TireSmoke.org

Few little updates:

- removed some annoying stickers from the windshield - removed the window tint from the front windows. Put it out in the sun and the tint peeled right off not leaving any glue behind - put the rear head rests down for better visibility. So easy
- set the clock. So easy
- car went to emissions testing and passed
- today it got regular license plates

Replaced the headlight bulbs. Turns out it had NAPA bulbs that didn’t look too good. Have to change them by pulling back the inner fender

While the front wheels were off I put them on the balancer. LF needed 3/4 ounce and RF 1/4. We shall see if this helps with the high speed vibration

Also removed the front license plate frame and got a license plate.

118577

Plastic tee in the cooling system failed. The first time the hose slid off I didn't realize it was broken at the barb. This is already a replacement vs the factory piece (its a Y) so I decided to fix it with a brass tee. The back of the rear seat is unbolted so I can remove it when I need to carry long things. It's a bit of a hassle but it'll do until I can find a fold down rear seat.

Also, it is now rare that the car leaks oil. I don't have the pattern yet but I think if I keep driving it it won't leak.

I've had multiple cars in my life that leaked a little, and when I switched to high mileage oil, the leak went away. Whatever crap they put in that to swell the seals does the trick. Cheap experiment...

-BP

Changing of the guard as the Cadillac now lives in the attached garage.

With the purchase of the red Caddy, this one is now an extra, and looking for a new home.

I didn't want to give up my snow tires so I went to work looking for rims and tires to put on for sale. Found 3 rims in Youngstown for $100. Between the tires on those and the tires that came with the car I had two decent tires. About the time I was doing this another ATS arrived at Akron Pull a Part and it had one really nice Bridgestone tire on it which cost me like $30. Unfortunately it had aftermarket wheels, the fronts were ripped of the car and gone and the other rear had a hole in it from the crash. To complete the tire set I bought one new one to match one of the front tires - it was $70. I dismounted one of the snow tires to get a matched set of wheels and they are on the car. Worst tire on there now is like 50%.

In perfect time with the cold weather this car developed a shudder under light throttle. I had planned to just sell it like this but on Thanksgiving day with the car loaded up the problem was quite pronounced. The ATS can develop a shudder like this from the transmission when the fluid and filter need replaced. Well I already learned from the red car that the fluid/filter change is not a guaranteed fix. I was able to confirm this by dragging the brake (which disengages the lockup solenoid) which it was shuddering and nothing changed. Past experience with MAF sensor was telling me it could be the MAF. With this in mind I decided I better order a MAF. The next morning I did more digging online and found it could be the VVT solenoid. Since I had a potential customer on the line I decided to buy one of these at Autozone. It's a super easy install as it is located on the top of the engine and only one bolt and electrical connection to change it out. The exhaust VVT solenoid looked to be newer than the intake VVT solenoid, which makes me think its been replaced once. I'm probably replacing Duralast junk with new Duralast junk lol.

Only one test drive so far but I was unable to replicate the problem so I think its fixed.

Driving it recently has uncovered a couple other issues with the car - the heated seat function does not work on the driver side, and some of the heater controls don't work. normal HVAC you can pick defrost, floor, dash, dash/floor mix or defrost/floor mix. Currently the choices that work are defrost and "auto".

It also has a vibration up front - has had it sine I got it. It's not likely wheels or tires since several different combos have been on there and it still vibrates. This feels like a halfshaft problem. With the tires off I too the time to inspect the halfshafts. No CV boot issues, but the metal part of the halfshaft slides back and forth more than I think it should. I'm not fixing this, but it would explain why the problem comes and goes intermittently.

