oldsguybry

Roger from this site taught me the gravity bleed process . You just take out the bleeder bolt after you hook everything up , and let it flow out of the caliper until there are no bubbles or cloudy fluid coming out of there .... It takes a while though , but is great if you have no help on the brake pedal .

Allan R

Really? Why wouldn't you just buy a correct VATS key for 6 bucks?

oldsguybry

I replaced the key , and the security light was still flashing with no start ..... That's when I determined that the wires must be broken in the steering column . I cut the two tiny white wires that were visible under the dash , spliced the resistor on there ( same value as the resistor in the key itself ) and bingo , it worked .

Allan R

Good to know. Glad it's worked out for you. I wouldn't buy any more resistors unless I needed to. Electrical components are yours as soon as you pay for them, with no returns afaik, regardless of whether they're still new or not.

oldsguybry

I think the resistor I put in there a couple of years ago is getting bad or something . Now that it's getting warmer out , it does something different now . I turn the key and nothing again , BUT the security light is glowing solid instead of flashing like it use to . If I sit there for 3 minutes , the light goes out and the car will start . When this VATS problem happened originally , the security light would flash when you turned the key with no start . The minute you took the key out of the ignition the light would shut off , but the light would come back on and not start when you turned the key again . You would literally have to turn the ignition back and forth multiple times to start the car . Well one day that trick stopped working and it wouldn't start no more , so that's when I spliced the resistor on . I had no problems at all for about a year , and then it started doing the " I have to wait three minutes routine "

oldsguybry

It's kind of funny actually if you think about it . Sitting there , not able to start your car for 3 minutes , with this orange light that says security staring you in the face . I'm not feeling very secure when that happens .

Allan R

Ha! sort of like an on board breathalyzer. You should sell that car to some crooks and let them park it outside a bank. Great escape vehicle; it'll give the police a 3 minute advantage....

Koda

You keep working on this car with no value that has all sorts of issues. You got it for
cheap, and that's cool, but, eventually it will cost you more in money with repairs.

The other thing is time. How much is your time worth? You have a finite amount of it,
we all do, would you rather be working on your hobby car, or your POS driver? There's
nothing noble in keeping a bad car on the road that has been bought and sold more
times than the village hooker. I'm not one to give unsolicited life coaching, so feel free
to disregard, but that vacation you just took; how far would that money have gone
towards a good used car?

oldsguybry

The problem is , I do not have anywhere near the amount of money to get a nice car right now . I've been trying to get ahead with my finances , but it will take a couple more years to do so . Then I can hopefully have a decent down payment saved up to maybe finance a newer vehicle .

oldsguybry

I seemed to have solved MOST of the problems with the brakes , but there is still a couple of issues . The auto parts store was kind enough to replace both rotors for free again and I even bought new brake pads just to eliminate all doubt . The front end seems good now except the driver side front brake pad seems to skid or drag on the rotor right as I'm coming to a complete stop . It's kind of strange actually and hard to explain . The rear brakes were way out of adjustment also , and I know why . I took the car to a garage about four months ago to get my transmission mount put on that I couldn't do myself laying on the concrete , and the rear wheel cylinder blew out on the way there . I had them replace it while the car was already there , and they must of adjusted that side when they were done but not the other side . I have both sides adjusted the same now in the back so they barely make contact with the drum when you spin the wheels in the back . ( brake drums are 2yrs old and brake shoes are about 1/2 worn out ) .

What I'm trying to say is , I STILL have a slight wobble feeling when applying the brakes , but it seems to be coming from the rear portion of the vehicle , and then there's the brake pad drag issue that seems to come and go .... after further inspection the control arm bushings seem to be a little crusty but they are all centered . I wiggled the car around near each wheel to see if they had any play in them and they don't . I also noticed the frame is getting pretty rotten on one side right where you would put the jack to lift the back end up , so I had to put a 2x4 across that area to lift the car up on that side .

