Opinions on 83 Eldorado Biarritz with Touring Suspension

[DeVille68]

Hello   smokuspollutus

Thanks for posting these information sheets! Very informative since GM Heritage does not provide any information.
I think you accidentally uploaded twice the sheet for 84 Eldorado - could you also upload the one for 84 Sedan DeVille?

One day I removed the center facia, including the block off plate...and there it was! The MPG sentinel was right there, FUNCTIONING even. It was simply blocked off.

This could very well be the same with this 80 Biarritz. Maybe it is hidden.

Not quite right Nicolas: The only Cadillac models assembled in Bienne were 12 units in 1938, 6 for 1939 et 6 again in 1940. This plate is misleading a lot of people because they don't know that GM Suisse had 2 different plates: one like the one on this car and another one with the title: "Montage Suisse" (or something like that). Further, the assembly line at Bienne was closed during 1975.

Yes I am sorry - I do know that no cars in the 80's were assembled anymore. I should have written "Swiss finish".
Do you know what exactly they did as a "Swiss finish"?

You already have the 68 apart and know its a spun bearing?   That's not an especially common failure on these engines.

Luckily, I had the next day off and went ahead and pulled the pan and removed all the connecting rod bearings. You can read about it here: http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?topic=130360.msg366944#msg366944

[Roger Zimmermann]

I do know that no cars in the 80's were assembled anymore. I should have written "Swiss finish".
Do you know what exactly they did as a "Swiss finish"?

In fact, there was no Swiss finish. The cars were washed and inspected. If there was a damage, it was repaired. As there were minor modifications to do to the cars which were type approved in Switzerland, those modifications were done at that time. After that, the cars were shipped by truck to the dealers.

[dochawk]

Otherwise, designing metric fuel data panel for the relatively small number of exports was probably figured to not be worth the effort.

I doubt that--the computer is going to be doing this based on engine revolutions and fuel flow in whatever unit, and then apply a multiplier or divisor to turn it to mpg.

Metric would simply be a different multiplier or divisor for kilometers/litre. 

Europe does the inverse of that, liters/100 km or some such, but that's just a matter of dividing instead of multiplying. 

All in all, the code would be about as long as this post, and take about as long to write.

hawk

[smokuspollutus]

Hi DeVille68, here is a link to the source of all of them so you can look through.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/smokuspollutus/albums

[D.Smith]

  designing metric fuel data panel for the relatively small number of exports was probably figured to not be worth the effort.

AH! But they did have a metric sentinel for export cars.  Of course they couldn't call it an "MPG" Sentinel, as it wasn't in "Miles".   They reworded them as "ECONO-MINDER".

Here is one from a 1981 Fleetwood Brougham.

[Eric DeVirgilis CLC# 8621]

Interesting!  I've never seen that panel before.

Keep in mind the MPG display on 1980 Eldorado was much more basic, and of course the need for the panel was greater for V8-6-4 cars in 1981.

I doubt that--the computer is going to be doing this based on engine revolutions and fuel flow in whatever unit, and then apply a multiplier or divisor to turn it to mpg.

Metric would simply be a different multiplier or divisor for kilometers/litre. 

Europe does the inverse of that, liters/100 km or some such, but that's just a matter of dividing instead of multiplying. 

All in all, the code would be about as long as this post, and take about as long to write.

hawk

Well hawk, this example is all we have to go on for an export 1980 and it would appear that there's a good chance they didn't do that regardless of how easy it may have been. 

Another example of an 1980 export Eldorado would tell us more, no doubt. Hard enough just keeping the domestic stuff straight as it is! 

[D.Smith]

In my long time putting together my photo archives,  I am pretty sure these Swiss export cars were just regular production cars made for the American market.   They shipped them overseas and did the conversions there.  Lighting changes, metric speedometer, etc.   I'm sure it was easier and cheaper just to order the delete plate and remove the MPG sentinel, or leave it under the dash. 

It would have more sense to ship over cars made for the Canadian market and have two less things to convert.

[Roger Zimmermann]

Not quite true: the cars had speedometer in km and the tires were also specific (most of the time) according to the maximum speed of the car. Next to that, you are right, the cars were almost identical to the ones destined to the domestic market.
Nowadays, it's very different: glas, lamps, safety belts, noise regulation are specific for Europe. Those changes are driving the price up (or the profit down); GM is not quite interested to export cars/trucks to Europe.

[smokuspollutus]

Yes, the '80 fuel display was not tied into "diagnostics"-for that year it was pretty much a fancy trouble code reader. OBD didn't really become what we know it as until '81 and to a greater extent '82 when sensor output and cycling really became possible to watch. That still took some mechanical aptitude to ID the problem and correct, but then the next gen FWD cars with a BCM took it to a whole new level-things could be manipulated without ever leaving the drivers seat and the system was much more specific in the trouble area.

Anyone know what the last year you could press OFF and WARMER down and get trouble codes is?

[DeVille68]

Thanks for uploading and sharing the link for the 80's brochures!

Interesting, I have never noticed this "Econo-Minder" panel. I will look closely when I see another car of this era.