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