Jim

Odd coincidence. The bad security fairy must be flying around bugging our cars. I have never seen this problem before and will be looking into it today. I picked up an '89 and am getting it ready to give to my son. I programmed the remote and it worked fine except if I opened the passenger door after using the remote it would set off the alarm. You are supposed to be able to hit either the door unlock button or turn the key in the door but neither of these shuts off the alarm. The engine also will not start. The only way to shut it off is to remove the battery cable. The alarm also goes off if I unlock the door with the remote and then without opening the drivers door I hit the lock button on the remote again and then the alarm goes off. Again the only way to stop it is to remove the battery cable. I did change the keyless receiver in the car and the alarm problems are still there. I am going to look further at it today and will report what I find. I may just give him the car without a remote though. VERY strange that we both on the same day are having a weird problem I have never seen before.

I know this is overly simplistic but about 10 years ago my Reatta ran very poorly when it went into closed loop. I tried all sort of things. Looked at the plugs and they looked fine. I know the fellow at the GM dealership garage and we tested lot of different things. We both felt the plugs were OK. I went home and a couple of days later on a whim I put in all new spark plugs and that solved the problem. At the time I was doing a damaged Corsica and some of the plugs were broken in the accident so I put my used Reatta plugs in that car and it ran fine. I discovered when the car went into closed loop, the computer took over and the plugs couldn't fire correctly in the leaner condition. The Corsica computer was not as sophisticated.

The factory OEM code is 71R76. I used PPG OMNI and that paint code is 8586A

A follow up to Vincent Vega's good comments. 1 There are two things that go bad on the headlights. Inside the motor gear case are some nylon rollers and these disintegrate sometimes and the other part is the bellcrank which gets worn out. The bellcrank, or actuator, is located on the shaft coming out of the motor gear box and is a piece of diecast metal about 2 inches long by 1 inch wide. Open the hood and manually turn the knob on the end of the motor about ten turns then lift the headlight assembly manually and see if the linkage/bellcrank is loose on the shaft coming out of the motor. If it is loose most likely the bellcrank is bad. You should not be able to raise and lower the assembly more than about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. If the assembly does move more than that most likely the bellcrank is bad. The bellcrank should be tight and not rotate at all on the shaft. When it wears, it starts out as a rectangle hole and then turns to a butterfly shape and then you have a round hole. You will be able to see right away if the hole is not a rectangular shape when you remove it from the output of the motor. The other part to go bad is the rollers inside the motor gear box. If the linkage is fairly tight and the motor keeps running the rollers are bad. Another way to check if the rollers are bad is if you can manually turn the motor with the knob but the bellcrank does not turn. Do this with the headlight assembly either up, down or while holding the headlight assembly and trying to stop it from opening or closing. The bellcranks are still available from GM for about $ 90 but Barney Eaton barney@texas.net sells the replacement steel bellcrank (with instructions) for $40 including shipping. He also has a KIT that has the bellcrank, three rollers for inside the motor, and a plastic nut for the UP-STOP. The KIT is $45 including shipping. Barney's phone number is 512 869 5114 Get one kit for each side. 2 I am 99% sure it is your headlight switch module. I have a good working and appearing switch available. 3 Follow Vincent's suggestion. When the yellow light is on it only means the ABS feature is not working. 4 Because the lock cylinder is diecast and the tumblers and other parts are steel corrosion sets in and if you cannot get the key to go in you will probably have to replace the lock cylinder. Try some penetrating oil. I think I have a good lock assembly but will have to check. I do have some good struts to hold up the lid. 5 Probably the servo just above the transmission. I have these. 6 Replace the muffler but have your old dual pipes welded to the replacement muffler so it will look correct. I can be reached for parts at jfinn@cpinternet.com

I am not sure what other radios will work but I have a good radio for your '89 and can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com

The visors on Rivieras are different from Reattas. They look the same but the mounting is actually different. None of them interchange with the convertibles as the convertibles had a vinyl covered visor and all the Reatta coupes and Riverias had cloth visors.

I have given up on that one. I do have some here in Duluth and will pull them out this spring but will not ship one because you need a special box and even then they are so fragile they can get easily broken. Because they are so big they have to go by truck and trucking companies do not pay claims very well. I did ship one to Seattle once but I boxed it up and took it to the Amtrak station in Minneapolis, turned it over to the guy working there who personally put it on the train and sent it to Seattle where the fellow who wanted the glass was working for Amtrak and personally took it off the train.

