Caddyinfo Cadillac Chat 2013-10-31

[Cadillac Jim]

OK, guys, here we are.  Bruce doesn't seem to be on tonight so I'm going to open a Google+ Hangout.  If Texas Jim joins in, we will have a live video right here, which will morph to a YouTube embedded video when we are done.

 

Topics:  Anything goes tonight, so long as it's Cadillac related and interesting to others.  I'm going to raise the topic of tires, because I plan to get new tires before the snow comes.

 

[voicepro]

I've expressed my pleasure at owning and driving this nice old '98 deVille d'elegance...but any time you buy a used vehicle, you're entering a kind

of crapshoot. I have no real complaints, apart from being faced with a set of tires almost immediately after buying the car, then putting in four

coils to return it to proper -- and great -- running order.

But as I've said, it's a crapshoot. So just last week I had to part with almost seven hundred bucks. Fuel pump packed it in. No warning that I

saw...just drove it thirty minutes before and suddenly I'm stranded with a car that won't start. Used the OBD to point toward the problem, but

sorta figured it out myself.

Until '95, I'm told, you could just replace the pump. Now it's a "fuel pump assembly" at a somewhat higher price. And despite the fuel pump

being external to the fuel tank, you do have to drop the tank for this repair.

Ah, well...she's running like a champ again, and I'm comfortable in knowing I probably won't be faced with this particular issue again, since

it included the sensor and new filter.

Also found the lower front engine mount is broken...a thing my mechanic says I can probably ignore for the present, since my days of

trying to impress women by burning out and such are long behind me. I don't baby the car...but I'm a more conservative driver than I

was in my earlier years. That dogbone top support seems to hold everything as it should...but one day in the not-too-distant future, I'll

get that mount taken care of as well.

And a Happy All Hallow's Eve to you!

[Bruce Nunnally]

Glad you got the fuel pump fixed up; how much did the mechanic think the parts and labor were for the motor mount fix?

[voicepro]

...about two and a half, off the top of his head. Soon after that, a pal watched the engine as I revved it a bit. He's a pretty fair

shadetree mechanic, and said the engine movement wasn't significant. Still, it's something I'll taken care of pretty soon.

[Cadillac Jim]

As long as the dog bones are good and tight and the rear motor support is good, you can tolerate a loose front motor support. But you should use this slack to plan the repair, not ignore it indefinitely, because having a loose front motor mount puts all the stress on the dog bones. Being easy on the car is a good idea. For example, after you start the engine, let it run for a few seconds and the idle speed to drop before you shift in to Reverse or Drive.

[Chris]

I watched part of the webcast... when talking about electric cars and extending their range via battery swap, I thought of "Better Place". It's a company with a network of charging stations and battery swap stations set up in (I believe) Israel and parts of Australia.

Pretty interesting concept - good presentation by the founder at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nxt2bCHKqM . Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt earlier this year but it's a very interesting concept.... you buy the car but rent the battery.