Tom_
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Got under the hood today and pulled the loom off from the sensor's connector all the way to where it meets the main harness behind the motor. I found some dried oil and dirt and whatnot but no shorts or broken insulation to speak of really. There was one thin spot that I separated from the rest of the wires and put electrical tape on then plugged it all in to test if that was the issue and I still had the code 41. I made sure all the insulation was there up to the main harness and put the loom back on and plugged everything in and still had the code. As a side note, while I had the loom off and was test starting it after the tape I also had an E043 but that went away when I put it all back in loom and plugged in again. While I was back there I looked over the main thick piece of loom and saw a worrying amount of duct tape. I think the retaining clips on the back of the motor broke off at some point long ago and the harness fell onto the exhaust manifold and was taped up. I decided it was too big of a job for me today to pull all that tape off and check all the wires but I see myself putting a new engine wiring harness on in the future now which is unfortunate. Can the plug that plugs into the sensor go bad in any way? I ask because I'm dreading that duct tape and because the connector was brittle and had a lot of grease and oil buildup around the wires where they came out.
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Following the flow chart, the voltage between the A and B terminals on the cam sensor connector measured 11.07V, while the voltage between B and C terminals was 4.85V. So I guess the there's a short somewhere in the pigtail or harness. I followed the loom up to where it intersects a larger portion of loom and it passed behind a hose and appeared to be rubbing it. Tomorrow when I have light I'll get out there and peel off the loom to see what I can find.
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I made sure I didn't put it in backwards after reading an old thread here where someone did just that. I took a couple of pictures after I got it in to check that for sure.
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Update on the cam sensor error on my 89. I got a new cam sensor after checking the wires in the area for shorts and finding none. Test drove it and the code only came up after the car got to operating temperature. The code set and cleared itself intermittently about three times before setting permanently until the car was shut off and cooled all the way down. This seemed odd to me but since it wasn't fixed I went ahead and did padgett's cam magnet replacement procedure with a brand new cam magnet and let the jb weld set up overnight. I came out this morning and put the sensor back in place and the belt and water pump pulley put back on, then went to the diagnostic center and cleared any and all codes. Then I started up the car and the SES light came on immediately and stayed on. I checked the code and it was an E041. I immediately shut it down and pulled the sensor to make sure the magnet hadn't just flung off. The new magnet was still there exactly how I left it. I replaced the sensor and went for a drive and the code wouldn't go away even at operating temperature. I went to the parts store and picked up a new sensor just to make sure and it's still throwing the code. At this point I just need a direcition to go in to find the source. I was sure it was the magnet after changing the sensor helped the issue. Is there a ground that I should clean or something else simple that I missed? Thanks in advance for any and all help
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It has the three wires going to the plug coming out of a piece of loom that branches into the knock sensor plug, the cam sensor plug and the oil pressure sensor. All three have several inches of wire between the loom and connector. I glanced over the exposed portion of the cam sensor wires and saw no cracking or missing/melted insulation. The ses light comes on as soon as I turn on the key pretty much every time since whenever I turn it off its been warmed all the way and the code has set. If I turn it on when it's cold, the light comes on immediately and then after running for a second or two it turns off.
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Well I drove the car about 300 miles this week and noticed that when the car is cold (when the temp gage is at the bottom not moving) the code doesn't set. However, when it gets to operating temps (170F-190F) the code will set intermittently three or four times before staying on until I shut the car off. If I start the car before it cools completely the code is still set. The plot thickens. Replacing the magnet over the weekend and doing some other routine things under the hood while waiting for the jb weld to dry. I need to get this headache sorted so I can move on to the abs light headache.... Will post results(hopefully good) when I get the work done. Thanks for your help so far gentlemen. Tom
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Well I got out there today and cleaned up the magnet as best I could with a rag, some engine degreaser and my sausage fingers and it looked a little better but still not new. I put the mounting bolt for the cam sensor head first on the magnet and it held it straight out. Then I put another little bolt head first on the end of that bolt and it was held straight out. I assumed my magnet was good. So I put on a new cam sensor and cleaned the plug on the pig tail and connected it. Got everything put back on and cranked it up and no error code! I let it idle for about 4-5 minutes and the code came back up and wouldn't leave. When I get bac to the house I'll put up some pictures but I'm thinking that fiddling with the magnet may have been enough to get it to break off but who knows. Tomorrow I'll take the sensor back off and look in there to see. In the meantime, what are the other things that can throw that code?
