Hi Everyone,

DILEMA.......

As per my recent thread I have had my Cat bolt done and an interim service.

When the Garage did the inspection they found :

Vac lines leaking
1 cooling fan not working
Caliper seized
Discs and pads rear need replacing due to caliper
Serpentine belt cracks.

My issue is i had no issues with the car as in missing or hesitation or erratic idle.

Therefore if i didn't do the vac lines that the garage say they are leaking. Would i damage anything by driving it if there was a vac line issue.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Thanks

Sal

 

What year is your car? Where is the leak coming from?

It won't really damage anything, it just won't run like it's supposed to. Eventually the leak will get worse, and it'll really start running like garbage and misfiring. Your vacuum pump will turn on all the time, and eventually burn out.

If the engine is coming out, definitely fix them.

Any car after mid-06 can be fixed by bypassing the line that runs behind the steering rack, if that is where your leak is, which seems to be most common.

 

I think it's a good question. Silvertones is right, it's not like leaks get better on their own, but if you're not seeing signs of it, then your vacuum pump is keeping up. It's also probably running full-time and I guess you could wear it out, but I wouldn't be super worried about that, I replaced mine just because it was noisy and it wasn't cray cray expensive.

On my car, my vacuum lines had been replaced, but when the engine came out, I replaced them again, just because I knew it was a good idea if the engine was out. I also changed the O2 sensor, just because. 30 hours of labor to pull the engine, might as well throw some parts at it as insurance.

Obviously fix the brakes and the serpentine belt. Can they do that with engine in place?

 

Thank you Everyone,

I have decided to bite the bullet and the vac lines are being done, next week with the cooling fan the solenoids and the serpentine belt.

I didn't know about the O2 sensor, is this correct I should replace that as well while the engine is out?

Thanks

Sal

 

When I did it I replaced:

- boost control solenoid
- boost control modules
- vacuum lines
- both O2 sensors
- two more O2 sensors (don't know the difference, first two were $245 ea second two were $352 ea., no part numbers)
- 3w0612925bb vacuum valve


The engine came out for the boost control solenoid (left side), so I replaced all of them, plus the O2 sensors and the vacuum lines. I'm not going to type out the vacuum line part numbers because I would order the stainless set from the New York guy, I wish I had done that, I thought I was putting in metal lines but Johnny showed that I just replaced plastic with plastic

 

Not the same exact issue, but I had the same problem once as you did with the "hiding Midas manager".

I lease my wife a new Cadillac every three years, she drives them very few miles per year, so I absolutely love the 'loss-leader' deals that dealerships will put out. They'll advertise a "$335/mo" lease, but it's for "ultra-low-mileage" and so forth. The joke is that the salesman that actually sells the car in the ad gets fired. They get you in, then upsell you to a higher payment.

Anyway, I go to a dealership that advertised a great deal, had a picture and stock number of the car. I walked past it to get inside, correct stock number as in the ad.

I go in, meet the salesman, show him the ad and say, "I'll take this one, at this deal, right now."

He says, "Oh, we already sold that car, let me show you…"

Me, "The car is right over there (point to it) and I'll take it."

He gets up and says he needs to talk to someone.

Never comes back.

After fifteen minutes, I'm walking around this deserted dealership, looking for him. He's not there. Nobody is there.

I finally find a woman doing something and ask where the salesman is.

"Oh, Ron left a while ago."

Dude actually vacated the dealership rather than selling the loss-leader to me. Sorta funny. I was going to file a complaint or whatever, but got over it pretty quick. Still, it was a "Are you a man or a mouse?" situation and we all know what "Ron" was.

That was a long time ago, now I have a salesman that has probably leased three or four cars to me. He isn't even any fun to dicker with anymore. My payment have gone from $287/month to $425/month for various models over about 20 years. I always lease the cheapest "demo" vehicle they have on the lot, I've actually taken possession of one that I never even test drove. Salesman said to keep that quiet, he wasn't allowed to sell or lease a car without going for a drive, but he knew what I wanted (cheapest Cadillac) and here were the keys.

I don't think these super-cheap ultra-low-mileage leases are going to be around next time, the interest rates are too high to get a $65,000 car for $425/month anymore.