carsNskis
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No you shouldn't have all those problems. Did they fix those items? If not how much out of pocket? I'm asking because now I'm anticipating what I might run into, and curious how much they covered.
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Junk!
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Tormach
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The one item on that list I am wondering about is the head and head gasket failure/warping. Was it due to overheating or did the gasket fail and the head warped after.
The OEM stabilizer links (plastic garbage) I would replace with either ZZP's or Moogs.
rodslinger
Member
I've had a few more issues that I would expect out of any modern car. More issues than I would expect out of any normal GM but I'm not quite calling it junk yet.
I am curious through. Being a Chevy man all your life, what hidden gem of reliability from GM did you have before that makes you think the Sonic is junk? And yes there is thick sarcasm in there. I seem to recall that GM made mostly garbage from the 70's all the way to the start of a turn around in the late 2000's. While the engine and trans might have been fairly reliable back then I don't recall being around ANY GM vehicle back then that didn't have something wrong with it. Leaking heater cores, interior trim coming off, sagging door hinges, alternators, water pumps, ignition modules, fuel pumps, starters, etc... Were die hard GM owners just used to that sort of thing and considered some of those failures are part of regular maintenance? Seemed like a starer and an oil change was a regular service on some of them.
I literally had a hammer in my car in the 90's that I kept there to coax the starter or fuel pump to start working again for any idiot friend or family member that decided to buy a GM car from the 80's or 90's and got stranded
Blue Moon Sonic
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Yet if you actually didn't mind dealing with all these issues that are common among GM products, then they could run forever. It's oddly interesting to say the least. You can also thank Honda for GM still being around during the emissions crisis the US was having back in the 70s-80s.
opcorn:They fixed the items. I didn't put anything out of pocket, but that's not the point. If I didn't have another car as a back up, I'd be out of luck. A car should be dependable. It doesn't matter if you've got a warranty on it, because every day it doesn't work it's failed you.
It is currently at 55k and it's a 2012, so in the span of five years.
Sure, GM cars of the 70's and 80's (I still own some) had their issues, but isn't the point of modern technology to be more reliable and fix past problems? So, if we're still changing parts prematurely today as we may have in the past, then how have we improved quality wise?
Our 1993 Saturn never saw a tow truck in 18 years of ownership. It had its share of issues, but never what I've experienced on the Sonic.
Yet if you actually didn't mind dealing with all these issues that are common among GM products, then they could run forever. It's oddly interesting to say the least. You can also thank Honda for GM still being around during the emissions crisis the US was having back in the 70s-80s.
Honda was able to use the CVCC to meet US emissions standards without a catalytic converter for a while. I want to say they also adapted it to a Chevy V8 back then to prove it could be done on virtually any engine.
No doubt foreign competition in the 1960's and 1970's woke us up. The rust did in the Japanese cars of that era (and even through the 1990's), the powertrains were very reliable.
I feel in a lot of ways, we still have not learned from those errors in the past and don't do a good job on small vehicles. The foreign makers have us beat in this arena and they are now (and have been for years) doing it on our soil better than we can.
It never overheated on me. I was driving it to work one morning, it misfired at a light, the CEL came on and I brought it back home. Took my other car to work and diagnosed it that night. When I pulled codes, they were misfire codes. I pulled the coil pack out and two of the spark plug wells were full of coolant.
The dealer stated that the head was warped and he's done a fair lot of them and it would likely happen again. In his estimation it's a poor design. I posted photos back in 2015 on this forum when it happened.
On the links, Moog MIGHT make their own parts or they like AC Delco buy them from Deeza who makes them in Turkey. I posted photos of those on here when I found out from my contact at Delco that they had released them.
I find no evidence of it. We bought it in Feb 2012, that was before Hurricane Sandy here in the Northeast.
rodslinger
Member
Great example of how emissions technology has improved since then. And glad that GM didn't try and copy it. Hated working on those things.
A previous boss bought a $100 80's Accord with blown motor for a shop car. I was elected to fix it. Popped the hood and could barely make out an engine beneath the pile of vacuum hoses. Ended up unbolting the intake from the head and typing it back to the firewall. Was NOT disconnecting that mess.
Example... I think this is a typical vacuum diagram on those early CVCC cars.
carsNskis
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If cars were dependable there wouldn't be service centers or warranties. Good to know it didn't cost you out of pocket, it could have been a much worse ending than "they fixed it, problem solved"
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Llia
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Great example of how emissions technology has improved since then. And glad that GM didn't try and copy it. Hated working on those things.
A previous boss bought a $100 80's Accord with blown motor for a shop car. I was elected to fix it. Popped the hood and could barely make out an engine beneath the pile of vacuum hoses. Ended up unbolting the intake from the head and typing it back to the firewall. Was NOT disconnecting that mess.
Example... I think this is a typical vacuum diagram on those early CVCC cars.
Ahh the prelude with dual.carbs. I was happy with the 89 Accord with the single Keihin carb but almost identical bundle of snakes. Later I threw on a Weber.
Honda first had PGM-FI on the 1984 Accord as an option as I recall. Those were Keihin injectors. The carburetors on those era Hondas had bad floats. It was well known in the aftermarket, there were the "brown" floats and the "clear" floats. They would easily fill up with fuel and make the car surge and puff smoke.
There was a company based out of Chicago called "FC Carburetor" (Foreign Car Carburetor) that did a stellar job with rebuilds. They would paint the screw head and then provide instructions (turn the yellow painted screw in 5 turns, then back out 3, etc). Their carburetors were a good solution if you didn't want to rebuild those yourself. The aftermarket put together kits on those, the OEM kits were "buy the pieces to make a kit".
You're right, but at least it means fast heat in the winter time (at least here in NYC....)
Great example of how emissions technology has improved since then. And glad that GM didn't try and copy it. Hated working on those things.
A previous boss bought a $100 80's Accord with blown motor for a shop car. I was elected to fix it. Popped the hood and could barely make out an engine beneath the pile of vacuum hoses. Ended up unbolting the intake from the head and typing it back to the firewall. Was NOT disconnecting that mess.
Example... I think this is a typical vacuum diagram on those early CVCC cars.
You're certainly right about that. If someone had been under the hood and wasn't careful, you were dead in the water trying to figure out that maze...
I was not really a Honda fan, if it had to be Japanese, I always felt Toyota was a better choice. I liked when GM and Toyota partnered. In my belief it was a good "marriage".
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