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At this point, I'll probably take a punch and a small hammer and just knock it out of the hole. I could either clean it, put the sensor, water pump pulley, and belt back on and see if it works and potentially have to pull it all back apart and punch it out anyway, or I could just punch it out and jb weld a new one in. I went out there and pushed and wiggled the magnet with my finger and it wasn't loose or falling apart, at least it didn't feel that way. Could the connector I found broken be the cause or is it unrelated entirely? At any rate I don't want to rip out a perfectly good interrupter unless I 100% have too. It's my daily driver and I don't know how long Padgett's jb weld technique will last for me.
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I also wanted to ask how gentle I should be in removing the interrupter and if I should collect all the pieces. Would it be awful if I just chipped away at it and pulled out what I could with needlenose pliers and let the rest go wherever it may? Or should I make sure every single piece comes out? -Tom
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I DIY'd my driver's side latch about a year ago. The little metal spring in there can snap fairly easily with prolonged use as you've figured out. I used a piece of dense foam and electrical tape to fix mine. If you can take apart the buckle (there's lots of guides to that part) then all you have to do is clean out all the fragments of the old spring and tape a small piece of the foam right on where the spring pushed against the latch.
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My '89 started intermittently showing the E041 and turning on the SES light about 4 or 5 months ago. It got more frequent in the past 2 months and from about three weeks ago the SES is on all the time from the time I start the car. After reading up a little I figured it was a cam position sensor and interrupter since the light was constant. I finally got time to dig into it a little and snapped a few pictures. First I found that the pigtail looked good. http://i.imgur.com/mvEfhJb.jpg I jiggled the wires a little and none of them seemed loose or damaged. Then I took out the sensor and turned the motor until I saw the interrupter and it was somehow still there. http://i.imgur.com/Wib06el.jpg http://i.imgur.com/2032rMb.jpg Does this thing look functional or do I need to invest the time and effort into digging it out of there and doing the JB weld fix to put in a new one? The vehicle has 120,000 miles if that helps at all. I also found this broken sensor/plug thing down there and I think I found where it plugs. I would really appreciate any input on what it is/what a part number for a new one is. http://i.imgur.com/zyi812o.png http://i.imgur.com/EKeGpFb.jpg http://i.imgur.com/1dWn2Kf.png Thanks in advance for your help guys! -Tom
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Mine sometimes gets stuck if the wheel is turned in either direction. Just try gently turning the wheel a little both ways while turning the key next time it happens. In addition to the shifter cable slack
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All the hoses are replaced and the servo is replaced. Walked in the junk yard and was greeted with three grandma-quality early 90's Century's. Cruise control works perfectly now. Interestingly when I slid the driver's seat back the motor stopped working, keeping with my ongoing luck of "fix one thing at least one more breaks". I have advice on the weird non responsive seat motors. They get somehow frozen (vapor locked?). I, out of frustration at first, tapped the motor with a hammer and, while holding the forward adjustment on the door, was greeted with an inch of forward motion. Repeat until the motor moves forward and backward freely. So I guess I learned something out of this whole thing, now to do the same thing with the passenger seat..... Tom
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Current status: All the small diameter hoses and the check valve are replaced. The cruise still gives way after a fairly short time. The big hose may be the culprit but I'm not sure how it is removed from the firewall. The cruise release valve on the brake pedal mount seems slightly loose. I pulled over and pulled the hose off of the release valve and plugged it with my finger and the cruise control gave way just the same way. So it is probably that hose but I'll know for sure tomorrow. Hopefully the hose comes out of the firewall with only minimal pulling. If it's not that it must be the servo. Hopefully I can find one for little to no money somewhere if it comes to that. Thanks for your help guys
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Looks like the check valve was bad, at least when I gently shook it there was no noise inside, so I replaced that and the hose from the servo to the little three way connector and from there to the check valve. I also replaced and added hose clamps to the hose from the check valve to the metal section of hose on the top of the engine. Preliminary testing says it worked, this weekend's trip will tell the story. Is it possible to replace the hose coming out of the vacuum tank without replacing the whole tank? I was curious but I wanted to ask before yanking on it.
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Thanks for the tips guys. I'm just gonna replace the $4 valve and all the hoses. No sense penny pinching on a ~$10 repair. Will post results tomorrow if the rain holds off.
