.
Another thing that I wanted to talk about is the timing belt and the water pump. The engine on the Aveo was designed for high compression, but because of space and engine size designer was force to reduce the size of the compression chamber and to install 4 valves per piston, which is fine, excepting for the use of a timing belt instead of a timing chain, which is acceptable, excepting that sometimes the belt breaks and then the pistons, that are very close to the valves, end up hitting them and getting bend, and this actually means a very expensive repair.
The type of engine is widely known as an interference engine, and it is commonly used in the car industry, but some car makers install good quality components that will last 100 K or even more.
Some people will say that is way you have a preventive maintenance schedule, which is true, but there are a lot of things that could drive the timing belt to fail prematurely, such as oil, dirt, water and poor quality rubber on the belt itself. On top of that, preventive replacement of timing belt is not precisely cheap, since belt is more or less hard to replace.
To make things worst, the engine design makes the timing belt to drive the coolant or water pump, so if the water pump seizes, then the belt will get destroyed, hence the engine will as well.
To top that, tensioner and idler pulley are made also in plastic and bearings are short lasting, so they could also seize, and then engine will also get destroyed.
I noticed something after the weather started cooling down. It seems to take forever to warm up in cold mornings. It blows cold air for over 5 minutes before it starts to warm up. Heating works fine after that point. It's tolerable now, but I expect it to be a bigger issue as the weather turns colder.
I'll have it looked up as a part of warranty. Has anyone else faced a similar issue?
- sriver.
Yes, it was set to the warmest. I haven't driven it much in real cold weather so far. We haven't had many cold days so far. It warmed up in under 2 minutes today, a relatively warm day (well above freezing).
I'll wait for a few cold days to see if it's as bad as I saw a few times, and then take it to a dealership.
- sandyr.
Turn the knob all the way red, turn the fan on full, and kick the rpm up a few times. That should warm your car real quick.
A.
I am going to replace the stock front door speakers with a pair of pioneer 4" speakers. Crutchfield says they fit. How hard is it to get the front door panel off? I did the rear speakers with pioneer 4by 6's and they fit the opening fine I just had to screw the things into the plastic as not all holes matched up right.
I suspect this is an example of GM "old think"...since gas had shot up,raise the price of the gas sippers.....Meanwhile, Nissan finds a way to lower a Versa by $3,000....No matter how stripped this $10,000 Versa may be,it still is a great value...
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/01/10/detroit-preview-chevy-spark-beats-a-path- -to-the-web/
You have to change timing belt @ only 60,000--$400 from dealer cost me $40 for Gates belt & 2 hr work. If you don't no motor warranty on belt break and it's an interference motor.
Cooling fan shroud wears through radiator you need to add washers and padding if you don't $600 dealer fix after it fails and it will ! I got after market radiator for $124
Went through 2 front wheel bearings--100,000 warranty covered both.
If you air bag light comes on its the side air bag plugs under the seat wiggling loose. Push them together light will clear it self no need for scanner to clear codes.
The dealers put GM power steering fluid in and it will leak and make noise some day. They were supposed to use Dextron VI--works much better. You can't mix them.
Seats are made for 100 pounders will rip if your 200 plus.
Stock tires mega suck, you wont believe how much quieter and smoother it drives on $500 worth of tires
It drives as nice as it did when new and I don't think it's all that bad, realizing it's not a VW Golf but dose not cost $16,000 ether. A little buzzy @ high speeds 75+
I got 36+ mpg on hwy 65-70
Use KN oil filters with the 1 inch wrench thing on the end. They are easy to change from top. Run 5-30 Mobile one synthetic. Starts great @ -20 F
There is a cabin filter that filters the air coming out the heater blower motor under the glove box which just pops off--change it. Google for one $46 from GM.
Car is very easy to work on all kinds of room under the hood @ other areas.
Hopefully I'll get another 70K out of it with little trouble.
The Versa hatchback loaded, costs more than the Aveo hatchback, and the Aveo has a moonroof.
I will write back and give some feedback as soon as I give that a shot.
It's interesting of the millions of American citizens who never think of who they support when they purchase a high dollar item like a car. That is why they say especially the new generation of people only care about themselves, etc.