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I love that some of you guys are hammering forward and still posting here. I still have mine. Garage queen now B&B headers and on back. Bushings and HPTuners. Mostly stock and 57k miles. Planning on keeping it forever. I only pull it out a couple times a year but the damn racket it makes and just how silly a smallish car like this jumps at a twitch on the ankle just reminds you how bonkers it is. I know newer cars are faster and whatever but the raw feeling it has is hilarious.
Man it was a busy weekend and a very productive one too! Family went away for a few days to visit the grandparents, affording me a few crucial days to get things done.
My V has been on jack stands for a couple months now. Been busy like hell with house projects and work. But no more, this was my chance and I went to town on my car.
.
Replaced stock water pump with a Melling MWP503 (was news to me too that Melling started making LS water pumps too)
2 months ago the original water pump pulley suddenly started wobbling without leaking, but the noise was scary! So I parked it to diganose WTH to do next.
AcDelco + Thermostat Left - Melling MWP503 Right
The thermostat and housing had barely 3k miles on them, I changed the Thermostat seal anyways and moved it over to the Melling pump.
Melling MWP503 - Feels nicely made for sure.
Took advantage of the pump removal to clean the very dirty outside of the timing chain cover and surrounding.
Melling pump installed and ready to go.
Recently my powder-coater handed over my original V wheels, after sandblasting and powder coating to my taste.
Absolutely love em!
Took advantage of the opportunity to throw away the worn old tires which came with my V.
Replaced them with a set of General Tire: 245/45ZR-18 General G-MAX AS-05 XL from TireRack.com which has been sitting in my garage for a while now.
Took the opportunity to throw away the stock old and mostly dead TPMS sensors and replace them with quality VDO REDI-Sensor 315MHz part#: SE10001HP . These sensors don't require programming, just initiate the relearn procedure for the TPMS just like in a tire rotation situation and they will be detected by the system when you are done.
Got the wheels, TPMS and tires installed pronto
Went back home put them on the car, then came back next morning for the final act.
Now it was time for 4 wheel alignment, and I'm glad I did
The whole car was out of alignment. I suspected that before, but now I was sure.
And voila, after wrenching for a couple of days in my garage and half a day or so in the shop, car runs like a million dollars now, new wheels, new TPMS, new tires, new water pump, fresh coolant, 4 wheel alignment.
Man it was a busy weekend and a very productive one too! Family went away for a few days to visit the grandparents, affording me a few crucial days to get things done.
My V has been on jack stands for a couple months now. Been busy like hell with house projects and work. But no more, this was my chance and I went to town on my car.
.
Replaced stock water pump with a Melling MWP503 (was news to me too that Melling started making LS water pumps too)
2 months ago the original water pump pulley suddenly started wobbling without leaking, but the noise was scary! So I parked it to diganose WTH to do next.
AcDelco + Thermostat Left - Melling MWP503 Right
The thermostat and housing had barely 3k miles on them, I changed the Thermostat seal anyways and moved it over to the Melling pump.
Melling MWP503 - Feels nicely made for sure.
Took advantage of the pump removal to clean the very dirty outside of the timing chain cover and surrounding.
Melling pump installed and ready to go.
Recently my powder-coater handed over my original V wheels, after sandblasting and powder coating to my taste.
Absolutely love em!
Took advantage of the opportunity to throw away the worn old tires which came with my V.
Replaced them with a set of General Tire: 245/45ZR-18 General G-MAX AS-05 XL from TireRack.com which has been sitting in my garage for a while now.
Took the opportunity to throw away the stock old and mostly dead TPMS sensors and replace them with quality VDO REDI-Sensor 315MHz part#: SE10001HP . These sensors don't require programming, just initiate the relearn procedure for the TPMS just like in a tire rotation situation and they will be detected by the system when you are done.
Got the wheels, TPMS and tires installed pronto
Went back home put them on the car, then came back next morning for the final act.
Now it was time for 4 wheel alignment, and I'm glad I did
The whole car was out of alignment. I suspected that before, but now I was sure.
And voila, after wrenching for a couple of days in my garage and half a day or so in the shop, car runs like a million dollars now, new wheels, new TPMS, new tires, new water pump, fresh coolant, 4 wheel alignment.
It's so analog and brutal! Aaaah I missed ma V1
sounds like you got a lot done! Wheels look sharp.
sounds like you got a lot done! Wheels look sharp.
Thanks man, yup sure did, I even squeezed in R&R of outer tie rods forgot to mention. But yeah refreshing those stock wheels sure gave them a new lease on life
On its way to the local ziebart for a full application of undercoating and complete car protection.
