Mr. Anderson

Barney, The link I found and posted above tells a few things. The vin, according to the link, is 1G4EC33L5MB900497.

I found some more info on this car. It looks nice. Hope this helps anyone potentially looking at this. http://www.mautofied.com/auto-classifieds_1991-Buick-REATTA_Luxury-and-Exotic-Cars/listing/100609735/

Here's an update. I took an ohmmeter to the wires and did the wiggle test and saw no difference or strangeness in the wiring. I decided to try my luck at replacing the ECM. I took a chance and bought one from Autozone and installed it. After installation, the car runs fantastic, and the misfire went away at the first start-up. So far, everything is normal with the ECM, and hopefully this has solved my problem. Thanks for all of your help and information with this!

The injector in question was just installed yesterday, and it is the second one I tried on the car. Also, this problem is only on injector #3, not any of the other ones. I took a noid light to the plug again. This time, I tried it when the injector wasn't clicking, and I found that the light did not light up all of the time. After a little bit the light would flash for a little, but then it would stop flashing again. I could take a look at the harness and see if the connection is bad, but could this possibly be ECM related as the ECM sends the ground signal to the injectors?

The same problem came back when I started the car this morning. It always seems to stop after about ten minutes of driving though. Is this a possible ECM issue now? Edit: just retested the injector. It appears to turn off and on as pleases. Edit #2: just forced the injector to ground when it was missing. Got it to click, and after I did this a few times it killed the engine (probably because my timing wasn't right). Now it has worked right for the past few start-ups.

Ok, so I hooked up the harness to a noid light and the light indicated everything was working fine. I then hooked everything back up and took it for a lengthy drive. After about ten minutes, the missing quit, and everything ran smoothly for the rest of the drive. Upon returning, I took a listen to the injectors and found that all of them were clicking, even the one that was giving me trouble before. Hopefully my problems have solved themselves for now.

That makes sense. I will see if I can get a noid light for testing and report back when I have all of my information. Thanks for all the help and info so far everybody!

That's what I was wondering too. Ok, so on injector #3, there are two wires; a black/pink wire, and a brown wire. According to the FSM, the brown wire has power, and it does on my car. I am not sure how to check the other wire. I am assuming this one is a ground. But, like you said, it could be a bad ECM, so I need to make sure the wiring is good before I start messing with computers.

That's good to know. But, how can I test to see how far back the problem is in the wires? Also, I should mention that I am getting no codes from this.

I have an interesting misfire condition occurring. The miss is on injector 3, and the injector was not opening and closing. I took a stethoscope and was able to hear all of the injectors clicking except for #3. I replaced and reattached everything and the injector still isn't clicking. I tried a different injector but got the same results. I suspect a possible wiring issue. Does anyone have any idea what I can test or check next? :confused:

Thanks Jon, I will definitely give this a try!

I am referencing the torque strut. (I believe I have that right) I will tighten it and see what happens. Also, sorry for any confusion I might cause, as I am still learning about this car. Thanks for all of the help!

Ah I understand now! Thank you for clearing that up for me. I performed the test as you said, and I could hear the solenoid clicking properly. One thing I did notice was that the front mount on top of the engine was not tight, as in I was able to move it a little by hand. I am guessing that it is supposed to be tight? Could bad engine mounts give a shudder, or is this strictly transmission related?

I have gone and looked at that, but when I get to the EO01 output on the ECM output page, the TCC shows as cycling between HI and LO even without me pressing 'override'. :confused: While it is "cycling" without my activation, I cannot hear anything coming from the transmission. Also, wouldn't something like this throw a code 26 QDM fault? Just curious, because the TCC solenoid is mentioned on ROJ as a test for the error code.

First of all, I really appreciate everybody's help and knowledge with trying to understand my transmission issues. Now for an update... Update: The trans. has quit slipping out of gear at stops. However, there is a shudder present every time I am in 4th gear with the TCC locked. Does anybody know what the cause of this is? Is this a fixable problem by me, or do I need a trans. shop input? Thanks again for all of your help with this!

