Spark Plugs and Coils, windshield wipers

[jewelz]

Apparently, I have a small oil leak that has dripped into the area where the spark plugs an coils are causing the car not to start sometimes. The dealer told me $1,600.00 to fix. Also, the wind shield wipers stopped working I can hear the motor going but they won't move. The dealer said a "link" was broken and it would be another $200.00. Does this sound right to you guys? I am having a small heart attack here.

[mytmous]

That oil leak is most likey the valve cover gaskets, I just did this cost me $48 (advanced Auto) and 4 hours of work.
and you want to see how bad it can get.
see attachment, this is how much oil was in the spark plug holes when I did my valve covers.

[sirmqc]

I think most on this forum would agree that you don't get what you pay for at the dealer. Say the parts are $300(from cadillac) - thats $1300 for labor? For four hours of work (if they at all know what their doing)? Thats $325 an hour!!! If you have 100% complete confidence in the dealer shop (and only the dealer shop), and you love your car that much, go for it - $325 an hour! . Can anyone imagine how you could justify that quote?

Anyway... you could do it yourself or take it to an independant shop. In my opinion, a reasonable quote for parts and labor would be $800 - $1000. If you do it yourself, there's plenty of info on this forum - I found a link in a post here to a good write up on this job done on an Opel, which is virtually the same car: http://www.vauxhallownersnetwork.co....ad.php?t=63628

If you happen to screw up the job on the first attempt, you'll leaked some oil, spend another $50 and another Saturday and most likely get it right the second time. With a job like this, there's little chance your going to do more damage to your engine; so if you have the time/tools, don't be afraid to tackle it yourself. I learned this the hard way - I payed $800 for the dealer to replace a fuel pump - which didn't fix my problem. Then I researched this forum and after $40 for a crank sensor and about 5 hours, my problem was solved.

I'm not sure about the windshiled wipers, but you have to take them off to do the valve cover gaskets, so that would be a good time to fix that too.

[guardian]

You guys are really on to something. I agree with everything you wrote.

Just a reminder, though:

Not ALL Cadillac dealers have techs trained to repair Cateras. Just a hunch, but I suspect it is the non-participating dealers who might overcharge, for two reasons:

To discourage Catera repair business and

To ensure they will make money if a customer DOES decide to go forward with repairs, regardless their ridiculous charges.

Roughly ten years ago, when Catera was launching, Cadillac charged dealers an "entry" fee of $50,000 to join the Catera marketing extravaganza. Fifty grand is a lot of money today, but it amounted to even more back then. A significant number of dealers, back at that time, did NOT pay the money. These Cadillac dealerships never sold the Catera and never sent their techs to Cat school for training on how to repair Cateras.

After the first year or two Cat sales fell like the temperature in January, once word got out about the reliability problems. There was NO incentive for the non-participating dealers to climb on board a sinking ship. They were most likely happy regarding their initial decisions to opt out.

But people move and take their cars with them. Cars are sold from town to town and interstate. Some Cats found new homes in territories within which they had not originally been sold, within the territories of non-participating dealers.

And that's where we are today. But I'm not aware of a CADDY dealer ever having told a Cat owner:

"I'm sorry Mr or Ms X, but we do not have techs trained on your car."

My opinion is they just "wing it" and adjust charges upward as required. They can and do charge what they want. And they are under no obligation to report their lack of trained techs to you, the customer.

In the past I have handled this as follows: I ask.

Basically I challenge the service manager to tell me if his techs went to Cat school. I believe I have received honest answers. So far, at three different dealerships, two service managers have answered "no" and one has said "yes".

As the old aphorism goes: "If you don't ask you don't get".

In this instance what you don't get is information.

[Resilient]

Originally Posted by jewelz

Also, the wind shield wipers stopped working I can hear the motor going but they won't move. The dealer said a "link" was broken and it would be another $200.00.

Depends... I changed my wiper motor (250$ CAD for the motor, import from the UK, as they are made there and not in stock in CAD or the US... anyway took me about 1 hr to swap the old one out and new one in. The link was fine... in my case the motor would turn but skip a 'notch' under load... or the wipers would go up, and then stick and stop...

If it's the link, then that also is 'easy' to change...

Year of your Cat ? I have the 98 full 3 set shop manuals... could scan what you need.

ps. For the rest of you, Yes I know, I still in the process of preparing a PDF version of the 3 set manual... what I did NOT expect was that the pages were so thin... the bulk scanner, didn't like the first test pages... so I'm going slowly, and manually... at this rate, our Cat will be collector items LOL

[sirmqc]

I also have the set of three 98 manuals, 2nd edition. Which did you start on and how far have you gotten? Perhaps I could give you a hand with this.

I seem to remember from a previous post that you removed the pages from the binding - I'm not sure that I want to do that. All I have is a flatbed scanner, so I should be able to manually scan without doing that though. I've also never scanned into pdf, just jpg/bmp/gif/whatever images.

[gixxer_751]

Originally Posted by mytmous

That oil leak is most likey the valve cover gaskets, I just did this cost me $48 (advanced Auto) and 4 hours of work.
and you want to see how bad it can get.
see attachment, this is how much oil was in the spark plug holes when I did my valve covers.

looks like mine when i took it to pepboys $500+ to change out had too, the car was smoking more than me at stop lights