By accessing this website, you acknowledge that Edmunds and its third party business partners may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about you and your interactions with the website as described in our
Privacy Statement, and you agree that your use of the website is subject to our
Visitor Agreement.
Comments
Thanks,
Jay
The thing is that this problem can go on for years before it becomes a failure to start since mine always does. I also think it has to do with the ignition switch where you put in the key.
At one time my dash did not "boot up" when I started the car. But that problem corrected itself. The bootup problem occurred right after the car was worked on.
Do you notice that something small always goes wrong with your Classic after it is worked on? The problem usually corrects itself. Its as if the repair disturbed the car's aura and it needs to get it back again.
Yes, I think the condensation in the white back-up lights is quite common. I saw this on my '98 (and several others) a year ago when it was on the dealer's lot, but, by the time I finished the deal/picked it up in early April, the condensation wasn't happening. Fast forward to November, shortly before the expiration of my warranty, and the condensation started happening again (I live in Wisconsin = normally cold in late fall/winter). I showed it to my service dealer (not the one I bought the car from), but they indicated this wasn't an item that GM would repair under warranty.
I picked up another license plate/backup assembly off eBay (for $5) but haven't tackled swapping it out yet. Sounds like a "Challenger" problem - cold weather causing a bad seal :-(
--Robert
whose Aurora is otherwise running great
One other question....is premium fuel the way to go with this engine?
Thanks,
Jay
As for the sfut-sfut, it is like an electrical-static sound which only comes up when music is going but stops during quiet times (not just inbetween tracks); the fuller (not louder) the music, the more pronounced the noise gets and mostly it tags on to higher, treble sound as opposed to lower, bass sounds.
It sucks, but the CD player units in any delco stereo from 1995 or later have had an unusually high failure rate. When I got my car, it had an E-20. It wouldn't spin the CD at all.
I replaced it with a Bose headunit and then built my own stereo based around that. It's been great.
But usually the sfut sfut sound is the death march of the CD player
Your other option, which is probably a better one, would be to put the Cassette deck back in and get a Delco trunk changer. The 12 Disc models are solid. I have yet to hear of anyone having any troubles with those. I put one in my 98 that came out of a wrecked 95 and it is great. No problems at all and works like a charm hot or cold.
Your car is probably already wired for it and everything. Just look by the power antenna in the trunk behind the carpet. There should be a 10 pin (4-6) 1 row connector floating around in there somewhere. It will probably have a green and dark brown wire going into it (if I remember right). An additional bonus of using the Delco CD changer is that your steering wheel controls will work with it. You can probably find one on Ebay.
You can e-mail me privately if you like (ryan@shucknet.com) and I can give you some more details. I have done quite a bit of work with Delco stereos, especially what is in my Aurora.
I Live near Toronto and for March Break, I took the family to Ottawa Ontario for the week.
I have an 1995 Aurora that I have owned for about seven months without a hint of trouble.
We drove to Ottawa, checked in to the hotel and parked underground.
Came down the next morning to find that the battery was absolutely flat. I boosted the battery and load tested it at the dealer ship where I am told that the battery is in excellent shape.
The very next morning, the battery is dead again.
To get to the end of this story quickly, I eventually found that my power antenna was not retracting all the way down (thanks to salt and corrosion).
If the antenna cannot be fully retracted, the motor just sits and whirrs away all day drawing current and eventually kills the battery.
The solution was to wipe down the antenna mast with wd-40.
When the weather gets better here, I will take it apart and clean it properly.
I hope that this helps someone......Peter
When I open and close the lid, I can hear it.
By the swishing sound, it seems like it is behind the red plastic reflector with the Aurora insignia on it.
I am obviously going to have to drain it somehow.
Any ideas?????
Secondly, the rings on a new engine need time to seat properly, especially the newer moly rings (compared to the old style in my 72 Cutlass for example) which need up to 10,000 miles to fully seat. During the break-in oil consumption can be high. My mother's 99 Caddy Concours 4.6 Northstar used a couple of quarts between changes for several thousand miles before settling down. The use of synthetic does not allow full seating of the rings and usually is not recommeded until the rings have fully seated.
Does your mother's '99 Caddy V8 still consume oil? A couple of quarts of oil on a '99 between oil changes is ludicrous. Esp on a $40k + car. Something isn't right there. Although you say it "settled down" Keep an eye on that. Even an old 10 yr old car should be using a few quarts between changes.
I do understand what you are saying about using regular oil to break the engine in. I have head that before, HOWEVER... The Corvette comes factory filled with Mobil 1 synthetic, as do some other high end cars... they aren't having problems with seals not seating...
