Boy,,do I envy all you guys who do your mechanical work yourselves. I now have my 98 Eldo. I was told they went over the entire car before turning it over to me. I mentioned that the ashtray door would not stay closed and the sunvisor hook was broken. "We will take care of that" NOT!!! I'll live with the ashtray and I fixed the sunvisor myself. Second day..."CHECK COOLANT LEVEL"... Ground under car was dry. Checked res. and couldn't see any fluid. Went to garage. Mechanic (??) said hymmmm..that doesn't sound right. and put 1 full gallon of Dex-cool into res. Bring it back if you have a problem. Brought the car to Valvoline and had Coolant system flushed and replaced with new Dexcool. That cost $100. Luckily they found my car in their computer system and found it was well cared for. All oil changes on schedule (with synthetic oil) good or bad ?? TransAx drained and replaced 1000 miles back. Records indicate owner cared. Car has nowhere near the guts my 94 had so have taken onto thruway with a couple of good WOT's. Switched to Premium fuel. Seems to have helped some. Am getting skip at 40-50mph so think I need a tuneup. Do I really want to spend $5-$600 on some JERK who doesn't know what the Hell he is doing. I had to go on this forum and bitch a bit because you guys are great. I'm really frustrated!!! Somewhere in this world there has to be a few mechanics who really care about cars. I've bought a powder puff and I'm trying to turn it into a MAN'S CAR. I really miss my '94 Eldo. That was a powerhouse!! Why am I complaining, this car has an outside mirror that turns downward when you go in reverse so you can see the curb. Problem is I was to see what the Hell is in back of me. Not what's on the ground. OK,,,,I'M DONE BITCHING FOR NOW.

Too bad your not in SE Mich... or else I'd look it over and do a tune up for you. Actually I'd teach you to do your own for free. Ultra few people in this world would take the care that *you* do of your own car.


As far as the rearview turning down. Check your owners manual. That can be turned off easily.

Rich

Yeah Mitch, If you were closer I'd do it for you too. No way is a "tune up" worth $500 - $600. You can get A/C Delco plug & wires from Auto Parts Fast at RockAuto (http://www.rockauto.com) for about $175 - $200 shipped. There is NOT $400 worth of labor involved. Shop around, and keep an eye on that coolant level.

Umm.. Mitch? You can turn off that "curb assist" mirror...

Like I said. YOU GUYS ARE GREAT. That's why I like to get on here & Bitch! The new Eldo is beginning to shape up. A few more WOT's and TLC and it should be where I want it. HOT HOT HOT. The cops around here love me.
Just an aside....I saw an AMC Gremlin for sale the other day and had to stop 'cause I owned one many years ago. Opened the hood and actually could see the ground under the car. No emission stuff, no power steering, no power brakes. Just a nice cool engine with a lot of pep (for it's day). Yeah...those were the days. Cops knew me by name then too. Thanks again, guys.

Haha if you do decide to do the tune-up on your own don't drop any of the spark plugs.

I learned the hard way that they break.

Haha.

I'm sure you can do the tune-up yourself. I'm a computer guy so I was a bit intimidated by that beastily engine but once I got my hands dirty it felt natural.

Just have proper supervision - my error cost me!

Like I said. YOU GUYS ARE GREAT. That's why I like to get on here & Bitch! The new Eldo is beginning to shape up. A few more WOT's and TLC and it should be where I want it. HOT HOT HOT. The cops around here love me.
Just an aside....I saw an AMC Gremlin for sale the other day and had to stop 'cause I owned one many years ago. Opened the hood and actually could see the ground under the car. No emission stuff, no power steering, no power brakes. Just a nice cool engine with a lot of pep (for it's day). Yeah...those were the days. Cops knew me by name then too. Thanks again, guys.
Mitch,
I can't believe that you would admit to that, hehe ;).
Yeah, I can recall (and miss) those days when there was actually room under the hood to work.

Yeah Mitch, If you were closer I'd do it for you too. No way is a "tune up" worth $500 - $600. You can get A/C Delco plug & wires from Auto Parts Fast at RockAuto (http://www.rockauto.com) for about $175 - $200 shipped. There is NOT $400 worth of labor involved. Shop around, and keep an eye on that coolant level.

Your lucky if things don't break when you do a tuneup on a N*. Plus as you surely know many shops would do more than just plugs and wires.

OOOPS..did a "quick reply" and don't know where it went so I'll reply again !
Ranger, it seems to be a misfire to me. Does it when I first accellerate slowly, not a fast start. Then again when cruising between 40-50mph. After that it is fine. Went to 110 with no problems except for that 40-50mph thing. I figure, because it has 103,000 miles it probably needs a tuneup. I have no maintenance records other than oil changes etc at Valvoline. I read somewhere in the forum about an oxygen sensor causing a similar problem. What do you think. Just seemed strange that it just started "out of the blue" after I did the WOT.

