New member with Questions

[wlross]

Hi everyone,

I inherited a '01 3.5 Aurora from my mother-in-law. After driving it for a short time I realized this was a much better auto than I had thought. It only had about 45K miles on it and after some detailing, it looks pretty good.

I live in NE Louisiana, Monroe, and am a retired pilot and now teaching a few classes at the university. I recently completed an experimental aircraft. It is fun to fly, but the interior and painting has yet to be finished.

I am about to take it on a six month trip from Louisiana to the North West (Seattle). Should be back in about Sept/Oct.

I am trying to check out everything before leaving. With now about 52K miles on it, I thought I'd look at one of the easy to reach plugs to see what condition they are in... but I can't find them! Wait! I have a garage full of tools and have been in and all around engines in my life, but this one is much different, and I've decided to confess and ask before just starting to take parts off and learn as I go...

I know the plastic cover comes off and that is easy, but what next so that I can see the plugs?

I think I'd better invest in a maintenance manual, any suggestions which one to get?

The one thing I am concerned a little about, is a clunking noise in the steering when I'm turning around at slow speeds like parking or backing up, but mainly making deep turns.. not too loud, but I can hear it.. most shops want to just start digging and running up the clock while they learn to shave on my face! I may not be anything serious.

The only other thing, if anyone cares to reply, does the air compressor for the suspension run for a few seconds normally after the first start up of the day??

I welcome any other suggestions as I prepare for this journey... struts and tires are all good... oil for the engine and tranny have all been serviced and lube recently.

I'm glad I found this site and look forward to reading the postings.

Best to all,
Walker

[oldwino]

Welcome to the club!!! Your best bet for a good manual is Ebay. Might find a used Factory Service Manual for a decent price. You need to remove the coil pack off of each head to access the spark plugs. The front one is easy, but the back one can be a pain. The clunking noise is likely the ISS, intermediate steering shaft. It's a well known problem, hence the sticky in the "How-to" thread. You should check them out in the 2nd gen mechanical maintenance section. It will probably answer all your questions.

[ntrenn]

Welcome.

yep, they sure did hide the plugs.

A trick on the 3.5 only - the plugs don't have to come out to change the valve cover gaskets.

Factory plugs should be good to at least 75,000 miles if you are getting OK fuel economy and don't have any missing issues. When you do change them - use only the AC Delco plug (they will be Denso or NGK) out of the AC Delco box.

Compressor run schedule is very hit and miss. Mine may not run for a week, then runs at every stop light.

Take plenty of oil with you. 3.5's are very erratic oil users. Sometimes 3,000 to the quart, sometimes 500 - in the same engine.

[tipsymcstager]

"an experimental aircraft"? cool how about a shot or two, of that thing?
i'm into just about anything with a motor ;D

some pic's from the dayton air museum, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base!













your plugs uncoverd



also see aurorah.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=nextgeneration&action=display&thread=22699

clunking noise in the steering: what he said ISS shaft. they tend to go bad in these cars more oftend the the norm. but you should be ok for your trip. it won't lock up on you or anything.


air compressor:
mine is the same way, on both the 01 and 97!
i know i have no leaks, and all is well under there. so i think is just a cold sys check.

as for oil, being an all aluminum engine, they tend to expand and contract
and leak less on long trips. and being run more often then sitting around.
so a QT or two in trunk will do fine. as well as a bottle of brake and coolent
(thats what i always keep in there, no matter how far i'm roaming from home)

have a look at the main belt, before you split on your trip.
fuel filtter ok?

best of luck, have fun

[Randy T.]

Welcome to the club! Retired pilot, huh? lol Maybe you would like to join our discussion on spreading persistent contrails.

aurorah.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Lounge&action=display&thread=23749

Nice pics tipsy! I have some pics from the same museum, I remember seeing a couple of the ones you posted, I went around '90, I think.