chipcross

I loved my red 1990 Reatta! I bought it in 2008 with 62,000 miles. It went to car heaven last month with 175,000 (rear ended by texting driver at 40 mph!). Thankfully, my seat back broke with the impact and I was "gently" laid backwards with no injury. What did I do on my Reatta? Everything you can think of and read about on this VALUABLE forum - and then some. Here is a list. If you plan to keep your car in tippy top shape, expect these kinds of repairs (listed in no particular order): Coil (first repair that this forum helped with!) Instrument panel (two of them over the course of time) Brake Accumulator Change AC system to 134 Headlight arms Headlight motor Headlight switch (ouch) Freeze plugs Harmonic balancer Oil level sensor Mass Airflow sensor Cam position sensor Idle arm control valve Intake Manifold gasket (twice) All engine and transmission mounts Expensive paint job with pin-striping Normal wear and tear maintenance: water pump, struts, etc. Door lock actuators New Steering Column Did I mention that I loved to drive this car? If you love it, plan to replace these items and you won't be dismayed when they break. I want to especially thank Ronnie and Barney for their advice and devotion to keeping this American classic on the road, as well as my local parts supplier here in Southern California, known by the handle "Steve Skyhawk, who was always willing to give an opinion!!!

I loved my 1990 Reatta! Bought it in 2008 with 62,000 miles; it went to car heaven last month with 175,000 (rear ended by texting driver at 40 mph!). Thankfully, my seat back broke with the impact and I was "gently" laid backwards with no injury. See photos: notice the broken seat and the radio and climate control and rear view mirror that all detached from the force of the impact! Also, see the broken golf club that is sticking out of the trunk! 😕 What did I do on my Reatta? Everything you can think of and read about on this VALUABLE forum - and then some. Here is a list. If you plan to keep your car in tippy top shape, expect these kinds of repairs (listed in no particular order): Coil (first repair that this forum helped with!) Instrument panel (two of them over the course of time) Brake Accumulator Change AC system to 134 Headlight arms Headlight motor Headlight switch (ouch) Freeze plugs Harmonic balancer Oil level sensor Mass Airflow sensor Cam position sensor Idle arm control valve Intake Manifold gasket (twice) All engine and transmission mounts Expensive paint job with pin-striping Normal wear and tear maintenance: water pump, struts, etc. Door lock actuators New Steering Column Did I mention that I loved to drive this car? If you love it, you will take care of it! Plan to replace these items and you won't be dismayed when they break. I want to especially thank Ronnie and Barney for their advice and devotion to keeping this American classic on the road, as well as my local parts supplier here in Southern California, known by the handle "Steve Skyhawk," who was always willing to give an opinion!!!

Yes! This source has been invaluable for me! I go to it first to see how to fix most problems. Thank you for your service to the Reatta community!

I have always appreciated the help and advice that I read on this forum. I have checked out the Facebook site and have noticed that it is often people sharing one another's ignorance. I have seen, however, an occasional referral to this forum posted on Facebook. Quality will prevail! Keep up the good work!

Since we are on the topic of air flow from the vents, I thought I would ask the forum a similar question. When I start my '90, the air flows out of the heater and defroster vents only. Then, about ten minutes later, the cabin vents open up and flow normally. Anyone had a similar situation? (Summer is coming and I would like to point my mechanic in the right direction!)

"Old age and wisdom will always defeat youth and zeal!" Still, I do wish my Reatta was faster... I did put on a cold air intake and succeeded in burning rubber off the line. However, (here's that old age and wisdom thing again...) I decided that healthy motor mounts were more valuable than squealing tires! But it is sad that my wife's Toyota Sienna can always shut me down! At least she would rather drive my Reatta because it LOOKS fast!

I, too, am experiencing this exact same thing, so I am very interested, Don, on how your repairs will work. Since I am not a mechanic, my 90 Reatta is now in the shop. My mechanic has found a cracked cam sensor magnet and the wires to the sensor are worn. He will also replace the IAC, since the car is nearly 100K and dirty. We'll see if these repairs fix the problem. (I already replaced the plugs, wires and installed the Delco coil).

"The electronics in the radio are tuned to make the best of it [the long AM wave length]" Is this why after market radios have such lousy AM reception? I always have gotten great AM reception from my original equipment radios, but have never been able to pull in faint signals using after market ones (i.e., Pioneer, Clarion, Alpine, etc.) Since I need an ipod input, I have to put up with a lot of static and pops from my AM (unless I am listening to one of those skydiving 50,000 watt blowtorches!)

I asked C.J. regarding the "smog nazis" and the new air intake system. His response: Regarding smog. You might be able to get away with the intake. It will pass the sniffer with better results, because its pulling more air, and that will result in a better burn in the combustion chamber. The problem is the visual inspection. Because you have changed your air box to the intake it must have a CARB# to be a true street legal intake system. In all the years I've been doing this most smog guys don't care as long as the sensor is installed, which it is. I don't think your going to have problems. Besides its really easy to put the old intake back in place. Let me know if you have any more questions. Thanks, C.J. I must say that my Reatta has always passed smog with flying colors. One smog technician remarked that my car was tested cleaner than a hybrid! So, if I run into a hard nosed government stooge, I'll just put the old air box on for the test!

