[pink panther]

I just entered the world of Caddy - after 15 years of driving
Volvos.

Needless to say - I am enjoying the move up!!

I have done just about everything there was to do on my Volvos
But am wondering what on the computer laden Cadillac is better left alone.

Who is working on their Caddy to any great degree??

Brake pads, fluid changes, etc.

How far do you go??

Thanks for any info!!

 

[Slick Black Cadillac]

Time

No matter how you slice it, in its most basic form, a car is a car. The ease of working on them can be atributted to expeirence. To me Volvo maintence sounds like an expensive trip to the dealer, to you it probably sounds like an inexpensive Sunday project. Same goes for Cadillac. Brakes, Oil/Tranny changes, and other basic maintence is all very easy once you've done it a few times. The longer you own your Cadillac the more in depth the projects can get and it can all be a DIY with enough knowledge and a little guts. Give it time and when you've got a real head scratcher thats what this site is for.

 

[Stoneage_Caddy]

Re: Time

brake pads on our rear disc brake gm cars are a little unsusal in the rear , when they are replaced a tool needs rented to "turn" the piston back into its bore , still a easy job tho .

the hardest job ive done so far is replaceing all the spark plugs

there is one job i wanted to do that i had to back out of , that was removeing the instarment cluster from the dash (troubleshooting ride controll code) , after snapping one of the wood trim peices i decided to leave it alone , seems to be a very complicated process to get the dash apart to get the cluster out , one thing is for sure , those trim peices arent suppoed to come off , lucky for me the peice i broke was just broken where it bolts to the dash from the backside , glued her back in place and gave up

 

[brougham]

Get yourself a service manual. Then you need to fix something you can see what's involved and if you do decide to do it yourself you'll know exactly how.

brake pads on our rear disc brake gm cars are a little unsusal in the rear , when they are replaced a tool needs rented to "turn" the piston back into its bore , still a easy job tho .

That's what most cars with rear discs are like :bonkers:

GM seems to think that they can't use any screws that you can see to hold the interior together. Personally I couldn't care less if I could see a screw in the odd place or not. It's better then having something break when you do have to get things apart. At least Broughams aren't as bad for that

 

[pink panther]

Thanks to all who replied

Thanks for the affirmation.

It makes driving the pink panther even more relaxing - knowing that many things need not be done at $75/hr CDN invoice rate.

 

[pink panther]

94 DeVille.....

My 94 DeVille - 4.9 L - has 75,000 miles on it.

What I notice so far - noisy power steering pump - checked the fluid - its ok.
Is it maybe an idler on the serpintine belt - it doesn't sound like a bearing grinding - yet it doesn't change pitch like the power steering pump would when you input steering forces (turn the wheel).

Is it something else on the accessory side of the engine (right) making that mid tone whine??

What else have you noticed on your 94 that I should watch for???

Thanks

 

[Stoneage_Caddy]

Re: 94 DeVille.....

"That's what most cars with rear discs are like "

if your gonna say something like that then you should say

"Most GM 4 wheel disc brake cars with integral parking brake mechanisims"

or at least thats how a ASE certified mechaic like me would say it

silverado, c2 and c3 corvettes (among others) had a hat and rotor design , pistions on these could be pushed back useing a similar method to pushing back pistions on the front calipers , according to some published storys 50% of DIY rear brake jobs involoving w body GM cars needed caliper replacemnt after some cump just shoved the pistion back in thinking it was like the afforementioned cars

was just trying to keep it simple for our volvo mechanic since hes new to some of the backward arsed ways of general motors , i was thinking our calipers were unsusual to pink

ive noticed on many 94s a lazy passanger side door lock , door will lock but wont unlock , let me know if you have to problem , i can tell you how to fix it with a little tube of superglue (no joke ,no rigging)

only other things i notice is a common oil leakge where the oil filter adapter meets the top of the engine block and other assorted engine leaks

then there is the ride controll issues , do you have any "service ride controll" messages?

 

[pink panther]

Re: 94 DeVille.....

So far - the only thing I wonder about - when I step on the brake (while at about any speed) there is a chassis noise that sounds like a rapid thumping sound.

Is that the anti-skid pulsation?? There is no vibration at the brake pedal...

Or is it a rotor out of true???

It is not a loud sound - but then , this is a quiet car.

The tempo of the "drumming" does not seem to slow as the car slows - so I am hoping this is the ASB system.

 

[tazdevil1960]

Re: 94 DeVille.....

Hey Pink Panther,
I have the same power steering pump noise in my 95 Caddy Deville. I found out it is actually the A/C compressor. I have been told to buy a new A/C dryer and replace the compressor, and clean out the A/C system. This is the second time I have had to replace the compressor, so will take my mechanics advice and get it done.

 

[brougham]

Re: 94 DeVille.....

"That's what most cars with rear discs are like "

if your gonna say something like that then you should say

"Most GM 4 wheel disc brake cars with integral parking brake mechanisims"

or at least thats how a ASE certified mechaic like me would say it

I've never seen what many GMs are like so I didn't mean it that way. I meant that most of the cars I've seen the rear disc setup on have calipers like that where the piston has to be turned back in. Fords use that design too. Which is why I said "That's what most cars with rear discs are like"

pink panther, that does sound like the ABS unless there's something else wrong. But you should hardly ever feel it coming on tho. If it is the ABS that's making it feel like that there's probably something wrong with it.

 

[Paul Nagy]

I get the same sort of noise in my '94 Deville, but what I am starting to believe is that it is located in the disc brake system proper, not the ABS. I believe that it might be addressed by something as simple as 1) checking the pads (especially for glazing), and 2) bleeding the brake system.