Laundry list of little 96 GP issues

[jaustinbell]

As long as I'm living at home for the summer I want to get my sister's car completely 'tightened up' before I leave again. Did the LIM gaskets last spring trying to drive back and forth when I got a few hours on the weekends, and ended up taking weeks to finish--it was one of those 'Murphy's law' projects, lol--everything that could have gone wrong did. So I'm trying to get a few little things done in the next 6 weeks:

-Low Coolant light comes on, over half the time. Reservoir full. I have been bleeding the air out with those 2 little air valves. I'm noticing that there is little to no coolant in the hose directly above the water pump, past the air valve. A few weeks ago I thought I noticed water coming from the weep hole. Previous owner's records show a coolant level sensor in July 2006 followed by a water pump in January 2007. Papers say the level sensor was replaced because the light was coming on. Sound to y'all like maybe try a pull-a-part level sensor for a few bucks, then new w/p if that doesn't help?

-ABS light comes on about a 1/4 of the time. Often when going uphill. Am I going to have to replace a wheel hub and how difficult is this? I think a shop will tell me what code is being thrown--so I will know which wheel the issue is at. Could low fluid level cause it to come on?

-I did a pan drop and ATF&filter replace on the transmission about 7k miles ago. The fluid is brown now. The transmission shifts perfectly though, never misses a beat. I was told that a pan drop on a 4T60e only drains about half the fluid, so perhaps the other half is mixing back with it... so, should I have a shop do an actual flush on it or is there cause for alarm here? Previous owner's records show last fluid change at 80k miles ago, and that was just a pan drop too, not a 'flush'. My Ciera's fluid is still red though and it has 122k on just a pan drop at 100k as far as I know.

-Doubt anyone has any thoughts on this, but I did all the struts a few thousand miles ago, meaning I replaced the cartridges on the front. The driver's side cartridge was particularly difficult to get in, and I recall having to jack the car up, i think, to get it to go. I had no such issues with the other side. Now, the spring on the driver's side looks 'lopsided' in that the coils appear more 'bunched up' on the outside and more 'spread out' on the inside (towards the engine). The passenger side spring looks more 'even'. The shop who did the post-strut-replacement alignment didn't seem to notice, and all the suspension parts seem to be going together right... but it looks funky to me.

 

If anyone here has any insight into these problems, advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[jaustinbell]

3100/178k

[xtremerevolution]

ABS light: remove and clean off the ABS sensors.

 

Pan drop actually drains ~8 quarts out of I believe 12 total. Do you have a transmission cooler?

 

I wouldn't worry about the struts if everything is running perfectly.

 

Low coolant light should be a sensor. I forgot which one or where it is.

[mediabandit]

This is for the LQ1. The low coolant light is a bad coolant level sensor which is found on the passenger side of the radiator about 6" down. One small metal wire clip holds it on, just pull it back, unclip connector, pull sensor out, replace with new one and slide the wire back on it, and then plug the connector back into it. It is the circled piece in the pic.

[jaustinbell]

ABS light: remove and clean off the ABS sensors.

 

Pan drop actually drains ~8 quarts out of I believe 12 total. Do you have a transmission cooler?

 

I wouldn't worry about the struts if everything is running perfectly.

 

Low coolant light should be a sensor. I forgot which one or where it is.

Alright, I will have the shop read the code for which wheel it is, then I will clean the ABS sensor.

 

There is the usual transmission cooler in the radiator, I haven't added one or anything.

 

OK.

 

Alright then I'll grab one or two at the junkyard this weekend, thanks.

 

Thanks for the info on finding and replacing the sensor.

[jaustinbell]

Seems like every first super-hot day of summer and first super-cold day of winter, a pair of little parts on this car fails--this past winter took two brake lines and a door handle one cold morning--today the rear-view mirror fell off of the windshield and the driver's window motor failed. Today is not so much hot here in GA as it is humid, and the driver's side window has always seemed to have a problem with humidity. When the windows go out on this car they always go totally dead/frozen but are working again 24 hours later... not like my Cutlass Ciera where the motors just get slower and flakier until their definitive, predictable death. They've quit on probably 3 or 4 muggy or rainy days. So we may be able to get a few more seasons out of these window motors, but if not how hard are they in a 1st gen coupe? I have done many an a-body window motor, are they anything like that?

As for the rear-view mirror, the glue just seems to have failed, I tried to use some epoxy but there was more chance of making a mess with that stuff than getting the mirror to stick. Maybe when it's less hot out and the car is in the shade I will have better luck with that... anybody have a trick for reattaching these?

Also, I feel like I should try and 'replace' the brake fluid somehow since it may have been the reason those lines broke last winter--is there a way that people normally go about replacing brake fluid?

Putting in a serpentine belt tensioner from pulla-a-part today--old one's noisy.

[jaustinbell]

Put in the new (used) tensioner and that fixed the rattling.

Put in the new (used) low coolant light sensor and while the car was cranked up in the driveway for a few minutes, the low coolant light stayed on--I can see that the coolant is at the top of the radiator filler neck, so who knows.

The car was on for about 4 minutes idling in the driveway, and a couple times the idling got really rough--well, it wasn't really rough so much as the RPMs were swinging up and down wildly, from about 600 to 1300 back and forth quickly. It doesn't normally do that, and probably wouldn't have if the car was being driven. No check engine light.

[jaustinbell]

Used my 'power lock button trick' on the window--generally I can get them to work by pressing the power lock button before trying to roll them up--it worked again today.

[Crazy K]

I have tested a bunch of those low coolant sensors. there is about a 50% failure rate. you probably got a bad one. try again.

[GnatGoSplat]

I hate those stupid low coolant sensors. They go bad easily and often. Cleaning the prongs doesn't help either.

[jaustinbell]

Fuel pressure regulator fixed fluctuating RPMs.

Got a $4 kit at NAPA for GM rearview mirrors and it worked.

I think I'm going to put new pads on the rear--is there anything I should take note of, including things to do to prevent them from dragging?