1992 Lesabre - List of Issues

[G3mInI]

1. First and foremost, the car is now stalling when coming to a stop on occasion. With A/C on happens more often than with A/C off. The transmission makes a whining sound when you drive, very noticeable. The whining sound changes as you speed up and slow down. It is not the power steering pump nor the alternator. Going up and down hills the car drives like a truck. It loses speed even when floored going up hills when in overdrive. If you shift it manually to Drive then the car will pick up speed on an uphill. So something is not right with downshifting in Overdrive? This is a fairly new development (last 2 months?) and it seems to be getting worse, or louder and the stalling is beginning to become more frequent. Does not matter if car is hot or cold. The engine when running in Park is a bit rough. There seems to be a consistent skip when idling. If you turn the A/C on it gets even rougher and occasionally seems like the engine wants to quit.
At around 40 mph, on occasion the car will jerk and you can hear and feel something below or near your feet in the front. Quite violent actually for a few seconds and then as you get to a higher speed say in the 60 mph range it smooths out and goes away. This has the wife needless to say scared to death to drive the vehicle for fear of being stranded. It has happened twice to her so far with this car. Also if you drive the car in Drive instead of Overdrive, this does not happen. Am I in need of a new transmission? Is it the torque converter? No idea actually, is why I am posting here.

2. Turn signal flash runs real slow. Approximately 5-7 seconds in between each flash, sometimes faster, sometimes slower. When the new battery was installed, flasher ran nice and fast or normal as one would expect it to . However that only lasted a week before going back to the slow dismal flash. When running more accessories, such as the AC, rear defrost, it runs even slower. Occasionally the power door locks switch does nothing. Also the drivers side power seat position seat does nothing. Taking the key out and putting it back sometimes gets these switches working again. One time after inserting the key, nothing. No clicking no engine start.. completely dead. Took out the key put it back in, nothing. Waited 15min tried again, vehicle started right up without hesitation. Has never done it again since (about 3 months ago).

3. Door seal on right rear door is falling off from the top and sides. What product is the proper stuff to re glue the seal? The seal itself is in perfect condition, it just seems to have fallen off the door frame of the car. I push back into place and it falls off again in no time. Also it seems to have shrunk somewhat. It doesn't want to seat completely snug without having to stretch it some. This of course causes it to easily pull off the door frame and fall again.

******************************************
List of recent work performed on vehicle and further info:

115,000 miles.
New Alternator (6 months ago)
New Starter (5 months ago)
New Fuel Pump (8 months ago)
New Battery (3 months ago)
New Air Filter (8 months ago)
New PCV valve (8 months ago)
New Tires (8 months ago)
New front brakes, calipers, and rotors both sides (8 months ago)

I have owned the vehicle for the last 4 years. Prior owner was an older lady who drove it in town and garaged. Purchased vehicle 4 years ago with 50,000 miles on it. Immediately after week one, the alternator died. Replaced at dealership. As stated above the second alternator has been purchased by me and a battery.

All fluids seem to check out properly. Tranny fluid is red and clear. I am not sure what burnt tranny fluid smells like anyhow.
Vehicle doesn't leak anything anywhere which amazes me actually. No Check Engine light has ever shown that I know of other than when starting vehicle, so I know the light at least works.

More or less concerned about the transmission, and the electrical issues.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

[Rasp]

Whether the check engine light is on or not it might still be a good idea to check for stored codes. You don't need a fancy scanner for your car to check the codes. All you need is a jumper wire.

If you have a haynes manual it will show you the procedure to check your possiblity of codes.

[G3mInI]

Checked the codes. Just keeps flashing 12 over and over, so I assume that means there are no stored codes.

[HotZ28]

Have you change the fuel filter? What is the battery voltage with engine off and with engine running @ idle? When you installed the new battery, did you remove the positive (+) terminals from within the red insulation and clean all the terminals & spacer on both sides? BTW, always remove the negative (-) terminal first!

[Mickey#1]

Ditto on removing the rubber boots & cleaning any corrosion off the battery cable ends. I'd also like to see you check the driver's side ground bus for corrosion. The power locks, windows & fuel pump all ground there. Give me a few minutes & I'll add a link showing the ground bus.

Here's some pics of the ground bus.

[spinne1]

I would be suspicious of a car that old with only 50,000 miles (2004). That tells me it likely sat a lot (which is bad.) It sounds like you have worn parts or a worn engine. The first thing I would do with this car is do a compression test to check the general condition of the engine. Also, your tranny sounds like it is going. It also sounds to have either a fuel delivery problem or a spark problem. The power problem could be many, many things. Plugs, plug wires, fuel filter, fuel pump, fuel pump regulator, injectors, PCM, wiring, MAF, etc.

The switch problem is either a worn switch or connection, a bad ground connection, wiring, or similar.

Your problems are so severe that a trip to a dealership for diagnosis wouldn't be a bad idea.

[HotZ28]

Originally Posted by G3m1n1

One time after inserting the key, nothing. No clicking no engine start.. completely dead. Took out the key put it back in, nothing. Waited 15min tried again, vehicle started right up without hesitation. Has never done it again since (about 3 months ago).

It could have been in this particular case, the security system did not read the resistor in the key. The security light should not be flashing when you attempt to start; if it is flashing, you will have to wait about 4-min before trying again. If you make another attempt before the time expires, it will reset at the beginning and you have another 4-min cycle.

In your list of replacement parts, you did not mention the ignition wires! That should be one of the first things you do on a car this old. You could also have a bad coil, but do the wires first, then go from there. BTW, use only ACDelco, Belden, MSD, or Autolite Pro series wires, not some cheap aftermarket wires! In addition, remove the ICM and clean everything underneath. You may need to replace the CKPS, ICM or coils, but start with the wires first!

It would be a good idea to stop by a transmission shop and let them here the "whining" noise. This could be caused by pump starvation, due to a clogged filter. It you take that car to a dealer with all these problems, your invoice for parts & labor will be more than the car is worth and you may still have electrical issues when they finish!!

[G3mInI]

Thank you for all of these tips! My wife's dad runs a small repair shop about an hours drive away. In two weeks we plan on taking it down there and see what we can do. However in the meantime I will check what I can given the tips in the previous posts. Really appreciate this guys, and will update as I get them.

[happydog500]

I plan on bookmarking this post. If I ever have problems with my car, I will look back at this and it should make me feel better that I don't have all this to worry about.
Sorry to hear about the problems.
Chris.