Know what you mean about the '94's having way more power! My wife even notices the differences from her '98 to the old '94.

I can't remember who mentioned it about the plugs, but what was meant by dropping them, and why was it expensive to fix? Did you simply drop it on the ground and break it, or was it lost somewhere, or did it break off in the engine?? Just curious since I am going to do that next. I did print out how to do it from the tech tips (thanks!).

Sounds a lot like plugs and/or wires Mitch. At 103K you're due anyway.

Hey Hotrails,

When I tried to change my plugs and wires I accidently dropped one of the plugs, I'm 6'2", so it had a nice fall before hitting the concrete floor.

I didn't know the white covering was poreclain I thought it was some kind of plastic.

Well I didn't inspect it for any cracks it probably had a hairline fracture.

Tossed it into the engine, engine ran fine for the first few minutes I was insanely happy.

Went to get dinner kept getting a misfire error then the service engine light, then it started blinking.

Long story short that plug I dropped had split while in the chamber and was causing problems which fried the coil it was connected to and the end result was a repair bill.

Haha, live and learn!

thats all a tuneup really is are plugs and wires.

Mitch,I used to have a 92 eldo.,my ashtray also wouldnt stay closed,I bought one of those leather key fob type things and jammed it in space above ashtray,it worked great,get one with a cadillac logo?.

The only mechanic you will ever find that really cares about the car is going to be yourself! The rest are just crafty businessmen who do labor also. If you do find a mechanic who cares you are lucky! Luckily all my maintenance i have needed to do I have been able to do myself. I hope it stays that way...

Hello...

Here's what I used to do when I took my car (not a Cadillac) to the local Firestone (yeah, I know!)
...and it yielded some decent results:

I was a regular at the same store and would provide a couple of tacos/burger/cokes/beers(afterhours)
for the mechanic who worked on my car. After a while, they recognized me and would jump to put me next in line!
I figured if the mechanic is not hungry/thirsty he can better concentrate on servicing my car.
Further, those afterhours beers yielded some extra service/advice
which I thought to be well worth the $5 it cost me!

FWIW

It also depends where you live.

The mechanics I dealed with in the bigger cities, such as Boston, were all fast talkers and eager to tell you something was wrong.

This was before when I was a bit naive and drove a Honda. So I just said "fine" and signed the checks. It didn't dawn to me that they were ripping me until I was told to change a knuckle, because of an accident I had, and then a week later to change the bearings of the same knuckle. They charged me twice for the labor knowing it could have all been done at once.

So I left and shopped around for another mechanic. I tried another inner city mechanic that my mother was using but when she told me it took less then 10 minutes for an oil change I was skeptical. Then when she found a weird residue on her windshield and hood I was curious. It was oil, if they ever did anything they either never put back or properly tightened the oil cap.

The mechanic I last used I only used a few times since I lost my Honda and bought the Cadillac. He's seen my Caddy once and the experience was expensive but he fixed what I had broke.

This new mechanic is a bit further out from Boston and more towards the suburban area. He has less clients and has more time to work on each car then any of those city mechanics I had visited.

I had been passing a local mechanic here for years that owned Cadillacs, mostly Eldorados.. He is in my town and I went straight to him when I had trouble, he treats my STS like gold! Excellent service and someone I trust.. That is a great feeling..

Well, it's probably time to end this thread. I was reading through all the replies and chuckled because I didn't see any nasty comments from mechanics. I'm sure there are good mechanics out there who follow this forum. At any rate, I guess I owe my mechanics an apology. They have really worked hard to satisfy me on my purchase of the 98 Eldorado. Did a full tuneup using AC Delco wires and plugs. Boy what a difference! No charge to me. Everything I've complained about they have worked on without any bitching. ( Granted, they should because I bought the car from them). I guess what really bothered me is that they sold me the car and let me drive out of the lot with the coolant system 1 full gallon low and plugs and wires which were totally shot. Why not fix these things before the car leaves the lot. Still have a steering issue which I will post on a new thread.

I had been passing a local mechanic here for years that owned Cadillacs, mostly Eldorados.. He is in my town and I went straight to him when I had trouble, he treats my STS like gold! Excellent service and someone I trust.. That is a great feeling..

I also have a local mechanic that has a 98-03 cant tell what year, STS. If I ever have problems I can handle, I'm going to him. If he OWNS his own Black STS, it looks awesome, he's gotta be good. he did do spark plugs on my Deville many, many years ago.