+1 to both comments.
In addition to those two factual statements, there is also the reality I mentioned earlier, namely that no manufacturer is legally required to supply parts for more than 10 years, so it would be very interesting to hear the OP’s legal argument in support of his theoretical lawsuit against GM.
If the OP was able to get an attorney to take this case, it would be dismissed by the court before it could be brought to trial.
Maybe the engine in the Cadillac Catera was similar, but good luck finding them, too.
I wonder if this exact part was ever available separately. Not every part is.
And I think the OP’s ‘sue GM’ comment was not literal…
The world of 3d printing might have a solution for you.
Not for a spring. 3-D printing can’t print heat treated steel yet.
the intake is a dual runner. long/short passages and the flapper doors open/close depending on rpm and throttle position. they say the vacuum will lift the inner manifold off the plenum base and cause a vacuum leak. the tsb is to re-torque the plenum bolts and change the spring assy that affects the sealing of the plenum. i have had the intake off 3 different vues and have never opened it to look inside. took several yrs for it to even register that it was a dual runner intake. vue 3.0 is cast on left. 3.0 sedan is multi-piece on right
I agree with you; that “guy” is tougher to find. I’m a Mike Rowe follower as well and it seems like you could make a boatload if you know how to do stuff because there just aren’t many that can nowadays.
I would add that another aspect of finding the “guy” has to do with knowing people. It seems as if participation in civic, church, or social organizations is lower than it used to be. People seem to be more mobile in where they live and work. It’s just tougher to get to know people to see what they can do outside of the role you initially find them. There, that’s my rant!
Thanks for the description, very informative. Based on that, it might be very tough to mimic the spring tension required by some other means. Not impossible but tough. Take a lot of experimenting and less likely to be worth the effort over buying a used assembly to harvest the springs…
thank you for that. I had the same questions as TwinTurbo. Good info 
Just my Saturday afternoon musing but in Russia and China, the government decides what to produce, but here companies decide what to produce in order to be profitable. You take the good with the bad. Yeah that’s why sometimes I over-buy with spares because things change and become unavailable. I usually end up throwing away the brand new parts when they become obsolete. Like the gross of 100 watt light bulbs that are now obsolete with new LEDs. Recently they raised a big storm by changing the soap formula to soap that doesn’t lather anymore. I wish I would have bought a gross of bars of soap instead. Comes a point though when it’s just time to trade cars or pay the couple hundred for what you can get, and live with driving a car not made anymore. Now if it were a Yugo or something . . .
It’s interesting that back in the 1950s, many engines dated back to the 1930s and parts were available for old cars. However, the body style changed every two or three years. Some people complained about this planned obsolescence. Now, the body styles (at least to my eyes) don’t seem to change drastically, but a lot of engine and drivetrain components change. The VW Beetle kept the same style, but had continuous updates. Back in the 1950s, a 15 year old car was considered old. Now, cars last longer. However, it isn’t profitable to keep producing parts. A popular make has the advantage that there is a demand for parts for older vehicles and some companies will continue to make parts. When I was ready to buy my first car back in 1962, which by financial necessity had to be a used car, a mechanic friend recommended I buy a used Ford or Chevy because parts were more available than for less popular makes. I think his advice today would be to stick with the Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic.
Just as an aside, that hasn’t been true for either country for a long time. China is taking on an interesting hybrid of capitalism and communism, while Russia is straight-on capitalism as far as the consumer space goes.
After all, I doubt any government except perhaps a banana republic somewhere would decide to make a $1-million-dollar SUV with whale-foreskin leather seats, but Russian maker Dartz did it for awhile until they bowed to pressure from Greenpeace (another thing a communist Russian regime wouldn’t do).
Yup! I can still get parts for my '91 Honda CRX and my '93 Toyota MR2 fairly easily. The MR2 shared a lot of parts with the Celica, and the CRX shared most of its running parts with the Civic, so I anticipate parts will be available for a good while. I still see a number of Civics from that generation running around.
Must have been about 1954 or 55, we had out 54 Ford and I was with my mother downtown. I noticed a car with Florida plates and it must have been a 48 or 49 Nash or something. At any rate I commented how a car that old would be able to make it all the way from Florida to Minnesota. I don’t remember what she said but alluded to a lot of people drive cars older than that quite a bit. I was only 6 or 7 then.
I don’t know much about Saturns but I can tell you this, no car maker is required to keep replacement parts available for more than 10 years, so good luck suing.
Buy a code reader and you won’t have to sweat that check engine light. Pull the codes weekly, monthly, or yearly, whatever floats your boat, to make sure you don’t have any new codes.
As long as that light doesn’t flash, just keep calm and drive on.
I’m one of those “that guy” types,but without part in hand I can’t come up with anything.
During an improv a few years ago my oldest son said “You really like this sxxx don’t you”.
I don’t know that like is the proper word; more like necessity is the mother of invention.
Yeah, but I’m sure helping people makes you feel needed, and I think guys like us enjoy creating something tangible we can take pride in.
(…not that I’m “that guy who can fabricate things,” I just enjoy getting to see the results of my work.)
That’s not always true.
Oh gee, buttons pushed. PBS as a news source? Next it’ll be the WP or LA Times. Farm policy not the same as manufacturing decision making. The only point was that here we have private companies making the decisions on what to produce based on profitability, not on any government decision-making. Of course within the framework of needing to provide parts for 10 years. Nit pik nit pik nit pik.
Are you kidding me? PBS is by far a better news source then most…Infinitely better then Fox Entertainment.
And the point I was showing was that the Govt does have a say in parts of our products. And during WWII - they had a LOT to say. Even during the Vietnam war they repositioned companies for the war effort. It’s not nit pik at all…It’s someone making a broad statement that just isn’t true and then being called out on it.
I challenge you to find a news source less biased than the PBS NewsHour.
If you’d like to debate NPR’s political coverage, we might agree, but I have seen no signs of bias in PBS NewsHour, and I’m betting you haven’t watched it for yourself long enough to either.
It’s unfortunate that you were triggered by such a minor thing.
