PART 1 What To Look For/Expect When Owning Or Buying A Cadillac Fleetwood 93 96
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- Опубликовано: 9 июн 2024
- This video covers quite a lot of stuff on these old cars, I've owned my 95 fleetwood for four years and within that time frame I have had my share of experiences with this old boat some of them good and not so good!
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Still one of my all time favorite Cadillacs, cannot wait to own one
I have a 94 and love it! The only thing I had to change this past week was a starter!!!! I'll never sell my LT1 caddy! They dont make them like this anymore!
All things considered, the RWD Fleetwoods (and Broughams) were gorgeous vehicles. And a 4 year run on this bodystyle make them VERY collectible. Hope everything "stays fixed" and you get to keep and enjoy the big girl. Thanks for posting!
Holy cats, my late father owned at least 12 Buick Roadmasters or Chevy Caprices and I have owned 3 Fleetwoods and 2 Roadmasters. They have had minor problems but nothing like you mention here. So far we each had to replace one opti-spark, one water pump and several window sliders. I actually replace sliders with rollers intentionally. Of course normal maintenance like shocks, brakes, coolant, oil/lube, etc have been performed as needed or on a schedule. But then again, we, being frugal, don't drive our $40-50K cars or any car we LIKE in the winter. We buy cheapo econo-boxes for driving in the salt.
Wow I must say you are definatly keeping this car alive & in good shape , my hats off to you... All do it yourself as well... thanks is for the video as I am planning on purchasing one soon.
I am inclined to trust 2004-2011 Lincoln town cars more, but the Fleetwood really is a classy car.
Thank you for all the time you spent on this video.
My pleasure! glad you enjoyed it
love the video dude, very informative.
Great points. Beautiful car btw.
Well done sir! I too was once a miserable SOB after purchasing a '94 Fleetwood from a Cadillac dealership in NJ about 15 years ago. Had two 77 DeVilles and an 87 Cimarron(!) previously. My Fleet had just about 100k at the time of purchase. First really cold winter day comes along and the dash pad cracks; that was only the beginning of my woes. Soon afterward it took a tow to my mechanic to find that I was out of fuel with 2 bars showing on the LED gauge! Very insightful about the body/rust quirks, BTW. My biggest problems came with Opti spark failure and later tranny failure (a $2700 repair) before a buck mercifully decided to cross in front of me at around 45 mph. Sold the car to a fellow who had 93-96 Fleetwood limos; he got a damn good parts car out of the deal (mine also came with chrome Vogue wheels--a $2000 option alone--shod with mustard/mayo Vogue tyres). I could go on about the many quirks that made my Fleetwood a less than satisfying experience. Aside from a tendency to wear out front end/steering parts (it IS a 4400lb. car after all) one of the few pluses I can note is the 94's improved handling on what is, after all, the same RWD chassis in use since 1977. I've since switched back to Lincoln Town Cars since the experience with my last Caddy, but was so dismayed at the time that I half-seriously test drove some Series 3 Jaguar XJ6's thinking "how bad can one be after this last Cadillac?"
telebob59 thank you for watching the video I appreciate your comment. yeah I'm quite a miserable SOB I took the car out of hibernation after sitting during winter I moved it up and down the driveway and blew both brake lines just by doing that.... Im not surprised it happened just really pissed me off. I'm glad it didn't blow when I went for my emissions test! The total cost for brake lines and have the 23 year old spark plugs changed and fuel filter came to $428 which isn't too bad I figured it would have been more considering the spark plugs are a royal pain in the ass to change on this car. Now my brakes work real good the car still runs like shit even with brand new platinum spark plugs and fuel filter next I'm going to see if my ICM is the culprit because I hear a lot of arcing sounds coming from the coil. I read that a faulty icm can cause the timing to be off and make the engine run lean or rich. I might need to have my steering components looked at because now I hear this clunk sound when going over small or medium bumps
My Next car will hopefully be a 78 fleetwood or Eldorado convertible of that year I'm sick of all these sensors and computer modules they're supposed to tell you if there's something wrong with the car but I'm not getting any codes at all
Ik this is a late comment but thanks for this video.my cadillac club president have a 95 model & all these things done happen.but he keeps it maintenance & his lt1 is going strong with 300,000 + miles
Very nice comprehensive video covering just about everything to look for. I am looking at possibly getting one of the 94-96 either roadmaster (b-body) or fleetwood (d-body) which are different I'm told. But from what is shown the issues should be on any of the LT-1 powered sedans. I hear you on the reman parts had an issue once with an alternator. It was performed by the dealer along with other repairs and they had to get a reman from napa a "gold series" ironically. It didn't make noise but it did trigger my battery light but as approaching red-line not low rpm. Fortunately I immediately turned around and went back. Dealer tested it when they got to the load test, immediate failure dropping to 10 volts. They were fairly ticked as it had the bs 100% passed test printout packed with it. So they actually sent them a bill for their labor for the R&R which was considerable haha.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. The B body and D body are different but pretty much use the same engine and transmission. All the issues that I've had on this car could happen on the impala, caprice, buick roadmaster wagon or sedan. I know they all suffer from heater core leaks, broken window sliders and rusty rear quarter panels, mine hides the rust because of the chrome panels :) I wish grandpa bought a 1993 fleetwood with the LO5 engine, I know they were slower and people say never buy the first of anything because it could be a problem down the road but I think it would be far more reliable than my 95. Which I'm still driving..... currently she's running rich and lean and stuttering at slow speeds, gas mileage went from 15 city to around 9... I know for sure it will not pass emissions testing next year. It seems every time an attempt is made to repair it or treat it to something good something bad happens In May of this year I bought brand new Hercules White wall tires from a guy for $300 who wanted to switch to wide white walls, I had them installed and not even a week goes by I ended up getting a roofing nail stuck in the shoulder of one of the tires. The only reason why I'm still driving this damn car is because it has working A/C I don't think I could sell it to someone with all the issues it has. I can't afford to buy another car right now
I'm not sure if it would work on this but had an idea my friend's father used to do on door seals. He injected silicone into the seals to keep it from getting crushed yet still have some cushion. Then he would wipe silicone or some type of long lasting rubber protectant on the seals to prevent rotting.
