I just acquired a 1997 Park Avenue Ultra with 170,000 miles on it. It'* got several little problems, but I wanted to ask about this one first.

When you first turn on the ignition, the panel gauges go through a check and all the warning lights come on. My problem seems to be that this will also happen occasionally while driving. Is this controlled by the computer, is it a wiring problem in the dash or at the computer?

I have checked for water/corrosion problems in the floorboard similar to the issues we have had on our bonnevilles, but everything seems dry.

Other problems I have yet to address:
inoperable sunroof
replace oil pressure sender
replace */C coupler
driver seat electric controls don't work (looks to be a bear to remove)
oil leak around front valve cover gasket
fuel level sender (guage is erratic)

My FSM from Helm is on the way!

Start here:

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...e=article&k=93

And let us know how that works.


On the other issues, I'd be checking fuses for the seat/sunroof issue.

I suspected that one thing I would have to do is to pull all that apart and check the connectors. Of course one of my least favorite things to do is to pull apart the dashboard.

When I'm in there there are several things that need to be done; a couple of backlights in the radio are out and I need to check out why the vent controls don't direct out the dash (just defrost) (I've read all about the vacuum problems in the bonnevilles). The display on the climate control is a bit flaky too. Sometimes its good and bright, other times you can hardly read it. I'm hoping for a connection problem here too.

I've checked the fuses for the sunroof and seat and those are ok, still need to make sure power is actually getting to the right spots though.

Your FSM'* will help alot with those two issues. The relay locations may be very different on your car than ours.

Does your radio or any other device flicker at the same time the dash resets? The reason I ask is I had a very similiar issue for a while that eventually got worse (which made it easier to track down), and found out there was a bad cell in my batery that would flop around as the car drove. Do you have another battery you could swap in for a while to test?

I hadn't thought about a bad battery primarily because the radio display wasn't doing anything funny at the same time, but I'll keep it in mind.