2003 STS Struts

[Golfer]

Does anybody know if it is possible to buy some aftermarket struts for a 2003 Cadillac STS.

Mine semm to have partially siezed, I took it to a Cadillac dealer to find out where the clunks were coming from and to get an estimate. They quoted me $1400.00 each for the struts. The part No is GM19300076. I am not sure if this is with the spring attached or just the strut. any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Ron

[Texas Jim]

$576,,,, http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/results.cfm?partnumber=19300076

$553.... http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php?carcode=1379932&parttype=7584&a=r.search.yahoo.com%2BSearch%2Bfor%2BSuspension%2BStrut&ck[iD]=0&ck[idlist]=0&ck[viewcurrency]=USD&ck[php_SESSION_ID]=vingogs2f0cmo0eoriddq12dg3

[KHE]

Does anybody know if it is possible to buy some aftermarket struts for a 2003 Cadillac STS.

Mine semm to have partially siezed, I took it to a Cadillac dealer to find out where the clunks were coming from and to get an estimate. They quoted me $1400.00 each for the struts. The part No is GM19300076. I am not sure if this is with the spring attached or just the strut. any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Ron

Ron,

Does your car make a "clunking" noise from the front end when going over bumps? My '97 STS is doing that and the stabilizer links are new as are the stabilizer bar bushings. I don't see anything that is loose when I pry the suspension components around. I am starting to wonder if it is the front struts or strut mounts/bearing. The car has 187,400 miles on it.

Monroe 71684 may work for your car (rockauto.com has them - about $60 each) but you will need to solder a resistor across the harness of the old strut to defeat the SERVICE RIDE CONTROL message.

[Cadillac Jim]

If you want RSS and the magnetic switching shocks that give you a smooth, quiet ride on most roads but stiffen on washboard or other poor surfaces, you should consider sticking to the OEM shocks. In addition to a better ride, it helps with ABS, TC, and ESC by switching the damping from "best ride" to stiffer when needed. A lot of people do disable the RSS with older cars if they don't care about this feature. For safety, shocks and struts that don't switch must be stiff enough, all the time, for the ABS/TC/ESC to work and for the car to be stable above 80 mph.

Some people actually prefer a stiffer ride and get premium performance shocks/struts that don't switch.

I don't see a listing for switching shocks or struts listed for the 2003 by Monroe. This is probably because you can get the GM parts at a reasonable price, which was not so for the 1992-2002 E and 1992-1997 K platforms, where your only choices were AC/Delco and Monroe for electronic shocks and struts, but the AC/Delco price was high enough so that Monroe could make a profit selling them at a much more attractive price.

[barczy01]

Monroe 71684 from Rockauto 60$ each

4.7k Ohm, 1/2 Watt resistor available in a 5 pack from Radio Shack; catalog #271-1124

130$ spent plus labor

I have installed many this way with no issue

[JimD]

The 4.7K Ohm resistor will absolutely not trick the suspension control module on a F55 (Magnaride) equipped vehicle.

If someone will bring a functional F55 equipped Cadillac to my driveway for an hour or two, I might be able to come up with a range of resistor values that will work.

[barczy01]

I must be lucky cause I have done a least a dozen of them and never had an issue.

[Cadillac Jim]

Some come with the F45 suspension and some come with the F55 suspension with the magnetic shock fluid. The 2003 Seville comes only with F55. If the F55 system can be fooled with the same 4.7K resistor as the F45 suspension, that is something we need to keep handy.

[JimD]

Don't waste any memory space on the 4.7K in a F55. The resistor will vaporize the instant the key hits ON.

[KHE]

I think barczy01 was referring to the traditional RSS struts/shocks, not the magnaride suspension.

[SevilleDorado]

So - to tag onto this thread - is the 4.7 ohm 1/2 watt resister what I should solder in on my 95 ElDorado ETC ? I just replaced the front struts with the Monroes , and split and taped off the wires for now........

Does it also effect the rear air shocks ? I am replaceing those soon, I just got a set of the Arnott ones for the rear. It seems once I replaced the fronts, the rears do not want to work right. I was replaceing them anyways as I wanted to do all 4 corners of the suspension......

Thanks

[KHE]

So - to tag onto this thread - is the 4.7 ohm 1/2 watt resister what I should solder in on my 95 ElDorado ETC ? I just replaced the front struts with the Monroes , and split and taped off the wires for now........