Great video. Gonna keep it as a liked video . What did you patch the oil pan with?
I have 1995 Fleetwood, and it's going strong but it only has 12,000 km on it. My 1994 Buick Roadmaster(same basic powertrain) has 270,000km, and my 1995 Buick RM had 395,000 on it when I was written off. All 3 of my cars, like yours had/have the Factory Tow Package on it. I just wish they would build car like these still, not those pathetic subcompacts that they are claiming to be fullsize cars
thank you for your time to share helpful information. i am thinking to buy one i heard it is smooth ride car
I just purchased a 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood Federal Coach Limo, So i this video was a good video for me. Luckily i live in Florida and the car has spent its entire life here in Florida and its completely rust free and it only has 25K original miles. Thanks for the video and all of the tips.
that federal coach limo sounds familiar itd not the same one they had on Barret Jackson auctions is it?
Thanks for info
I have a 1996 Cad Fleetwood that I almost had for 10 yrs and they are some nice smooth riding cars. Went I brought mines it's had 78000 miles on it when I brought in 2009 and I still have the car now today and it have 84000 miles on it and it run good as new and just like sitting in my living room and good AC stills blows cold
Have a LT 1 strong motor and a 4L60E trans shifts nice and smooth and I'm the second owner of it and I will not buy a brand new one, because it not like the older ones.
Thanks for info :-)
My late grandfather purchased one, more than likely a 95-96 model before he died and after he died it began to have mysterious electrical issues. Loved the car but god know what became of it after my Aunt traded it
My compressor died two weeks after I bought it had too many issues with that car can't wait to sell it
holy cow....never knew there were so many water damage related issues with this model!!! :-(
My 96 Buick Roadmaster has that A/C compressor noise and had since I bought it in 2016 w/22K miles. Have 37K, noise still there, still blows ice cold. Had it looked at but I’m stationed in Germany where I sent the car and some say it’s normal, others think like me, bearings going. Just got the photo today since 2 are available but can’t see what kind it is. I’m being stationed back in the US next month so when the car arrives I’ll replace it there.
I Duno I found mine and bought it 500$ figured I got a slamming deal 160ks on it and got it home and the fuel pump quit lol shit happens and I'm in Ontario as well and ive got the caprice wagon with working ac lol
I have a 96 roadmaster that I had to rebuild the 4l60e....only 110k when planetary gear went out. Went with a stage 2 shift kit. Hopefully that will hold out. I baby the hell out of this car.
Glad I bought 93.
Trust me the cosmetic issues, Water leak issues and other miscellaneous issues can still happen on a 93 At the end of the day your car is very much like all the others but with a different engine. If you live in a city that salts the road during the winter season I'd highly recommend getting it oil sprayed or buy a winter beater because these suckers will rust out in no time.
I've heard that when you do a tune up on the LT1, you have to replace the water pump... As in you have no choice if you want a running car.
