2000 Chevrolet Cavalier Z24 .. issues?

[dbx]

Been looking at used cars for a bit now and one that kinda works within my budget is the Chevrolet Cavalier z24. I've been searching a couple of websites and have gotten mixed reviews on the car. I had one mechanic that the 2.4L engine is hard to maintain ..but still that's only one opinion. Does anyone here know much about cavalier's and can shed some light on it? Any help is appreciated!

[VivienM]

Go to hwysafety.org and look at how the Cavalier did...

[ES_Revenge]

Been looking at used cars for a bit now and one that kinda works within my budget is the Chevrolet Cavalier z24. I've been searching a couple of websites and have gotten mixed reviews on the car. I had one mechanic that the 2.4L engine is hard to maintain ..but still that's only one opinion. Does anyone here know much about cavalier's and can shed some light on it? Any help is appreciated!

Why not try an owner's forum, like j-body.org?

The 2.4L TC isn't so hard to maintain per se, but some repairs/component replacements can be fairly large tasks... Waterpump for example ain't no picnic, but this is the same for many all kinds of engines/cars--they all have their components that are harder than others to get to or repair/replace.

The fact that it's a 4cyl engine and uses a timing chain (I'm pretty sure it uses chain driven cams), makes maintenance pretty straightforward. For example spark plugs are simple enough to change and there's only four of them. Timing chain means no timing belt service interval to worry about either. So I wouldn't be too worried about it being "hard to maintain" anyway.

[Shaggy299]

The 2.4 twin cam is a pretty strong engine in my opinion, just expensive to repair when there's a problem.
The common major problems are:
water pump: should be expected to be replaced at some point in any car. But the water pump is driven by the timing chain and costs like $600+ to have replace or a lot of time and scrapped knuckles if you do it.
third rod bearing: usually if the oil gets low or the car has been abused this will go, ultimately the engine will need to be replaced or rebuilt.

I've had a 1996 z24 5spd died last november had 320,000km on the clock and the timing tensioner failed.
I currently have a 2000 z24 5spd with 150,000km.

The coil pack cover on the 96 had to be replaced a few times, and I've had a few electrical issues with both cars, but most problems I have been able to fix myself.

[weedb0y]

2000 J-Bodies have very decent reliability for a GM and price point value.
I believe that 2000 also had a variation of Ecotec engine as well.