2004 Chevrolet Cavalier Logo
Posted on Apr 26, 2011
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I have a 2004 Chevy Cavalier. A couple of months ago, just after starting the car one day, the 'check engine' and 'trac off' lights both came on. I immediately shut off the car, waited approximately 5 minutes, and then restarted the vehicle. The lights were no longer on, and so I continued home. About 1 month later, the exact same thing happened when I was leaving a friends house to drive home. I tried shutting the engine off for several minutes, but this time it didn't help the problem. I ended up driving the car home, but it never seemed to shift out of first gear, and if I took it over 35 or 40 mph, the rpm's reached nearly 4500 to 5000. I found later that it was due to the ERLS 10 amp fuse being blown. I disconnected the battery to reset the computer, and replaced the fuse. I reconnected the battery, started the car, and the car ran normal again, but only for about a month. The fuse just blew again today, while driving my daughter to school. I disconnected the battery again, replaced the fuse, reconnected the battery and started it back up. The fuse blew again about 1 mile down the road. I stopped and bought a 5 pack of 15 amp fuses, along with a pack of fuses containing 2, 5, 7.5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 30 amp fuses. I reset computer, and replaced fuse with a 15 amp to start. It lasted about 1 more mile down the road. I repeated this with a 20 amp fuse. This time, I was able to get my daughter to school, and about halfway back home again (20 miles approx.) before the 20 amp fuse blew. I reset computer again, and replaced with 25 amp fuse. This one lasted about 1/2 mile and blew. I replaced the blown 25 amp fuse with the highest rated fuse that I had left, the 30 amp fuse. Again, reset the computer and fired it up. The 30 amp fuse lasted about 2 to 2 1/2 miles, and then it too blew. I ended up driving the last 10 miles or so home, in first gear. I never took the car over 40 mph and the temperature guage never went above half way (approx 195 degrees). When I got home, I parked the car, and shut off the enginel. I removed the keys and exited the vehicle. I heard a noise under the hood, popped the hood, and found that the cooling fan was still running, without the keys even in the car. It ran for about another 5 minutes, before I feared that the battery would die on me (it is a new battery), and I proceeded to disconnect the battery again to finally shut down the fan. Has anyone run across this problem, or anything similar? Any input would be more than greatly appreciated.

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  • Posted on Apr 26, 2011
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Well it's temping to put in biggfer fuses as the problem gets worse but the size of the fuses are to keep you from burning things up so you've from your probem with a 30 amp smoke test. The raditor fan wire is melted somewhere in the wire harnes to the wire for the trck lock or even key on circirts. the likly place to look is inside the stering collum. It takes the skills of removing the steering whel and the lcok plate and even then thats does'nt have to be where the problem is. You need to look under the dash after you remove the covers and use you nose to smeel for the burnt wiring and open up any thing the smells like it's been hot and anything the appers melted together. once a harness is found melted you need to seragete all the wires in the loom but don't cut the wires justy seaparte them. once you think you've got then all pulled apart so no bear wires touch each other or any meal parts put in the correct size fuses and see if you can connect the battery with out a spark. if you can you may then start checking to see what works and what does'nt.. This all sounds like too much work or too hard to do then you'll need to pay someone theat knows alot about car wiring problems to do it for you. I'll been doing this kind of work for the last 20 years and a'm alawys finding new things that are fried and burnt up. We all charge by the hour to do this work so the most experieced mechanic that works on cars like yours will probly find and fix the problem the fastest. therefore they may charge more per hour but their likly to get it right quicker and it'll stay fixed after they fix it.. This is the most likly kind of work to go sour after it's fixed cause they might miss a circuit that you use and they did'nt try. and as soon as it burns again it's back to the drawing board and if big fuses are use the fire can take the whole car.

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