Well a tune up can be just plugs and wires. A full R&R job would be the waterpump if it's leaking the Opti because coolant can seep inside it might as well replace it while the pump is out, Mine is currently experiencing this issue but I refuse to fix it. This car is junk and not worth saving
What are you using on your leather to keep it looking so good?
meguiars leather conditioner I used to swear by autoglym but find the meguiars product brings out the color the best and lasts longer
I have a 1995 Fleetwood and it’s still going strong with 150,000 miles on it. I recently had to rebuild the transmission in mine. I don’t think the 4L60E is a very good transmission either. It’s definitely a weak link in these cars. I think the problem is they designed it with planned obsolescence. A lot of the parts are weak including the clutch sun shell which holds all the clutch discs. When that thin piece of metal fractures it’s all over.They knew it or something else inside would probably crap out at around 100,000 miles and send customers back to the dealer to trade it in on a new Cadillac. The older GM trannys would run forever. They used to make them a lot more robust. I was just curious what happened to yours and why you had to stop driving it. I’m pretty good working on cars and I would be glad to try to help you figure out how to get her going again. Thanks for the video. It’s cool to see someone younger like myself interested in older rear wheel drive American cars. These were truly the last traditional Cadillac.
Ryan Hodges Hi Ryan. Thank you for your review. This car used to belong to my grandfather he was the first owner the car was purchased From John bear Cadillac in Hamilton Ontario. He paid $48,500 brand new. He never took proper care of the car which would explain why I'm having issues one after another. He stopped driving it because it had a leaking radiator, oil lines, transmission lines you name it every line that had fluid in it was shot! The final straw for him was the heater core not blowing out any heat. The cause was from using the orange antifreeze called Dex cool. If your car has that stuff switch to the green stuff! I Took ownership of the car back in 2013 and officially put it on the road on march of 2014. I believe that the optispark is failing but in a very unusual way. Last night it rained/snowed I went out to start the car and it fired up like it normally does but stutters really bad in reverse or drive almost like it wants to stall but never does. I shut the car off and start it back up the problem sorta goes away but it's still there. This problem only occurs when it's wet outside
vcamnowaa That’s good advice about the orange Dexcool stuff. It can really cause problems. Mine already has the standard green antifreeze in it. It does sound like your Opti is probably going bad. Especially since you mentioned that it gets worse when it’s damp outside. That’s usually what happens. They are extremely sensitive to moisture unfortunately. If it’s the original one it’s probably on the way out. There’s a guy on EBay who restores Optisparks. His seller id is Berrington1 I believe. I bought one from him. He does really good work and uses good quality parts. He puts thread locker on the rotor button and seals the cap to the housing. If you decide to buy one from him he will send you a video of the the new one working on an oscilloscope. You might want to check his stuff out. I know you’ve had a lot of problems with your car but I believe you can get it going again with a little work. They are really great cars and they will go for a long time if a few of the known problems are taken care of.
Ryan Hodges Thanks Ryan. The car is still running just takes a bit of pedal stompin to get it to snap out of it's stuttering tantrum. I actually just drove to the grocery store and a few other places today with no hiccup. I will just keep driving it till it no longer runs. The car has too many issues rust/ mechanical wise... The cost for the opti and water pump plus the labor to have it replaced isn't worth it. I could easily put that money towards a replacement Fleetwood in better shape than this one. I'd do the job myself if it wasn't for the damn mechanical fan being a pain in the ass ughh..... I will keep that ebay seller in mind
vcamnowaa Hopefully you will find another one someday. It is a lot of work to replace the Opti and it would be expensive to take it to a shop. At least you can still drive it.
Ryan Hodges--ditto on the 4L60E(see my comment above).
I just saw that your Optispark is failing. If you can, try to find an AC Delco original or a re-manufactured one. The cheaper quality lower priced optis are junk and not worth buying. Especially considering how much work is involved in replacing one. Also, make sure to use Loctite on the rotor screws and seal the cap to the housing with a good sealant.
which do u think would be better to buy a 97 lincoln town car or this? i can't decide
Sorry just saw your comment both cars are good but the key factor is were they maintained and looked after. I'll admit my caddy is no show room car and has had a few issues but most of that is neglect from the previous owner my grandfather... But the majority of the issues with my car could happen to others if they end up buying one second hand. a 97 Lincoln town car are excellent automobiles but the 4 expensive items to fix is the air ride most people convert them to springs with shock absorbers, Intake manifold is prone to cracking near the thermostat and could dump coolant everywhere. and of course if you buy a high millage town car the transmission and engine may have seen abuse and neglect. The engine and trans are pretty much bullet proof on these cars but I'd try to find a low millage town car if you can
I have A 1994 fleet I'm having issues with, it cranks but wont start. I've had it in shops & no mechanic wants to take time to fix. Just been spending money on towing with no real solution. Car also went airborn off the road but loaded in corn field, no suspension issues surprisingly. Please help. Car was running perfectly before being towed from accident.
How did it end up going off the road? Swerve and avoid or slippery road conditions? Also does it spudder like it wants run or is it just constantly turning over?
