Cadillac Deville Starting / Stalling Problems
hustla_365
Member Posts: 6
I have 1996 cadillac deville. I was driving yesterday and when i was coming to a stop, my car stalled out!!!!!! I pulled over and cranked it back up and never had a problem with it until this morning when it did the same thing!!!!!!! Could anyone help me please???
See also: How to find a good car mechanic
See also: How to find a good car mechanic
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Looks like you have a total electrical failure. Which could be a very discharged battery - except the car would not restart.
Sounds more like there is a battery cable failure - an intermedent open in one of the cables.
Clean the cable attachments. Retighten them down securely. See if you can get to the ground cable where it grounds to the motor (usually) and see that this ground is clean and tight. Look closely at the cable ends at the battery. Acid could have gotten down inside the cables, under the insulation, and literally eatten the cables apart.
Or, some kind of bad failure in the main fuse box. If the thing comes and goes, it's going to be tough to find the problem until it totally fails.
Anyway, it sounds electrical. Where, exactly, ????
Oh yeah and now it's leaking oil ..AHHHHH !!
Crank Position Sensors. There are two of them, replace them both.
Removing door panel, if like my 97 - there is a screw behind the lower rear lights that turn on when the door is opened. You have to pull the lights off and there is a screw. Then pry up the panel at the front that has all the power window buttons (I think, it's been a while since I did this, it might be the seat control panel.) You must pry the panel up, then there is another large screw that can be reached. Then, there is the little triangle shaped trim piece at the front top of the panel. There is a push-in panel pin there, you gently pry around this piece until it pulls out. There are NOT push-pins all around the edge of the panel - it is retained by screws, this one pin at the top front, and it then have J hooked shaped connectors on the panel that push down into U shaped connectors in the inner door.
So, basically, when you have the screws out and the one pin out, you just pull the panel straight up and it's loose. There are all kind of electrical connectors still attached. The lights, the window controls, the speaker wires, etc, etc. And, you probably have a side AIR BAG! Before starting any of this DISCONNECT THE BATTERY! Disconnect the air bag connections from the panel. If you blow an air bag, don't blame me!
What you are trying to get to is the window motor, which is probably failed. Pull the power connector off the motor. Put a volt meter into the two wires of the connector. Reconnect the battery. Push the window button up, you should have 12+ or - volts. Push the window button down, you shoud have 12- or + volts (the reverse of what you get the other time). If you get this, the wiring and the switch and the fuse, etc are all ok. If not, start working on getting power there. If you have the correct voltages, the motor has failed.
Put a couple of strips of duct tape up the window and onto the top of the door frame. This will keep the window from falling. There are 3 bolts holding the motor in, it's real easy to remove. After bolts out, you might have to wiggle it around a little. Take the motor to any auto parts house. Check carefully that the motor sold to you is identical to the old one. At Autozone, their part numbers are messed up, I got a right hand one when I needed the left hand one, so, take the old one in. It should be about $70 or so.
Buckle it back up. Your are done. The worse part of the job is getting the door panel off a Cadillac. The motors are all bolted in and easy to remove.
any help will be appreciated
Ken
That said, I took off the IAC (Idle Air Control) valve, which is a small but expensive cylinder fastened by two torx screws above the throttle body. I cleaned the valve by spraying loads of electrical parts cleaner on it. At the same time, I cleaned the throttle body. There is an online manual on how to do this here:
http://www.cadillacforums.com/forums/cadillac-tech-tips/167181-tb-iac-idle-air-c- ontrol-valve.html
The poster who created that guide to cleaning the IAC valve had Phillips screws in his newer model, but check it first and make sure you have Torx bits/drivers if that's the sort of screws on your Cadi. Note that you should disconnect the battery and unplug the controller wires when working on this type of stuff, and use the appropriate cleaner. I wonder whether MAF sensor cleaner would work fine both for the IAC valve and the MAF sensor, but my local store was out of it, so I didn't try or even look into it. I hate having to buy 10 different kinds of cleaners if 2 or 3 will suffice. The important part is not to get water or other corrosive stuff on the coils of the IAC valve.
Since cleaning the valve, my car has not stalled even once, I have no problems starting or idling, and I could not be happier with its performance. It even idles at least 25 RPM lower.
The IAC valve is only open while the car is idling. If the car never stalls with yor foot on the gas, this is the possible source of your problems. If you are stalling during acceleration, or experiencing rough acceleration (or similar issues), then the culprit could be the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valve. The solution is the same - take off the EGR valve and clean it. It's considerably harder to access and remove, though. I've never done it, just read about it. When I have the time, I will clean it as a bit of preventive maintenance.
If you don't feel comfortable doing this stuff yourself, at least suggest these issues to your mechanic before agreeing blindly to replace sensors that have not even caused a check engine code. I am an inexperienced, low-level mechanic who was able to do the job with $5 worth of cleaner, an old toothbrush, and an hour and a half of my time, including a run to the auto parts store.
One more thing - these valves can fail as well, and you can check to see if they are functioning, but if you don't know how to do that, at least make sure to try cleaning it before paying loads of $$ to replace the part. The movement of the valve is sort of like a solenoid. It has to be actuated electrically, meaning that you cannot test it manually without having it hooked up to a power source (the controller wires).
I hope my experience and my post are helpful to those who are having similar problems.
I just had the same thing happen to my '98: The driver's window went down, but not back up. The other 3 window switches all work fine. It turned out that the switch failed. I pulled the switch assembly out & tried to clean the switch contacts, but N.G. The Cadillac dealer wanted >$175 for the switch assembly (they are PROUD of their prices), but Advance Auto was able to get one from the OEM manufacturer for ~$100.
NOTE: Both Cadillac and my local garage said that the book calls for 90 minutes labor to replace the switch (probably claiming to have to take the door apart). I just pulled the entire assembly (including the side mirror switches) up from the armrest, unplugged the cable, unplugged the switch assembly, and then plugged the new switch assembly in. It took me a total of 4 minutes, and I did it in the dark with just the interior light on!
Hope this helps....
I'm new to this forum. I'm looking at a 1997 Deville for sale very inexpensive. The catch: The current owner said it was running great and then the digital dash went blank (off) and the engine quit. The car will not crank or anything. He has only one key and thinks it might be the computer chip in the key. Is this possible or is it possibly a real risky deal? I do not know how many miles it has on it yet, but it looks good. Thanks, George
Next place would be the security system. I think this year had a lot of problems with a small wire inside, or at the bottom, of the steering column that breaks. This is the wire that takes the signal from sensing the small 'pellet' in the key to the system that controls the security system.
A problem with my wife's 2005 Deville - I like to bring up all the displays occasionally. The voltage was continusly bouncing between about 13 and 15.5 volts. Staying on any voltage only a few seconds.
What I found was the negative battery cable, under the read seat, grounds to the body there, right next to the battery. It was a little loose, plus the red paint (car color) was under the cable. I removed the bolt, ground the paint off with a Dremel tool, and scraped the cable end, etc. This totally stopped the voltage bounce.
If you haven't done it, you sure need to check this battery ground back there!
There are 3 solnoids in a Northstar's tryanny.
There are A and B shift solnoids. There are simple to replace with only the pan being removed.
There is the solnoid that does the 'lockup' for the top gear in the tranny. You cannot get to it by just dropping the pan. The motor and tranny usually are pulled out of the car to get to it. This is known as the $40 part buried $2,000 deep in the transmission....
There is a diffferent error code set for these different solnoid failures.