padgett Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 and the resistor is to make the DIC happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 I haven't gotten the shop manuals yet, but wonder if anyone (e.g., @padgett) knows whether a bad wheel sensor could explain both the ABS/Traction Control issue and the active suspension faults? Also, is there a separate vehicle speed sensor (VSS)? I ask because on one occasion right after pulling out of a parking space the transmission didn't want to shift out of what felt like 1st gear. I happened to glance at the speedometer needle and noted it was reading 0 mph. The next instant, the needle jumped up to indicate the actual speed (10 ~ 15 mph) and the transmission immediately upshifted. Everything was fine after that and so far I haven't experienced that behavior again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y-JobFan Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 There is no such thing as a "cheap" Allante 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 There is a lot of Cadillac specific information in this Computerized Engine Control book. This edition is easy to find for less than $10. You should also be able to get a single car 3 year subscription to AllData for $130. As the collector cars get newer self-maintaining is going to change. I am going to post more in another topic on tools. Here is some of my light reading from next to my easy chair. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 One consideration I made when contemplating the purchase (whether it was to be a Reatta or Allante') was the fact that New York State doesn't require the 'plug-in' emission test on pre-OBD-2 cars as part of the annual safety inspection. I did not want to be stuck with frozen monitors in the ECU... Bernie, thanks for the tips on reading material. I'll definitely look into that first one. First order of business is to get the shop manual... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padgett Posted March 3, 2023 Share Posted March 3, 2023 One nice thing about both the Reatta and the Allante is both have on board diagnostics with readout in the displays. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minor4326 Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 There is a beautiful factory original hardtop for sale on Bringatrailer.com. it has 4 days left. It is also a v4j car. The Carfax suggests it's been very well maintained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padgett Posted March 4, 2023 Share Posted March 4, 2023 Need to check for head leaks. That can empty your wallet. 93 with the one year only hardtop is rare. Other than the Northstar is the easiest year to work on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Luddy Posted April 24, 2023 Share Posted April 24, 2023 On 3/4/2023 at 1:04 PM, padgett said: Need to check for head leaks. That can empty your wallet. 93 with the one year only hardtop is rare. Other than the Northstar is the easiest year to work on. I prefer the 90.5 to 92 models with the 4.5. A lot less problems and really close to the same power. But after my last Allante' I swore off them. Reatta convertible filled that need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted April 25, 2023 Share Posted April 25, 2023 On 3/4/2023 at 1:04 PM, padgett said: Need to check for head leaks. That can empty your wallet. The HT and Northstar Cadillacs have bad reputations. They earned them. Like so many faulted design cars the HT 4100 dates back to 1982 and the Northstar production ended over ten years ago. I have a soft spot between the ears for Jaguars, another "don't buy" car. No one has to buy one blind. Being 10 to 40 years old there are no surprises and there are cures for most of the remembered ailments. Cadillacs with potential for engine fluid leaks, allow $4,000 up front for the worst case engine job. My thinking is that a late model desirable car, collectible or not, and really nice should have a market value of around $10,000 ready to present at a cruise night. As an example the $2500-$5000 Allante give one the financial room to make that $10,000 car. If you buy a good car and do it yourself you have a chance at the job being done right. In my instance I would prefer to buy the car with nice paint and interior with the mechanical work left to me. Anything I would plan to farm out for repair would be a crap shoot on the quality returned. I recently bought a Northstar potential fluid puker although it is the longitudinal version and supposed to be "design fixed". We will see but I have room to make it the $10,000 I perceived if necessary. I really like the car but not married to it at this point. Experience has shown me that what I paid for is usually the most I get. A $2500 car that may have a market value of $10,000 has $7500 of expenses hidden in there somewhere. It is a fantasy not to believe that, but there is still a good market for rose colored glasses. