Questions and Answers

Five Cadillac Brougham Questions Q. Vince, I have several questions that I hope you have answers for so here I go. 1. Heater blower motor. Blower will not turn on in any mode. Occasionally it will turn on and if turned off while running it will not turn back on. It will however switch between speeds and heater/AC modes.

If it turns on it usually will happen when the outside air temperature high or the car has been run for a period of time and then shut off and sits for 10 minutes or so and the engine bay warms up (cooler outside air temperature).

2. Transmission shifting.
When the transmission warms up usually 10-20 miles it will up shift very quickly 1st to overdrive by 25 MPH making the car lug. In reverse when coming to a stop the transmission will not downshift until the car is moving very slowly and gets near stalling before it will drop into 1st gear. If manually shifted it works fine and there are no other problems once I get up to speed. I did talk to the original owner and he stated that the car had done this since he purchased it new and the dealer was never able to diagnose the problem.

3. Steering lubrication zurich fittings.
How many zerk fittings are there for the front end. When getting it serviced some garages see there are 4 some say 8. I say up to possibly 10 with upper/lower ball joints (4) inner/outer tie rod ends (4) and idler arm (2) I just want to make sure that they grease all of the fittings.

4. Diagnostic from ECC.
Are you able to enter into the diagnostic mode through the temperature control panel on this year and model Cadillac? I've tried the pressing the OFF and TEMP buttons at the same time to no avail.

5. Headlight fender indicator lights.
I replaced both low beams and now my fender indicators for low beams do not illuminate. I know these are fiber optic so did I jar the optics out of place when I R/R the low beams?

Sorry for all of the questions, but when I saw your web site I hoped that you would be able to answer them. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

• 1989 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham
• 78,200 miles
• 5.0 liter V-8
• Automatic Transmission
• P/S, P/B, Cruise control

Again thanks,
Steve

A. Okay, here we go by the numbers. Keep in mind this is a Cadillac and nothing on this car is easy.

1. If you are handy with a test light and DVOM, here is the procedure for testing the blower motor system.

2. If this was happening since it was new and the previous owner didn't do anything about it, why did you buy the car? You can try unplugging the transmission connector and see if it has any effect on the shifting. If it starts to shift fairly normally, I would say it is probably a bad transmission control module. If there is no change, you're probably looking at a transmission replacement.

3. There is one each for each tie rod end (4). There is one each for each ball joint (4). There is one for the idler arm (1). There is two for the center link (2). That makes 11 grease fittings all tolled.

4. No. This ECC does not have self diagnostics.

5. Probably. I would take a look in there and place them back where they belong.