Answers to questions, comments: First, I really respect the wisdom of the senior members here. They really know their stuff and their answers in previous posts have been a great benefit to all! Thank you! So, using the search function (not as functional as google search though ), I read that many had performance success with cone filters (i.e., K&N). Viking is right that the placement of mine is not optimal - it does get engine compartment hot air. C.J. told me the same, and offered (for more money, of course!) to route the air from the outside. (see his work at R P M - R A C I N G - P E R F O R M A N C E - M O T O R S P O R T). I opted for this setup as many of those on the forum had done it before with adequate results. I am happy with mine. Padgett, it has been raining here in Orange County, CA for the last few days, so I haven't had an opportunity to run a 0-60. And I can't compare it with "before" because I never did the test in the past. Maybe I was too embarrassed to do it, cuz by wife's Camry was quicker off the line! However, I must give you, Padgett credit for why I went ahead and spent the money! In one of your posts in November, 2004 you wrote, "I suspect the biggest improvement would be opening up the very restrictive air filter and intake path." I think you were right! I also read (but don't remember who posted it) of someone who decided to test various modifications to see which were most effective in 0-60 and quarter mile. Simple ones like, Delco Coil, 8 mm plug wires, K&N filter, and higher octane. His results were that the stock had the best times overall, but that was because with the coil and K&N additions he was spinning his tires for the first 10-15 feet! There is an example of statistics saying one thing, but experience showing another. Personally, I would love to know that I could spin the tires if I wanted too! LOL! Finally, Tax Man, I don't know the answer to that. I recall some posts saying that they did it, though. Try searching on K&N, or better, cone.

As you can see in the photo, it is nestled down where the old narrow intake was. Admittedly, it is not getting pure cold air from there because it can also breathe from the engine compartment. That is why I didn't say it was a cold air intake. But it still works great!

After researching the forum, I decided to try to increase engine performance by adding a new air intake system. I read that some had noticeable improvement in performance while others said it didn't make much difference. I went to a place near me in Huntington Beach (RPM - Racing Performance Motorsport) and the owner, C.J., fixed me up with an HKS filter and tubing. He removed the air filter box and cold air intake tubing (commenting on how narrow its diameter was - "Like breathing through a straw," he said). And, yes, I am keeping those parts for a time when my Reatta may be returned to "stock" by some future owner... I must say, there IS a noticeable improvement in performance! Much more responsive; much faster acceleration. No, I'm not spinning my tires (haven't really been tempted to try), but it sounds and feels great! It feels like the difference between having an allergy attack and breathing normally. For my money, I heartily recommend the change!

While changing my oil a couple of weeks ago, I noticed the infamous gooey stuff dripped on various hoses underneath the coil pack. Went on this forum and looked up "gooey" and found the problem (yes, even using non-technical terms can result in the right answer here!) Looked up how to change the ICM and coil pack on Ronnie's site and I just saved myself several hundred dollars in repairs! Thank you! I know it may get tedious to have to answer the same types of questions, but I just want to encourage the experts here that you ARE appreciated. Finally, I just received the following post script at the end of an email from a fellow pastor. I might start using it on all my emails, as it is so true! DISCLAIMER: "Without the benefit of paralinguistic cues such as gesture, emphasis, and intonation, it can be difficult to convey emotion and tone over electronic mail (e-mail). Five experiments suggest that this limitation is often underappreciated, such that people tend to believe that they can communicate over e-mail more effectively than they actually can. Studies 4 and 5 further suggest that this overconfidence is born of egocentrism, the inherent difficulty of detaching oneself from one’s own perspective when evaluating the perspective of someone else. Because e-mail communicators “hear” a statement differently depending on whether they intend to be, say, sarcastic or funny, it can be difficult to appreciate that their electronic audience may not." (Kruger, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2005, Vol. 89, No. 6, 925–936) You have been duly warned, and my e-mail has been delivered to your inbox. Good luck.

Ol Yeller - I winced when you included our beloved Reatta in the same post mentioning Gremlins and Pacers. May as well go all the way and include Pintos! :-) I think Barney is right. Reatta's may not be popular with the younger crowd, and they may never command the price of a GTO or '64 Nova (why did I ever sell that car?) But they will be collectible for that era ('85 to '95). What other cars from those years (or even from '80 to '00) will be collector's items? Another problem with cars of that era is that they all look like one another! Reattas ARE beautiful, stylish, and well made.

Thanks, Drake. No, I have other celebrations to attend. Beach and fireworks. Currently, I am helping to restore a 64 Corvette owned by an elderly man in our church. He hasn't been able to drive it for almost ten years, as he is retired and can't afford the new motor, brakes and paint job. So, we decided to bless him (a la Extreme Home Makeover) with a restored 'vette. I painted the engine compartment yesterday and we're putting the engine in tomorrow. I'll post a picture of it (before and after) when we're done in a couple of months. By the way, I was at our local auto paint store (Senick, in Costa Mesa, CA) and was asking about interior paint colors. He recommended a product called SEM and said (without me even mentioning what Greg Ross had told me about it) that in addition to it being great for interior parts, all you had to do was spray it into a rag and rub it on the carpet and it restores the carpet color! How about that!