New member!

Hi Group,

Just stumbled accross this forum tonight for the first time. At last, some info on this beastie! :lol2:
Well, just want to introduce myself. My wife has a 95 Aurora, Black with black leather, no options. We bought it about 2 years ago and its done faithful service up to 129K miles. There have been a few niggles since we picked it up, but nothing "too" major.
We have had new jounce stops, bearing plates and struts up front. Removed the troublesome self leveling rear setup and replaced with some gas shocks. The compressor was always running. We still have a knock once in a while when cornering from the front end - a bit annoyed about that as we spent over $700 to get rid of that problem. :banghead:
The fuel guage stays on full until you are about 3 miles from running out of gas. The brake master cylinder started to leak, but that was a dead easy replacement job. And finally, today - and this is why im here - the check engine light came on, and we have been quoted $75 to "take a quick look"
I was wondering if there is a manual way to read the codes and if anyone has a copy of what the codes mean?

Lastly, after enjoying her car for 40,000 miles, my Mrs would like to see a bit more performance out of it, about the only thing I found was a company who would convert it to 5 speed rear wheel drive with 400hp.
I like the idea but not the price tag. Anything out there a little more modest?
Not really a performance mod, but nice for the ears - I removed the intake silencer and plugged the hole - sounds much beefier!


All the best,

James.

You can do a forum search for mods and stuff like that. People have talked about exhaust, performance chips, air box...things like that. Reality is though....there isn't a lot to do performance wise.

The rear leveling system works perfectly and maintenance free when the shocks don't leak. Replace the fuel sending unit in the tank. DIY job, takes a couple hours. If SES light is a non-recurring misfire or due to low octane gas, it will reset itself after 20-30 key cycles. If you want to scan the car yourself, you will have to spend $250 or so to get a tool that "tells" you what the codes are. But once you own it, you will never have to pay anyone else to do it again. Works on many makes of vehicles, and yes it does reset SES. If she wants more performance, buy her a performance car. Power is something we all get acclimated to. Remember how quick our Auroras seemed at first?

Hmm, replaced the rear shocks with new ones and the compressor was still on all the time. All the lines were ok to, as checked by the dealer.

I felt a little flamed by your post Indy8. Just because my wife has become aclimatized to the performance of her car does not mean she shouldnt have more power if she wants it. She is after all the boss!
I appologise if i took it the wrong way.
It isnt a fast car, (she dosent care about top end) it doesnt accelerate too quickly either. This is what she'd like to improve. Its dead below 3000rpm. And for the size of the engine, its vastly underpowered. 250hp from 4 liters??? There has to be more in there somewhere. I was just seeing if you guys had tapped into the hidden reserve.

Best regards,

James.

Didn't mean anything by that, just trying to keep it short. There could have been something wrong with your compressor or level solenoid, but I couldn't call it a problem area of the car. Yes, the car doesn't move until 4k RPM. It really was intended for the older adult crowd as a cruiser, with ocasional passing power. The development on this engine began in '89 or so. At that time, only the Corvette's and Z-28's were producing more HP with much higher displacements. 250 from only 4 liters was unheard of then. We(consumers)are now being hit with 300HP from almost everything, just remember the Northstar is 15 year-old technology.

As for scanning the codes, you could likely get by for little less on the scan tool using ebay. I got the scan tool for $42 with a Chrysler cartridge anyway.

I got an Actron CP 9110. You also need the GM catridge (CP-9111) and the GM OBD-II Cable (CP-9115) since this car has an OBD I computer with an OBD II connector. Just search for Actron scan tool and/or 9110. For info go here: http://www.actron.com/cgi-bin/web_store.cgi?page=cp9110.htm&cart_id=4114721_515944221191_26351

The scan tool with a GM cartrigde is currently $40 here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43989&item=2448194046

and another more expensive auction:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43989&item=2447870392

and a currently dirt cheap one w/o the GM cartridge (Ford only):
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=43989&item=2448308169

Good luck!

Hi UKAurora, can you tell me the name of the company that offers the 5-speed rear wheel drive conversion? I'm just curious about their activities. Do they have a web page?

Carl

Hi Folks,

Been away for a while. Regarding the rear wheel drive conversion, i remember searching yahoo for northstar performance. The company name i cant remember, but their conversions are for sand drag racing and beach buggies and so on. They do turbo and supercharger versions and will do carburettor versions too.

Power wise, coming from England, im used to 2.0 4 cyl 16v DOHC producing 200hp - 1991 Vauxhall (GM) cavalier. Incidently, it was also 4 wheel drive. I had a 94 turbo version producing 380hp with stock internals. I dont mean to be picky about the auroras performace, i just have a different background.

Codes info - thank you very much for that!

The SES light did indeed go off after a few weeks. Im, fairly confident it wasnt due to low octance go go juice though, the mrs always uses premium. We think it was due to the remote starter cutting the starter to quickly and the engine just catching and firing up. Sometimes this happenes with a muffled backfire.

I was reading through the recent posts regarding the front end popping noise. I think i mentioned spending $700 to get that fixed and still having it. I would very much like to know which sub frame bolts happened to be loose.

Best regards,

James

The Autozone's here in Texas will check you SES codes for free.

When my SES light came on, it was the EGR valve. You can sometimes clean them with throttle body cleaner. Do a search for "EGR" on the forum and you will find some more out about it.

where did you find that rwd conversion UKaurora?

It's for offroad use in a rail.

Hi UKAurora, can you tell me the name of the company that offers the 5-speed rear wheel drive conversion? I'm just curious about their activities. Do they have a web page?

Carl

Got any more pics of that beautiful early 70's F-bird????? :evillol:

I don't have a digital camera - that photo was taken by a friend. It's a 1970 Formula 400. Guess you're into Pontiacs. I've had mine since the 80s.

I might be able to find another photo, but I think photos cannot be posted here.

If you run "Aurora, turbo, conversion" through the search engine, you will see it. The company is in El Cajon, CA.

Got any more pics of that beautiful early 70's F-bird????? :evillol:

Cool. I've only had one Formula the rest were Trans Ams. It was a '89 WS6 car. Others were a '75 400 4sp, '76 400, 4sp special Ed., '76 400 Auto w/19k miles, '78 400 auto, and a '80 301 auto Trans Am. I am yearning for an early '70s Formula or TransAM though :rolleyes: