NPoCP: 95 Fleetwood

"ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability" (italianjobr53) 02/13/2019 at 09:05 • Filed to: None

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LT1, 78k miles, $4000

Linky in comments if kinjad

ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 02/13/2019 at 09:08

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https://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/d/indianapolis-1995-cadillac-fleetwood/6817990563.html

Arrivederci > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 02/13/2019 at 09:13

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Water pump replacement is good - when these go south, they leak right onto the Optispark, which apparently is a PITA (and a little pricey) to replace.  I’d lean NP, but try and get a few hundo off.

WilliamsSW > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 02/13/2019 at 09:30

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Love the car, but the photos are awful.

Don’t know values on these but I’d say NP if rust free. 

sm70- why not Duesenberg? > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 02/13/2019 at 09:49

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NP!

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Arrivederci 02/13/2019 at 10:04

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The bigger problem with the Optispark (and it is a PITA) is that there are simply no more quality replacement parts to be had (at any price). So far, even with the big corvette restoration parts companies now in the C4 game, no one has been willing to place a big enough order of optical sensors (allegedly around 40k units) for Mitsubishi to do another production run of them. Every last NOS or quality re-manufactured opti with the original spec Mitsubishi optical sensor has been used up. All of the replacement options, regardless of brand or price point, out there now have a cheap Chinese optical sensor that may or may not work out of the box, and may or may not last for more than a few thousand miles. The best bet on an LT-1/4 is to religiously inspect and replace the water pump so that it doesn’t leak on the opti, and periodically open up the opti and give it a fresh cap and rotor.

That is Np on the Caddy, though. There is a world in which I would buy that car.

Long_Voyager, Now With More Caravanny Goodness > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 02/13/2019 at 10:14

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Easy NP for a clean comfortable cruiser

shop-teacher > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 02/13/2019 at 10:25

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NP if it's as clean as it looks. Check the floors, frame, and the base of the B-pillar.

WilliamsSW > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 02/13/2019 at 10:25

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So - I’m curious - what are the best options if the Optis park does fail?

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > WilliamsSW 02/13/2019 at 10:36

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Prayer. Otherwise getting a cheapie replacement and hoping you get lucky and it works for the long-term. It is a bunch of labor to replace the Opti. There is also an MSD replacement opti that uses a different optical trigger, but experience with it seemed to be really mixed. For lots of money, there is company out there that can retrofit the timing system from an LS engine onto C4 vettes, but that is on the order of installing new timing gears, all their new parts for the timing, adapting an LS style coil on plug set up and adapting the cars to run off a newer LS OBD II ECU with custom programming.

This is one of several issues on with later C4 vettes for which there simply is no longer a good repair option, at  any price. The dual mass flywheel on the ZF 6-speed cars is another one. When that wears out, there are no more new ones to had at any price, and the original tooling to make more no longer exists.  Single mass conversion is the answer, and that takes a manual gearbox that already had plenty of NVH, and adds a whole lot more to it.

WilliamsSW > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 02/13/2019 at 11:11

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Shit - I was hoping you’d have something simpler than any of that.

I hate it when an otherwise good car has a kryptonite that makes it uneconomical.

ranwhenparked > ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability 02/13/2019 at 18:57

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Very good price for that mileage, if the condition checks out. The ‘96 I had is still the single most comfortable car I’ve ever owned, would gladly have one again despite all the faults.