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handmedown would you elaborate? Just a picture pointing to the hose or something to show me which hose you're talking about will suffice.
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So I've had my 88 for two years now and this spring the cruise started failing on long trips. I'll set the cruise control on 70 - 75 and it'll hold for about two or three minutes and then the car will just begin slowing down. The "CRUISE" light stays on as if I'm still at the set speed. Sometimes the slowing is very sudden, most of the time the sudden slowing happens when I'm going up a hill on the interstate. I'll get a quarter or halfway up the hill and it'll be as if the cruise is off but the "CRUISE" light will still be on. I'm pretty sure this is a vacuum problem and I'm fairly certain it's not the servo. Where are the normal places leaks occur? The hoses around the servo are in good shape and connected properly. Any input is appreciated. Tom
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crazytrain was able to hook me up with an accumulator/pump assembly that was for the right system. Put it on, flushed all the old fluid, cleaned out the reservoir, primed the motor, flushed the lines and it all works great! The diagnosis was a mixture of the filter in the reservoir being gummed up with what looked like mulch and a bad accumulator. The fluid level barely dropped while the motor would run and run. So with everything back in place and the pressure sensor confirmed for being good by allowing the system to build pressure and shut off, looks like it's back on the road. Next on the list is the dang rattling strut mounts. One of these days I'll run out of things that need fixing. Tom_ P.S. I attached a few pics of the reservoir level after the motor had been running for awhile to show how little the level changed.
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excellent. I'll hit the salvage yard on Wednesday and post results.
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It's odd. The pump is running but it normally makes a buzzing noise like it's spinning fast but right now it sounds like a low purring and is vibrating at a much lower frequency. Would any clogs make it do that or is that just the motor? At any rate, what other cars could I pull a pump motor off that would fit this system?
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The pedal isn't pushing back at me it just has no power assistance. Essentially it feels similar to having manual brakes with no booster. The symptoms started at the end of August when, as I pulled into campus after a 6 hour drive, the red warning light came on. My brakes still had assist and everything was fine. Then, over the last month, when I crank it up the first time just the yellow light is on. Then somewhere down the road the red light will come on after a few stops (I've tried counting stops but the number varies too much for any sort of pattern). Then after a few more stops, sometimes one, sometimes a dozen, the pedal will feel very firm like I described above and I'll get the "ABS Low-Pressure Warning" on the screen. Again the number of stops varies greatly. Quite recently however, the red and yellow lights are on when I start it and the pedal may or may not be firm from the beginning. It's basically just degenerating into not having boost at all from working fine a month ago. FYI: The yellow light has been on since I bought it in April, frayed/cracked/possibly shorted wheel sensor wires are the cause. I fixed what I could see but there's always more I can't.
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Sorry I should have said the yellow ABS light is always on. But I will go clean all the connectors. Would the relay be bad even with a good voltage reading at the motor?
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So I've had my '89 since April and I've had no trouble with it until two weeks ago when I'm driving through town and the red brake warning light comes on. The brakes work fine for three more lights, but when I get to the next one the pedal is reallhard to push down. I used two feet and the car will still stop just fine. Sounds like "no boost." When I get back to campus I get on here and research. I do the brake test and the first step is check the voltage to the pump. I pop the hood and the pump is vibrating and sounds like it's running at 10% power. I check the voltage and it's got 11.90V. So I go back inside and start looking for a pump motor. They are $600+. So my question is: a) Where do you get your pump motors from at any price substantially less than a re-manufactured unit? What other years/models have the same motor for a possible junkyard unit. (I know the salvage yard unit will not last as long but it's what I can afford.) Looking at other threads Jim Finn may have one but his email seems to change a lot. Any help would be appreciated ya'll. Thanks for your time.
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Phone means mp3 player. Sorry for the confusion. The GPS plays through an internal speaker. A CD changer in the trunk is, I believe, wired to play through the speakers via tape deck inputs but since the battery has been replaced after the tape deck was removed, there was no way to make the tape detect active again so the P.O. just stopped using it. I'd like to be able to do something simple with the detect wire. If somebody had one hooked up and could be bothered to test what kind of voltage is running through it that'd answer the question. I had also thought about the pink wire for the radio antenna as a remote wire but wasn't sure if I should use it or not.
