Just Purchased 95 Aurora/HELP with repairs

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Hello!
Well, I love the Aurora's. Absolutely wanted to have one. I just bought this beautiful 95 with 150K for only $1200. For that price you know it came with some problems. Previous owner sold it because it wont shift beyond 2nd gear and was told by his mechanic to replace the tranny. NOW, this very same mechanic just replaced this tranny for him 25K ago. After lurking around in this message board,Ive decided to try and change the solenoids and see if that works.


Also, the Traction Control Off light stays on when you drive it. So, Im not sure what that could mean. I read that if the TC light is on and the ABS light is also on, that I need to change the bearings and sensor. But the ABS light is NOT on. Any suggestions?


NOW, he said that the Catylatic Convertor is broken. He said he drove over a curb or something. The car smells strong of gas and has white smoke from the exhaust. I read that this could be the FPR....is this correct? I dont see any damage to the bottom of the car where he would have ran over a curb that hard. Should I replace the Cat and the FPR?


AND....the AC isnt blowing cold air. He said that last summer it was fine, but he has had it in storage since last September when the Tranny went to 2nd gear. Should I try to charge it first, or do you think I will need to replace the compressor?


The car is in beautiful cosmetic condition and all the other bells and whistles work perfectly. The leather looks like new, and I am the 3rd owner. I love this car and want to get it on the road ASAP. Could use ANY suggestions and replys you might have. Thanks. Sonya

PS...Being a girl, I want to know as much as possible before I take it to the mechanic..dont want to get hosed..if you know what I mean.

First of all is the service engine soon light on. The car should at some point detect the issue with the trans and throw a code.

The car running rich could be anything. Leaking injector, bad sensor, FPR, cylinders not firing or o2 sensors. White smoke usually means one thing, head gasket, which could explain a few cylinders not firing and hence it smelling like gas. How is the performance, is it sluggish.

Have you tried turning the traction control back on:) There could be alot of problems with the TC.

First thing you need to do is get the computer scanned. A mechanic will do this for a charge.

My only recommendation is to find out what the problem is with the engine because that is the real money in these cars, if that has major problems then...well you know.

Good luck.

Yes, the check Engine light is on. As for performance, I just got it home yesterday and only being able to go to 2nd gear, I havent drove it but around the block. Actually, yesterday when I drove it, I didnt notice the smell or the smoke. BUt, today..I got in, in the driveway and started it up to check out all the little gadgets inside...I turned the A/C on, to check and see if the passenger side got cool or not. Its after I had the A/C on that I started to notice the smell and then in the mirror I saw the smoke. THe smell was so strong it was making me dizzy, like I was breathing in all the exhaust. I thought this might be related to the Cat supposedly having a hole or something. ANYWAY....I was hoping...HOPING that this was not a head gasket. The previous owner mentioned nothing about this..(of course not).. So, if it is...I need to look for a Salvage yard Engine??? and this will cost $1000, plus labor..or more, right??? I will be taking it to have it hooked up to the computer this week. As far as the Traction control light. pushing the button on/off doesnt help..the light just always says "Traction Control OFF" THanks for your reply. ANy help is MUCH NEEDED!! Sonya

When someone says a Cat is bad it usually means that the material inside has broken up and is plugging your exhaust which results in poor engine performance. The Cat is a mesh of material in a honeycomb type of pattern. It is there simply for emissions and does not affect performance unless it breaks apart. If this guy did drive over something it is conceivable that he damaged the Cat, but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it from the outside. There are two ways to check. A simple way is to get under it and tap on it to see if you hear debris moving around inside. The other is to drill hole in front of the cat (the engine side) and check the exhaust pressure. An expereinced exhaust place can do this and you may want to start there since the excessive exhaust pressure could cause a lot of problems that would make the car's computer go nuts,possibly causing it to throw invalid error codes. However your TC and trans problems still require reading the engine codes.

It's possible that the clutch on your AC compressor was grenading, and that's why you were seeing smoke/smelling an odd smell. Start the car and leave the AC compressor off - do you still get the smoke and the smell?

Well,
I ran the engine for a few min w/o the AC on and there still was white smoke from the exhaust although the smell in the car was minimal. Not as much white smoke rolling out as yesterday, but I didnt let it run but about 5-6 mins. So, sounds like I should be looking for an Engine in a salvage yard somewhere, huh. ANY year between 95-99 will fit, right? Although Ive heard I should go with anything but the 95!!!! More suggestions are very welcomed!!

Get a lower mileage 98 or 99. And yes the 4.0L V8 will work, any year

Try www.car-parts.com for parts across the continent.

There could be a lot of reasons why your engine is blowing white smoke. Start with a compression test. If compression is good then check the status of the Cat. After that is taken care of run the codes and go from there. I wouldn't give up on it yet.

