Alternator goes out each 5 years of age on the car.
Timing chain broke at 120,000 miles.
Both front door windows no longer will roll down.
Rear-view mirror use to keep falling down easily on hot days.
Both rear door windows have been replaced after web shattering due to normal weather change.
Replaced both front axels due to cv joints going bad on each side.
Car won't usually provide good heat while in drive, yet warms up fine in park.
The engine and transmission are very reliable on this car except for the one incident with the timing chain breaking and the 5 year life of the alternators.
I'm guessing the worn cv joints and rear-view mirror problem are common for cars beside this make and model, yet I don't feel the mirror problem should really exist for any car.
One rear door window web shattered summer of 2002. It was really hot out, then it got really cold fast outside and rain started as a sprinkle. I heard from inside my apartment when that happened. The other rear door window web shattered november 2003 the temperature didn't change much or fast 30 in the day down to 22 at night roughly, light snow and another window to replace.
The timing chain breaking was a bad surprise. Out of town on the 4th of July.
As for providing heat into the car in the winter. A good example would be one night I was drive a long distance home cool air is all I could get. I pulled into a small town to rest a bit and instead saw a soda machine and stepped out for maybe a minute to buy a soda. I entered the car to find hot air flowing so easily. I put the car into drive and before I was even back onto the highway cool air again. Cooling system full, thermostat tested good, and the engine itself is hot to the touch like any other car engine after its been running for 20 minutes or so.
The car was repainted before I purchased it under the GM recall of vehicles with bad paint jobs. Whatever the metal was treated with, it doesn't like paint staying on it. If I would have repainted the car every year or 2 it might still look decent. I have a 1977 pontiac now also that has the original paint job still and it looks better.
Sometimes the car runs really rough after starting it and will continue to do so no matter how long it runs unless you turn the car off and restart it. Then it runs great.
Our 1990 runs great, but fills full of water when it rains or during washing it then fuses start blowing. After 120000 miles and a lot of gravel roads later. It is now siting and rusting to peaces, but still runs great. Wish it didn't leak
we had all the seals replaced and no one can find where the water is coming from.
Thank You
William Pruitt.
To the guy whose 1990 leaks. My 1990 leaks too. I recently discovered holes rusted out in the wheel wells and think this may be the problem. If you ever want to sell that 1990 olds cutlass let me know. get in touch with me at vhaase@yahoo.com.
My 1990 Calais runs great... had the starter replaced recently and the oil pan gaskets were leaky. But besides that, it's a pretty good car.. to those whose car leaks... my car is air-tight!..no leakage here.
My blue Calais (been repainted twice) has 70k orig miles. replaced alternator 3 times, power steering pump twice, heater coil??? twice (the heater blows warm air occasionally) front disk brakes about 6 times, and now won't crank unless you take breather top off... i left my wife stranded with it and THAT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!!! It's been totally reliable until now...my mechanic loves his $65.00 a pop diagnostic machine...
A leaking heater core might be where the water is coming from. we simply bypassed the heather core in mine, and it hasn't leaked since (but we did that recently, so it may or may not have fixed the problem)
It would be nice if you would mention the type of engine your car has when you talk about the 1990 Calais because they came with three different engines. Mine has a quad 4. And my BIG problem with it is the radiator -- it's completely inadequate for desert life. When the temperature gets above 95'F it over heats. I've tried to find a better radiator -- a bigger one, more fins per inch, or thicker -- but it doesn't seem to exist. Any ideas? Thanks. Superstude@msn.com.
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