I'm just going to drive this car until it quits driving at this point . I'm not planning on putting anymore money into it . I'm probably around the $2300 mark with this car including what I payed for it , so that's still pretty good for having it a little over three years . I drove this car up north and back last week with no issues . ( 400 miles total ) The car rode pretty nice at 75mph . The tranny shifted right on tune , and I even had to brake kind of hard a couple of times during the trip because of other idiot drivers , and the car did just fine . I sure hope I can get at least a couple more years out of this car before I have to junk it .

oldcutlass

Nothing wrong with driving a beater. If your not working on it to the tune of a monthly car payment your going to come out way ahead if you can bank some money. Good luck.

Allan R

The secret of making this last longer? Don't brake unless you have to? Just out of morbid curiosity have you checked the RF wheel to see if it's true?

oldsguybry

right front ? The only thing I did was lift the car up again for the millionth time this year to see if both wheels spun freely now , and they do . I didn't see anything bent or wobbly while doing this .... is there a more accurate way of doing this to check for trueness ? Sorry in advance if it was said already and I forgot . I pretty much just want to give up at this point and just drive the car .

Allan R

Ooops, I meant rear. Check both of them for true. Just giving them an eyeball isn't good enough. You need to put a gage against the wheel rim so you have a fixed point of reference. A tire shop should be able to help you out - pop off the rears and take them in with the Cavalier. Have them checked for true and balance. If they're good at least you know that's not the issue.

At this point if you're generally ok with the fronts? Just spray the pads and rotors with some brake clean to remove any contamination that may be there and call it a day.

oldsguybry

Well , it seems that the wobble is pretty much gone , and the brake pad doesn't drag when coming to a stop . I guess the car had to balance things out for a day or two after the back brake adjustment .

In the end it seems that it was a combination of sticky calipers along with the back brakes not being adjusted right . I'll be happy to move on now to the next fiasco .... or am I speaking to soon again .

Once again I would like to thank EVERYONE for their input on this . If it wasn't for your guys advice , I would still be trying to figure it out . Thanks to all , and lets put this thread to rest now .

rustyroger

Glad it's all working out for you.
But don't hesitate to ask next time you have a problem you aren't sure how to deal with. It's what this forum is all about after all, and your thanks and feedback are more than sufficient repayment.


Roger.

oldsguybry

Well , here I am again . The cars were doing great for a bit , but of course I had to once again play musical cars and drive the 72CS for a few days ......

I've been having to remove my battery cable at night on the Buick or it will drain the battery all the way down to zero . The battery is pretty new and it seems real strong when I start the car , but if I leave the cables attached and don't start it for around 4hrs the battery is almost dead already . When this first started happening I noticed the battery was sitting on a ground wire and the casing on the wire must have been cracked , because you could see some corrosion there . I wiped it down , wrapped the wire with electrical tape , and moved it . The battery still goes dead if I leave the battery cable on , so I stopped my investigation there and was playing the on and off game with the battery cables for the last couple of weeks ......

I got a call from my wife last Tuesday , and she informed me that the 01 Crapolier wont come out of park and go into gear , and that the shifter moves real easy . I knew right away the shifter cable either broke or came off . She needs a car for work and picking the kids up from school , so obviously I have to fix it ......

I started taking the center console out which took a while to find where the 4 bolts were that held it on . I especially love the bolt that was hidden under a perfectly blended in plastic plug in front of the cup holders . After that , I only had to take off on wire connector , the shifter **** , and off the console came . From there it wasn't too bad getting the cable out past the firewall into the engine compartment . It connects to this bracket and then goes to the armature . It took a while to undo it from the bracket since you could barely see it or get at it for that matter , but i finally got it off . Now that the cable is out in the open where I can inspect it a little I realized that the cable is broken inside the sleeve that it's in , so I have to replace it . I call the parts store ( special order ) , then the dealership ... That part is discontinued sir , there are 0 in the US . I get a part number from the guy and type it in the computer . The first thing that comes up is the cable I need with the new part number that it was changed to . I call the dealership with the correct part number and they found one and sold it to me for wholesale $68 . Meanwhile my wife is driving my Buick with instructions to take the battery cable off when she parks it for any long periods of time . She ended up having my son do the dirty work for her when she got the chance . I get the cable the next day and get it installed . Once I finally figured out how to adjust it , all the gears work now finally

Back to the Buick .... I never got a chance to investigate why the battery keeps going dead if I leave the cables on , so if anyone has any ideas where I should start looking from here let me know . Thanks

oldsguybry

I almost forgot ....

