99 De'Elegance rides like horse drawn wagon with steel wheels on a cobble stones

[tankaillc]

I'm calling out to my fellow cadillac owners to help me understand why my 1999 cadillac deville de'elegance rides so rough. Yes i'm one of the many proud owners of a car with the Cvrss Road sening suspension.


The car has 30,119 miles on and has been to the local caddy dealer before for other things. I have had them check the suspension at least 3 times over 5 years. Well after each time as you may guess there is nothing wrong with it.

Now I'm comparing the ride to many other cars Mom's 97 & 90 deville 100,xxx both fwd. Older brothers 95 deville 100,xxx fwd My long gone 1990 fwd fleetwood 115,xxx before and after all new suspension, {2003 ford e350 30,k 95 ford e350 195,k} they are work trucks loaded. Yes it kills me to list them. I drive these 5 to 7 hours a day these provide the paycheck that feed the caddy habbit these all ride better.

The listed tire pressure on the drivers door of the 99 calls out 30 psi for both front and back tires and 65 psi for the jelly dount in the trunk. I do check the tire pressure every copule of weeks. I've have them 30 on the nose and it still rides rough. I feel every crack,seem in the road,tartrail, ground out paint spots and those evil train tracks. For about 2 weeks I had them at 25 psi each. I thought I was going to dislocate my head and limbs riding like this. Also ran the tire pressure up to 35 psi maxing out the tires not a good thing either and the results are just as bad.

Well in the meantime I have picked up caddy #3 1993 rwd fleetwoood brougham [ The best caddy yet ] and now leave the #2 99 hidden the garage for 3 to 4 weeks at a time. [ it's got a optima red top like the rest of the caddys ] Yes i know it's not good for it to sit but when the ride is bad it just going to sit. Now I did drive today and had a buddy with me who drives an 83 olds cutluss he agress with me the ride is bad.

I know the 99 will never ride like the the 93 brougham but is it to much to ask that the car ride better then a ford product. I hope to get a better answer then just dive it like that until it gets better if ever.

Someday I will get the caddy that got me hooked in the 1st place 1959 cadillac abulance like the one I saw as a kid in Ghost Busters thats a caddy.

I will pre thank the elders and youngins of the forum for there wisdom.

[ted tcb]

An easy test would be to swap rims and tires with your mother's 1997
fwd Caddilac for a day. At the very least, it will rule out a damaged rim or
out of round tire.
You may get lucky and not have a shock/strut/front end problem at all.

[Swangin'Lac]

Originally Posted by ted tcb

An easy test would be to swap rims and tires with your mother's 1997
fwd Caddilac for a day.

I agree, take the 22's off the car.

[z06bigbird]

Low profile tires will do that to a car.

[99Classillac]

U have too low miles to need struts. If u do need struts, damn, what do u drive over to make them bad. My 99 has 136,xxx miles. I did my struts (front) because it was riding so rough. It fixed it. You have RSS though, I didn't. Maybe your RSS is bad. The struts are probably good but the computer is thinking that it needs to stiffen up the struts all the time, or the strut could be bad as in it's stuck in stiff mode. I dunno man. Sucks to have RSS, when it don't work $$$.

[Playdrv4me]

Originally Posted by z06bigbird

Low profile tires will do that to a car.

Am I missing something? Where in that post did he say he had lo-pro's or 22 inch rims?

I agree with the wheel swapping idea though, at least give it a try.

[Swangin'Lac]

Originally Posted by Playdrv4me

Am I missing something? Where in that post did he say he had lo-pro's or 22 inch rims?

I agree with the wheel swapping idea though, at least give it a try.

yea...u missed me making a joke.

[99Classillac]

LOL, I missed the joke too cuz I was like I didn't see him post about rims or nothin.

[tankaillc]

OK more data for you fellow caddy junkies

I guess I should had said the car is all stock but the K&N air filter am one of these guys that keeps them factory. This is also because I still let the dealer due some of the work on the car and can't be told my aftermarket part is the cause of the problem.

