Hi Guys. The Mustang has been getting most of the loving lately but today I'm in garage working on the Saturn. I'm replacing front brake pads and notice that the back side of the rotor is only wearing on a thin strip in the center. About a half inch of the outer portion is unworn and rusty. Wassup widdat?

I've been noticing the cruise control will stick. As it opens the throttle to maintain speed it will overshoot by 5 to 10 mph then release with a bang. Anyone else had that happen.

Thirdly, I'm getting it cleaned up and ready to sell. My mother has decided to stop driving and I'll be buying her minivan to chauffeur her around. I guess that means joining another forum for the care and feeding of Chrysler A604 automatic transmissions!

BTW, enjoying 1.89 per gallon regular in FL today. How's prices where you live?

 

Brakes

Sounds like the piston in the caliper is not pushing the pads evenly together against the rotor, or the pad themselves did not have a truly perpendicular alignment relative to the rotor. Once the rust builds up, it will usually just chew up the pad that comes in contact with it.

Were the caliper pins gunked up with dried out grease or were they still "wet" with grease when you pulled it apart?

Cruise control---Sounds like a throttle body sticking to me. Start out w a throttle body cleaning.

MY theory: The cruise is telling the PCM how fast to go based on the speed senor data, which is being fed to the PCM. When the speed is below the cc set speed, it opens up the throttle. If the throttle plate is sticking, the car doesn't speed up, so the PCM commands it to open even more. When it breaks free (unsticks), the throttle is open more than it needs to be, so you get the unintended overacceleration. Then the speed drops back to the cc set speed.

Selling--you're always welcome here sans saturn.

Gas --$2.35 outside Pburgh...

 

As far as taking care of the van, join Allpar. I've been a member there for 15 years and it's where I get help on my Mopars when I need it. Great bunch of guys there with a VAST amount of knowledge. That transmission is to be filled ONLY with Mopar ATF+4. If someone tells you Dexron with an additive is okay, they're full of crap. And I'll be happy to enlighten them if they want to argue. Gas here at the local Murphy is $1.84. Loving it!

 

Well... I took the shortcut and am not happy with my choice. I put the new pads on the old rotors, as I am trying to minimize the $$ I put into this thing. May be sinking the $50 into new rotors tomorrow. Everything looked good inside the rear drums, so I hosed 'em out with a bit of brake cleaner and now have some ominous noises from the left rear. May have hammered the drum too hard trying to break it free.

Then there's the rumble. The left rear tire looks choppy and is noisy, but now it sounds and feels like the rumble is coming from the front, so I'll have to investigate wheel bearings!

My first attempt at recovering the headliner was a failure. Second time I took it to the upholstery shop for recovering. $110 dollars later ($35 of it in the failed attempt) it's back in the car and looking good.

The Mythbusters proved in one of their episodes that it is possible to polish a turd so I've been leaning on The Daily Planet with the polishing rag and a little help from my friends The Turtles (Rubbing and Polishing) and Sam Adams (Rebel IPA). There's been a noticeable improvement. The yellow cast is coming off but it's still a car that's spent nearly 20 years ungaraged in Florida. The clear coat is burnt, cracked and peeling.

Derf: Thank you for your insight on the brakes and cruise. The slider pins came out easily and looked great. I haven't looked at the cruise yet but it did misbehave, consistently, today.

Charlie: Thanks for the tip on the ATF+4. When the tranny first misbehaved I had the van towed to a shop. They couldn't get it to fail so I had them change the fluid and filter but did not ask what they refilled it with. I have since cleaned connectors and replaced the input speed sensor and it has not defaulted to limp mode since. I will amke sure it is drained and refilled with +4 in the near future.

Thanks for the help guys. Anyone want a 55,000 mile SL2?

 

Just thought I'd chime in with gas price here: 1.73 at Murphy by wallyworld. If you use the gift card you take off .03.

Enjoying that while it lasts, $20 a week for gas doesn't hurt my feelings!

 

Dang, Ginny. The Murphy here is at $1.79. I have a Walmart credit card and get 5 cents per gallon discount with it. Just filled up the Saturn a couple of days ago and filled up my Chrysler this morning.

 

The Daily Planet is rubbed, polished and waxed and looks pretty good from 20 feet!

I'm finding the cruise problem is affected by temperature. We've had a string of 50 degree nights and the cruise has been fine on the 2:00am drive home from work. There's too much traffic to check it on the 3:00pm drive to.

Big happenings at work this week. How It's Made is recording video for a segment on our top of the line PA46 Meridian. Air date will be in 2016.

 

Where do you work and are they hiring? We'll be living in the Lakeland/Winterhaven area if you're close to there. That is, once we sell our house and find one there. Had our first lookers today. According to the realtor, they liked it, but are also looking at a few more places before making a decision. At least it's a start!

 

I wish you good luck with the sale of your house. I work at Piper Aircraft in Vero Beach. Other side of the state from Lakeland!

Lakeland is home to the Publix supermarket chain and their primary distribution center. Lakeland seems to be a thriving small city. I've been to Lakeland-Linder Regional Airport for the Sun-N-Fun airshow several times.

Piper had a significant facility there at one time but by the mid 90s, all of their operations were consolidated at Vero Beach. Prospects for hiring may improve by the third quarter but you'd be facing a nearly six hour daily commute!

 

cold temp better cc operation is consistent with differential thermal expansion and contraction of the metals in the throttle body -- don't know about the thermal expansion and contraction properties of the gunk that's conceivably causing the sticking at warmer temps.

(You know I have to keep supporting my theory until proven dead wrong -- because there's no way I'll ever admit I was wrong...ha ha no I am not one of those types; I just want to help you get it working)

Please clean the throttle body and end the suspense. Be sure to get the back of the throttle plate and the pivot points nice n clean, along with the perimeter of the throttle plate.

The suspense is killing me.

Rube -- was going to pm you re: house status. Good to hear!