Noise In My Buick When Turning- Car Stalls

Question:
I am working on a 1999 Buick Lesabre. My customer complains of a noise in the left front wheel area when turning. Sounds like a rotor hitting the backing plate. I have checked and replaced everything on the left side including the rotor, pads and bearing and axle. None of these parts helped with the noise.

Answer:
I have had strange tire noises but those make sounds turning either direction. As long as you replaced the whole axle then that was not it. Have also had inner tripods make noise on that axle. Will ask SF our transmission guy on Monday if anything with the transmission.

How about this- have had a few loose starter drive gears slide into the flywheel when making right turns. In an open area drive and keep the steering wheel turned while it is doing the noise, then shut off engine and see if noise stops (don't turn key all the way in case steering wheel locks).


 

Question:
The odometer on this 200 Buick car is a digital display and it goes dark, or sometimes dim or other times normal. How can the display be repaired?

Answer:
First be sure that the odometer is the only display acting like this. If the backlighting of the radio and HVAC controls etc. Or also doing dim or dark, then you most likely have a problem in the dimmer switch. Try adjusting the switch when it is acting up to see if it changes any. If the odometer is the only problem, then you have an internal problem in the instrument panel cluster itself. It would need to be repaired or replaced. Best left to the dealer, since it would need to be programmed to the vehicle after repair or replacement.

Question:
2005 Buick Lesabre. Sometimes when I accelerated from a stop or just to get into traffic, the engine will increase in RPM. The engine won't die completely, but will not accurate or increase in power. The engine has eventually stalled & will restart. Let the engine sit for at lest 5 minutes & the engine will restart & run like there is no problem.

This is an intermittent problem. Car will not stay broken long enough to be diagnosed proper. There is never a check engine light & no codes are stored. One time a cat converter code did set & the converter was replaced. This did not solve the problem. The engine stalled the next day & died. It restarts a few minutes later & I limped to the dealership. Nothing found & car ran well. The engine stalled again 3 weeks later. Driving about 25 MPH, engine began died. 5 minutes later the engine started up ran well.

Answer:
This really did sound like a fuel pressure problem, but that is not the case. You may have a crank position sensor acting up, or possibly a wiring problem somewhere. Moving harnesses under the hood while running may cause it to act up, or correct itself.

Grounds on the engine / trans bellhousing may be loose, or even a power feed problem at the underhood fuse box. Either of these would most likely not set a check engine light or codes. Move those harnesses around, pull on the fuse box and harnesses, check the ground, and see if this helps.


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