Try this
Turn the key to run position don't start the engine listen for a humming sound the sound will be coming from the fuel pump in the gas tank you'll need to listen carefully and may need to fasten the drivers seatbelt to cancel the ding ding sound to be able to hear it. If you can't hear that humming sound have some one stand behind the car listening for the sound. If there is no sound your fuel pump may have been damaged from landing in the field and the tank will need to be lowered and the pump will need to be replaced. If you hear a humming sound then the pump is working
Get back to me with the results and we'll try something else
@@vcamnowaa got it running. A simple tune up, control module & oil temp sensor. 650$ & almost gud as new. Brand new tires dry rotted even tho they where rotated manually to avoid flat spots smh didn't work. Big break kit & new tires which still under warranty should make it ride like I remembered. Believe it or not most mechanics havnt worked on an older vehicle like this & Tht was the issue. Took it to Bobs garage & he said piece of cake. Gas was on full tank but sat 4 almost a year & still cranked of course I put fuel stabilizer in it also. I'm happy, thanks.
Var key
I have a 1994 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, with 255,000 miles. I still have original compressor and the AC will you freeze you out, and with no noise what so ever. You probably bought a lemon. Not all of these cars are a lemon.
sam rafeedie Trust me Sam yours will stop working just like all of the others. My car was free and only needed a few things for safety. My OEM A/C worked just fine 3 years ago and then bang it died due to old age. Never once did I say these car's were lemons. You want to talk lemons let's talk about the Deville's with the horrible Northstar engine
How had is it too change the spark plugs on theses cars
It's a pain in the ass to change them... the shop manual says it would take about three quarters of an hour to change the spark plugs and wires! The hardest ones to get at are the ones closest to the firewall. One thing I will point out that I should have mentioned in the video, if your car is due for a ''tune up'' and you suspect the spark plugs need to be changed, be very very careful I would recommend using the best penetrating oil that you can get and lubricate those suckers up if you don't and attempt to unbolt them you risk breaking the spark plug nut right where it threads into the block and you will cause yourself even more aggravation, I had this happen on cylinder # 5 These cars are not really fun to work on but when they are maintained properly and not abused they will run for many years. Unfortunately in my case the car was abused by my grandfather who just treated cars as disposable junk
My father had a 96 caprice,same engine but a 4.3L and i would list the stuff which failed on it and it seems common with these LT1 engines.
- starter failed at 120000km, which is not normal
- Fuel pump on these cars last 4 to 5 years even when they are oem, not normal at all
- Water pump fails too, changed mine 3 times with oem parts
- original ball bearing steering box failed at 140000km, they leak from the seals and there is no new oem steering box and mechanics warned me to rebuild it with after market seals and told me it will never function the same and it will leak, only solution to find a bone dry oem boxfrom the junk yard...if you are lucky to find one.
-Brake booster went out at 100000km
- brake lines went out at 200000km
- serpintine belt tensioner went out at 80000km
-AC compressor failed countless times
- had water leak just like yours in the same place on the front windshield
- transmission shifting late at 200000km
-heater core always leaked on passenger floor and end up canceling the heater lines
- original radiator hose failed early and leaked
- changed the electric fan motor twice
- craked radiator plastic tank at maybe 70000km
if you want to buy a buick roadmaster/caprice/impala/fleetwood of the 90's i really warn you its not going to be fun, searching in junk yards and looking for oem parts is an adventure and every 3 months or so you will be at a shop and the mechanic will become your 2nd best friend if he accepts working on it because let me tell you a lot of mechanics will tell you directly i dont want to work on it because its time consuming and i dont want to mess around it and risk breaking something.
i live in the emirates and these cars disappeared from the streets 10 years ago and most of them ended up in american salvage yards specialists, if you live in the states or canada i guess the parts are cheaper and readily available over there.
saying all of that,i wonder how the LowRider guys keep these cars up to all the headache this car already have to throw at its owner, i once hit a pothole very slowly in our 96 caprice and a sqaure plastic panel under the steering wheel broke off from were it was screwed, let a lone hitting switches and hitting the ground hard.
You have a very rare V4P package. I understand only 3% had this option.
Yes but takes away some engine power and is a real pain in the ass to work around lol
whats a v3p package
Check out W123 Mercedes videos. It's amazing how much people are willing to spend to restore these Diesel 80s cars. I would rather invest in full frame v8 American cars.
I've seen their videos only people who have money to burn will waste it on over complicated cars. my caddy is no exception and if it wasn't for my friends at the garage allowing me to make payments here and their for expensive repairs I probably wouldn't be driving it right now
I've literally never owned a vehicle with working AC
if you ever do own a used car with working A/C and it conks out on you don't do what I did... I sunk 1,200 for A/C repairs and it rattles like a can of marbles and had to bring it back three times to get it fixed. Its better to save up and buy something a vehicle that was taken care of with repair records
@@vcamnowaa yeah I live in philly so heat is definitely more of a priority haha thanks for the heads up !
Sounds to me like it’s just a big ol shiny piece of shit. Typical of American automakers just fix design flaws with glue and tape. Lol