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted April 26, 2023 Share Posted April 26, 2023 6 hours ago, 60FlatTop said: In my instance I would prefer to buy the car with nice paint and interior with the mechanical work left to me. That describes my wife's '93 Allante'. So far, once I replaced the VSS, the car seems to run and drive really well. Now for the "I told you so" part... I'm slowly tracing backward schematically in the harness to find the fault with the HVAC blower control. The 'power module' (fancy transistor version of what used to be 3 wire-wound resistors) was definitely bad (shorted 12V to the load terminal) because the fan would run full speed even with the ignition off. So, I bought and installed the offshore replacement. Unfortunately, that had the opposite effect: no blower operation. Good thing I invested in a gently-used factory shop manual. I'm currently tracing the fan speed control signal back to the BCM, which generates it. This is one of a couple of warts that I knew about and factored into the purchase price. Once sorted I think this will be a fun car, however, like Bernie I'm not married to this one either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronnie Posted April 26, 2023 Share Posted April 26, 2023 53 minutes ago, EmTee said: I'm currently tracing the fan speed control signal back to the BCM, which generates it. If your Allante is like a Reatta fan control [it probably is] you might find this helpful in tracing the fan problem. Reatta Owners Journal - HVAC Programmer Test 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted April 26, 2023 Share Posted April 26, 2023 The link above didn't work for me, but I found the article here: https://reattaowner.com/roj/guides/95-heat-a-ac-system/306-hvac-programmer-test Thanks, I'll give it a try. I have been following the fault trees given in my '93 Allante' service manual. The decision trees are based on setting the control to 'Hi Fan' and then looking for >0.5 Volts at the Gray wire. The weird thing is I swear I passed that test the first time through and landed at the blower motor as the fault, which I knew couldn't be true. I then fed the blower 12V directly through a 15A fuse and verified it is good. The service manual says to check using a 20A fuse to ensure the motor isn't drawing too much current and was responsible for the power module failure. Since mine ran at less than 15A it is good (as I suspected). I then went back through the fault tree from the beginning and this time failed the >0.5V check at the gray wire. This sent me down a path tracing that signal first to the 'Programmer' where I found a PC board edge connector with a bunch of green terminals. I cleaned the board and the connector sockets with contact cleaner and some paper. The signal wire feeding the Programmer, however, read the same voltage (~0.14V) as the Power Module connector. So, now I'm in the process of removing the control panel from the center stack to access the connector on the BCM (located behind the control panel) that feeds the Programmer. If it's not already obvious, I would be lost without the factory service manual... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dship Posted April 26, 2023 Share Posted April 26, 2023 Two points I'm going to make: #1 - Cadillacs are really just Buicks with bad engines! #2 - I once owned a 1999 Eldorado ETC and currently still own a 2000 Eldorado ESC. Both had/have NorthStar V8's. By the very late 90's/early 00's, North Star engines had been re-tweaked to perform with less head gasket issues...IF YOU TAKE CARE OF THEM PROPERLY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted April 26, 2023 Share Posted April 26, 2023 30 minutes ago, dship said: IF YOU TAKE CARE OF THEM PROPERLY! This car shows 43K miles, which I believe to be accurate based on the overall condition. I will be watching the cooling system like a hawk. I plan to flush and refill the cooling system and install the "Cadillac Pills" as the service manual recommends. (All fluids will be changed before the car begins to see regular use.) That said, I did drive the car in FL for a couple of weeks in 85 ~ 90 degree weather, including stop-and-go traffic with the temp gauge never exceeding the halfway point. In fact, it seems to always warm to that point and stays there, even in the 50° weather it currently sees in NY. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted April 29, 2023 Share Posted April 29, 2023 "IF YOU TAKE CARE OF THEM PROPERLY" I was out in the garage quite a bit of the afternoon and spent some time with the Northstar powered car. There is always a little Lucas smoke swirling between my ears covering up the hazy thoughts that have settled there. I have always been entertained by capitalization emphasis in computer communication and visualizing it in a person to person conversation. The capitalized care inspired me to use a strong Kiai to emphasize my proper care. I felt dominion over the car. Even in closing the hood and door. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmTee Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 Wax ON, Wax OFF? https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=wax+on+wax+off#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:0fc63615,vid:fULNUr0rvEc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted April 30, 2023 Share Posted April 30, 2023 You missed it. All caps would be more Bruce Lee style. Karate Kid is a small letter Hallmark action. From my Navy experience that would be more like muttering "Nam myoho renge Qkyo" in the garage. A Bruce Lee yell upon tightening a screw is affirmation of a job well done. 18 years old and finely maintained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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