My youngest son picked up an old 97 Cadillac Seville STS last week and the guy told him the only issue was it was overheating.
The overheating was easy enough the guy had put "literally" 3/8 of inch of silicone on the thermostat housing for a gasket and gummed up the new thermostat. That and he had some cheap aftermarket electric fans installed "backwards" pushing the air the wrong way through the radiator. The electric fans are also pretty worn out, you can hear the bearings rattling in them.
The car appears to be quite sound for the most part and is very good looking with only 150K miles on it. But... After dealing with the overheating and putting a new battery in the car the alarm went off and nothing seems to work now. The key reads fine as well as the sensor that reads the key chip/resistor. The mechanics shop "Meinike" if you call that a shop ( I don't) had no idea what to make of the issue and offered my son a job when they found he simply bypassed the starter lockout to get it started and drive it to the shop. But they can't seem to even find information on the car let alone have any clue as to what to do.
I went and wired the alternator to charge bypassing the lockout and we drove the car home, but many systems are still locked out. While no doubt I could eventually just bypass the lockouts, it would be nice to know a little something about how this alarm works, I am assuming that a sensor somewhere is likely setting off the alarm and thus the lockouts, but no one seems to have any info on the car at all. I am an electronics engineer and there is little that I can't figure out or simply bypass, but this car has an insane amount of electrical components, I could be months trying to bypass everything effectively.
Anyone have a good source of information on these old cars? For the $500 my son spent on this, it could be quite a nice car for him and his family if we can figure out the alarm issues.
The overheating was easy enough the guy had put "literally" 3/8 of inch of silicone on the thermostat housing for a gasket and gummed up the new thermostat. That and he had some cheap aftermarket electric fans installed "backwards" pushing the air the wrong way through the radiator. The electric fans are also pretty worn out, you can hear the bearings rattling in them.
The car appears to be quite sound for the most part and is very good looking with only 150K miles on it. But... After dealing with the overheating and putting a new battery in the car the alarm went off and nothing seems to work now. The key reads fine as well as the sensor that reads the key chip/resistor. The mechanics shop "Meinike" if you call that a shop ( I don't) had no idea what to make of the issue and offered my son a job when they found he simply bypassed the starter lockout to get it started and drive it to the shop. But they can't seem to even find information on the car let alone have any clue as to what to do.
I went and wired the alternator to charge bypassing the lockout and we drove the car home, but many systems are still locked out. While no doubt I could eventually just bypass the lockouts, it would be nice to know a little something about how this alarm works, I am assuming that a sensor somewhere is likely setting off the alarm and thus the lockouts, but no one seems to have any info on the car at all. I am an electronics engineer and there is little that I can't figure out or simply bypass, but this car has an insane amount of electrical components, I could be months trying to bypass everything effectively.
Anyone have a good source of information on these old cars? For the $500 my son spent on this, it could be quite a nice car for him and his family if we can figure out the alarm issues.
