My car is really pissing me off......

[Night Wolf]

.... I have been having alot of problems (aka costly things to fix) on my car..... first i will say, that there is alot of hidden information about the car when we bought it form the private dealership, it was a so-called 1-owner car... even the dealership itself is very strange....

I have a water leak on the driver side of the car, the headliner above the door is all water stained, yet since i have had the car it has never gotten wet, but the whole driver side floor (front and back) will get soaked with water (actually puddle) when it rains... found that out only when installing a 4 ch. amp.

I have had a loud, annoying enigne noise, that we finally got fixed;

I had to get the alternator pretty much rebuilt (only $25 though) since the bearings were dried up, and my father broke the brush holder when putting everything together....

then last weekend I bought a new power steering pump, since it too was making noise, and when we took the serpentine belt off, the whole pully would wobble ($80)

then, to add more to this, my front motor mount went, I was driving around for a while before even realizing it too.... so this past Friday we replaced the front left trans/motor mount, only to find out that when we got that done, the right motor mount int he front (behind the A/C compressor) is also split...so BOTH front motor mounts were shot..... and we still need to replace the one on the right which will be a major PITA since the compressor will have to come out....

.... talking about the A/C, the compressor was making ALOT of noise, the bearsings in that were also shot, and the clutch plates were chewed up.... we used the old bear/clutch from my fathers '99 Grand Prix GTP (he blew out the compressor, but everything else was still good) and that took all that noise I was hearing out of the engine..... I can't say how much more quiet it is now, you can actually hear the exhaust from the front of the car, driving in it is more quiet, everything, it would make an electric type whine before... it's gone now....

while on the subject of sompressors, my air compressor runs all the time, I thought there was a leak in the air lines to the rear shocks, so we replaced the gaskets on the left side (where you coudl hear air leaking) it was great for about 2 days, now it leaks again, adn the whole car leans to the left worse then it ever did... I mean really noticeable..... I can make a fist and stick it between the space from the top of the tire to the rear fender on the right side, but yet the fender covers the left tire about 4" or so... ontop of that my Service SSS light is on... well, has been on, since I found out someone took the bulb out (probably the dealer to hide it up, among other things) and I am not going to pay $600/strut for the active thigns, so I will replace them all with passive struts, but get the air struts for the back.....

Then the blower decided to stay on all the time, on high, even when the car is shut off... so I have the fuse pulled for now, I think it is the blower control module, but until then, I have no climate controls.....

then there are the little things... I need to replace the gasket around the passenger window frame....again, which nobody seems to have, and GM wants $600 for the damn rubber thing......

I am not working much right now, and this is using up all my money..... atleast me and my father are doing the work, so I don't have any labor.... but still... I simply do not have the money to keep dumping into things like this.... there are just wayyy too many mysterious things with the car, and place we bought it from (in FL.) that are very strange.....

.... I am still never going to get rid of it, she is my baby..... but now I realize understand that all these luxury features are nice to have, but a royal PITA and expensive to fix when they break....

....compare that to my 1989 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight Royale, it is my winter/2nd car.... $500 w/ new battery.... in good shape, it sat for 2 years, so develpoed some rust in the areas a car would when sitting outside for 2 years... the paint is completly shot, but the interrior is in great shape, the 3800 V6 runs great (now has 121k miles on it... I put 5k miles over the winter) and the drivetrain is solid.... now besides some inital things that needed to be worked on and fixed becuase it sat (front breaks, radiator, trans fluid/filter change etc...) that car is extremly reliable... it also has the rear air shocks, but the left hose thingy going to the shock came off, and I only heard the compressor go on 3 times since i owned it... the car sits pretty level, and I am not going to even make a big deal of it.... besides that, the power windows are slow to move, but nothing else is wrong..... I never had a problem at all with that car... it is a great car, and is older, more miles, wasn't/isn't taken care of as good as the DeVille.... and it just startels me..... if I had the money right now, I would keep both cars on the road, but I don't.... but this recent thing with the DeVille really makes me think twice about all the crap a luxury has over a regular car... or even an entry-luxury car (such as my 88 in its day).....also makes me wonder how the 90's Cadillacs (well, the newer ones them ny '93) with all the computer stability, magnasteer, rain sense sindsheild, traction control among 50 million other things will hold up....