Got the wheels preped and read for NDI.
-Byron Degreased and ready to NDI. Dye is soaking, next step is to rinse it off and dry. Then hit it again with the developer. Time to find out how lucky I got with the wheels.
Happy to report back there are no cracks. The finish is definitely compromised for sure, but it's a non issue as I am going to refinish them with new powder and clear.
Just some curb rash and that's pretty straight forward.
So I did some basic updates. New battery, plugs. wires, oil an filter change. Happy LS6. Runs great. 170K on it.
Then for some fun I got some carbon fiber wrap material in dark grey. I wrapped all the emblems where the faded Caddy color emblem goes in the crest and the V's. Then front grill upper chrome trim and the lower one at the bottom of the bumper. Also did the small parking lot bump guards on the doors. Then did the wheels leaving some exposed silver to try it out. Still deciding how the final coat will go. The wheels are so beat up and curbed that just leaving them uncovered sux. I practiced on my wife's Fiesta and did hers in dry black carbon fiber on all her trim work and the wheels. Came out pretty decent. This is just play project time to keep me busy. The pictures are in my gallery. This link should work.
Got my DW300 installed in the modified fuel bucket and tank back up in place. trying to decide if I drop in the coilovers or just move to fitting the new 3" SW exhaust and get her going. Still have a few minor tweaks on the e85 sensor, wiring, and fuel line bending to make it fit a bit better.
She’s still kicking. Recently installed a new rack due to a seal failure, and upgraded the PS cooler. I’ll eventually get around to installing the TurnOne PS pump - I just need to figure out what AN fittings I need to get.
- I got the car back from Lindsay Cadillac with all new brake lines last week. So far, so good, but I do want to get it up on a lift just so I can eyeball everything myself.
Originally Posted by AAIIIC
Popped a brake hard line in the engine bay, apparently due to corrosion.
...
I've seen a few reports of hard lines failing over on cadillacforums.com over the years, mostly V6 CTS owners. A few of them have been back at the rear of the car, above/around the gas tank, where you have no ability to see if anything is an issue without disassembling half the damn car.
...
When I dropped off the bulk NiCopp brake lines, the tech showed me that two of the lines had split back at the rear of the car as he was trying to remove them. If I had elected to have them replace just the right front brake line, it probably wouldn't have been much longer before I would've been stranded again with another failure. So, it was damn expensive, but I'm glad I had them do everything.
The tech ended up having to make the 1/4" master cylinder to ABS lines out of the GM replacement line (which is now poly-vinyl coated steel) rather than the NiCopp I had given him. The NiCopp stuff is way more flexible than the steel, and he said it just wasn't rigid enough to snake it through the way those lines are routed. No biggie.
- Replaced the battery yesterday. Tech @ Lindsay said the battery tested bad, and sure enough I've had to use my little jumper pack 3 times in the past week. That's one of those jobs that I'm not going to pay them to do, so I picked up a new battery and installed it myself.
- Received some new cold weather tires, Nokian WRG4s. I've never tried any Nokians before, but they seem to always get great reviews, so we'll see. I have a beater Subaru with winter tires, so I don't really need full winter tires for the V, just something that will deal with the cold weather. The tires will go on the set of OEM wheels I picked up from westwopper here in the Classifieds a few years back.
I'm doing 3 colors of powder. Cadillac grey inside and on top of the barrels, ink black between the spokes and illusion berry on the face and outer edge of the wheels.
I should look awesome and will be a test of my skills.
Finally resolved an annoyance that has been bugging me since Summer.
My V is driving great, however when I drive slowly in my subdivision, I always hear clicks/clanks in the passenger side rear especially when I hit the brakes.
Initially it sounded like the caliper was loose or something in there was not right. I checked my rear brakes over and over, everything was in order.
And when I brake hard on the highway the car slightly steers right slightly, again making me think something was off with the rear passenger side rear brakes.
I couldn't put my finger on it, well until I finally lost my patience with it, I went to my garage to inspect my car again.
While the car was on the ground (not jacked) I grabbed the passenger side rear wheel and attempted to roll it forward with all my strength while the car was in gear.
Lo and behold I recreated the click. Was not able to recreate it before by bouncing the rear end.
I wouldn't have guessed it in a million years that it was the trailing arm. Though the passenger side rear trailing arm looked like it was tightened, the nut was stuck at a few turns before end of travel and not loose!
I'm not sure at what point I loosened it and forgot to tighten it all the way, perhaps when I removed my diff when I first bough the car to clean and install vent tubes and replace the output side prop seals.
