All,

I searched the forums and didn't see a thread that dealt with this exact issue. I apologize if this has been answered or discussed elsewhere.

Yesterday, I was out and about and the check engine light blinked a few times and then remained solid. The car lost power and began to run very rough. I let it sit for 50 minutes or so and it was still having the problem. Unfortunately, I can’t get the car anywhere to pull the engine codes.

I checked all of the hoses to make sure that it wasn't a vacuum problem but admittedly, it was a quick glance over before I had to leave for work this morning. I checked all of the fluids and all appears to be okay. Oil pressure and volts seem to be okay as well.

Also, there has been a burning smell, not strong and only appears when the car is at a stop on an incline, for the past week. I already had an appointment with the mechanic for that scheduled later this week. The leak that I believe to be causing the smell appears to be isolated around the rear of the engine. It doesn't appear to be oil or coolant. It smells more like oil but doesn’t look like or have the consistency of oil. (FYI, I don't appear to be having the coolant mixing with the oil problem). I don't know if these two are related or not.



I am thinking it’s maybe a vacuum problem or emissions problem, possibly O2 sensor or EGR.



Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.

If you could get the codes that would be great help for us to predict..

I didn't have exect same problem but smell on mine was diagnosed to heater control valve leak. although this could cause your engine to run rough i don't think it would let car loose power.

Car doesn't run at all any more? Did it happen all of a sudden? The most serious cause could be a snapped timing belt in which case you've destroyed your valves.
HCV won't affect the motor other than dumping your coolant on the ground. Maybe if it failed in such a way that it became a vacuum leak but I've never heard of that happening.
Here's a long shot: valve cover gaskets have failed, filled your plug holes with oil and are shorting them out. Pull your plug wires and look in the holes. Then do a search for info on the gaskets.

Thanks for the advice. I will have a look at the plugs when I get home from work.

The problem did happen all of a sudden. I was in a turn lane and went to give it gas to turn and noticed that it had no power and the check engine light was coming on. There wasn't any noise or anything that was associated with this happening except for the change in the tone of the exhaust but I believe this is just due to it running rough.

The car still runs but it runs very, very rough and has no power. I am not comfortable even driving the 5 miles to the nearest AutoZone to pull the codes for fear of damaging the engine.

Also of note if this makes any difference, this is the first time this year it has gotten close to 80 degrees outside and I was running the AC with four people in the car. More stress on the engine I suppose.

Oh, and I should mention that it is a 98 with 102,000 miles.

Thanks again for your help.

How long have you owned the car? Do you know that the timing belt has been replaced? If not Chregan's theory might be right.

I have had the car for 3 months or so. It had belonged to my brother and he had the timing belt changed around 70, 000 or so.

The timing belt was on my list of things to do in the next month.

If it was the timing belt, do you think that the engine would even run?

And did you have the tensioner/timing belt/water pump recall done?
I would say "don't run the car until you have looked at the belt" but at this point, your valves are trashed anyways if that's the cause. Only takes a second.
You can remove the bolts on the belt cover, pry it open, and peek in there with a flashlight.
If it's any consolation, I'm not sure the car will run at all with a snapped belt. It would crank but never catch. So maybe it's something else.

I believe that the recalls were done. If anything else, the water pump and tensioner were done when my sister-in-law let her 15 year old niece drive the car and she hit a parked car. There were problems then with water leaking into the cabin and the pump was replaced at that point. That's around the same time my brother had the timing belt replaced.

I am curious now and will go home tonight and check the belt first.

Thanks again for all of your advice.

Strap

Save yourself some time. If the timing belt was broken, the engine wouldn't run at all. And it wouldn't have died slowly as you described; it would have STOPPED DEAD. In capital letters. So the good news is that the belt is probably fine. The smell is PROBABLY a slight oil leak, probably from the valve covers, that is dripping onto the exhaust somewhere. It only takes a few drops for the smell to get ugly. (Coolant doesn't smell very bad when it drips onto something hot.) The engine symptoms you are describing could be either vacuum, ignition, the idle air control, or a bunch of other stuff. You really do need to get the codes read. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and money.

It actually depends on how bad the timing is. If the belt jumps just one tooth, the engine still runs without a damage. In my case, when I changed my timing belt, I misaligned the right bank by one tooth and the engine ran just fine but it was a little rough then I received the DTC codes of P300, P301, P303 and P305. As soon as I corrected the timing, everything went back to being normal.

Since we do not know the codes, it's nothing but a theory.

Guys,

Sorry for the late response.

The car is going into the mechanic tomorrow. He seems to think that it is either the catalytic converter or the crank shaft positioner sensor.

I will let you all know what happens.

Thanks again for all of your info and help.

I bought a 97 catera with very similar symptoms! I hope to benefit from your experience :) Have you pulled the plug wires out to check for spark? I am not getting a spark from my 2 and 4 plug wires. previous owner already changed the coil/no joy so mine could be plug wires. I get the car tommorow and will swap wires to check that. Fingers crossed for you!

Check engine light and poor performance (especially when cold) check codes, if you get left and/or right bank lean, you could check the MAF sensor, very common on this engine. the burning smell is oil? if so very likely to be valve cover gaskets, also common on this engine. Both had to be addressed in my 99' with only 60k miles.

Well, found out what's wrong and here's the story:

The valve cover gaskets on both sides are shot. This is causing oil to get onto the spark plug wires. This has caused them to go bad and as a result, it is misfiring. :eek:

I am going to go ahead and have the mechanic replace the gaskets, plugs, and wires.