... sorry, just had to vent... I am just fed up with how much crap I have already, and have yet to do to it... let alone all the money I am spending.... it really sucks....

[tru504187211]

You could just GIVE your rarity to me...I'll gladly give the Cad a nice warm home.

[90devilleguy]

about the leaking in the floor, my friend had a problem in his 2000 GTP Daytona 500, turned out that the vents for the heat infront of the windshield were leaking when it rained and he had about 3 inches of water in his flooring front and back.he took off the heat vent and siliconed the s out of it and the leak has stopped ever since. try that out.

[jptd202]

My 1st instinct upon reading your post seemed to indicate to me (since you bought it from a private dealer) that you've purchased a "flood recovery" vehicle that the dealer may have purchased from an auction or an insurance payoff type of deal. I don't know. Just a thought.

It sorta makes carfax.com worth the $20.00 it cost's to have a previously owned vehicle checked out. I know it was when I used it before purchasing my 92 Eldorado. :coolgleam

[SoundAdvantage]

Originally Posted by Night Wolf

.... I have been having alot of problems (aka costly things to fix) on my car.....

I have had a loud, annoying enigne noise, that we finally got fixed;

I had to get the alternator pretty much rebuilt (only $25 though) since the bearings were dried up, and my father broke the brush holder when putting everything together....

then last weekend I bought a new power steering pump, since it too was making noise, and when we took the serpentine belt off, the whole pully would wobble ($80)

then, to add more to this, my front motor mount went, I was driving around for a while before even realizing it too.... so this past Friday we replaced the front left trans/motor mount, only to find out that when we got that done, the right motor mount int he front (behind the A/C compressor) is also split...so BOTH front motor mounts were shot..... and we still need to replace the one on the right which will be a major PITA since the compressor will have to come out...

.... I am still never going to get rid of it, she is my baby..... but now I realize understand that all these luxury features are nice to have, but a royal PITA and expensive to fix when they break....

... sorry, just had to vent... I am just fed up with how much crap I have already, and have yet to do to it... let alone all the money I am spending.... it really sucks....

Rick, you need to quit Drag Racing your Cadillac! These cars were meant to be Cruisers. They aren't like small block Chevy's that you can Dog and Race. You treat them right and they will give you good reliable service, but you can tear one up in a hurry if you Hot Rod them. I floored my FWD 4.1 one time and it didn't like it at all. I baby my Caddy and it's a 87 with 146,000 miles on it, but it runs like a new one and has been taken care of and driven right. It's ok to take them out on the highway and run them up to 85 mph to blow the carbon build up out of the engines, but Hot Rodding them will have you working on them more than your driving them I run Chevron Techron fuel injector cleaner in my engine once a month and i also use the STP gas treatment in all my vehicles on every fillup. P E A C E

[RBraczyk]

you could probably find that window gasket at a junkyard on a similar caddy deville year.

[MrSmith]

To be honest with you, I never really trusted american car {what people make them out to be} so I stuck with Nissan, Toyota, Acura etc. But there not Luxury to me. To me American can make the BEST luxury cars you can find. My father is an American man, Never in my life saw him even get in a import. I dont think he has ever ridin in one. Oh yeah he has his wife has a 2004 Carolla


Anyway, He gave me his 91 Deville , that I have today {went and picked it uplast night} and drove it from N Carolina to Atlanta were I be and it drove nicely. It has is noises that I cant ask about yet because like I said. I never had an american car. dont know what its suppose to sound like. But If Im going to have to go threw the stuff that your going threw with your Cadillac I really do hope I could pull it on jack stands and do the work myself because although Im working. Money to fix Luxury isnt gonna be cheak. I think Im gonna invest in AAA. anyone got AAA???

[jptd202]

Yes, I do. I even bought an account for my daughter. We both drive Eldorados, (I gave her my old one) and we've both used the AAA. (once each) Well worth the money.

