RetroJohnny

Seems to be after 20 miles of drive time. It is Current and History while driving, at startup it is only history though. I will take a look at the harness leading to the cam sensor to see if that could be the issue Dave

Hey there everyone, long time since I've been on here! Hope everyone has gotten through 2020 okay. I have come today with a question on how to proceed... My 1989 Reatta has been doing AWESOME! Had some major work done to it and no issues as of writing this EXCEPT the dreaded E041 code. Now, the cam sensor has been replaced and the code went away for about 1 year. It just recently started coming back after a 300 mile trip. I am hesitant to replace the Cam Magnet because... The code does NOT come on when starting the car, It takes it about 15-20 miles before "SES Electrical Issue" pops up. I would be okay with it but, it comes up CONSTANTLY, It'll go away and come right back, so on and so forth. Then it will let off for about 30 minutes before bugging me again. The SES light doesn't just pop up once, I am talking it notifies me up to 10 times per minute with the constant message and the *chime*. What other avenues could I go down to see if this is coming from something else? I have heard its only the magnet if SES comes on at startup. Thank you in advance!

It's the E041 code. I believe the engine misfire I have had has deteriorated the Harmonic balancer, luckily I'm taking it to a shop today and settling every issue once and for all, LOL

Hello everyone! So I JUST got the CRT rebuilt and while driving today I heard this odd sound, once I got home i let the car idle and a popping and clicking sound along with normal engine sounds. Engine was idling at about 750, throttle response was fine. But the check engine light/code was coming on and off constantly! Speark plugs are new, ignition pack is new, spark plug wires are new. So is this a misfire or something else?

Thanks for reaching out, but I actually just bought one over at East Coast Reatta parts. I should have deleted this haha. Hopefully it goes on all good!

Hello, I am in need of a new driver side door trim bezel. The one on currently has a crack in it and I have tried and tried to glue it, but it has just made more of a mess. So I was curious if anyone had one laying around? I am just in need of the black with silver lining bezel around the door handle and that covers the tweeter speaker. Thank you!

Hey 2seater, there are other codes they are as follows. B482, B446, B447 and C553. I know two of them have to do with A/C components. And that you for the tip on the plug gap, I would have never thought of that. When tune-up time comes I will for sure close it up a little more. Could it be the ignition coil by any chance? I know the Magnavox coil is unreliable but it is only a year old, so hopefully not.

Hello everyone! So as few of you may know I made a post months ago about a possible transmission fault, hard shifts and what not. I finally brought the Reatta into a transmission shop fully prepared to shell out $1000 for a complete rebuild.. Aaaannd the mechanic test drove it for many miles, took me along too and said the transmission is actually in great shape for being 180k+ tranny, he could not find anything wrong with the transmission during diagnostic (it had too much fluid in it though, probualy my wrong doing) and he saw no reason for a rebuild, sigh of relief! BUT, I was dumbfounded when he said that "slip" I was feeling was not the transmission, it was the engine having a misfire. I thought it was the transmission all along slipping hard, silly me, but it is so random and out of nowhere. It is the worst in between 30MPH and 55MPH, and will "hiccup" two or three times in a row, but trans is in lock -up during said hiccups so it really can't be the trans. But I need someone's help on where to go next? The sparkplugs are about a year old, new ICM, new ignition coils. The only thing left ignition wise are sparkplug wires.. Could my issue be that simple.. new wires? FYI.. Everytime that engine misfires the CRT lights up in the "Service Engine Soon" warning.. every time! I check the codes and the only one that sticks out ignition wise is E041, cam magnet right? I hear that part is a booger to replace, I have the part I just don't think I'm up for that big of a job. So if anyone out there has some direction for me I would greatly appreciate it, Thank you!!!

Thanks everyone for the thoughts. I'm going to watch this more closely and see if there is something burining off a part of the hot engine.. And yes for real, two transmission shop gave me the insane explanation that the "refuse to do transmission filter changes on cars with over 150,000 miles in fear they would lock the transmission up with new fluid. Because the old fluid adds to lubrication" So what, just let it leak forever? Haha.. I think I may do that job myself now, thanks for the reassurance that it'll all be okay if it gets changed.

Hello everyone. Ever since my last oil change about 1,500 miles ago, I have noticed when starting the Reatta I can see white/grey smoke coming from engine bay licking out from the passenger side of the hood. I have since opened the hood and watched and inspected the smoke. For about five minutes after start-up smoke comes from down in the engine bay behind the enigne on the passenger side only. My first thought was that maybe there is a small oil leak since I had switched to synthetic and it has eroded bad seals and leaking oil onto the exhaust manifold. But I am at a loss, The oil level is right on point and no noticeable oil leaks. I do know for a fact I have a bad bottom-end transmission pan gasket. I see occasional drips right below the transmission. I would dread to do that job and most tranny. shops around here refuse to do it in fear that a new gasket/filter + new fluid would lock the transmission up... So my main concern right now is that smoke, I would love to find the root cause but I can't. It is in such a broad area. Some details on the smoke itself, whiteish to greyish. chemical/tar smelling. stops smoking soon after startup. Temp guage reads a constant 188-201 F so I don't think it could be a head gasket issue (I sure hope not😅) . And for exhaust smoke.. Everything seems fine, on a cold start the usual emissions come out for a couple of minutes then the engine warms up and it dissipates. So I am very curious/worried on what this could be. Any thoughts? Thanks.. -John B.

https://www.carsforsale.com/vehicle/details/37924 I found another one too! How odd

Check out this link, the bottom of the doors have some sort of design on them? Thoughts? https://www.autolist.com/buick-reatta#vin=1G4EC11C7KB901705

Okay, Thank you Dave! That was what I was thinking, and hoping for!

Hello everyone. I am revisiting my CRT issue after a couple of months. I am king of procrastination. I have just finished fixing up my daily driver, and now the spotlight is back on the Reatta. The CRT is very indecisive on when it wants to work. It will be perfectly fine for 20 to 30 minutes, then all of a sudden it'll start lightly flickering then BAM, full on static. Sometimes that static even stops and the screen goes completely black. But here is the catch, the screen still responds to touch even if it has gone dark. Then after a couple minutes of darkness, you can hear a high pitched tone and all of a sudeen it flickers back on into perfect picture. SO I am torn, is it the CRT unit itself that has an issue OR is it the CRT Controller (I really don't know much of anything about the CRT Controller) ? And it's not too dire of an issue to deal with, because I have memorized where most buttons are for Volume/ A/C, etc. But I am trying to make this Reatta roadtrip worthy, and this would need to be on the to-do list. I would love some trained Reatta pros input on this! ?

Hey guys so you know that saying... if it's not one thing, it's another! Welp thats where I am at. I was leaving a parking lot earlier today and all of a sudden the CRT just started jittering and then suddenly went static. Occasionally it will pop back into place, but for all of tonight it has mostly been static. Really weird right. No problems with it before, it just all of a sudden happened. So I know it's not going to get better so I know there is a guy that deals with these things, anyone know some contact info? Or what I could do, I heard these things are a pretty penny to buy "Newly Refurbished" so I would prefer to just get mine fixed! There is a picture I took tonight to show example below. Thanks for everyone on here.