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Also once you get it open, if you put one or two drops of 30 (10/30 should work) weight oil on small plastic plunger that releases the door (visable once refil door open) the door make work fine. I believe the ignition has to be on when you press the gas release button.
Don
I had problems with tires out of round dating back to 1970. Steel wheels, alloys were a dream. Spin balancing? No. Static balancing. Hunter was the leading technology company with wheel/tire balancing. It was the tires. There was a guy in Popular Mechanics magazine named Tom McCahill who demanded in one article...."Just male 'em round, boys, just make 'em round.
Back to the Aurora....Dunlop A2 Sports, a nightmare with the alignment. 3 trips back to NTB. NTB rebalance, rotated, and then finally they swapped out 2 of the 4 new tires and the problem was reduced by about 70%. I was told the problem was the wheels were not round, which I could see with the wheels on the balancer. Then why did the original Michelins produce no vibration?
Went back to NTB for a new set of Yokohama Avids a year ago. No problema.
I keep reading about the force balancer and matching any out of round variation between wheel and tire. I believe that Olds had some TSB's about the vibration problem. And I also read the posts about wheel bearing problems. Both could be a factor.
I always start with a suspension inspection and an alignment and go from there. After that, I blame the tire relative to the Aurora's sensitivity to an out of round situation, whether tire, wheel, or both. I rotate every 5000 miles.
Why did the car exhibit no vibration with the OE Michelins? Guess you get what you pay for. If the wheels were the problem, why did the Michelins and the Yokos work just fine. Luck of the tire? Luck of the tire mounting? I don't think so.
I still have my first car, a 69 Corvette. 145 mph. No vibrations ever, steel wheels.. And I have an 04 Infinity G35 Coupe. No problems with wheel vibration. And the Aurora came with the V rated MXV's, no problem.
Is it the tire? That would be my guess at first observation.
I buy Michelin tires for my H-body 03 leSabre which is related to the Aurora chassis. Michelins are the closest to rolling round and actually being round.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I also agree with the posters that this is a 64-75 mph issue.
The mechanic hasn't completely torn the engine out yet, but it seems that's the only way to get to what's leaking. If they do, and it's the block leaking from a crak, I lose all the labor fees for doing that or I replace the engine, which I won't do on this car.
My question, for anyone who has torn that far down into the engine, is what is the possibilty that this is a cracked block, or is it most likely something that can be sealed up?
Thanks!
The owner got the water pump replaced without a resolution of the coolant loss problem. Upon further examination, he or his mechanic discovered a small crack in the underside of the overflow tank which was leaking coolant. Replacing the tank worked for him.
I was losing coolant last summer. Intermittantly, you could smell it burning off after a long drive and after parking the car, you could smell it even with the hood closed. Local mechanic could find no problem with the the water pump, with obvious leaks, with hoses, or with the overflow tank. Then he changed the oil and investigated for coolant contamination, nothing found. And just as mysteriously, the coolant loss stopped.
Sorry for your problem.
Les
On my '97 the manual release is on the driver side, hanging from the top of the trunk about 5 inches outboard from the trunk deck hinge.
Les
We had gone through the dealer expertise and cost issues in the past and had settled on this guy as more trustworthy than the rest, even though he does not have the investment in diagnostics or "Aurora" specialists at his disposal.
He had the motor jacked (disconnected motor mounts) to get at the issue. He then advised that with the labor to get at the problem we might be well advised to replace the A/C compressor (it still worked well) and the alternator (still worked well) while the car was in this state of disassemblage to avoid duplicating labor bills down the road. For some reason not known to me, he did not suggest replacing the water pump at the same time. He did swap out the serpintine belt while the car was in, een though there was only 10,000 miles on the belt.
Think about how difficult the car is to work on if you go ahead with an a/c job.
This car is a b$tch to work on for some of the simplest of issues because the engine layout makes those simple repair things impossible to get at. If you plan to keep the car, take care of a number of things as preventative maintenance may save you down the road, big time.
We probably need other people more knowledgeable than me to pipe in here.
I just feel that I don't want to jump into the same mud puddle twice if I can avoid it. And I want to get another 3 years out of the car.
He said that when pulling the heads off he would have to put inserts in every head bolt and the price would be around 2,500.00 to 3,000.00.
Is there any other fix for this?
If he torqued down the head bolts and the head had never been off, then the stripped head bolt is on HIS watch.
If this is an automatic transmission car, you might also check for a bad radiator, as I believe the radiator on that car also cools the transmission fluid in a lower portion of the tank....so the two tanks can leak into each other.