Thanks RoraStar96..I did go to that website and they have lots to choose from, I found a 99 Engine with 70k for $1000. Why cant this Engine be rebuilt? I had someone email me back saying that these Engines cannot be remanufactured...what is the reason for that..anyone know? So, I couldnt have anyone tear this Engine apart and fix it??? Thanks Everyone. Sonya

It'd be worth it to just replace it, because at least in my opinion - it'd be more cost efficient to buy one and pay for labor, and know in the end you should have the results your looking for then to really be unsure and just have someone tear through the engine trying to find what could be wrong and being hit with labor charges over and over again. Unless you’re doing it yourself it's not worth it. (My opinion only I'm sure someone will counter point me :oÞ)

I'm essentially in the same position as you I could have someone go through the engine to figure out my idle problem but with labor prices so high I'd be crazy. Or if I were going to have my subframe replaced (why I need it replaced is a couple posts back) it was 200 for the part and 500 – 600 for the labor because it was an all day job. I am just going to go out an buy a new one. Car that is...

Good Luck

You need to balance out the costs, take it in for simple testing and the like, and determine what the costs are for you. It may need a lot of work (in excess of $2500) to get it back to normal, thats where you draw the line and say..ok maybe the engine from that rear ended wrecked Aurora is a better deal.

Its up to you, but be sure to do your homework, AF members know their stuff, and we can all help out!

One good thing to get your air to work, it might just be out of freon. Freon for these cars are dirt cheap ($4 a bottle). It takes about 3 or 4 bottles to fill up. And the hose to hook it to the car costs about $10 or so. So this should be the least of the worries you have (mechanical and cost wise).

THank you Everyone for your reply's...
RORASTAR96.......Are you refering to the rear ended wreck on ebay for $400??,.,.That is so weird that you mentioned it in your last post..without mentioning ebay..and I knew what you were talking about!! Funny!! Actually, I bought this car off Ebay..hoping it was going to be an easy quick fix. Im willing to spend up to $2000 to get it on the road and running correctly. I figure I only spent $1200 to buy it and another $2000(in repairs), would put it at $3200 invested...and the car is still reasonably worth that right????? I'll post more when Im able to get it in and have the diagnostics ran.

I think getting the tranny to work right is going to be the biggest problem. Of course that is going to be the most expensive. If that is all you need to do to get it running right, (other than the Catylatic Convertor which isn't too expensive), then you got a steal. Even if you have to put a new one in for a few thousand dollars, that is still coming out to about $1,000 cheaper than I paid for mine with about the same miles on it. (And I had to have my tranny pulled to have a speed sensor replaced on it anyway which was about $1000 or so.) When I bought mine, my "traction off" light was on. I talked to a tech that he said 90% of those cars drive around with the traction or the anti-lock lights on. I got mine fixed. It cost around $800!!! But if I had to do it again, I don't think I would dish out the money anymore. If your brakes work just fine under normal operating conditions, then save yourself $1,000 and just pull out the dash with the lights on it (it just pulls right out but be careful because you don't want to pull too hard and pull all the lights off... you'll never get them glued back. So be EXTREMELY GENTLE. Trust me. I had to take mine out for a different reason and I ripped all of the lights off. I tried gluing it and it does not glue well. Now have to buy a new one for $200.) and remove the traction off light and the anti-lock light. The traction control system is worthless. There has not been one situation, since I got it to work, that I couldn't have gotten out of with a little tapping of the brakes. If you want it fixed instead, take it to a shop and have it diagnosed. Who knows, it might be a simple cheap fix. Or do what I did and buy a diag scanner for $500 and then you can run your own diags on the car. I got a Snap-on 2500 and it works great. I got mine off ebay for $500 which is cheap considering they are $2000 brand new. (You can't get a cheap scanner from pep-boys or autozone or anywhere like that for the 95 auroras. They are an inbetween year between the obd1 and 2 interfaces and only the more advanced scanners can read them. The 96 aurora you could get away with a $20 scanner.)

I have a tranny that's perfect from a 96 Aurora. If you're interested ...reply

Well, I talked to the previous owner today about the white smoke and smell. He said it started doing this after he broke the Cat converter. So, maybe Ill get lucky and this is all it is(crossing fingers).. Thanks EOC101 for the tranny offer. If the soleniods dont fix the problem, I might be interested in that.
Dmorlow: I agree that I can live without the traction control working....that stupid light though is annoying, huh? I might have someone pull that light out for me, if getting the wheel bearings and sensors changed doesnt fix the problem.

I drive with the TC off light on all the time (in moderate weather conditions) just a personal thing, but it doesnt bother me all that much, it seems rather daunting to pull apart that whole dash for the TC light...meh, s'up to you ;)

However if indeed its the cat converter, you might want to explore high flow cats, they are more performance oriented and probably cheaper then OEM (factory) converters.

Just another option for ya!

See, pulling the dash is totally up to you. If it doesn't bother you to have the light on, then don't take the chance of ruining something just to get the light out. But for me, I am a perfectionist. I can't stand to have an error light on constantly. It would drive me crazy. That's the only reason I suggested pulling the dash. But if you don't mind the light, it isn't doing any harm... don't take the chance.