Top 20 1998 Chevrolet Prizm Questions & Answers

Pull the accessory relay out of the power box, turn on the key, and probe the relay socket with a voltmeter or test light. There should be two hot terminals. One turns on the relay and one powers the windows. http://www.revbase.com/BBBMotor/Wd/DownloadPdf?id=62087

Fix your car right away by clicking the link I attached Chevy Prizm 1998 2002 Factory Service Workshop repair manual download

I think you have a bad shorted battery or bad alternator.

If you can't turn off the headlamp's maybe one of the relay's contacts or stuck closed . There are three relays , head , dimmer and DRL . I wouldn't go condemning the DRL control module before testing it .

Don't know if this will help...had a nissan multi that drove me absolutely bananas ... die randomly ... use starter motor to crank to the side of the road ... scratch head look in and around engine , fuel tank ... try again and starts and gets me home ! Turns out that there was only one ground from ECU and trace it to 1 10 mm bolt on engine that I had not tightened when working on something else...long time past before it got tarnished enough to quit making contact but early on it gave weird performance symptoms . My 2cents . Hugh PS used schematics and ohm meter to find this .

Most likely the idle air valve or throttle motor is broken or stuck or not receiving signals from the engine ECU to increase the air flow to the intake in response to an increased engine load and therefore maintain the idle speed at the preset value.

pedal switch?

You have to start at the battery. Is it fully charged? It should show at least 12.6 volts to verify a good battery. If it is less than 12 volts, it will not start the engine anyway, so it must be tested and recharged if good, or replaced if bad. Next the positive and negative cables at both ends of them must be clean and tight. By now you should be able to have headlights and other accessories. And the key turned to on should light up all the warning lights and gauges on the dash, and when turned to "start", the engine should be cranking over and then run. If the car is completely dead, start at the battery. If you still suspect fuses, next check all the maxi fuses- the power distributors right after the battery. Only one of them would cause whole differing circuits to not have power.

its probably laying dead on the engine somewere

If its an automatic, torque converter or front pump whine.

Check the electrical connections at the starter & clean all connections one by one. TAP the solenoid lightly to see if it is sticking, & last of all take the starter to get it tested. GOD BLESS.....

I would say a failed steering pump or stuck control valves.

Temperature Sending Unit for your Oil?Transmission?Engine?Radiator?Need more information

look on the coolant pipe right front corner of the cylinder head.

Make sure there are no intake/exhaust leaks.

Your spark plugs are damagedIs that not a no brainer?Timing belt & you may have major damageto valves,pistons etcNeed to get a camera inside cylinder to inspect& then do a cylinder leak down test

make sure the cable is moving freely then spray wd-40 on the latch assembly and move it back and forth with a screw driver

The AC compressor front seal

Does your Prizm have automatic headlights (possibly called "Twilight Sentinel" in the mfr. literature)? These systems are notoriously unreliable. Sometimes the control module goes bad for no apparent reason, while other times it fails due to a bad ground in the under-dash wiring harness. Unless you're an electrician, it's best to have it repaired by a dealer. Be prepared for price shock - the module alone is over $250 new retail, not including labor to replace it. There are several variations of the module too, so if you get a used one you need to be sure to get the right one. If it failed because of bad wiring (which was not fixed at the time of replacement), the replacement will fail too in a very short time, possibly immediately.If you want to tackle the repair yourself, you need to know that the control module is falsely referred to in the wiring diagrams as a DRL "relay". Some Prizm models may have 2 DRL relays, one of which really is a simple relay but the other is the electronic module.If you happen to have some knowledge of electronics, it's possible to build a bypass circuit which will completely remove the DRL and Twilight Sentinel functions (leaving your car with plain old-fashioned manual headlight control only), using parts of the failed module as a mounting and connection platform, a few wires, and three transistors.

In this situation, most likely there was a break-down in the brake system. Usually you only have one reservoir that services both front and rear brake systems. But to replace the fluid, obtain a Hayne's Repair manual. They go over brake fluid replacement.