(1) Slight oil leak, cannot see it from under the hood. It appears to be coming from around the front of the oil pan. Any suggestions on what this might be. Probably leaks 1/2 - 1 quart of oil every 3-5K miles.
(2) Check Engine Light (SES) has been on for probably 6-12 months, I know what you are thinking. I already took it to a dealer; gas tank cap, etc. Was off for a couple of day, took it back, something else, off for a couple of days, etc. Gas mileage seems o.k. at around 25-28 mpg at highway speed, doesn't run or start hard, the car is white and you can see soot or something above the exhaust pipes on the rear bumper cover, not sure if that is o.k. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
After replacing the o2 sensor to no avail, replace the EGR.
worked for me.
Now for my issue.... My left rear passenger window won't come back up. It's stuck open. Anybody have any tips ?
1996 fully equiped I've more questions and answers after paying major bucks in dealer repairs. But I still love this car. Anybody know where to find a mechanics book for this car so I can fix it myself ?
I verified front and rear switches are OK. Open circuit somewhere between front door and rear door. I was able to close the window by using a jumper from battery to motor.
Les
And how did you get the door panel off ? Is it the one screw behind the handle and snap the rest off ?
thanks
Les
The above is a great site for the Aurora / Oldsmobile community. Your right about the 2 screws at the bottom.
That site even has illustrations in performing the task.
An internet search for Oldsmobile Aurora got me there.
I will let you know how I do. Thanks again.
The jumper from the battery did the trick my left rear window is now... closed.
I used a lamp cord size stranded wire, connected the copper to the positive terminal and the silver to the negative ground.
then at the other end, I inserted copper to the blue wire switch connector and silver to the brown wire switch connector. Heard the window motor hum, quickly pulled the jumper out and then reversed polarity and zoom... the window went up. Thank you.
The bottom 2 screws on my 96 door panel are hex head by the way. The handle screw is phillips. All one needs to do after popping off the door handle Bezel and lifting up on the door pannel is to disconnect the window switch harness and connect the jumper to that.
Now that my window is up I can plan a day to find the open circuit or... broken wire.
Bill
That is good news. When you find the open circuit, please let me know where it is. I have not put in the time to find mine.
I love my Aurora and whenever I look around to replace it, I conclude that it is the best of the best.
JohnnieBoy
I love my Aurora and whenever I look around to replace it, I conclude that it is the best of the best.
JohnnieBoy
Adam
Norman
Too hard a tire and it can beyond the higher level rate of valving. And since each level of valving is likely maintained through the return stroke, that means spring pushes back harder because more energy compressed it more than necessary and that momentum is then slamming against a harder than recommended surface, the hard tire.
Tire pressure may need to be adjusted slighty for optimal with your tire model. I run original size in Khumo brand which from one of the tire sales sites many Aurora owners seem to think it is better than OE in areas of ride, quiet, and traction. But loosing the correct pressure information put me at doubt. I found myself a half pound low on front driver side compared to others at 32. I could feel that in handling. But adding that 1/2 and then driving to the air show yesterday I realized I may be rolling a little hard. Now I know why with 2 pound cold too much.
These tires seem to have an almost magic point where air doesn't want to compress more. My guess it is related to tread flex or more likely sidewall flex. Maybe if the sidewall stands up too much it inversely limits the ability of the tire to take the shock of a rough spot.
Hoping maybe the last one will hold for awhile.
With this last one, also had codes popping for #1 misfire that were not there before. Driving it yesterday after replacing that third one shows I have something related to misfire yet. I have a spare coil and will swap and then visit autozone for an erase of codes.
Hope that helps Les.
The screeching is usually the belt slipping versus the clutch smoking so replacing it was likely necessary.
Lines near firewall should both be cold and about same temperature. This would indicate that a blend door is possibly bad or the control head and it thinks you want heat.
If the compressor is not running, you could have a malfunction of the pressure switch on compressor, or bad high or low temp sensor in the freon line. If the high detects a high temp it will shut the system down and is located near vehicle front, behind headlights on mine. Unplugging it sends cold or normal signal to computer and may take a few start and stop cycles to reset computer.
Cold sensor is in line under wiper motor I think. Not sure how this one works from top of head.
Did you have high and low guages hooked up when attempting to fill?
And if you haven't picked up on it, possibly the main computer.
Look at sidwall, inner and outer for a spot marking, white, red, blue, any color maybe. Unless you tell them specifically it seems they intentionally do not line it up with valve stem. This system of mating tire to wheel started in 80's with Cadillac Cimaron. Likelihood of it happening properly is like getting the wheel nuts hand torqued.
Then I'd say the next step is road force balance.