I have a '95 Aurora which I purchased about 3+ years ago w/36k on it at the time. I put in M1 and it worked out for about 30k then it started using oil, about 1qt every 1500 miles. It now has 89k and it uses about a qt. every 1200 miles. I still have the M1 in it but am considering changing it to a conv. oil. We also have a '97 with M1 in it and it is not using any oil yet at 48k. I'm thinking about changing it out also.
I see no leaks, so it must be going out the tailpipes. But, I have never seen any obvious oil smoke from the exhaust. I know that many Cadillac Northstar and Aurora engines have this problem. Yet, I have never seen an explanation for why this occurs. Are the engines set up loose for higher power? Doesn't seem likely to me.
I do not think the problem is caused by the synthetic oil. I started using M1 in my 1986 Fiero V-6 at about 75k miles and oil comsumption decreased, there were no leaks, and oil smoke at start-up (valve seals, a pretty common problem with this 2.8 V-6) stopped.
Another concern is low oil pressure. Having been sensitized to this problem by my Austin-Healey 3000, I was surprised to read in the service manual that normal oil pressure is as low as 4 or 5 psi. My DIC indicator normally shows 8 (or sometimes 7) psi when the engine is up to temp and at idle. So I guess it's OK, but I'm not comfortable with 7 psi.
http://www.auto-rx.com/index.htm
Most of you know Bob the oil guy..A quote from his website...
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/
4. Is there an engine cleaner that you'd recommend?
I have a personal friend of mine named Terry that posted this on our messg bd. He does personal spectrographic oil analysis and testing and he has come to a conclusion for this.
"There is one product that I do recommend no matter what oil or engine you use;Auto-Rx. It is vegetable based,does not affect chemistry or viscosity at all. It is NOT an Additive but a engine cleaner that really works. It has a residual effect because it cleans the rings and valve seats and valve guide seals so well. Lasts 10,000 miles or so in a gasoline engine.
Doesn't damage anything in our tests. Check out the website at www.auto-rx.com . You will not be disappointed in using this product. I'm going to be telling all my analysis customers to use it.
Terry "
Any thoughts???
What's up RJS?
Good Luck
TIA
Jay
The connectors used do look like small acorns, they're standard twist electrical connectors that you can get at Walmart or hardware store, I'd get an assortment of sizes. If too many of those wires break I'll need to soder in replacement wire because there isn't enough room for too many of those connectors.
Anyone have any advice on removing and re-installing the door panels ? Anyone ever replace a window motor on their own?
Thanks in advance.
and if you watch them they go off and on and a relay in the PPL box (under dash) chatters...just
doing what it is told I suppose...dealer say's it's the manual headlight switch...this we have never used due to auto feature so it can't be worn out...they tell me it cost $380 and 2-3 hrs.
labor to install (said steering column has to come out to install)for a total of about $600.
Also this week it started missing and spitting
back (backfire) under light to medium acceleration
and surges under full acceleration. I have noticed
light carbon tracking on almost all the plug wires
and wonder if they are the problem! Dealer say's $109 to install plugs...can back spark plugs be accessed by removing coil assembly. This Aurora
only has 41,000 miles on it and these are my first problems...really like the car but I am getting a little scared reading this forum...as
helpfil as it is may be the best advise might be to become an X Aurora owner...or surley I need to purchase an extended warranty...Thanks for any help...glad I found you all!
bullsender-Buy the warranty and enjoy. The plug/wire deal the Caddy dealers know quite well. The Delco plugs have been updated to avoid the failures evidenced by carbon tracking. So you should be good to go for many years to come. The front three plugs and wires are easy to do and you could pay someone to do the back, assuming they wouldn't charge the same labor time either way!
Basically we own a somewhat high-tech luxury car that many of us bought used at a good price but we forget the high cost and frequency of maint. cars of this catagory; Caddy, Jag, Mercedes, etc. (even Lexus owners if they are willing to admit it!) All of my friends who own or had parents who own high priced foreign luxury cars would NEVER admit what they paid for plugs and wires, or that they paid a fortune for a dash wiring problem in there E-class Mercedes, etc., after touting German superiority ad nausium. Or even that they snuck it in to the dealer for warranty work when new!
I wonder if it is the stupid OHC boot (it's a lot longer) on them that makes them so steep. Or if makers just figure people with OHC cars will shell out for them...
Just be careful when first threading the new plugs in if you use a U-joint on the socket. It's easier to cross-thread with those. A piece of hose over the plug might help you finger-thread it in the first little bit.
I asked my Local VIP Auto Parts counter person how much the wires set for the Aurora would be and he said about $80 for Bosch and that they'd have to order them.
Jim