I just bought a 97 Seville STS with 115K on itjust before Thanksgivingand at first the heat seemed to work well enough to make a person uncomfortably hot on both sides of the car and it was still working fine when we got our first sub zero day. About two weeks later it seemed kinda chilly in the car so Iturned the temp all the way up and it was only lukewarm, then I notice a cold breeze in the car and relized the passanger side vents were pumping out cold air and the driver/passanger temps are running opposite of each other and the passenger side controls are not changing the temp any. Soin trying to resolve this problem,Ifound this forum. (I think my heat problem may be the sun load sensor that is sitting loose under the loose defrost grill as I had been messing with it before just before my heat problem. Just a guess at this point.)

Now here's the big problem...
I thought the info display was not working when I bought the car. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, since I know how to check my oil and when to get it changed. Boy was I wrong! While checking to see where the cold air was blowing from I saw the dash from a differnt angle. The display works but it is being covered up by something. Does anybody how to disasemble the dash or know of a web site where I can see an "exploded view" of how to disasemble the dashboard so I can remove whatever is blocking the info display?I just can't bring myself to pay someone to remove what could be a piece ofblack tape and then still have to fix the problem at hand. I also would like to know what problemswere being hidden before I dump a bunch of time and money in to this car.

Thanks!!


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two things ...

1. 1st thing i do is check coolant level, in fact, change the coolant. if the coolant level is low,
you will not get heat to the heater core. there are other posibilities but check that 1st.

2. i expect there is going to be codes that someone was trying to hide. If it was a dealer purchase,
you might have recourse, depending on your State laws. Hopefully someone will come along with the
dash assy / disassy part.

 

mntbrian... first of all welcome to the Forum!!!.. second, removal of a dash imo, is something that you should have someone that "knows how" do.i speak from experience. a tech friend of minetook my 99 sts dash off to replace the ignition switch. it still isn't right!.......so however, slowroll has guided me thur a lot of that stuff with expertise. if you hang in there, i'm sure he'll advise you.

now, too bad aboutyour purchase that someone was hiding something.... do you have any recourse? which makes me wonder???? does the 97 sts have a digital, or rolling odometer? i would'nt think the dude that sold you the car went into the dash to put a piece of tape to cover the dic. do you?................. so if the miles have been tampered with, you do have recourse..... let the Forum know. you can also run a car fax that might indicate somethings up, though i don't hold lot of value in them as a rule.

any case, again welcome to the Forum. its good to have a new member. get counted inOff Topic, Cadillac demographics, how old are we. look around, have some fum and join in when you can. see ya round
rickyd

 

If you really want to attack it, check this set of instructions.

http://do***ents.victorytechnologies...ct/99-2005.pdf

 

Dang....cool stuff stomp....... thanks!!

 

Rick,

anytime one wants to remove dash, door panels, and any other panels for the purpose of speakers, stereos, electronics, go to the companies the market those items .. often, they go through incredible detail to help the avg Joe do the job of installing their products.

in today's world of electronics, you just have to know who to ask ...

 

i for sure put that site in my fav's

 

Thank you every one for the replies. The link to file is great! The coolant was the first place I looked. It was maybe a half gallon low, so I topped it off but I can't imagine these cars are that touchy. The engine temp is running dead center on the gauge after it warms up and doesn't move much after that. The part that confused me is I had heat a few weeks ago, even when we got to -5 outside and now that it doesn't get hot Inoticed that the passenger side temp is running oposite of the main setting. I'm pretty sure that side was woking fine when the heat was working because my wife complained I was cooking her to death. I couldn't find anything on the net on how the sun load sensor would effect the HVAC, other than its usually part of a climate control system. I started thinking that could be the problem because I had fiddled around with it trying to get the vent grill to lay flat and it is just sitting loose under the vent grill. Does anyone know what that other sensor is that is mounted next to the sun load sensor? Also for the HVAC or sensor for the auto head lamps?

One more question would be if the passenger side is blowing ice cold for what ever reason, can it mix with the diver side air flow to give it that "not so warm" temp? It still blowsfrom the same fan. I saw some other posts about a vent mix door behind the glove box, but that sounds like it is more for "where" its blowing.

As for odometer, it's digital. I do know that the dash had been apart because thedealer I bought the car from told me he had replaced either the display or the control unit (I wasn't paying close attention, but I thought it was the display) along with the fan speed switch, both for the HVAC. On the covered up display, I don't think I have much in the way of recourse unless it has to do with deployed air-bags orodometer readings since the car is over 8yrs old,70K+ miles and sold "as-is".

 

well there you go....he has something screwed up in there...... are you able to go in, and look see? let us know.... .....oh did you purchase from a new car dealer, or a corner car lot? new car dealer will be more apt to help you so as not to tarnish the dealers name, especially sense hes been into that areaof concern, and its not right.
rickyd

 

two things ...

Sold as is .. that still means they cannot hide defects. AS IS is voided when they do that.

mix door .. you got a door that mixes "WHAT" .. meaning, route the flow through the AC cool fins or the heater core. additionally, you also have the "where" door.

as Rick said, sounds like the guy didnt install something. normally, the mechanic is supposed to test and verify all systems after any work. specially the dash.

i dont know what controls your ambient control doors. we got vac*** and solenoid controls for the mix & direct flow doors. all it takes is for one little hose or connector not in place to do that.

BTW, 1/2 gallon down in coolant can create cavitation problems at the pump and impede the coolant flow to the heater core, amont other problems. It doesnt happen all the time, but it can. My '88 is one that does that at around 3/4 gallon low. the coolant system is not supposed to have ANY air in it, specially the Northstars.