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Expert: - 2/7/2011


Question
Why does my steering wheel stiffens up for a few seconds when cold in the mornings on my 82 eldorado cad

Answer
Hello,

Its been 3 years since I owned an 83'. I can only give you a couple guesses and although I have worked on many over my lifetime, have owned about 6 of this body style from 1979-1985, my mind is a little rusty on this and I hope my suggestions will assist you in finding the problem.

Contaminated power steering fluid thickening up. These things were notorious for power steering belt noise and other issues because of a factory misaligned power steering pulley. I remember this issue in the 83' as well.

The fluid makes more sense though because once warmed up, you would have less resistance. If this fluid is original, it's going to be contaminated and if this is the problem, I have never flushed a power steering system and can't tell you how.

While you are at it, you might want to flush the brake fluid, which can be done, change the trans- axle fluid.

It's real common to forget about these things because the old car runs great. The same goes for the anti-freeze and if it's over 5 years old it breaks down as well.

The car is almost 30 years old and for me kind of scary, because I worked on these cars when they were brand new!

I had over 20 Cadillacs and the full size Eldo and later was my 88' Cadillac Allante convertible I bought with 41,000 miles and traded off at 62,000. I changed all the fluids in that (except the power steering.

To me, the best cars I ever owned were the two types mentioned.

Change or have changed the power steering fluid and the rest of the fluids and enjoy for another 30 years!

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Rob Painter

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Alarm system questions cannot be answered on this forum. These systems are not what I can answer. Without being physically at the vehicle and not knowing what kind of electrical service has been done on the vehicle, there is no possible way to give an accurate answer over the internet. My expertise is in Ignition/key based anti-theft systems. These issues include GM VATS (resistor chip in key blade) PASSLOCK (MRD)-ignition lock rotation based, no special ignition key and the PKIII Transponder (computer chip in key) systems. These systems are not alarm based and are integral with the starting of the engine. This is why I cannot diagnose alarm problems without physically looking at the vehicle: Alarm systems are a completely different annimal than ignition key/lock based anti-theft system. Many alarm questions come from vehicles 10 years old, and since older, many hands that had been involved over the years.I am an expert in all GM factory (ignition/key based)systems. Alarm system questions pose to many situations beyond my knowledge as to what has been done to the vehicle over the years. Some guy may have actually wired the stereo into the alarm system. Who knows? Over my past 30 years in vehicle wiring repair, I have seen unbelievable wiring disaters done by guys that consider themselves "mechanics." I have seen stereos and alarms intalled using surgical tape. I have seen modules burn up, un-fused circuits, wiring jambed between the doors and even lamp cord used for a starter kill. To answer alarm questions over the internet without examining the vehicle is like asking; What does it take to remove a dent?

Experience

Education/Credentials-ASE certified. 11 years with a GM dealer and 17 years with a repair facility dealing with only the repair of theft recovered vehicles.

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