Thank you. I will be watching and listening carefully for anything out of the ordinary.

Update: I did some reading online, and found that sometimes the 440t4 transmissions should be filled about a quart over the fill line. Naturally, I was skeptical, but figured "what the heck, I'll give it a shot." After very cautiously adding fluid and checking everything, I took the Reatta for a test drive. To my pleasant surprise, everything worked as it should, with no slipping or shuddering, even through winding mountain roads. I am cautiously optimistic about this, and I will test drive again later tonight.

I understand. But, until I decide to take it to the shop, I'm going to check everything that could possibly be wrong with the vacuum system and lines, etc. Speaking of vacuum, how many pounds of vacuum is there supposed to be in each gear selection? I tested the line at the modulator and at the manifold, and every gear came back with 15 or less pounds of vacuum.

2seater: I just did a filter and fluid change with seafoam on this car within the last month. Before I did that, the problems were only intermittent, so I figured that they could be solved with new fluid and filter. There was nothing in the pan and the fluid was bright red with no odor. Vincent Vega: I agree with you on the rebuild over the replace. So, judging from what everybody is saying, my transmission is basically fried?

Everything appears original under the hood. I know of the two lines that run next to the transmission up to the manifold, are there any more vacuum lines that I could check? This pic of the two lines I mentioned are from my 90 lesabre, where the modulator and lines are easier to see.

OK, so I have been trying to figure out what is up with my transmission for quite some time now, and it has just been getting progressively worse. Recently, I discovered an unplugged vacuum line that runs parallel to the vacuum modulator line. I hooked it up, and all was well for about a day or two. Then the same problems returned (neutral feel at stops). Last week, the trans. has started to shudder when reaching 3rd and 4th. Honestly, it feels like the engine is missing. No codes, but from looking at the ECM diagnostics, it appears that the TCC is not engaging all the time. Just today, the trans. made a whirring sound when I was in reverse. I put some of the Lucas transmission stuff in it, and it acted a little smoother, but still would slip at stops and shudder at 3rd and 4th. I am at a complete loss on what I should check next. All of the mechanics that I know say that a transmission rebuild/replacement is in my future. This is uncharted territory for me. Does anyone know of anything that can help at this point, or should I start saving up some money for the inevitable?

Sounds like you need to replace your crank sensor. I had the exact same symptoms with my LeSabre a few weeks ago. Also, it wouldn't hurt to check your plug wires, ignition coil, and ICM to see if you get spark on crank, and also to check for green goo around the ICM. Here are some websites that I used to pinpoint my problem. Part 1 -GM 3.8L Ignition Module Test and Crank Sensor Test (3X, 18X) Part 1 -How to Test the 3.8L GM Crank Sensor With a Multimeter Good luck, I hope this helps.

Sorry about the late reply, it finally quit raining for a day over here. I have checked the fluid level, and found it to be where it was at the time of the fluid change. I did the above tests with no change in the fluid level. I also tested all of the gear selections to see if it would go into drive/reverse, and it would always engage except for the first shift after I started the car ([Park] to [D]). Shifting to park and then back to the gear selection would fix this problem. Is there anything else that I could test?

The plastic cover will come off very easily. There are 6 areas that hold the cover onto the top of the manifold. Hope this helps.

Update: Changed filter and flushed transmission two weeks ago. Added new fluid and transtune. However, today my reatta's transmission was acting really funny. It seems like it slips out of first gear (every time I come to a stop or slow down to very low speeds). The big deal was this evening while driving down my driveway, the transmission never really went into "drive." The only gear that would move the car was reverse, and all of the others (except park and neutral) acted as if the car was in neutral. I shut off the car and restarted it a few times until it finally went into gear. Still, no codes are present. I have "grounded" the car until I have time to work on it. I'm kind of freaking out, as the transmission has never acted this bad. :eek: Does anybody have any recommendations on what to do next?