I had the tires replaced in late 03 and as of then there are only 5,485 miles on them. There a set of cooper thin white walls 225-60-15. These were to replace the factory new p225/60 r 16 michilen they were only replaced due to them having cracks in the side walls and as hard as rocks. I have keept the present tires shiny with black magic tire wet. <Don't think this hurts the ride quailty but I figured I should mention it.> Nothing but premium gas for this monster. Always comes from Quicktrip not cause I'm goofy it's just down the street for my house.

Here some numbers from the build sheet I have for the Moostone baby.
suspension system -FE1, Chrome wheels-N98, Comp front LH computer sel susp-6LR, RR/LH-8AP, FRT/RH-7LR, RR/RH-9AP. The build date is 03/03/1999
looks to be a wednesday car. Got the build sheet form the dealer when I bought the car.

I did have the wheels/tires checked at the dealer and I got to watch the tech put each wheel on the tire machine and see that there flawless. So the wheels/tires are not my problem. I had this done while was I picking up more parts for my moms 97 deville on friday. I'll be there monday at the dealer to pick up my 93 brougham parts.

I'll take suggestions for better tire shine.
Hope the better info helps. Thanks again

[tankaillc]

Update on 99 deville


Ok i have news on the caddy (( had )) come back form the dealer as all would have gussed the car is happy and not posting any codes. The dealer claims there is nothing wrong on the car. Okay sounds good right well as stated above it had come home for 1 night then back to the dealer.

I swear the car has it out for me or to be a little S#&t. As I'm leaving the dealer pulling out of there drive way oh guess what {clunk clunk} coming from the right front strut. Well I went on home pissed at the car not the dealer.

Well this ment the war is on with this car. again I got home from work early so i decide it was going back to the dealer one more time but before i dump it again i need to go driving around to find a way to recreate the pronblem over and over.

After about 15 minutes and 2 trips around the area near the dealer I had myself a perfect test track. So went in to the dealer got the service rep to hop in and go for a little joy ride as were pulling out of the lot yes {clunk clunk} on the right front strut. Needless to say the service rep had chuckle and said (is that the sound you refering to?) I said you got. So I did some more tooling around and yes it did as it always had bumpy ride and the clunkin sound.

So it is back at the dealer and I hope now some demons or hellish monster that lives in my car is removed. The car now has 30,135.

I'd like to think this is the end of all the fun I have with it.
Since the motor has all new seals,water pump,power steering pump,related hose and sensors,steering colum,transmission cooler lines,wheel sensors,Instrument cluster,fuel regulator,fuel filter,both power seat modules and switches,heating and ac switches,tie rods,endlinks,airbag module and side impact air bags sides were a recall item,both front door weather strips. I think this is it.

Lucky for me warranties covered most of this bs. I have learned one thing always buy the extened warranty. Because this one has saved my butt.

[z06bigbird]

Car was designed for 16s. They look and ride well.

[tankaillc]

I got my 99 back on 15th of may after spending 3 weeks at the dealer.
after every kinda of test known to man kind. The listening device finally found the source of my crappy ride. For some unknown reason the right front strunt and mount on the right side were shot to sh&t. The right strut had decided to carp out at the stiffest setting. Now it rides like a caddy should.


Why at 30,xxx it did this left me and the dealer puzzled. Luckly it cost only 75 bucks.
The warranty paid the rest. The best part of all of this it's all about timing less then a week later my mom's 97 deville decided to let the head gaskets go south and start a diet of dexcool and gas rendering her car useless. Mewhile the 93 fleetwood got a new starter
boy was that fun. It's weird to see your car going down the road and your not driving it.


Mom claims driving my brougham is tough because it's the biggest car ever. This i don't totaly believe seeing how i have a picture of mom in her 1st car a 60's new yorker white/red. Her dad sold her that so he could get a newer car. Grandpa never drove a car older than 10yrs but he never bought new. New for grandpa was 3 or 4yrs old. It looks like big cars are in my blood.


Ps to all 95 deville owners check out the shazaam! dic instant upgrade. My 99 is what made this happen.