my new 2005 chevy aveo. hello greasy hands.
first let me say thanks to everyone that has posted repair procedures on here. it has made my life a whole lot easier..
that said. the wife and I had been talking about getting anything with better fuel mileage than our current vehicle. a 2005 Durango with the 4.7 v8. ( 13mpg) we set our cash price limit at $3000 with $1000 in reserve for any needed repairs of the used car. so off we went car shopping. we found alot of cars in our budget but none that a $1000 would bring back to road ready condition enough for my wife and children to be in. untill we came across this 2005 aveo5. very very clean. asking price $3800 :-( test drove. check engine light came on. steering wheel had a wobble and there was a slight tick coming from the timeing belt area. well I work this to my advantage. and I ended up with the car on the road (tax, title, and tag) for $3000 :-)
sence it was on empty had to buy gas. stopped at advance to get a few things first. 2 cans if sea foam, oil/air filter 5qts mobile one, an o2 sensor for bank 1. poured 1 can of sea foam in the tank and the other in the engine. drove it 50 miles took it home and changed the oil. then I tried to change the air filter :-! bolts would not come out. unbolted air box and found that the pressed in round nuts were spinning. tried for an hour to try to get them out. no luck. looked in the air box and the filter looked like it hadn't been changed in a very long time. back to Advance I went. went to rig up a cone shaped filter to the air intake tube. guess what. it was busted on the bottom. got what I needed then went to dealer to order new tube with air temp sensor.$68.00! while there checked on timing kit with water pump. .$235.00. ah no thanks. but I did end up getting a Gates kit for $157.00 (water pump, idler, tensioner,and a gates belt) next day got all parts that were ordered and dove in. and glad I did. timing idler pully was busted on one side and the bearing in it was about to come apart. well im happy to say that all parts got put on and it is running grate. two new steer tires took care of the wobble and the o2 took care of the lite. went ahead and changed upper and lower radiator hoses and thermostat. it already had the aluminum thermostat housing.
after all is said and done I still have about $400 left of,my $1000. will use it for new breaks and shocks and struts. so I now have a $4000 2005 chevy uh oh. I mean aveo.
mpg of 2nd tank after repairs. 31mpg. I'm happy
