Hello
I'm new to this forum. I currently have a (new to me) 1997 ETC. We co-signed a loan for my 18 year old son, and as you might have guessed, it didn't work out. So I have this car and I'm not sure if I should sell it or keep it. My wife and I currently have an SUV and Truck with 100K mi and 135K mi respectively, and I WAS thinking of driving a car sometime anyway, so I'm thiking of keeping it; but I'm not sure.

PRO: It is a real beautiful car. I like driving it. Its fast. Excellent glossy black finish, 62K mi, fully loaded w/12 CD Bose sound. We paid $10K for it at a small dealer in MA. It looks like Tony Suprano's car.

CON: It requires high-test and gas prices are certainly high. I might think I could have trouble selling it because of that. Also, with a V8 up front, sideways, with a transaxle, it seems like it could be costly over its life (although, from reading on your forum, this is NOT a new design). It looks like Tony Suprano's car. (thats my Wife's con).

The thing is, if I was looking for a car, I probably wouldn't have chosen this. But now that I look closely at the car, there really is a lot of quality in this beast. I can appreciate an aluminum engine with 8 quarts of oil.

Anyway, your thoughts are appreciated.

Here are the problems:
1) The idle seems to have a slight stumble, and this gets much worse when the AC is switched on. I think I can feel it when driving at high speed to; a little stumble. Any ideas what I should look at first? (I used to work on cars and can do some work - but maybe I should bring it to a mechanic who can hook it up to a diagnostic computer). Should I do a "tune-up" of some kind? I know the term tune-up has changed a bit.
2) Right front, there is a little nose when driving and hitting a bump. Sounds like a shock could be loose. Just a little bump noise once in a while. However, the other day, I floored the car from a stop and it made a bad noise from the right front. I have trouble explaining the noise. It was just plain bad, like scraping, or rumbling; something definately NOT right up there. Any thoughts?

1) Your idle problem is probably the car just in need of the tuneup, sounds like a bad wire or maybe plugs to me. Most likely not but cross your fingers that hickup isnt coolant being burned like my car was. Check your coolant level and make sure its not dropping any over the course of driving for a week or so.
2) As for the noise it is very hard to diagnose from a visual paragraph without hearing or seeing it. Could be bad motor mount, cj joint usually only if turning, bad strut? who knows.

Check your car for its stored codes and post them up here.

Thanks for the reply. I've checked the manual but can't find out how to access the diagnostic error "codes".

The normal display on the dash does not contain any errors when I cycle through the "Info" button.

Please advise.
Thanks.

Congradulation on the 97 ETC, I've had mine since new (97) - anyway - the front end rattle, over bumps (like speed bumps) or other little pavement joints - can be caused by link rod bushings - I have replaced mine 3 times - they last about 30k miles on my car. The link rods connect from the frame to the body (i think) but are visible when the front wheels are removed - the dealer hits me up for about $250 each time - pain in the ass and I think a GM design flaw. You can change them your self if you wish - parts are about $120 or less.

The other PRO about this car is that no one can tell what year it really is ---- not much change from 97 till the end of production ....;)

Thanks for the reply. I've checked the manual but can't find out how to access the diagnostic error "codes".

The normal display on the dash does not contain any errors when I cycle through the "Info" button.

Please advise.
Thanks.

You have to enter diagnostics. On the climate control panel, push both the "off" and " warmer" bottons at the same time. The DIC (digital information center on the control cluster) will cycle through current or history codes if any.

Get the codes and post them. Being you just got the car, that should be the first step. Not knowing how long your son drove the car and what kind of maintenance he did, you need to do a few things no matter what. At your first chance with some free time, you should devote a tune up to the caddy. Remove, check and clean the plugs. Check the wires. Remove the breather tube and clean that throttle body inlet. There will be some guaranteed carbon build up there. Personally, I also prefer to change out the pvc valve and fuel filter since they are cheap. That may not be needed in your case though.

Like 94green, I believe your stumble is in the spark. A dirty throttle body isn't helping either.

Tony

Just FYI since the rest has been covered you can run regular gas in there, the only drawback is you might notice a bit of a performance hit, especially in warm conditions. There's more info available if you use the search feature of the forum.

Thanks guys. This really is a great forum. I appreciate all the help.
I'll change out some parts, and also see a mechanic.

My son did NOTHING as far as maintenance.

Codes: I couldn't find any "warmer" button, but I turned the ignition on, and hit the OFF and other buttons. The only thing that corresponded to me pushing the buttons was "Service Engine Soon" flashed in orange, but it was not in the center display window.

I think the noise when I floor it was the V8 tourque due to it's alighment (sideways) pulling on some motor mounts or other parts as suggested. I'll have to have that checked as well.

I'll try to post some pictures when I get them out of the camera.

The "warmer" button reference refers to the passenger climate control setting - far right side. Hold the off button and the up (warmer) button on the passenger climate control for 3 to 4 seconds - the dash display will light up, then the system will start displaying codes. The fan control button can be used to cycle the codes once the automatic display is finished - up on the fan control can be thought of as "enter" or "yes" down is "no" or "skip" if you push the "off" button the display will backup one level. To quickly exit the diagontic mode simply hit the "auto" (large round temp control button) on the climate control.

Thanks for the detailed directions on how to get the error codes.
Here goes: (I may have missed something)

No PCU, IPC, ACM, SDM, RSS, PZM, CCP, MSM, MMM, PCM CODES

TCS U1255 HISTORY

IRC B1740
IRC 1771
IRC 1064
IRC 462 RD

RFA 2560

462 RD HOURS IR D01
25 CT HOURS IR D02
178 CD HOURS IR D03
92 GAIN IR D04
1 VF INPUT IR D05
126 FM PASS A IR D06
128 FM PASS B IR D07
0 REGION IR D08
6 TRACK IR D09
56 FOCUS ER IR D10
0 LOADER IR D11
152 AM PASS A IR D12
154 AMPASS B IR D13
7 CONFIG IR D90
8 IGN CYC IR D91
188 HEAD HW IR D92
138 HEAD SW IR D93
0 CASS HW IR D94
0 CASS SW IR D95
0 AMP HW IR D96
66 AMP HW IR D97
229 CD HW IR D98
232 CD SW IR D99

RFA DATA:
2 LAST BTN FR D01
1 LAST FOB RF D02
4 PROM ID RF D99

Hello all
I posted the error codes the other day. When you get a chance, please help me interpret them. Thanks.
Pete Reinhard

No PCU, IPC, ACM, SDM, RSS, PZM, CCP, MSM, MMM, PCM CODES

TCS U1255 HISTORY


U1255 - Class 2 Communication Malfunction (Serial Data Line Malfunction)

Nothing to really worry about...

You have this one code stored in the Traction Control System (TCS) history, which means it isn't a current problem. I suggest you reset and see if it comes back. If it comes back, have it looked at, if not, just forget about it. The car will usually tell you if something is wrong.