While I was driving the 72CS to work the other day it sounded like something somewhat small flew off of it . I stopped to look but there was nothing laying in the road so I continued on to work . The next day I was looking around the car and noticed one of the center caps are gone . There were big ditches on both sides of the road where it flew off , so I still need to get back there and see if I can find it . I've been so friken busy .

Allan R

You likely have a parasitic drain on the Buick. Unfortunately, Buick was plagued with electronic glitches from the time they started introducing the new body style in 1988. Here's a DIY to help you diagnose where the draw is coming from:

oldsguybry

Thanks Allan , I'm going to look into this before winter to see if I can find the problem .

I have a few pics of the fun I had putting this cable on ....

I still have not put the console on yet , along with cleaning the mess up


This was the beginning of my journey after getting the console off , not to bad so far ...


It was kind of fun trying to get this cable under the plastic duct .


and then through the firewall after you push the plug out


Here on the engine side you have to drag it through .... I'm sure glad the exhaust manifold / pipe was not hot since the cable is directly above it

oldsguybry

This is where it was getting fun , because the cable heads into the abyss at this point . There is a bracket where the cable snaps into in the direction of the red arrow . You have a real hard time seeing it from just about every angle you try to look at it from , so you just have to play the touchy feely game and put the cable through the hole at the right angle so it snaps into place . There's a plastic tab you DON'T want to push down yet . It will add misery later on when your cable is out of adjustment .



Facing the front of the car now , down in that black hole is the armature that the other end of the cable snaps onto . This is where that tab in the up position I mentioned comes in handy I pushed the tab down prior to trying to get the cable end on the armature nipple and the cable wouldn't reach . I thought the tab locked the cable on the bracket or something , but it's to adjust it . Since I already had the shifter in park , I somehow jammed my hand down there and manually pulled the armature all the way over in the park position , snapped the cable on the nipple after getting the tab back in the up position again ( which required a bright light , mirror , and a screw driver just the right size ) and then pushed that plastic tab back down . That holds your adjustment apparently .


It was quite the learning experience , now I just have to put the rest back together .

oldsguybry

Dang it .... I wanted to go catch some Salmon with my son today , but of course it's raining now . I forgot to take my battery cable off last night and the car is just fine today ????? I don't get it .

and NO , I don't only have three fingers on one hand in picture three above lol.

oldsguybry

For some reason the video is not working , but I recognize that little meter for I have one at work . I also realize that this is probably going to be a nightmare trying to figure it out . I may have to live with the on & off battery cable trick until I get rid of this car . I don't know a ton about electrical issues .

oldsguybry

I just so happen to notice that the coil packs on the Buick still has numbers on them ( original ? ) The spark plugs look original too . I never seen rusted up spark plugs before . They have been in there for a looooong time . I don't think this engine has ever been tuned up (163,000K) It still runs good , but is starting to miss here and there .

Allan R

Yes the OEM coils are numbered. If this car has never had the,plugs changed, it's also due for new plug wires. Over time they change in resistance and you could be getting less spark to the plug. Google Eric the car guy and then look for the parasitic draw vid. It's not rocket science, maybe Buick science though....

oldsguybry

Well I'll have a bit more info coming up on the Buick , but for now I had to once again turn my attention toward the 01 Crapalier .....

