[TxSabresFan]

Thank, this post just saved me a bit of cash. Bought my 2001 Catera in 2003 for $12,000 with 19,000 miles on it. I wa working as a used car saleman for a bit when I first retired from the USAF awaiting test dates for my current job. A couple of the guys I worked with were retired auto builders that worked for Cadillac and they swore up and down that the Catera was one of the best cars Cadillac ever built. Honestly, I can't complain as I've had only a few problems and I do love the car.

I did experience a few problems over the past 3 1/2 years. A few months after buying the car the check engine light started coming on for a few weeks at a time. I was having battery issues, which I solved, and at first attributed the light to this. After fixing the battery issue, the check engine light was still coming on so I took it to the dealer (at this time it was under factory warantee) and they told me they were getting a bad code and could not determine the problem. I asked what they ment by a bad code and was told that the code they were getting was for contaminated fuel. Ok, stuff happens and not all fuel vendors sell good gas, but he then went on to say that there is no sensor on the Catera that makes this determination, so it must be a bad code. I had the car in at the dealer 3 times over the next 2 years trying to solve this and finally just drove with the dang light on all the time. Every year prior to emmissions testing I would have to pull the negative terminal to clear the computer then drive for 50 miles to get it to pass the inspection. This year however, it would not pass.

I dreaded taking it back to the dealer as I was pretty sure by now they were clueless so I took it to a local mechanic recomended by some co-workers. I stopped by after work (I work graveyard shift) and he told me to bring back the next morning and that he would research the problem on the internet. Dropped the car off and he called me at noon to tell me it was the mass air flow sensor and I could pick the car up at 5pm. He charged me $230 and it passed inspection without a hitch.

That last few weeks I've been noticing that when I go to start the car after work that sometimes I would have to crank it twice to start. We've had a ton of rain lately and I thought it may be a problem with humidity until one morning it would not start. I oulled up this site and read this thread and the issue you desrcibed was exactly was I was experiencing. It would work fine for a few days then would not start. The next morning it would start just fine.

Well I called O'Rielly auto parts and they had a new CPS for me that same day for $34.99. Put it in this morning, thanks to the wonderful instructions here and it seems to be working just fine. I let you all know if it doesn't. Thanks!