94 Ciera 3.1L VIN M--Suspension problem

[Ardan]

Hello! I am going to type a lot, but I feel that I must, so please BEAR WITH ME. First off, I have the 94 Ciera S 3.1L V6 (124,591 miles) and I better give a full background. The car runs unbelievably well. Granted, it should for the various maintenance we did last year. It has ran excellent this whole time except for this year, but two or three of the small issues were there for a while and someone in my family (that had it before me) just didn't care at all, really. It was hesitating when maintaining a higher speed, and sometimes hesitating badly when first starting out, but they didn't care at all and thus it was this way for at least a year. This is what we did this past year:

--Spark plugs needed to be replaced, replaced with double-platinum ones
--Spark plug wires replaced with higher-quality ones because they were shorting
--Goodyear shop nearby cleaned the fuel injectors for us
--Replaced the muffler because a hole rusted into it
--Replaced the PCV Valve and bought a new Valve cover
--Replaced front and rear brake pads (no problems, was just time to replace)

Most of that was because work was never really done on it. This year, I had a huge problem. The car began to overheat, so I brought it to Goodyear immediately for a pressure test. What they found was that the intake manifold had a leak, so they resealed that (was told it was not rare for cars of that age) and they said the water pump was cracked. That was amazing to both of us because that was replaced during a routine maintenance interval on my part in 2005 (around August).

Before my family had the car, my grandmother had it (and didn't drive it everywhere) in a rural town in northern minnesota. I must emphasize that the car was maintained extremely poorly back then and we periodically found things we noticed were reinstalled poorly during its time up there. One was that oil was leaking from the valve cover because the mechanic that had last tuned it up for her cracked it (and did nothing). The other was that she had tires of very poor quality installed on it (she said she went with 'whatever they recommended'), so I put some nicer Goodyear tires on it in 2004. The car was extremely reliable regardless, and clearly will last quite a while with proper maintenance.

I wanted to be thorough, because I doubt I could get a decent response by just saying "I have a 94 ciera, it makes this noise...what do I do?" . It has been like this for a while, but I hadn't really noticed how bad it was until someone else drove my car. They said that it felt like the wheels were traveling too much over small bumps. After driving, I noticed that it definitely is true.

I can actually get very specific with it too, actually. If you go over a bump in the road with the tires on the right side going over it, you feel a noticable jolt and even hear a rattling sound from the front right area of the car. If you go over it when the left side, you don't hear the rattle (unless it is a big enough bump...but the rattle is still from that front right side) and it doesn't shake the car as much. If you are braking and happen over a crack in the road or a bump while doing that too, for instance, it will shake the hell out of the whole car. I would worry about the brakes, except that it will brake very smoothly on a regular surface (and we just did maintenance on the brakes too).

Some have wondered if maybe the waterpump was a victim of some of this, but I can't be sure and I don't want to speculate on that without having a clue . I noticed recently another new noise. If I am backing out of my driveway, I hear a grinding noise when turning the steering wheel clockwise. That noise comes from the right front area of the car once again. It is VERY specific and noticable...it definitely does not occur in any other area and is constant. My father inspected the front end a few months ago before the grinding noise started (thats a recent development) and said that he couldn't move the tire up and down himself, but could grab the sides of the wheels and wiggle the wheels (but he wasn't sure what that meant). Do you think I should have them inspect the suspension for me? I don't want them to perform the work, but they gladly will inspect and charge me a fee for the inspection (which I find to be modest) and I really like that because of my busy schedule. I just wanted to ask to see if someone here would know for sure what that problem would be, so then I would just skip that and repair it myself.

[GTP Dad]

This sounds like you have a control arm bushing problem. They will wear out and will cause a lot of tire movement and banging noise when you hit a bump. It could also be the ball joint and tie rod end. One other issue you may have is with warn struts. All of these items can cause the noise you hear and you should get it checked immediately. Please let us know what you actually find out once it is inspected.

[fusion27]

how do you know if you have a "T" or a "M" vin#?
mine is 1G3AJ55M9T6303614

[Ardan]

Well, with General Motors, the 8th position in the VIN number tells you the engine type. In your case, the 8th one is 'M' and hence you have the V6. The 10th position is 'T', which is the identifier for the model year. So, you have a 1996 Oldsmobile ('1G3' signifies Oldsmobile in the US, 2G3 in Canada) vehicle with the 3.1L V6 option. I'm not aware of a 'T' model for 94-96, however. To my knowledge, 94-96 only has two engine options, the 2.2L/4cyl VIN 4 and the 3.1L/v6 VIN M. Are you thinking of the engine in model years 92 and 93, or...? I don't know where you got the T from, but yours is M.

[fusion27]

Ok, Thanks For The Info, This Weekend Am Going To Start Breaking It Down To Replace The Head Gasket.

[Ardan]

Originally Posted by fusion27

Ok, Thanks For The Info, This Weekend Am Going To Start Breaking It Down To Replace The Head Gasket.

No problem! Head gasket? Wow, I sure hope it runs great after all that work!