The engine has been sputtering and sometimes dies while your sitting at a light . It also has been hesitating / bogging when you accelerate . The problem was getting worse lately , so at 97,000 miles I figured at least one of the problems would more then likely be the TPS on the throttle body . I replaced that and it made a world of difference . It fixed everything mentioned above except it still sputters a little bit , but not nearly as bad . This car was never tuned up , so this may be my next stop , or it's maybe one of the fuel injectors . I noticed oil residue along with some yellow foamy slime crap in the plastic canister that mounts on top of the throttle body which leads to the air filter through a black duct hose from there . There was also yellow foam slime in a hose that I had to disconnect to get that plastic canister out of the way to replace the TPS . Could this be normal ? I did read that this may be because of short trips with the car that may in turn not burn off all of the condensation in there along with a oil film makes yellow slime putty ..... YAY I'm more worried about getting to the bottom of the sputter for now though . Let me know what you think .

I also noticed that when I start the car with the new TPS in it , the RPM's shoot up to around 2000 or so and then slowly drop down to what I would think would be about normal , which is about 1000 . Then you put it in gear and it sits around 700 . I mention this because I think the idle didn't go up that high when you started the car with the old TPS in it .

oldsguybry

ok , I have not had a chance to dig into the 01 Crapalier lately , but when you start it when the engine is cold , it shoots up to 2500 rpm and goes slowly goes back down to around 1000 , dropping to about 700 when the engine is warmed . It also sputters like before , but I noticed a performance / acceleration improvement since I put the new TPS in . It seems the engine ( 2.4 DOHC ) has no MAF sensor ? I will have to pay the piper I guess and take the car in and get a code at this point . I was hoping that the $31 TPS would of been the quick fix , but not completely .

oldsguybry

Well , I will find a garage OTHER then the one I usually go to if I can't get them to look at my car in the same day . I just want to get it on the computer to hopefully get a code on what the problem may be . I will then decide what I want to do depending on what the problem is . The fuel injectors seem pretty easy on this car if it happens to be that , but I'm at a point that everything from here on is getting rather expensive so I need to know what the problem is now .

oldsguybry

Ok, i can't believe I didn't think of this before with the big bold letters on the brake pedal / dash board screaming ..... ANTI-LOCK BRAKES ! This was the problem all along . One of the valves / sensors was bad on the ABS system and this is why i was getting brake skid . Now it's down to the parasitic drain that forces me to disconnect the battery cable every night , to which I'm not going to waste my time with because I found that the frame is completely rotten in the back where it connects to the floor / rocker panel . This car is toast . i will have to somehow obtain another car and junk this one out REAL soon . The frame is almost ripping off the body now in back ! I realized this when my hydraulic jack proceeded to crunch it's way through the bottom of the frame when I was jacking the car up .

oldsguybry

This is a learning experience for all of us maybe . I've done what seems to be hundreds of brake jobs in my life and always had great brakes . I never had any experience with anti lock brakes having a sensor / valve issue before ( I forget what the mechanic called it when I called him ) He told me to pull the fuse on the ABS and see what it does . I found two of them , a 30amp and 40 amp . I pulled both of them and now the brakes are perfect ! I'm surprised someone on here didn't mention this possibility before , and if they did I guess I should of read the replies a bit more extensively . I'm going to cut the rotten section of frame off in the back and bolt up some new steel going to a different location . I suppose welding would be better , but I will have to see what that will cost vs safety . The car drives really smooth and straight even though the frame is kind of hanging there , so I can't see why you couldn't bolt it up to another location as long as the frame sits in the same position that it normally is in .

Allan R

Does that car even have a frame? I thought your Buick was unibody. Welding vs bolts? I doubt it would pass safety inspection jury rigging it like that.

oldsguybry

We don't have a safety inspection here in WI . Besides if the car drives fine in my book that's all that counts . Just another money making scheme to me , except for the idiots going down the street in cars I definitely wouldn't be caught dead in . I seen one guy driving this newer caddy with the rear end literally bumping the ground when he went over bumps . With some of the cars I see going down the road we probably could use a safety inspection here . I hope this doesn't happen until I can get a newer car or at least one in better shape . I really don't feel like walking to work or depending on my wife to drive me there everyday in the crapalier .

