Our 'Junkyard dog'

[06T200]

So about a year ago I was wandering the bone yard looking for parts for another rig, when I spotted this black mystery car, I had no idea what it was, just that it had a bow-tie on the grill, so it must be some Chevy model. I showed a photo of the car to some friends and found out it was an Aveo. At that time it was not for sale, just had "do not touch - no part" written all over it in chalk. So I bought it for my mom to drive since she was driving an Oldsmobile POS. We watched it for a few weeks until it was in the 'for sale' yard. To make a long story short, I would buy a junk car again, especially this one.


First spotted - missing the fuel door, why is it HERE?


Inside shot - kinda dirty!


Wound up getting it out of there for $800 bucks.

2 weeks later = Road trip!


Finally legal


It begged the question since day one, why was such a nice car in a junk yard?? There appeared to be nothing wrong, it ran great, drove great, the AC was ice COLD, it was like a new car to me. It had some minor maintenance issues under the hood, but those were fixed in the first 20 minutes in the driveway. We eventually found out just why, and it was a painful ordeal that I eventually got sorted out with a LOT of help from members on the forum here. It wound up being the U0100/P0700 'problem from hell', that was fixed by cleaning a hidden connector under the coolant tank. We have found a few other makes with the same problem sitting in bone yards. I will say I have learned way more than I ever wanted to know about the MT-34 ECU, CANBUS protocols, TCM's and how it 'works', but it has helped me iron out other peoples cars with the same problem.

A year later she is still running strong, no issues to report, just thought this was kind of a goofy Aveo find others might get a laugh from. It is the nicest 'daily driver' car we own aside from the Sonic LTZ parked next to it.

[xintersecty]

Junkyard dog bad to the bone and dope. OK, enough of the trash slang talk. Congrats on making a good car become useful. You yourself has offered plenty of awesome advice here on the forum. So thank you! It's nice to see a Cinderella story, even if it's an Aveo.

Do you know why I like the Aveo? Because once you buy one and make your payments, paid for goes a long way. Meaning it's cheap to buy and cheap to own.

[PoisonIvy]

That's awesome!

[AndrewButler05]

Yet another Aveo back from what easily could've been dead!

Awesome!

[fbc]

Nice sig xintersecty!! I was almost afraid to browse away from this thread during the firmware update, as it might leave my computer unusable.

[WyrTwister]

Was the problem with the connector under the coolant tank caused by coolant spilling / leaking on the connector ?

Another example of brilliant engineering , by choosing that location for a connector !

No common sense !

God bless
Wyr

[xintersecty]

Nice sig xintersecty!! I was almost afraid to browse away from this thread during the firmware update, as it might leave my computer unusable.

My background is firmware programming. So I am so glad you respected the sig and continued to read while the firmware update is pending.

And, BTW, the Firmware update is always pending....

[06T200]

Was the problem with the connector under the coolant tank caused by coolant spilling / leaking on the connector ?

Another example of brilliant engineering , by choosing that location for a connector !

No common sense !

God bless
Wyr

Wyr,

Possibly so, but more caused by rain water the drips in from the back of the hood, up near the cowl. I noticed the connector does get moist during the rainy season, have to climb on your head with a flashlight to see it though.

[06T200]

Some pics from the latest 1200 mile road trip.

Out in the 'outback' in east Oregon, just on the mountain side of the time change, hwy 20.


Down town Boise



In New Pine Creek OR, right near the Ca border on 395. (you can see the 'just stuff' store in the reflection)


Fun times! Keep on rollin!!

[WyrTwister]

Wyr,

Possibly so, but more caused by rain water the drips in from the back of the hood, up near the cowl. I noticed the connector does get moist during the rainy season, have to climb on your head with a flashlight to see it though.

Can you put tape or heat shrink over it to help protect it ?

God bless
Wyr