Hopefully this and the timing belt next month will be the end of the maintenance for a while! :annoyed:

Just replace "o" ring seal around the crankshaft position sensor which loceted on the back of your engine. You have the faulty one ( big millage) and thats why you smell burns and weak power on stops. Good luck. Dont go to Caddi Dillerships (our here - is the worst one). Do it yourself and it will cost you about $60.00 AND FOR EVERYONE on this FORUM - BRAND NEW PARTS MADE in GERMANY and FRANCE (sorry) by GM you can at (link edited by moderator) - but the better way - call (edited by moderator) and order by phone - cheepest available in USA, nice guys speak with you...I always buy there and happy owner of my dear Catera 1997. Ask questions if you need anything.

You has spoken to the wrong mechanic - he did not recognise the problem - this wires can not be damaged by oil - they have special structure agains it( thats why they are so expansive). I am sure you have need replace those valve-gaskets for sure at 100K but you problem with weak power not this one. So you need valve cover gasket replaced, then crankshaft positioner O-ring replaced and wires NOT need to be replaced- they have life time warranty ! Find the good one mechanik. (how to recognise that you need valve gasket replace? - just remove spark plug from the cylinder#1 - it is located on the left/first one if you facing to your car/ and look inside the hole - if you see ugly picture that you spark plug sitting in the oil bath - you got it changed .

No

The wires get oil/dirt penetrated and fault as well as the sparkplugs and disrupts the current. Even if it hasnt, you're safer getting new plugs and wires.

Replace all the valve cover gaskets. The gaskets arent generally reuseable and are vital around the sparkplug ports.

The least you could do is check for spark on each cylinder and have a (new) spare sparkplug handy to plug into the one thats misfiring. If the new plug doesnt work then its probably the wire. Try the old plug on a wire that isnt misfiring to see if the plug you took out is bad. And visa versa.

Its better to be safe than sorry!! !! Strap you're doing the right thing. The advice above this post is questionable. - especially since you know whats wrong anyways.

Thanks, JefferyG. It’s reassuring to have someone back up your decision that is going to cost you a small fortune!

The mechanic had told me that I could probably get by with some of the old wires but that's a risk I wasn't willing to take. It cost a little more now but can save me time, money, and most importantly frustration down the road.

Both gaskets are being replaced as well.

The car should be done late today / early tomorrow. I will let you all know what happened and how she's running. :)

bet $100.00 I am right - just drive for a fiw days

bet $100.00 I am right - just drive for a fiw days

Caddlovers, That may also be a problem but I am just going off of what my mechanic told me. Since I have already had the repairs made, I hope for my sake you are wrong! ;)

There weren't power issues until it started to misfire. The mechanic checked (sorry I don't know which one) but one cylinder was misfiring and that is why it had no power. He told me that the wires were shot and there was some oil on the plugs themselves.

I am having him do a once over on the car before I pick it up. If there is anything else, hopefully he will find it.

I have almost the same problem with my car. But instead of a burning oil smell, there is the smell of gasoline, kind of rich smelling. When the car idles it shakes. Any ideas:hmm:

Caddlovers, you have to go with the obvious problem first. He has bad valve cover gaskets as evidenced by the oil in the plug holes. This causes misfires which means he loses power. The oil shorts the wires out as well as eating the silicone. I don't know why he would want to touch his crank position sensor without first replacing VC gaskets, plugs and wires. That's just throwing money at a problem that may not exist. Not a good way to deal with a Catera.
I don't know the extent of your experience with the Catera seeing as you're very new to this group, but once you've been around here a while, you will see the same problems over and over. If nothing else, Catera's are very predictable in their failures:
-Valve cover gaskets cause misfires
-Crank position sensor causes car to crank and not start (the solution is to replace the sensor.) The o-ring is not a chronic problem in Cats.
-Oil cooler leaks coolant and mixes oil/coolant
-Heater control valve leaks coolant
-Timing belt snaps every 75k and destroys valves
-Control arms cause shimmy
And so on.

Strap, how's the car doing with the new gaskets?

Long story short:

Valve Cover gaskets
Throttle body gasket
Plenum gasket
O-rings for each of the valve cover bolts
Spark Plugs
Spark Plug Wires
Coil Pack

All of the little o-rings and gaskets are ridiculously expensive but when you need them on short notice, Cadillac kind of has you by the grapes.

The wires were all goofed up from the oil spraying around everywhere. The plugs had oil on them and that messed them up.

Initially, the mechanic did everything but the coil pack, called me and told me that he needed to replace it, and that to save money, he would try to use the old wires. He took brake cleaner to the old wires and said that they looked pretty good all things considered.

He called me a while later and said that all was running but one of the wires was arcing occasionally and this had contributed to the coil pack going bad. So he did the wires and $1,533 dollars later, all is well.

The only thing that they, they being my backwoods mechanic, forgot to do was hook the wiper's motor arm back up and I thought that the sunroof was messed up. I hooked the arm back up and then remembered that you have to recalibrate the sunroof after it loses power.

All said and done, the car is running well now. I had a clunk coming from the driver front tire yesterday but that thankfully was a small problem for once. The roads around central Ohio, in particular where I am at, are torn up pretty bad and a bolt had worked itself loose from the back of the brake caliper. Replaced the bolt, no more clunk.

Phwew!