Yes it's unibody . It has a sub frame in the front and back . I'm just glad that the control arms and suspension components don't bolt to the frame back there . The rest of the underbody is quite clean except for that area . I could have some new steel welded a foot further toward the front of the car with some steel plates where the underbody is in great condition . the funny thing about this car is it drives better now then when I bought it after I finally fixed most of the issues that it had . If I had the money i would junk this contraption and get a real nice car , but I have to wait until I can afford a car payment .

oldsguybry

I want to add that when I'm done with this thing I'm going to enter my own car into the " Wall of Shame " thread , along with the " Rustiest Car " thread also . Then I'm going to enter it into a smash up derby contest if they even have those anymore .

The last thing I want to do is drive a car that is unsafe . I really believe in my heart that this car is still reasonably safe yet , but it won't stay this way forever . I'm sorry if it seems that I can be stubborn and not always listen to advise from members here , but I have to go this route for now .

Allen I think you have very sound advise , and I just LOVE your car ! I'm definitely jealous , especially after you updated the car with the rear end and such . You should be thoroughly happy with what you have and done to this vehicle .

oldsguybry

I had to do a $10 fix on the exhaust yesterday . I was beginning to smell it when I had the window rolled down and it was getting louder . I put a new section of pipe in front of the catalytic converter which took care of it . I also had to replace the passenger headlight assembly because I broke the glass last winter . That cost $40 at the bone yard . It's funny how this online site sells the whole assembly or just the glass . You can't buy " just the glass " It's a sealed unit , what a rip off !

The best part of yesterday was slamming my thumb in the hood . It hurt quite a bit and I had to rip my thumb out of there because i would of stood there forever if I didn't . The entire thumb nail is cracked / broken and it's draining like crazy . If it wasn't for this I would of had to make a dash to the ER to get it drained . I will have to keep my eye on this so it doesn't get infected . It's pretty bad but I don't think I broke the bone ( not a ton of swelling ) I will have to be more careful in the future when I close the hood .

Allan R

Just about every headlamp assembly nowadays is a sealed unit Bryan. They coat the inner part of the unit (reflector) with ionized aluminum and then ultrasonically weld the outer plastic protection to the subassembly. That's why you just replace bulbs from the backside - it's now a solid unit. Also why they sell lens polishing kits for the plastic. Apparently toothpaste will buff up the lenses really well too. Haven't tried that, but hear it works.

A good replacement lens assembly from the boneyard for 40.00 seems pricey but it's not really. The whole assembly (in next to new condition) goes for the same price at local pick n pull. Not bad considering the cost of new or ePay and shipping.

oldsguybry

I thought it was a good deal too . I think what bothered me the most about the online website is .... Someone will buy " just the glass " finding out that their headlight assembly will probably end up full of water later on .

oldsguybry

Well " What Should I Replace next " was a great name for this thread . The brake issue that I fixed wasn't soon enough . The stress it put on the tires ruined all of them . The fronts were almost bald anyways so I replaced them yesterday . Since the car has the same size rims as my 72 CS I bought P22570R15's that I will convert over to the front end of the CS later on . I wish they were 60's but I'm just glad I can utilize them later on . The Buick CAME with P20570R15's , but jumping two tire sizes didn't affect anything . Some guy at Tire's Plus tried telling me that I can't put that size on there , he lost my business ! The tires don't rub anywhere , even turning the steering wheel all the way to one side . Anyways there's a story to go with the tire replacement decision here .....

