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Numerous Electrical and other Quirks (long, help!)


ParodyofaGirl
02-20-2005, 12:02 AM
I am the 3rd owner of a '92 olds 88 royale with 147,000mi (mostly highway). The car had some electrical quirks when I purchased it from my aunt, and they have become more and more numerous.
The laundry list is as follows:
Radio: When I purchased the car, only the speakers on the passenger side worked. The rear and driver's side speakers have never worked. When the head unit was replaced (I assumed the head unit was to blame), the speaker in the rear passenger door stopped working as well. Now only the front passenger speaker works. None of the speakers are blown, and none of the fuses in the box on the driver's side or blown either.
If the car and headlights are turned off at the same time, the automatic door locks do not work. They work fine, otherwise.
When there is 3.5 or less gallons of gas left in the car, it will stall upon fast acceleration. If there is less than 2.5 gal of gas, the car will stall or sputter around corners.
Fast braking will either cause the brakes to lock, or the car to stall.
Cruise control died in a strange manner on a trip from Florida to Louisana. It would engage, then disengage a few minutes later, then suddenly accelerate back to input speed. This became more frequent then, it would accelerate past the speed, then disengage sharply. I turned off the cruise control, and it has not worked since. A vacuum line was disconnected, but upon reconnection, cruise control was still dead.
On hot days, one of the chimes will randomly activate and continue to sound until the car is turned off and the driver's side door is opened and closed. Door is completely closed when this happens.
Driver's side lock will not unlock externally. How much do you think it will cost to replace?
The car was owned in NY for 7 years and has severe rust damage to the frame and underside of the car (salt on roads in winter). A few weeks ago, a piece of severely rusted metal fell from under or around the bumper area onto the ground while I was driving. This chunk of oxidized metal held a 2.5 ft long wire that had pulled from somewhere in that area. I don't know what this wire goes to. All of my rear lights work, and it obviously came from somewhere. Any ideas?
Parking break stopped working months ago. When the pedal is depressed, it does not catch and just hisses and floats back up. Rear brakes were replaced. I was told this would fix the problem. It did not.
Any help or suggestions for these problems would be greatly appreciated. Also, I do not have much money to spare at the moment, so I would like to purchase any necessary parts and try to diagnose/repair these problems myself if possible.

Hansnet
02-20-2005, 01:34 AM
Radio: common problem with a wire chafing int he driver side rear channel. mine did that and rewired that driver rear channel and back in business.

Gas: IT IS STUPID (no offense) on these cars or any car to let it get to 3 gallons left. The fuel pump is IN THE TANK so it gets hot if there is no fuel in there. Always try to keep it over halfway unless you like paying $300 for a shop to fix it.

Cruise control: either the servo motor or the switch

For the driver door, something proably just fell off, it is easy to take the panel off and look what is goin on.

if the e-brake does not work, that is a cable problem, it is either broken or out of adjustment.

joe4speed
02-21-2005, 04:58 AM
As for the stalling problem when the fuel is at those levels, it's most likely caused by either the tank baffle (fairly common issue), or the filter(sock) on the fuel pump inlet being clogged or dirty.

Good luck!

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