Chevy & GMC Vans

I hope the thread title did not dissapoint you...lol

Anyway, i just brought home my grandma's 1991 Chevrolet Lumina Euro to do some repair work on. While she was in the hospital a couple months ago, her caretaker was driving up to see her early in the morning and had a run in with a deer. The deer lost. Grandma only had liability and does not drive anymore, the car is used by her care taker to take her places such as the store, church or to her doctors offices. Other things of notariety that the Lumina has taken out are the walls of the Nazarene chuch she goes to (the Lumina created a 30k hole) this was where grandma quit driving.

After the chuch incident, grandmas insurance company totaled the Lumina (the damage was all cosmetic, but it was because of the age of the car) but grandma liked the car so she bought it back from the ins company and had it fixed. FWIW, the car only has 88k miles on it and runs great.

After the deer killing, the caretaker filed a claim against her own insurance (who again wanted to total the car due to age) but that was not an option, grandma wants her car fixed. So we got the payout from the insurance company and I picked up the car and brought it down to my house to work on it.

It needs the following..
hood
fender
front bumper cover (maybe)
headlight assembly
paint

I have been able to source new parts locally for around $300 and my dad and I should be able to get them all bolted on. Then i'll see about getting it painted. Another option my dad and I spoke about was getting the color code for the car and getting the paint and painting the parts ourselves and then putting the car back together. We figure it out as we go.

The car has two other issues that i would like to take care of while I have it.
1. the temp gauge is not working, as soon as you start the car it goes all the way to hot and the light comes on. I have verified that the car is not over heating and both of the electric fans are working. (i also just drove it 500 miles)
2. the "add coolant" light sometimes comes on after you have been driving for a while. I have verified that the coolant is not low and the overflow seems to be working properly.

I have located both sensors, the temp gauge sensor is about $12 and the coolant level sensor is about $50 and neither look too difficult to replace. In researching, it seems the coolant level sensor can sometimes get dirty and need to be cleaned, so i may look into that.

If anyone has any tips on dealing with anything mentioned above, please chime in.

And now, Rule 6b presents, the Deer Slayer...

Not a bad lookin car...

I still like the Astro in the background better though.

Good luck with the repairs, Jim

the blue passenger or the white cargo?
that lumina is in pretty good shape considering i look forward to the progress, sadly i have absolutely zero experience in body work so i can't chime in

a question for you peeps with the electrical knowledge.

on the sensor for the temp gauge, how should the gauge read if the sensor is dissconnected? I'm thinking it should go al the way to the cool side?

And if I short the contacts in the pigtail it should go al the way to high, is that correct?

I'm thinking that before I pull the old sensor out (and spill coolant all over the place) i could get a new sensor and connect the pigtail to it, and it should show "cool" on the temp gauge when i start the car, and that should confirm weather or not i have a bad sensor. and if that does not correct the problem, i'll have to keep looking.

A coolant temp sensor is just a thermistor: a metal who's resistance changes with temperature.
There are two kinds:
Positive Temp Coefficient (PTC): Resistance increases with temp
Negative Temp Coefficient (NTC): Resistance drops when temp goes up.

Normally for automotive applications, NTCs are used. So, the hotter the coolant, the lower the resistance of the circuit, and thus higher voltage.

To answer your question:
If you were to unplug the thermistor, the resistance would jump to infinity and voltage would drop to zero. I would expect the gauge to be pegged at the bottom (cold side). If you were to short the contacts, resistance would be very low and voltage high. I would expect the gauge to read high (hot).

You were correct.

If you take another sensor and plug it into your harness, the gauge should read whatever the ambient air temperature is. You could also drop the sensor into boiling water and see if the gauge reads 100°C (212°F).

well, it looks like i have a wiring short somewhere. i pulled the connector off the sensor and the gauge still pegged at hot, and when i plugged in the new sensor, there was no change.

I guess i'll take it up to my mechanic this week and get it checked out.

My mech diagnosed a short in the harness, there are probably more than one, i'll have them pull the harness and fix them all at one time after the body work is done.

Also, i ordered the body parts today, hope to pick them up on Friday. And it look slike I found someone to barter with for the paint work so that will save me a few $$ to throw at the wiring problem.

body parts are in, gonna pick them up in the morning.

got the body parts home, should have started working on it today but i did not.

Does anyone know if you can remove the bumper cover without removing the entire bumper assembly? The Autozone guide only talkes about removing the whole assembly.

got started this morning. I was able to get the bumper cover off without too much hassle. Only had to remove both front wheels to do it. I also discovered that i'm going to have to replace the passenger headlight assembly, its cracked and the adjusters are bent.

I also discovered that I'm going to have to remove the hood to get the fender off, so i'm going to need another set of hands.

current pics ...

made some more progress today, my dad came over and we were able to get the hood and fender swapped out. Had to take the hood off to get the fender off. That fender has a LOT of bolts holding it in. Hope to get the bumper cover back on later this week.

Good progress. Looks like it rained. You need some more stuff in that garage.

i need more garage.....

some more progress...got the new headlight and got the bumper cover installed. It's starting to look like a car again. Now to put it back in the shop to have the wireing harness fixed and the oil leak repaired. Then its off to get paint.