I still felt a ever so slight weird feeling while applying the brakes on the rear end , so I decided to take this car on a road trip like an idiot . I told my friend I was going to pay him a visit and away I went . I looked at the tires before I left and didn't notice anything odd ( except that they were worn out ) . After an hour I noticed a vibration that started to get worse real quick while I was at freeway speeds . I slowed down under the speed limit which was changed to 70mph recently , but before I could get off the freeway the back tire blew out bad ( steel belts were separated ) . I pulled over to the side of the freeway and was stuck there for a bit because there was no way I was going to put the donut spare on there ! I called AAA even though I didn't have an account with them to get a tow to a tire place . I sat there and got my head straight from being flustered and realized this was probably the end of this car now . The lady from AAA was so kind to get the tow service rolling fast and because of possible expense she even mentioned a taxi service also . I called her back after about 20 minutes to cancel the tow . The tow wasn't going to work without destroying the car . The back end was real close to the ground on the blow out side and the tow truck would have to turn around on the freeway to get positioned . I called the taxi service to dispatch a driver in my direction while I jacked up the car and proceeded to take the rear tire off while dodging big rigs going 80mph Meanwhile the tow service showed up anyhow , so I talked to the husband and wife team and they were real cool about it . They even went as far as to back around my car and put all there lights on to help protect me . The taxi showed up and I took the tire/rim and threw it in the back of the mini van she was driving and got a lift to the tire center . They put a new tire on there for a $119 They only had a Dunlop in that size so I consider myself lucky they had anything at all ! ( of course I called them first ) When they were done at the tire place I called the taxi back and got a lift back . I gave her a $5 tip for her help ! The entire taxi fee including tip was $40 . I'm glad the tire place was only 6 miles away . The car drove ALMOST like a dream after that , but there was still a barely noticeable weird feeling yet at high speeds ONLY now . I got my Atlas out , mapped my remaining trip , and took the side roads the rest of the way there and back . I was going to use my company phones GPS but they probably would of got a charge for that and complained , so I'm glad I had my Atlas with me along with my tools . This is where the new front tires came into play after I got home . Now there's one tire left on the car that wasn't replaced and it is about 1/3 worn out . I'm going to replace that one also to be safe . Like I said , I'm going to put the tires on the 72 CS when I junk this thing out . I won't be able to put P25570R15's on the Buick so either way I will have to just hang on to the two extra tires when I junk the Buick for future use hopefully . Did I mention there was a tornado warning once I got rolling again and it really rained hard ? Just my luck ! My A/C doesn't work and the fan wouldn't blow out of the defrost vents , so my windows fogged up and I had to pull over under a bridge until the storm passed ! God was with me , or was it Satan ? Once I got rolling again , the vents started working lol . I also found out that the roof bag I bought for a car without a roof rack has fabric straps that the rain water runs down and inside the car after a while . I swear I couldn't get that Chevy Chase National Lampoons vacation movie out of my head after this !

Why would I type all of this when no one will even read it ? I wake up at 6AM everyday with nothing to do anyhow so no big deal . I'm just practicing my typing skills .

PS .... The tie rods are shot too . I'm going to put new ones on today for around $60 bucks and get the alignment done myself hopefully . I will be nearing $3000.00 total cost on this car including what I bought it for . I put 30,000 on this thing since I bought it . it still seems like a good deal to me yet I guess .

tru-blue 442

Why would I type all of this when no one will even read it ? I wake up at 6AM everyday with nothing to do anyhow so no big deal . I'm just practicing my typing skills . [/QUOTE]

I read it all Brian and I'm pulli'n for ya!

oldsguybry

I read it all Brian and I'm pulli'n for ya! [/QUOTE]

cool mon . The tie rods were only $40 .... Hurray ! Time to get busy now .

Allan R

Bryan,
You know that changing to 225's will affect your speedometer right? The tire aspect ratio needs to be carefully considered when selecting tires. The tire guy was prolly trying to caution you abipout this, which means he was doing the right thing.

Tie rods? You should also check the ball joints. Outer tie rods aren't hard, but you'll need a special too to get the inners. Get the car aligned professionally when you're done or you'll have wasted your money on the new tires. Sure it may feel like it drives fine without one, but you'd be surprised how much it can be out.

I had a car like this once. IMO it's a money pit no win scenario. Get rid of it before you spend more on it. The only reason I held onto mine was stupid pride that it would eventually not cost more. I was wrong. Buick is also especially susceptible to electrical issues. I think we had this discussion once already. Prolly not what you want to hear, and it's your car ro do with as you wish. If it was mine though it would be sold for scrap value.