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About JasonA

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    Resident Old-Timer

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    North Carolina

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  • Car Model and Year
    2001 STS
  • Engine
    Northstar 4.6L V8 (LD8/L37)

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  1. Anybody who reads a service manual at bed time or on the throne is a COMPLETE DORK. <hangs head><raises hand> ...guilty...
  2. I always get antsy to replace tires at the 4-5/32" tread depth range. I've never owned tires that were even close to the wear bars. I can feel the difference in aquaplane resistance between new and old tires. Tires also lose traction in general as they age (due to deterioration in the tread compound) and that's not accounted for in the Tire Rack video, because they simply shaved new tires. I think the differences between new and old are even more profound than what the video shows.
  3. Joeb, your '96 may also suffer from worn rear knuckles. That wouldn't be the case with an '01 STS (different design), but I think my '97 SLS had bad knuckles as well.
  4. I would clear the codes and not think twice. Like I said in the other thread, I got a steering wheel position sensor code once before, but cleared it and it never returned. This seems to correlate with Cadillac's recommendation that unless it's a persistent code (indicating a bad sensor), to not worry about it. Maybe it's a small software glitch/issue or something.
  5. I don't think the rear shocks being bad would cause rear tire wear (especially if it's even wear across the tread). Most likely what happened is two tires got replaced, and put in the front, or the tires were not rotated much until you got it, and the worn ones were in the rear.
  6. Jerrymac, thanks for those numbers. That's exactly what I was looking for, and intuitively, it makes perfect sense. I can't believe that the Cadillac system would simply run the compressor at full duty cycle all the time, regardless of requested temperature. I could be wrong, but that does seem awfully inefficient.
  7. It depends on if your '02 STS has the Magnaride shocks and struts. If so, a "realtime damping" shock or strut will not work. If your '02 has the standard oil-filled active suspension (like the '01 has), then a shock/strut for an '01 should work I'd imagine. The GM passive shock would physically fit, but won't include the small sensor/resistor to fool the computer. That's an SLS shock. I wouldn't use it because it won't be tuned properly for the spring rate of the STS. Check the RPO codes on your spare tire lid in the trunk. If your car has "F45", then you have the CV-RSS suspension, and an '01 shock should work. If your car has "F55", then you have the Magnaride suspension, and you'll have to replace the shock with a Magnaride shock.
  8. This is a general question -- applies to Caddies and everything else. Is there enough of a gain in A/C efficiency to warrant using the "MAX A/C" or recirculate option almost all the time? Knowing that the A/C has to remove both heat and moisture from the air, it's understandable that recirculating relatively cool and dry air in the cabin would be more efficacious than using hot and steamy air from outside (especially "southeast" hot and steamy air). I know that on the AUTO setting, the car will often use the recirculate mode automatically, not even necessarily lighting the recirc button when it does it (so you never really know). But would you save some compressor wear and tear (and fuel economy) by running the A/C in recirculate mode all the time...and just bumping the temperature up a little bit if it got too cool? Methinks it'd not really bring any measurable fuel economy comparisons, but it's food for thought anyway.
  9. Hanger, sounds like you've got bad struts. Mind doesn't bounce at all. I can barely push the rear of the car down period. The rear of my car is as solid as the front...and it sounds like your front struts are still very good. Your rear end should be as solid as your front end. ...Uh...take that statement in context please. I would personally replace the rear struts with Arnott units or similar, engineered to bypass the computer but still retain the load leveling functionality.
  10. I bet it's the steering wheel position sensor. This is apparently not all that uncommon, and the Cadillac guidance even says that if the code comes on intermittently that it's not a cause for replacement. It's apparently something sporadic that can happen. I've had it to come on with my '01 STS also. It's only come on once since I've owned it.
  11. I'm not really sure we need to be pressuring people to be site supporters here. I'm a site supporter of this site. I'm on a number of forums where I'm not a site supporter. You can't give $20, $30, $40 everytime you get help from an Internet website. There's only so much money to go around. We give a lot of money to our church, but don't give any to homeless we see, or "walk up charities" sitting at the local Wal-Mart doors. You can't give to everyone, and I'd probably take offense if someone called me a slacker simply because I didn't exercise my OPTION to make a contribution to a site, or to give a 5 to the guy in a wheelchair on the side of the road with a "God Bless" sign. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here, but a monetary contribution is not required to be a member of this site. Bruce appreciates all the money he receives to keep the site running, and as a fellow site supporter, I appreciate your donation and that of every other site supporter. But I'd ask that we collectively draw the line at name-calling to folks who don't choose to give in this fashion. It has been a personal choice, and I hope that it remains one, without the fear of retaliation from members who don't agree with the choice that was made.
  12. It does depend on your area of the country I think. In Michigan, domestic name plates rule the road. In other urban areas, you see a lot of Japanese brands. Down here, I see more Lexuses than Cadillacs when in town. But out in the more rural areas, and near Pinehurst, lots of Cadillacs. The question was STSes in particular -- very few of them around here...especially the RWD models. Tons of DeVilles and CTSes.
  13. My former '97 has over 165,000 on it now. Besides the water pump, no seals have ever been replaced in that engine. Runs like a champ still.
  14. From what I understand, the problem is significantly reduced from 2000 on. The bolt threads were elongated I believe in 2000, and the pitch stayed the same. Then in 2004, the pitch was also changed, and the bolts may have been elongated again. Even with changes to the head bolts, head gasket issues are not impossible to have, on any engine. Someone on the Chrysler minivan forum had his 3.8L V-6 engine in for head gaskets at only 27,000 miles. Those engines are known to be generally bulletproof and good for at least a quarter million miles, and are certainly not known for head gasket failures. But stuff can always happen.
  15. Isn't the OE resonator right behind the converter a "glasspack" muffler, in essence? I thought it was simply a perforated tubing with fiberglass matting inside.