Does it also effect the rear air shocks ? I am replaceing those soon, I just got a set of the Arnott ones for the rear. It seems once I replaced the fronts, the rears do not want to work right. I was replaceing them anyways as I wanted to do all 4 corners of the suspension......

Thanks

4.7 kilo-ohm which is 4700 ohms. I use the old harness from the strut/shock so I don't damage the car harness. Use PVC pipe cement over the electrical tape to make it waterproof.

[SevilleDorado]

Thanks ,looks like a trip to Radio Shack is in store for the afternoon. I did just clip them right at the old strut , I was going to dip the connection in some of that goop that you can dip your wrench handles in after making them up.

I have several cans and colors of it......I am thinking it will work and be thicker ?

[KHE]

Thanks ,looks like a trip to Radio Shack is in store for the afternoon. I did just clip them right at the old strut , I was going to dip the connection in some of that goop that you can dip your wrench handles in after making them up.

I have several cans and colors of it......I am thinking it will work and be thicker ?

That should work. I learned the electrical tape/PVC cement trick from a well driller many years ago. It really works well.

[Göran W]

Is this: http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/oe-gm/19300076 the correct match for my STS -02 MagnaRide (F55)?

[Tone]

Okay I just bought a 2003 Cadillac Seville sts only 90k miles on it drives brand new I had recently took original tires and rims off and took it to rim shop and bought it 2000$ new tires and rims 20 inch well the front left side when I hit little hills or bumps on highway it bounces non stop until I hit breaks to make it slow down and stop it bounces so much that the left fender is coming down on tire scraping and slicing it up the right side don't do it though neither does the back I'm thinking I just need to replace the front struts seeing as it wasn't doing it with original tires and rims the right front struts seems. To be good no scrapes or nothing only front right side but I should replace both struts right ? If If I go to AutoZone what kinds struts do I even ask them for I don't want my caddy bouncing on tires you think if I got new struts it would still do this or no ? The lady at AutoZone said both front struts are only 250 too 

[Göran W]

First of all: What size of rims (Width and ET) and what size of tires?????

[BodybyFisher]

This is odd that you didn't have this issue before but you have it now with new tires and rims, it doesn't make sense.

I trust the tires were speed balanced?

Have you considered you have a defective (out of round) tire?

Have you checked for suspension codes?  Post all codes here.

Are you getting suspension messages on the dash?

[Cadillac Jim]

According to wheel-size.com, the 2003 Seville, both the SLS and STS, have this tire and wheel size from the factory:

Tires:  235/60R16, load range 99, speed rating T (118 mph) NOTE BELOW

Wheels:  Rim 7 inches, width 16 inches, mounting flange type J, offset +51mm, 5 bolts on a 115mm circle.

What isn't listed there is tire rolling diameter.  From tyresizecalculator.com, the calculated (from the tire size) rolling diameter is 27.09 inches.  The specs for the particular tire you have on the car will have that listed in the Goodyear catalog, and will be very slightly different, as in 26.9" or some such.  Other calculated numbers are 747 revolutions per mile, etc.

If you want the car to accelerate and brake without pulling on the steering wheel on bumps, you need the steering tire rotation axis to pass through the center of the tire patch.  If you have a tire with the same rolling diameter and a wheel with the same offset, that will make sure that this happens.  If you change the wheels, making that happen is on you.

If you have a tire with a different rolling radius, as you apparently do with 20" wheels and the tires hitting the fender liners on bumps, this is like changing the final drive ratio, and the speedometer will read low too.  Check with a speedometer shop or two and see if you can get that corrected.

The formula for rolling diameter is [wheel rim width, as in 16"] X 2 X [(tire width as in 235mm) X (aspect ratio, as in 60 means 0.6)/(25.4 mm/in)].  You can use that as a spreadsheet formula to get rolling diameter for a bunch of tire sizes.

[BodybyFisher]

I think you are referring to this Jim, correct?

https://tiresize.com/comparison/

By the way, where did you find the 51mm offset spec?

 

[Cadillac Jim]

The url for wheel-size.com is

https://www.wheel-size.com/

They refer to the wheel size as 7Jx16 ET51.  Their "i" button explains that as 7 inch rims, mounting rim type J (most road cars), and ET51 means a positive offset of 51 mm, which is 2 inches.  That's where I got the tire size, too.  Width is 235mm, up from 225mm for older Sevilles, with a corresponding slight increase in rolling diameter (the aspect ratio of 60% is the same).