Recent content by shorebreeze

Another vote for the evap purge solenoid. I started to hear a minor tick at about seven years/60K miles and noticed it was coming from the top side of the intake manifold, so I just bought one, had it on me for when the ticking got significant, tried to install it, it was slightly...

How does the rear sway bar modification affect this? It seems to me that it would be helpful and given how my local roads are I have no intention whatsoever of lowering the car. But at seven years old I'd want to know it was worth it. (NB, have switched front end to Moog end links)

Have you fully checked the radiator cooling fan? It's a complicated thing compared to, say, a Civic, in that while Honda tend to go with a cooling fan assembly that has two single-speed fans which can be on or off in any combination, Chevy have a three-speed single fan where either damage to the...

Not necessarily. I had a 0299 a couple years ago when I was out of town for reasons that were never quite clear. The turbo was intermittently not working, leaving things to the engine alone, and yet there weren't any obvious signs of issues, no oil seeping out from the feed line, no sign of play...

For reference, a good video on ball joint replacement on the Sonic from South Main Auto Repair LLC of Avoca, New York on YouTube. This video includes the ball joint replacement as well as the brakes and wheel hub bearing. While most of it looks fairly serviceable (the salvageable, splined speed...

For reference I had a cooling fan issue a year or two ago where the fan would only engage the highest power setting or off. The Sonic's cooling fan is a bit different from some imports because while, say, Honda takes the approach of having two side-by-side fans, and the power settings are very...

The Moogs broke I take it because of the drop? The stock ones are just a tetch over 11 5/8" center-to-center -- if I were going metric I'd call it 295mm.

The pricing on these things is all over the place. A lot of places (e.g. ACE hardware) won't let you bring your own fob in and charge exorbitantly for theirs. They have gone up substantially though. My dealer's price on OEM was $35 per fob in 2016, $50 in 2018 and $80 now. Programming and...

I'm trying to get to the bottom of awkward behavior from the engine. MPG went down a fair bit this spring following an oil change in which I suspect the vendor used dino oil and did not change the filter. I drove about 1,000 miles on the car in this condition, mostly local errands, from mid...

I recently had my oil changed, the second of this car, with the same oil I provided the dealer with last time, Mobil 1 Advanced Fuel Economy 0w30, which is dexos-rated for the turbo (on account of the 30 weight). This time, however, the oil life monitor has been dropping like a rock. It's on...

I'm still finding that probably the toughest part of what has otherwise been a pretty trouble-free experience with the Sonic is the softness of the seat-base cushions in the front seats. As I have the car in for service right now and for a warranty repair (replacing the bracket holding the...

I've a question on Onstar. As I'm sure many here are aware, Onstar has recently switched from Verizon to AT&T for their primary wireless provider. Furthermore, it would seem that 2013 and previous models clearly have CDMA phones, while 2015 and later models clearly support 4G LTE and 3G UMTS...

I've been having trouble lately with the car really holding back on the shift from second to third. The trouble began after a really strange crash with the ECU when I had a Scantool OBDLink MX in the OBD port. I tried to remote-start the car, it didn't go -- I got in, the check-engine light...

I have been trying to get a readout of transmission temperature, preferably fluid temperature, in Torque Pro, and can't get any of it. Nada. No "Method 1" numbers (fe1805); no "Method 2" (b4) and not even a listing for "Transmission fluid temperature." I ran the scanner in torque pro, I then...

Given that more than two-dozen 0w20 oils and only I believe two 0w30 oils are on the Dexos1 approval list, I'd like to ask, is the Sonic approved for any Dexos1 oil, or only for 5w30 or 0w30? In general, running stock and contemplating minor mods only for increased mpg and improved handling...