Trying to sell it has been another experience. I currently have the car listed on cars.com and autotrader.com.

cars.com is free to list which is nice. It has a decent reach and also they don't require you to have a clean title (though this car has clean title). However, recently they started giving buyers the ability to make an offer through Caramel. This is a service that brokers the sale for you, and it requires buyer to give them the $, you to give them the title. It seems very similar to title agency on a house sale. However there is no easy obvious way to contact them. I found an email address and sent them a question 11/26 and still not heard back yet. They had two business days before Thanksgiving. Later I read their terms and they basically promise nothing in terms of service, and recourse against them is very difficult. If the car is over $1k in value its no cost to the seller, but I am not interested in having my money stuck with them. Unfortunately a few offers have come in this way and all I can do is decline them. I have no idea if these are coming from anyone I've interacted with or if they are buying it sight unseen.

autotrader.com has lowered their listing fee - now it's like $9. They will not let private sellers list cars with rebuilt title (insane - car dealers can do it) and they have this "private seller exchange" where they want to broker the deal and charge me $99 for that. They are also super paranoid about letting the buyer and seller talk to each other without them monitoring. I literally cannot put my email or phone number in the listing (but dealers can). Obviously the system can be circumvented once I meet the buyer, but I have not figured out how to have a phone call until an appointment is set up to see the car.

Next one I sell will be through Craigslist, Offer Up app, maybe FB Marketplace.

For now I'm planning to drive it til tax season as that will likely bring more buyers. Once the snow shows up in force I may take it off the market so I can put on the snow tires and keep them there all winter.

Just clicked over 120k. This car has multiple little problems, some of which I also see in the red car, so I'm going to try and fix them.

Problem #1: It has a slight shudder at light part throttle. This manifests itself when going up slight inclines where you only need to press the throttle a little bit. It did not do this when I bought the car, and it seemed to start when the colder weather started back in October though I can't say they are related. It does not seem to get worse when it gets colder. I am exploring several potential causes:

* lockup converter in the transmission. What I read was if you drag the brake a little it will disengage the lockup converter. I have tried this and it does not change the behavior so I am ruling this one out for now
* transmission fluid and filter. The maintenance interval is 100k and the car is at 120k. No idea if its been changed. I did change the fluid and filter in the red car and it made no difference in the shudder it is experiencing.
* VVT solenoids I changed the exhaust VVT solenoid on this car and it seemed to help though the problem is not completely eliminated. The aging on the intake and exhaust solenoids looked different - to me indicating the exhaust side had already been replaced in the past. I also changed oil to put in approved oil for the engine. I have no idea if quick lube places in its past put in Dexos grade 5W30. The oil change had no effect on the problem, but the old oil was at 6% life left. I want to learn more about these systems as I'm imagining that disconnect these solenoids might help with troubleshooting. I also read there are some diagnostics available on scan tools so maybe I can get more info. When I first started selling this car a guy came with an app on his phone which told him there were problems with the exhaust VVT though mine showed nothing at all.
* calibrating throttle body somewhere in my travels I learned that if the battery was disconnected there is a process to calibrate the throttle body position and if you don't do this the car would not operate correctly. I have to follow up on this.
* dirty/failing injectors I think these are direct injection and they are 10 years old so who knows what's going on there. Might try some cleaner, also need to investigate what kinds of problems these cause.

Problem #2: It just started doing this - when I come to an almost stop at a corner and press the throttle to go it will not go. It's only done it twice and I have not been able to make it repeat.

Problem #3: it is occasionally rough at idle - just for a second then its fine again.

So why fix a car I'm selling? Well both the red car and the black car have the shuddering symptom and occasional rough idle. Whatever I learn here should help me solve the problem on the red car. If there's a lot of expensive parts involved I'll just cut my losses on the black car.

I finally found a resolution to the shudder at part throttle.

I'd been through as many things as I could think of, and the factory service manual was describing tests that my scan tool could not do. With that I decided to send it to a shop. They recommended a fluid and filter change with a shudder fix additive. I was doubtful but had them proceed. Their change only did 6 quarts which I was disappointed with, but the Lubegard Shudder Fix the problem appears to be resolved. I noticed the car now takes a bit longer to shift up from 5th to 6th. I'm guessing this stuff must be like STP only for the transmission.

Anyway with this problem fixed the car was sold today. Chapter closed.