Greetings.

I have an 89 Seville I've been using as my college beater. I recently took it on a trip from LA to the Bay Area and had some major issues.

First, we were going up the grapevine (big hill, for non-californians) in 105 degree heat and in traffic. It overheated. Not a big surprise, so we stopped. It cools down a bitand we try to get going again and it won't start (when i say it doesn't start, it doesn't even try to crank or turn over. when the key was turned, there was something buzzing under the master cylinder but thats it.) We end up sitting on the side of the road (not fun) for about an hour. At some point we disconnected the battery. After an hour, it did finally start.

After a rough trip (more on that later), we got to a gas station about 100 miles away. Again, when finished it did not start. It was running hot but not rediculously so. Waited half an hour, it started, and actually ran pretty well.

The next day, we had to move it and i was going to give my friends a short ride. When picking them up, we turned it off outside their house and it... refused to start back up. Pattern continues... let it sit for about half an hour with battery disconnected and it would start.

It gave me no issues on the way home. The 'rough trip' i mentioned was strange because it seemed to be missing (which its never done before). It was running about 10-15 degrees hotter than normal (obviously without a/c), getting terrible gas mileage (about 15 freeway instead of the normal 22 or so), and was shuddering. It didn't do this again the rest of the trip or coming back and i'm not sure if its really that important, but I thought I'd mention it.

We figure that some relay (or maybe the starter itself) is getting shorted when it gets hot. However, the engine bay is a bit more complicateed than...say.. my mustang's, and I wouldn't know where to start guessing which relay it is. My dad also mentioned it sounds vaguely like an issue he had with a security system on my brother's 85 corvette, but we still don't really know where to go from there.

Anyone have any suggestions? Any help or guidance you could give would be appreciated. Also posted this in the seville section, so hopefully i'm not breaking any rules. Thanks in advance.

 

did you find out why it overheated?
the key to the solution probably lies there.
did the coolant leve dropped off?
if not, then what?

I been up and down the Grape Vine hundreds of times,
i got one towing truck, 25 mph is my best when pulling another
8,000 lbs + the truck gross, up the hill, still no overheat.

down the other side, damn .. it is still 30mph, but this time the truck is pushed
and pushed - it can be a nerve racking 50 mile long rollercoaster - if you let it !

100F ? One of the cooler days, i see. It gets much higher than that at the mid-day..
the Caddy (banner below) , way past the legal limit, watching for the B&W's at the
center divider, the 4100 never heats more than the normal cruise in the Valley.

on the double posting .. no biggy, dont sweat it
i put it away in the safe. we like a clean site.
that is all.


[sm=welcomesign.gif]

 

Well, I've also taken it through the grapevine (roughly a dozen times in the last year) and never had an issue.

It has overheated before. The only thing that seemed to be wrong was the electric fans stopped working (I don't know if this was before or after the car overheated... ie whether them not being on caused the overheating or was a result of the rest of the car overheating). The fans both work. My fan control module burned out a while ago and I couldnt' find a new one reasonably so I have them rigged to run when I toggle a switch on and off. The way they're wired now has them dependent on the same power source they normally are, so I'm going to wire them so they are directly connected to the battery (so if it is a relay going bad when its hot causing the fans to stop spinning, it should no longer be an issue). However, everything else was okay(water levels, brand new water pump, unobstructed radiator, etc).

Like I said though, I couldnt' tell if the car overheated because the fans stopped working or the fans stopped working because it overheated.

Do you (or anyone) know what wires, connections, relays, etc could be failing to supply power to the starter when its hot? The starter seems fine otherwise, but I might replace that as well to be safe. But there can only be so many power connections to the starter that'd prevent it from trying to turn the engine over.

Thanks again

 

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who make this site available to people like me who don't know that much about cars, but sure enjoy driving a Cadillac. I have loved owningmy'89 Cadillac Seville (4.5 ltr.) for the past5 yrs.I never had a serious problem until the end of July whenwhen theSES lightcame on and warning messages such as :"System Problem - Service Car Soon" started to appear onDIC, so I took the carto a FirestoneAuto Care center where they ran a diagnostic analysis, replaced the distributor assemblywith a "remanufactured" part,saying that they couldn't get a genuine replacement.They also replaced the engine coil and the electronic ignition module.Immediately afterwardsI noticed that theSES lightwas still on and while sitting in the repair bay the car backfired terribly, blowing out a cloud of white smoke.The mechanic said he'd never seen anything like it before and it about scared the hell out of lady who was waiting near me in the lounge. Firestone told menothingcould be done about the SES light that it was on because it sensed and didn't like theremanufactured part (they used a transplanted organ analogy) and that it would always be on; and so it is.This sounded mighty fishy to me, so I insisted they do something and complained to theircorporate HQ.They eventually agreed topayto have the carlooked at by an authorizeed GM dealer who told methe same thing about the SES.I forgot to mention that since the beginning of August of this yearthe A/C has not operated correctly. When it works it "blows cold" but it doesn't come on immediateley when you start up; itcomes on gradually after a while, then goes off and comes on a bit later, etc.... Also, the engine is rough, noisy and sluggish and the car has no power, yieldingpoor gas mileage. In short, the vehicle doesn't runat all like it did before I took it to Firestone. Now the worst part - for the past 3 days I have been unable to use the car at all because it won't start and displaysthe error message "Starting disabled due to theft system." Even after going through the 3-second waiting periodnothing happens when I attempt to start it. I believe the Anti-Theft system must have been disabled when I bought the carbecause I didn't even know the car hadsuch a system; since I have owned it, the systemhas never been activated; I have never heardthe siren,seen flashing lights, nothing. Regarding the PASS key issue, I am using the same (genuine GM) ignition key as always and have even recentlytried the spare which is in pristine condition - all to no avail. Can you please tell mewhat might be causing all these problems andwhat I can do to get them fixed? I don't have money to throw away, so I am going to have to do my own diagnosis, and am prepared to do so, but don't know the difference between a "Tech-2 Scan Tool" and an OBD-I or OBD-2. Help please! Thank you in advance and you can even call me stupid. At this point I am at your mercy. Thank you.

 

Thermostat.

 

Disconnect negative battery terminal. clean terminal well with steel wool and get connections bright and clean on battery and lead. Reconnect tightly. Make sure car is properly engaged in park, could shift it back and forth a couple of times and then set it properly in park. Use prisitine spare key to start car.

 

Bad ignition parts, distributor coil etc...and also possibly emmissions system bad like clogged catalytic converter.

 

sadbuttrue provided you dont have - starting disabled message or basic starter / battery problem. noise you are hearing may be bad starter enable relay.sc89seville your conditions are more interesting.What codes are stored?both E & F. Starting disabled message is most like broken wire at ignition cylinder - vats - dealer has tool to check its operation.Car has OBD I if you going to try to diagnose you own car get factory service manual.

 

Thank you, Katzmans Caddy, for the advice. I will do as you suggested tomorrow and let you know if it works. I appreciate your help!

Ray

 

I know it's probably too late, but I ought to go back to that Firestone store and read those people the riot act. They charged me nearly $650 for all those parts and labor - not to mention the damage their bungling probably caused. I wish there were some way to know prior to them doing the work, what kind of trained technicians these places have. Hell, I could probably do a better job than those jacklegs, and that's not saying a hell of a lot. Thanks again for your help. I'll keep you (and the CF) apprised.