1982 Eldorado Advice

[BigOldGroundBoat]

I'm bought this 1982 Cadillac Eldorado Touring today. It has an HT4100, runs and drives. It needs a brake rebuild as the calipers are locking up. 75% af everything works. No knocking or ticks. I plan on using as my daily to drive to school and back. Any advice or tips?

[TJ Hopland]

Have you read about the 4100?  That transmission isn't known for greatness either.

Get a factory service manual, they are usually plenty to choose from on ebay.

They make new rear calipers since they are one of the models popular for rear disc swaps so a new set will solve those issues for a while. 

You want to make sure the ride height is correct.  If the rear auto level isn't working you can do a manual fill system on.  If the back rides low you get some funky rear bump steer when you hit bumps do to the wacky rear suspension geometry. 

[James Landi]

 40 year old flexible brake hoses collapse and lock your brakes!!!!   Change the flex hoses BEFORE you do any other brake work!!  As TJ urges, get the service manual.  Become familiar by learning about the ON BOARD computer monitoring system for your car -- it's all  available, no special equipment needed . Have your radiator de scaled and engine block flushed by a cooling system specialist.  Don't drive the car until you replace those brake hoses. Above all: Learn to drive like an old geezer... NEVER push the engine and drive train. The 4100 engines are notoriously weak and can not endure high revs or any over heating... press on the accelerator as if there were a raw egg between your foot and the pedal.  I've owned 5 4100 Cadillacs... 4 self destructed around 125k miles...but I did own one, an'83, that provided me daily service up through 315k miles... I doubt I ever revved the engine over 3k rpms, I changed the oil and used different viscosity for summer as recommended, and I flushed the cooling system and used THE GM pellets every 2 years.. never, never, never use any other cooling system additive.  James
 

[Barry M Wheeler #2189]

Take the advice to heart and do exactly what they recommend. I have had two, and the '86 FWD (Low mileage)Fleetwood went out on me on the way to work one morning. No warning, "just like that." Candidly, while I love driving vintage Cadillacs as my every day driver just like you, I'd look around and see if you can find a nice back up car. (Just in case.)

And by the way, welcome. Best of luck with your car.

[bcroe]

Good advice above, I would (and have) replace everything
touching brake fluid out to all 4 wheels, Stainless lines
will mean they will not need replacement again.  For us
defensive drivers I found the rear window was too low
for seeing any distance rearward.  So I shimmed the level
sensor for higher, and remounted the rear view mirror
inches lower. 

An original trans that may need refresh of the rubber
clutch seals, otherwise a  serious failure may loom.
good luck, Bruce Roe

[BigOldGroundBoat]

Thank yall for the advice! I must ask, however, what kind of oil and other fluids should I use?

[James Landi]

Use the recommended 10-30 winter  30 single weight summer...BUT get oil with zinc additive as modern oils don't have sufficient quantity for old engines.  One other thing to watch:  Check the oil filler cap regularly--- if you detect a brown "milkshake" coating on the cap, and after you stick your finger in the opening and you come out with more of that "solution," then you have a leaking intake manifold that's dumping coolant into the engine oil... THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM, the gaskets must be replaced... coolant in engine oil destroys engines.  Change transmission oil and filter--Dexon is spec for these... have the differential oil changed.  Shoot WD 30 spray at the idle speed actuator rod and hope some of it gets down into the tiny drive motor and gears  ( the 40 year old grease no longer lubricates the worm drive in my experience).   And have the radiator and engine block serviced by a specialist NO STOP LEAK EVER (only the GM pellets)--- Keep us in the loop regarding your observations and questions... we're here to help you avoid our mistakes!  James

[TJ Hopland]

These really said to use straight 30?  By the 80's the multi viscosity oils had got much better so you would think they would have wanted a multi except may for the most extreme conditions.

I'm not in the camp of additives or some really special oil but do your own research and decide for yourself.  IF I had a 4100 car I would probably run the same diesel oil I run in everything.  I'm not using the diesel oil because I think its the most amazing thing ever I just have it around for the diesels in my fleet and I think its at least as good as any other option. 

Really any fresh modern fluid is going to be better than something old and dirty.  I would not use any sort of flushing agent in any of the systems.  Fresh fluids have fresh additives including detergents that will slowly clean stuff.  If the new fluids seem to get dirty fast just change them again.  Worst case should take a few change cycles to get most of the crap out.  Using some sort of flush agent may break crap loose all at once and clog things up or quickly attack the corrosion that is holding things together.  If you are going to create a leak you want it to be slow so you have time to notice and make plans to fix it rather than catastrophic all at once.

A fluid extractor can be a handy item to suck out some transmission and power steering fluid.  You don't get it all but over a few cycles you can get a lot of it and some fresh stuff mixed in.  Here is a small one that is only $20.
https://www.northerntool.com/products/ironton-manual-oil-extractor-58085

       

[TJ Hopland]

This goes for any 80's 90's and maybe beyond Cadillac.....

Does your climate control/blower work?  If it does you may want to investigate maybe trying to lubricate the blower motor bearings.  That is easier said than done since they were not designed to be re lubricated.  What happens is the bearings start to dry out and cause extra drag which then pulls more power which burns out the blower control module.  Or if you or someone else replaced the blower at some point it may be a one size sort of fits all that also draws too much power and also burns out the module. Just for fun they also put the AC clutch control in the module and just like the blower many of the replacement compressors/clutches also draw too much power and burn up that section of the module. At least that can be bypassed with a relay.   

The modules are not easy to find or cheap if you can find one.  They also are not easy to repair both due to their physical design and being able to source the raw components. So if yours is working now you want to try and keep it working.  I would have to find an 82 manual but there is likely a testing procedure to make sure the blower isn't drawing too much power.  I know I did a 90 not too long ago and that called for installing a temporary power jumper wire with a specific sized fuse and let it run for a specific amount of time.  If the fuse blew you had a problem if not you were good. 

The module is mounted in the heater/ac box near the blower under the hood. Its got like a 6 pin connector on it and a couple wire direct wires.