BlueCalais79

A also placed this in the W-Body forum as well:

I finally got around to replacing my dead power door lock receiver. This is a real stinker of a job, there's a myriad of parts you have to remove enroute to getting at the small black box receiver which (on the coupes) is located next to the rear passengers side speaker behind the rear seatback. And you risk breaking any of them along the way. The manual advised that either the upper passengers side or the upper drivers side plastic trim that goes along the rear windows up the C pillar needs to be removed. Well, no way was I going to do that. I managed to get the rear seat to rear window trim panel off without removing those pieces. That was a bit of good luck, I guess.

IMHO this was a ridiculous place to put this receiver. I decided to relocate the box to rest on top of the inner fender well in the trunk, using some gorilla tape to hold it on. All covered up by the interior trunk carpet. There is plenty of wire to make this happen, no cutting/splicing needed. Now, if that receiver croaks, this will be a 10 minute fix instead of a 3 hour headache. The only thing I broke was one push pin clip, and I am having a heck of a time finding even that. I programmed the transmitters and all is working just fine, mission accomplished.

Olds64

Good deal! We're waiting to see the pics.

Hope you don't eventually have difficulty with the early GM VATs key.

redoldsman

I guess some of this is the result of being a smaller car with less space to tuck things away. Seems they could have done what you did. Just changing the battery on my wife 95 is a pain. As you know, it is hidden under the windshield washer tank and you have to take the brace from the fender off. I really don't think engineers ever give any thought to maintenance.

BlueCalais79

You are dead on with that one, Mr. Red, the battery swap is never fun. And don't even think about jamming in a 78 series battery in one of these as I did once. It's hard enough to get the 75 series in and out of the car, but once you place in a 78 series you may need some dynamite or a crane to remove it. Bad Idea IMHO.

On that note, it's not even fun to replace the water pump on the other side of these 3.4's in the CS, another knuckle busting task wherein you (generally) need to remove the coolant overflow tank to even see it. Overall the LQ1 3.4 motor is a great motor, and as I think you have the convertible (another 400 or so additional pounds?), that extra 50 horses ares really needed in these cars. The 1996 CS I just sold had the 3.1L and it was a superb running car, it ran 80 on the Interstates ok but it didn't like it very much. The 3.4's, a whole different story, they can keep up with today's traffic. No white knuckles getting onto the highway. The 3.1 struggled a bit with that, at least the way I drove it.

redoldsman

I haven't ever looked at it but I hear real horror stories about changing the alternator. It is under the engine on the right hand side. Fortunately my wife's car only had 28,000 miles on it and is not driven a lot. It will never accumulate enough miles to replace the dreaded timing belt. It really is a fun car and she loves it. I enjoy when she lets me drive it.

BlueCalais79

Agreed, the alternator & timing belt are huge jobs on these motors. I've had several alternators go out on me, the voltage gauge plummets rather quickly, and that's all she wrote for that alternator. As for the timing belt, there is one place you can inspect it, a cover at the top of the water pump side that can be removed for view. Look for pieces of sharded rubber stuck in the cover, that's a sign of trouble.

I don't mean to sound like I'm bad-mouthing these motors, I'm merely parroting out loud what everyone who owns one of them has experienced at one time or another. I plan on having mine for a long time despite the warts. After owning it nearly 30 years now (off and on), I still think it's a nice ride.

matt69olds

I worked in a Buick and Cadillac dealership when those cars were new. I recall an Olds that had the 3.4 in the body shop for collision damage. I don’t remember the specifics, but I do remember having to swap transmissions, maybe the factory one was cracked or damaged?

What I do remember CLEARLY is after the test drive the service writer handing the work order back to me and saying he forgot to write “customer complaint: intermittent no charge” on it. I was pretty pissed, replacing the alternator on that car is s 5 minute job with the transmission out. I think the job paid 6 hours otherwise.

You could not pay me enough to go back to turning wrenches for a living.

BlueCalais79

Six hours is right on the money for this job, I've had it done 3x and that was about the labor charge. The 2nd time I supplied the alternator and it was defective, so I got to buy that job all over again. Maddening.

This is the one part I am hoping doesn't take a dump on me on the way to & from the Nationals. You just never know, and the one in it has some years on it. The timing belt was replaced late 2020 so that's all set for the trip.

BlueCalais79

All still working, I hope to show this job's results at the Nationals. I'm thinking others with these newer Cutlasses may want to see how this was done in case their remotes croak.