Need mechanic that's knowledgeable in Reatta electronic systems.

[Happy Harv]

I need to find an honest mechanic that's knowledgeable in these electronic systems.  With a fully charged battery mine will start fine, but drive twenty five miles, turn it off, and it won't even click the solenoid.  The battery is still fully charged.  Jump start it and it will fire right up.  Could it be the starter or sentinel relays?

Edited June 15, 2020 by Ronnie (see edit history)

[Ronnie]

57 minutes ago, Happy Harv said:

With a fully charged battery mine will start fine, but drive twenty five miles, turn it off, and it won't even click the solenoid.  The battery is still fully charged.  Jump start it and it will fire right up.  Could it be the starter or sentinel relays?

 

If it starts right up when you jump it with a good battery, either the battery is dead or the battery cable connections are bad.  How are you determining the battery is still fully charged?

[Happy Harv]

17 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

 

If it starts right up when you jump it with a good battery, either the battery is dead or the battery cable connections are bad.  How are you determining the battery is still fully charged?

When I jumped it with a "bang box" the meter on the box said 12.22 volts.  I assumed that was the voltage on the jumped battery but I guess it could have just as easily been the voltage of the "bang box".

 

[padgett]

I've forgotten what year you have but the battery voltage is usually ED10 in the diagnostics

[Happy Harv]

3 minutes ago, padgett said:

I've forgotten what year you have but the battery voltage is usually ED10 in the diagnostics

Thanks for the quick reply.  Twelve days ago I purchased and drove from Michigan to Wisconsin in my polo green 91.  Since then I've been trying to sort out the electronic issues that infect this car. ie no cruise, lights that stay on regardless of switch position, radio that just crackles and pops, radio antenna that won't raise, etc etc etc.  

The start / no start makes the car unreliable and until I can find someone who knows this electronic system, I guess I bought an old lawn ornament.

[padgett]

Surely there is a good Reatta mechanic in Wisc. If in Orlando could sort out quickly.

 

BTW does it have a sunroof ? Many electrical issues stem from a leaky sunroof.

 

ps are some seperate issues there:

are some ecm issues that inhibit the cruise

radio crackles and pops is aging caps in the amp module

radio antenna is usuallty  snapped cord. Can you pull up manually ? I usually raise mine about 2" and unplug the antenna motor.

Edited June 15, 2020 by padgett (see edit history)

[Happy Harv]

1 minute ago, padgett said:

Surely there is a good Reatta mechanic in Wisc. If in Orlando could sort out quickly.

 

BTW does it have a sunroof ? Many electrical issues stem from a leaky sunroof.

Yes, 900994, did come with a sun roof which operates but seems to need additional help each time I use it.

[padgett]

Check for a wet carpet behind the passenger seat. Many things come together under the carpet.

[Barney Eaton]

Padgett may be on the right track......... under the drivers and passenger seat are the wires running from the front to back.

In that mess there are several crimp connections that can fail if the car has an ongoing leak...  water stands in the plastic channel and the

crimps fail because the ferrel is steel and it rusts.    The solution is to cut off the steel crimp, clean the wires crimp with a copper crimp and

just to be safe solder the joint.    This may not solve the starting issue (unless one of these joints is draining the battery ) but it may resolve many other issues.

[2seater]

Where are you located HH?

[MRJBUICK]

Happy Harv

Please see my post in this forum 

"1991 radio not working" MRJBUICK

I am not saying this is your problem but it was a strange one for me. My radio was dead but before the battery went it was crackle and popping and mine is a 91. It is pretty easy to pop out the radio so disconnect it and one less thing to worry about while diagnosing. You might get lucky.

Just an idea good luck 

Marty

[Happy Harv]

After being towed home several times for failure to start, found an intermittent wiring problem INSIDE the starter.  Started fine when cold, wouldn't turn over once warmed up.  Replaced the starter, end of problem.

[DAVES89]

And you were on the right track with your comment about it starting with a "jump box" so the extra voltage overcame the issue in the starter. Good for you.

[Barney Eaton]

I suggest you do not use the sunroof until you get time to fix it.

It may be a combination of lack of lube and 30 years of dust, dirt, leaves, etc.

I also suggest you check Ebay and find a 1991 Service Manual to go with the car.........1991 manuals are usually cheaper than 1990 manuals plus

you should have one for your year car. ...   even if you do not plan on doing the work,  you can read about the problem and have a good idea what should be

fixed.

[padgett]

I like having a searchable .pdf on CD.

[handmedownreatta]

40 minutes ago, padgett said:

I like having a searchable .pdf on CD.

i have a shop manual but it always feels like its going to tear if i look in it.

[Y-JobFan]

Everytime I have had cruise issues it was the servo, quick and easy replacement 

 

[DAVES89]

I once swapped in a headlight switch to the 1989 Red from a junker. I tested the headlight switch for back lighting and all the functions and it worked fine so I kept it in. Shortly later I started developing a cruise control issue that was intermittent, which then turned to almost all the time. Swapped out everyone of my servos [4] and never worked.

 Said to myself only other thing swapped was the headlight switch. Swapped it out for another and everything worked as it should. Surprising thing to me was the cruise button indicator light worked but not the contact.

 I agree that most times it can be the servo, but not all the time. However both swaps are easy. And to this day I have never had a cruise wire or cruise stalk button be bad.

[Ronnie]

My cruise stopped working and it was because the vacuum lines had rotted that connects the servo and the vacuum reservoir. All of them would just crumble in your hand. I replaced them all and the cruise worked like new. I took the photo below to help others who might have the same problem.

 

[padgett]

BTW the coolant temp needs to be above about 170F or the cruise will drop out.

[ChrisWhewell]

On 7/31/2020 at 11:28 AM, Happy Harv said:

After being towed home several times for failure to start, found an intermittent wiring problem INSIDE the starter.  Started fine when cold, wouldn't turn over once warmed up.  Replaced the starter, end of problem.

I had that same problem on a '92 suburban 25 years ago and on a 93 vette also.  When the starter became  "heat-soaked", it was a no-go situation.  On the vette I disassembled the solenoid and the two flat-headed copper bolts that were the poles of the circuit were visibly ugly for lack of a better word.   Essentially what goes on there is uber-high current for the split-second each time you start it, slowly over time it vaporizes the copper atoms off those bolts.   Hahahaha, so I set up a small-time electroplating operation and electroformed two millimeters more of Cu onto those bolts, filed them and polished the business surfaces and re-assembled.   Problem solved.

[Y-JobFan]

On 8/1/2020 at 5:12 PM, Ronnie said:

My cruise stopped working and it was because the vacuum lines had rotted that connects the servo and the vacuum reservoir. All of them would just crumble in your hand. I replaced them all and the cruise worked like new. I took the photo below to help others who might have the same problem.

 

I never get that lucky, out of 8 Reatta's I have had to replace 4 servo's 

[padgett]

Servos have rubber bellows. Know something in Florida eats rubber, the idler wheel in 8-tracks used to just melt and make a mess.

 

Corvettes used to have a heat shield that went over the starter/solenoid. Being in a hot climate, fitted several to other cars.