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Fuuuuuuddddge......

3K views 20 replies 8 participants last post by  turbojimmy 
#1 ·
I went to move the car to position it in the shade for the A/C compressor swap. It's hot out today:



Car wouldn't start:



But I was using a spare key that gives me intermittent Passkey problems. I went and got my other key. Same thing.

I let the 3 minutes go by and the PASSKEY FAULT light went out. Still wouldn't crank. Tried it again, same thing. I left the key in the ON position and waited until the passkey light went out, then cranked. On the 2nd attempt, I shut the key off and then immediately tried to crank it. That worked.

Not sure if this is the beginning of the end of my lock switch, but I think I need to start shopping for resistors.

I had planned to fix the A/C today/tomorrow and take the car to a fundraiser a couple of hours away at the shore. Now I'm not so sure....
 
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#2 · (Edited)
21 views and no reply ?
Come on guys, let's cheer this cool member up
Wish you were talking about chocolate "fuuuuuuuuuuudddddddge" lol
I know you recently had some input about faulty pass key fault as well . Well,I think it's worth fixing the A/C assuming you already did .How hard can it be ? You are a handy guy too
I didn't like Pass Key Fault either .It's ,however, if it were as bad you could think it would be your tricks would have not worked at all
 
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#3 ·
21 views and no reply ?
Come on guys, let's cheer this cool member up
Wish you were talking about chocolate "fuuuuuuuuuuudddddddge" lol
I know you recently had some input about a pass key fault as well . Well,I think it's worth fixing the A/C assuming you already did .How hard can it be ? You are a handy guy too
I didn't like Pass Key Fault either .It's ,however, if it were as bad you could think it would be your tricks would have not worked at all
Thanks!

I'm going to fix the A/C. I've already gone through the trouble of moving the thing, I might as well jack it up and get under it :)

I'll get the compressor swapped out tonight and recharge it tomorrow. Hopefully it will continue to start. My GF is losing faith in the car after the transmission debacle in Vermont. A no-start condition in 90-degree heat at the shore might be a deal-breaker.

This is the first time the master key wouldn't work. Like I said, the spare has been troublesome but the original always worked until today.
 
#10 ·
The limo is 2 feet longer than that, and the wheelbase is a foot longer. AAA won't mess with it so I dropped them. I totally understand - it's a unique situation - but the only reason I pay them is in the event my old stuff breaks. Was worth it for the GN, but not the limo. I can jump it or change a tire myself.

----------

In other news, it was too hot to work on it tonight. I popped the hood. Stared at it. Had a Bud Light. Then another Bud Light. And so on and so forth until the urge to fix it dissipated. I'm a morning person. Going to get to it at the crack of dawn before it gets too hot again. Need that a/c working by tomorrow evening.
 
#11 ·
tj, I had this happen, once, on my 94 Caprice wagon. After the panic subsided, I simply disconnected the battery, waited, reconnected it, and started it up. It's been fine for two years. As keys get worn, you can turn the lock tumbler before the key is bottomed out in the cylinder (and the VATS circuit completed). My advice would be to see how it goes. Consider getting a brand new key cut, but at least keep using your least worn key.
 
#13 ·
I do have a new key, and that's what it was doing. If I took it in and out of the lock cylinder a couple of times it would eventually work. But not yesterday. And the original key didn't work either. It must be on its way out.

It fired right up this morning. I don't know of the extreme heat had anything to do with it or not, but hopefully it will get through the weekend.
 
#14 ·
New compressor is *almost* done. I ran out of time before I had to get to real work this morning. I work out of the house so I'm going to sneak out and spend the 15 minutes required to finish up. I need to tighten up that stupid nut that goes into the block and then I can put it back on the ground. I hadn't opened up the box that the compressor came in until this morning. Instead of sending me a rebuilt unit like I originally purchased, they sent me a new Delphi unit. Nice.

Looking up from underneath the car I noticed that the water pump is leaking. Fabulous. Add that to The List.
 
#17 ·
Waterpump's just time consuming, but easy. My biggest issue when I did mine was actually one stupid bolt holding the Air Pump bracket on the bottom left of the bracket (when looking at it head on). All info I'd read neglected to mention that bolt, and it's not obvious it's there in the service manual. I ended up snapping the bracket there trying to get it off, but it holds fine with the other bolts on re-assembly. Other than that, my first time doing it was 2 hr disassembly, two hours cleaning surfaces, moving thermostats, applying thread sealant, etc (could have done it in 30 mins but I'm OCD), and 45 minutes re-assembly with another 10 mins torquing down. Next time I do the job to get to the Opti, it'll be much quicker.

Also, a couple of bolts holding the pump thread into the water jacket. Caught me completely by surprise and had me scrambling for rags to protect the opti..

Good luck - glad to see you're holding pressure with the AC :)
 
#18 ·
I had to do the water pump on my '96. It is just tedious - not terribly difficult. I hate scraping gaskets.

The car is starting fine today with the "old" key. I think that spare key, which I very rarely use, does something to the lock cylinder.

The new a/c compressor seems to work great. The other one was never quite right. It never sounded right and the high side of the system never came into range. I thought it was my gauges, but it wasn't. The aux fans and the secondary stock fan come on with high-side pressure switches. They're running like they should now. It's still a little undercharged now, but I ran out of time. I took a spin around the block and it's acceptable but not ice cold. I'll pop another can in it Sunday. My GF doesn't want to take it to the shore - she lost faith in it after the Vermont incident. I reminded her that we recently took it to Hershey and back (2.5 hours each way). No dice. Probably better off anyway til I sort out the water pump and passkey thing.
 
#19 ·
Good to see some progress, our Fleetwood was not sufficiently having an ice cold either .The culprit was expansion valve, it was replaced and now the car blows very cold air as supposed to be :D
 
#21 ·
Back from my trip to the shore. I hadn't visited my friends since "Super Storm Sandy". Man things are still f'd up down there. They rode out the storm in their house, a new-ish place on the water by the bay. It's up 10 feet on piers, unlike many of their neighbors' older homes. They watched many of their neighbors homes float away, and watched the water rise almost to the first floor of their home. It didn't make it all the way up there, so thankfully all they had was damage to the semi-finished ground floor of the house. Even so, I can't imagine sitting there realizing that your home is now an island in the Atlantic Ocean.

Anyway, was a sobering trip but a great time.

As soon as I got home, I got to work on the Caddy's A/C. The stock system takes 1.75 lbs. I had charged it up to 2.25 lbs. on Friday. A/C wasn't super cold. Like I've said before, I don't know how much extra capacity the rear HVAC system adds. There's another 7 feet of lines, a sizable evap core, another accumulator and a small condenser.

This time I shut off the rear system, which increases pressures due to the load, and tried to get pressures to come in line with only the factory system running. At 2000 RPM, which the manual says is the RPM they used to compile the pressure chart, I couldn't get the pressures to come into line after 6 cans of refrigerant. That's 4.5 lbs. When the stock secondary fan comes on, pressures drop so low that the compressor actually cycles on and off. High side barely reaches 250 and the low side drops to 20 PSI where the compressor shuts off. Should be 35-40 PSI on the low side an 325-350 on the high side given the outside temps. I'm reluctant to put any more in it - seems like a lot of refrigerant. But, with both front and rear systems on it's cooling very nicely. Better than it ever has and on par with my truck. I might just leave it alone now. Part of me wants to see just how much it will take, but I don't want to blow the seals out of the new compressor.
 
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