[Stoneage_Caddy]

"sorry, just had to vent... I am just fed up with how much crap I have already, and have yet to do to it... let alone all the money I am spending.... it really sucks...."

im in the same boat , the more and more i deal witht he car the more i realize its not worth my time and money (resale value) . the car isnt speical and anymore i find myself looking at classic SAAB 900 turbo convertibles a little too much. I want something worth working on that i know i wont see in traffic (you dont understand how many gold 94 devilles there are down here) . if my caddy keeps this up ill be looking very hard at saabs , 900 vert, 9-3 turbos and saab viggens

[Imprl59]

[quote=Stoneage_Caddy (you dont understand how many gold 94 devilles there are down here) [/QUOTE]
Yeah I do.. I'm over in cleawater and pull up beside atleast one other green '94 Deville every day on my way to work or home. The good thing is that the cops tend to ignore us down here in the Cadi's. Guess they figure its just grampaw and not worth the trouble of pulling him over.

Steve B.

[Night Wolf]

I think the leak is coming from the bottom left of the windsheild... I need to spend some time with it....

Who said I drag race the car all the time? the picture in the avatar? that was last year, and I only ran twice, I will be going up in June as well.... there is really no big deal in the drag racing either, it is a high 15second car, so being in a drag race is nothing differnt then when stopped and getting on a major road, you go from being stopped, and you floor it... not really a difficult task.... it isn't like I go to the track every weekend either.... So far none of the prblems I have are not the engine... just all the stupid expensive things you find on luxury cars (which are neat to have...except when they break)

I went to the junkyard and found a gasket last year, it did the same exact thing, the bottom right corner will not stay in , it comes up.... but we cut the gasket last year to try something, but I gave up on that idea, so now the gasket it cut, there is a big gap b/w the 2 ends also (it shrunk) so more water then normal gets in the passenger door when it rains.... when I go to the junkyard to pick a few things up, I will see about that gasket again.

I have AAA also, the '91 will be more simple, and cheaper to fix AFA the suspension, the '91 has regular struts, my '93 has the Speed Sensitive Suspension, which are a major pain to replace, and very expensive, so I am going to be looking into the kit that converts it all to passive..... the car leans to the left, the rear air shocks leak, and my service SSS light is on (code 24 and 25) which IIRC means both from struts have failed (the accuators are stuck in firm mode) so in retrospec, they are not active anymore....

I don't care about resale value, I never plan on selling the car....honestly... so none of that matters. You never see a '91-'93 Coupe Deville around here, hell there are only a few '91-'93 DeVilles in general, and with my color being rare, there is not a single car like mine here..... a guy down the road has a nice dark blue '91/'92 Sedan with the cool factory wheels....that's about it.

The more things that keep going wrong with the Cad though, the more I like my Oldsmobile becuase all the things the DeVille has (with the exception of the rear air shocks) the Oldsmobile dosn't..... that, and the fact that the engine and drivetrain in the Oldsmobile are great, and proven, makes it that much better....... which is why I have been thinking about, that instead of getting a '93+ ETC as a next daily driver, maybe I will get something more conservative like a mid 90's Eighty Eight or something..... I am kinda partial to Oldsmobile for regular mid-size cars... and with the reliabilty, and cheap cost to maintain my 88, I think it would be a great car to have as a daily driver, I wouldn't have to be so anal about it too....

check out the last page of my car domain site for info and pictures on my Olds.... it truly is a great car, I am going to be spending some time this summer fixing up the rust spots (not that bad actually) and I already have the new fender and door, just need to paint it....

[elwesso]

Im sorry this happening to you... You have a beautiful car...

Most of things are mainly due to age..... A common misconception is that miles are absolute, and thats not the case.....

If its not driven, it will still rot... Thats why nowadays id take a decent to well maintained car that was driven daily than one that was sitting a lot..

Now if it were sitting in an enclosed garage, with 90 day oil changes, and taken only on the interstate, thats a diferent story!

I digress.....

Eventually your gonna have to make the choice if its really worth it any more. I feel we are sorta in the same boat, as I have spent a boatload of money on my Q45, granted stuff I didnt have to do...

I suggest that you sorta put the deville away (under a cover or garage) for a while and then fix EVEYTHING at once, and get it over with..... Having 2 cars really helps..