If you look at it while the car is on the ground it looked tight, but I was able to raise the trailing arm with one finger by pushing the bolt up.
The good news, is that I managed to screw the nut back on nice and tight without dropping the sub-frame or having to lift the car, I sneaked in the open end of my 21MM v wrench on top of the trailing arm bolt and tightened the nut with a 21mm socket wrench.
Took the car out for a test drive and it clicks no more and breaks straight and true every time nice!
Took advantage of my garage time take care of two more minor annoyances on my list.
The CTS sport grille does not have holes on top for the V specific radiator cowl.
So I lined it up perfectly and added those 2 missing holes for a plastic fastener.
Also, I had a lot of missing / lost GM push on clips, I decided to try something different I found on eBay from China.
These replace the big GM clips, will not replace the smaller ones on the bottom of the car, but in a pinch the screw part on it's own will work with smaller holes, which is exactly what I did for the grille.
The nice thing about these Honda clips, is that you push them in like the GM one, but you can unscrew them out when it's time to remove them.
On eBay I got 30 pcs for $3, but shipping took over a month, but I can't complain I guess.
Finally resolved an annoyance that has been bugging me since Summer.
My V is driving great, however when I drive slowly in my subdivision, I always hear clicks/clanks in the passenger side rear especially when I hit the brakes.
Initially it sounded like the caliper was loose or something in there was not right. I checked my rear brakes over and over, everything was in order.
And when I brake hard on the highway the car slightly steers right slightly, again making me think something was off with the rear passenger side rear brakes.
I couldn't put my finger on it, well until I finally lost my patience with it, I went to my garage to inspect my car again.
While the car was on the ground (not jacked) I grabbed the passenger side rear wheel and attempted to roll it forward with all my strength while the car was in gear.
Lo and behold I recreated the click. Was not able to recreate it before by bouncing the rear end.
I wouldn't have guessed it in a million years that it was the trailing arm. Though the passenger side rear trailing arm looked like it was tightened, the nut was stuck at a few turns before end of travel and not loose!
I'm not sure at what point I loosened it and forgot to tighten it all the way, perhaps when I removed my diff when I first bough the car to clean and install vent tubes and replace the output side prop seals.
If you look at it while the car is on the ground it looked tight, but I was able to raise the trailing arm with one finger by pushing the bolt up.
The good news, is that I managed to screw the nut back on nice and tight without dropping the sub-frame or having to lift the car, I sneaked in the open end of my 21MM v wrench on top of the trailing arm bolt and tightened the nut with a 21mm socket wrench.
Took the car out for a test drive and it clicks no more and breaks straight and true every time nice!
Took advantage of my garage time take care of two more minor annoyances on my list.
The CTS sport grille does not have holes on top for the V specific radiator cowl.
So I lined it up perfectly and added those 2 missing holes for a plastic fastener.
Also, I had a lot of missing / lost GM push on clips, I decided to try something different I found on eBay from China.
These replace the big GM clips, will not replace the smaller ones on the bottom of the car, but in a pinch the screw part on it's own will work with smaller holes, which is exactly what I did for the grille.
The nice thing about these Honda clips, is that you push them in like the GM one, but you can unscrew them out when it's time to remove them.
On eBay I got 30 pcs for $3, but shipping took over a month, but I can't complain I guess.
Mind linking the clips? I need to replace a bunch myself.
Made some progress on the wheels. They are about 80% cleaned up. These are the nicest wheels I've ever seen, let alone owned. Super light, and now that they are mostly stripped (chemical stripping is the last step before blasting). You can really see the fine workmanship that went into them.
-Byron I really wish I had a better camera that would highlight it, but the machine work is super nice. I'll take care to make sure it shows through the powder coating.
Haven't posted on here in a while, if I do post anything it's usually on the FB forums, figured I'd come check on everybody here.
Changed my front and rear brake pads about a week ago, got about almost 4 yrs and 25k miles out of these cheap duralast gold pads.
just a daily driver.
they were suppose to be temporary since the pads and rotors came with the car when I bought it, so I installed them and just kept useing them. They did the job but I hated them, they were noisy and dusty as hell.
They finally started to squel occasionally when not on the brakes so I knew it was time lol.
This time I went with the powerstop ceramics.
They will do for now. I left the duralast rotors on for now, those also had 25k miles, they still looked good and I cleaned them up with a red scotchbrite pad.
I need to buy somemore ate typ200 brake fluid since I used that stuff I bought for this a few yrs back and never changed the fluid yet.
i needed some fluid for the S10 since that stuff was over ten yrs old and black as heck, had to do two flushes on that lol.
10-04-2020, 06:43 PM
