2001 Oldsmobile Alero Windshield fog problem / clunking / bad gas mileage
Windshield fog problem / clunking / bad gas mileage
What is your question?
I do not know the service history of my vehicle the dealership I bought the used car from in May 2010 gave me no info besides a carfax report showing oil changes up until 33,000 miles in 2005. My windshield fogs up on outside very badly in middle with defoger turned on settings cold air brought in from outside. Have to keep wipers on. This is in dry weather as well as wet. Why am I having this problem? Also when driving over bumps i hear the frunt wheels clunk and rattle and it is very annoying! What is the cause of the persistant issue? I know reviews on this car are very bad and it is said Aleros are problamatic cars. It is also known that for the model year they are known for bad gas mileage. My car has just under 110,000 miles purchased with 108, 329 May 20th 2010. So car is not driven very often. I am only getting 18-20 mpg's but mostly drive city, I still think thats bad for a 4 cly! I have read other owners achieving better mpgs with the 3.4L 6 cyl. What can be done about this? I didnt conduct research before purchasing it and it was an impulsive buy. I know I need new wiper blades already after the dealership supposly installed new ones 2 months ago previous to car purchase listed in reconditioning work. They are leaving white streaks across windshield restricting my night time visibility along with defrost problem therefore I do not try to drive at night. However I do not know what the best wiper blades are to get. For the problems I am having could I please get a rough estimated cost? I do not want to go too cheap either. Thank you for the help much appreciated.
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The car is fuel injected, fill you tank with gas and dump a thing of fuel injector cleaner in, gas milage sloved, rain-x whipper blades are the best wipers I could find, as for the clunking in the front end, might be outer tie rod ends or lower ball joints
WOW I had wrote this 6 years ago and asked such questions! Well since that time I had gotten the entire suspension and tires had been replaced. I went with Bosh Icon wiper blades which I've had very good luck with. I have had a professional injection service cleaning done on the car and that didn't improve the gas mileage. I know more times than not additives don't work in cars I used seafoam once. Oh and the windshield fog issue was in relation to a bad AC compressor which was replaced.
I just changed front pads on my 02 Alero which should have only cost me $60 turned out I was without a vehicle for 10 days because the shop that fixed my hub bearing back in April cross treaded the axle nut which it only seated 1/16" and suppose to be at least 1" seated, ended up needing new calipers both front, both front rotors and a right front hub bearing that only had 1500 miles on it, cause it seized the caliper and had hot spots in both the rotors and it seized the pistons in both calipers, and they told me it was my lose I would have to pay for everything again, so needless to say I'm taking them to court for what I paid them to do the work, I also have the tree-o of lights on my dash sevice vehicle soon, ABS and of course track off, one way to get right of two of those lights is to pull the ABS fuse under the hood, cause it's not a wheel sensor problem, When I brakes with the ABS fuse in, it makes one hell of a noise so I just pulled the fuse and that problem is solved for now
I hope you win against that shop that's unfortunate! I used to go thru brakes and rotors all the time on the car. In 2014 I switched to premium and bought my own aftermarket Powerstop on Amazon. I have had better luck with them than the regular oem metallic. Alero's are known for warping rotors just so your aware! Since switching over I think that problem has been solved. I haven't had to replace the backs yet since 2014. The fronts had to have rotors resurfaced (other shop said needed new rotors) and had new pads installed premium Napa. The calipers both in front had to be replaced due to age of vehicle this year. Last year had to replace both rear calipers due to part breaking off when brakes were bled. I still have to get my engine/trans mounts done this year but that can wait as they are not broken and shaking comes and goes. It's more of a nuisance than anything. I'm still paying off my 2nd set of new tires this year and front brakes.
I had the Trak Light OFF stuck on recently. The trans shifted weird so when i got to a light turned car off then back on and problem went away. Took it to my shop and they found an old engine code from a few years ago that I had cleared (nothing came of that back then). They said it was related to TPS so I had sensor replaced this year which might fix that problem. You need to take your car in and get the codes ran. They are powertrain and you may have a similar issue as I did but then again its an Alero so you never know what it could be. They are known to have electrical problems. The ABS light I think I had that on a few years ago and had taken it in. I had a wheel bearing issue if I can recall, I think that was the problem with that. But I read about the 3 lights issue other people have had (I haven't ever). When I researched about the trak light I read all those lights on at once could indicate a TPS sensor problem.
All I know is I had the ABS issue fixed years ago along with the Hazard button recall. People are saying they replaced the wheel speed wiring harness and that fixed it. Report that shop to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) start a claim against them with proof.
WOW I had wrote this 6 years ago and asked such questions! Well since that time I had gotten the entire suspension and tires had been replaced. I went with Bosh Icon wiper blades which I've had very good luck with. I have had a professional injection service cleaning done on the car and that didn't improve the gas mileage. I know more times than not additives don't work in cars I used seafoam once. Oh and the windshield fog issue was in relation to a bad AC compressor which was replaced.
I just changed front pads on my 02 Alero which should have only cost me $60 turned out I was without a vehicle for 10 days because the shop that fixed my hub bearing back in April cross treaded the axle nut which it only seated 1/16" and suppose to be at least 1" seated, ended up needing new calipers both front, both front rotors and a right front hub bearing that only had 1500 miles on it, cause it seized the caliper and had hot spots in both the rotors and it seized the pistons in both calipers, and they told me it was my lose I would have to pay for everything again, so needless to say I'm taking them to court for what I paid them to do the work, I also have the tree-o of lights on my dash sevice vehicle soon, ABS and of course track off, one way to get right of two of those lights is to pull the ABS fuse under the hood, cause it's not a wheel sensor problem, When I brakes with the ABS fuse in, it makes one hell of a noise so I just pulled the fuse and that problem is solved for now
I hope you win against that shop that's unfortunate! I used to go thru brakes and rotors all the time on the car. In 2014 I switched to premium and bought my own aftermarket Powerstop on Amazon. I have had better luck with them than the regular oem metallic. Alero's are known for warping rotors just so your aware! Since switching over I think that problem has been solved. I haven't had to replace the backs yet since 2014. The fronts had to have rotors resurfaced (other shop said needed new rotors) and had new pads installed premium Napa. The calipers both in front had to be replaced due to age of vehicle this year. Last year had to replace both rear calipers due to part breaking off when brakes were bled. I still have to get my engine/trans mounts done this year but that can wait as they are not broken and shaking comes and goes. It's more of a nuisance than anything. I'm still paying off my 2nd set of new tires this year and front brakes. I had the Trak Light OFF stuck on recently. The trans shifted weird so when i got to a light turned car off then back on and problem went away. Took it to my shop and they found an old engine code from a few years ago that I had cleared (nothing came of that back then). They said it was related to TPS so I had sensor replaced this year which might fix that problem. You need to take your car in and get the codes ran. They are powertrain and you may have a similar issue as I did but then again its an Alero so you never know what it could be. They are known to have electrical problems. The ABS light I think I had that on a few years ago and had taken it in. I had a wheel bearing issue if I can recall, I think that was the problem with that. But I read about the 3 lights issue other people have had (I haven't ever). When I researched about the trak light I read all those lights on at once could indicate a TPS sensor problem. All I know is I had the ABS issue fixed years ago along with the Hazard button recall. People are saying they replaced the wheel speed wiring harness and that fixed it. Report that shop to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) start a claim against them with proof.