Two problems related to oil pump have been reported for the 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
My mother has a 1997 Cavalier which she bought used. Since she has had the vehicle there has been two recalls and upon further investigation on my part I found on your site 5 more totaling 7 in all. She bought the car in August of 2001. When the car reached 109,000 the oil pump went out and she had to spend 3,000 dollars to get another engine put in, and she don't even have the car paid off. With these newer cars 109,000 is nothing and even in the older vehicles I have never had an oil pump go out with that little bit of miles on the engine. I have friends who are mechanics that I have talked to and they have told me that they have had a lot of these particular engines being the 2. 2 liter with bad oil pumps in them. This is the reason I am filing this complaint for my mother. My brother has a 2000 Cavalier with 239,000 miles on it and has never had a bit of problem so most likely it was in a particular year of vehicle that bad oil pumps were installed. He also has the 2. 2 liter engine. So could you please find out if this is an on going problem because I sure would like to get my mothers money back because she is on a fixed income.
Oil pump failed.