I don't know the name of the yard only the location. The guy behind the counter gave me a name of someone to pull it and I called them and they said no. In the adjoining yard, part of this upullit, was a fellow pulling a windshield for a glass company. I asked him if he would come over and do it but, surprise surprise he couldn't speak much english but did say he couldn't go over there. I called the number on the side of his van and the folks said they couldn't/wouldn't do it at the upullit. As I was leaving I told the guy running the place that he had a valuable windshield and he couldn't have cared less. I am sure he will not save it but crush the car in a month or so. As I was leaving I noticed a glass company two doors down so I stopped in and asked if they would pull it. NO. I asked how much if they would and they said $ 40 to $ 80. I told them I would double that amount and they said NO.

The problem with cutting out a windshield in cold weather is that only way to remove one is to use a wire and pull/saw it through the rubber sealant/gasket. The factory urethane is very stiff when it is cold and very hard to pull the wire through this material when cold. It cuts much easier when warm.

Dave is correct. I live 450 miles away. I have some good windshields now but will not ship one and also because of the cold weather do not want to pull one of mine right not. Dave, I bought that black '89 in Lake Mills.

There is a U-Pull-It type junk yard at the intersection of Washington and US 41 in Gurnee/Waukegan just north of Chicago. There is a Reatta in this yard with a good windshild. They want $ 50 for it. I tried three different glass installers to have it pulled out but no one wanted to do it in the cold weather. The grey/grey '89 has been picked over but the headliner is good and the hood is good. The rear bumper looked good and the front bumper looks nice but does have a slight twist in the RH side. I think this could be straightened out. The ABS, CRTC, wheels and many other parts are also still there. The locks are on the wheels. It has 16Way seats but someone tore the back rest trying to get the air bag.

I have had a lot of experience with the Teves system and I hate to say it but you have a dangerous situation and the only solution is to replace the whole system on the firewall. The problems with the Teves is if the fluid is not changed about every three years moisture will corrode the valves in the valve body of the unit. I have experienced this same condition on my wifes car and replaced the whole unit. Because of this same corrosion many folks have reported in emergency stops like yours, they will have a hard pedal and no brakes. I bought a car in NJ a few years ago because the owner had this problem and totaled his car. My wifes also jerked to the left. This is extremely dangerous because if you have to stop fast you will swerve into oncoming traffic. I have sold lots of ABS's and one of the tests I do and recommend to everyone is to go out on the road with no one around and at about 20 MPH hit the brakes hard and make sure the car stops straight ahead and not pull to one side or the other. Since yours pulls for only a second and then is OK it might be a caliper or ?????????? but I would be very careful. All of the ones I have had experience with continued to pull or have no brakes in the panic stop situation. That having been said, just last night I came home with another parts car and the ABS is already been spoken for. I do not have any others available at this time.

I have a good ECM and can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com The ECM is located below the glove box. You remove the black panel underneath the dash on the passenger side and you will see a silver box mounted vertically next to the heater programmer.

It is absolutely necessary to change the fluid on the '88-90 Reattas. Brake fluid naturally attracts moisture and this moisture will corrode the valve body in the Teves ABS. This is like changing your transmission fluid every once in a while except MUCH more important. You will not notice a problem until you need to make a panic stop and you might have no brakes and a hard pedal. This is a result of corrosion in the valve body. Change your fluid about every three years. 1. It is HIGHLY recommended that all the fluid in the whole system be changed with new fluid to eliminate any built up moisture in the system. 2. Any time the brake hydraulic system is to be opened the brake pedal should be pumped 25 times with the key off to bleed off the 2600 pounds of pressure in the accumulator. 3. Siphon out as much of the old fluid as possible from the reservoir and refill with clean fluid to the top. Another good way is to cut the rubber hose that comes from the reservoir right where it attaches to the ABS pump and let all the fluid in the reservoir run out. Then remove the piece of hose still attached to the pump and reinstall the rubber hose. It is long enough to do this. I like to cut it rather than try and remove it because the hose sticks really hard to the plastic fitting and you might break the fitting trying to take the hose off. Doing it this way you get all the fluid out of the reservoir before putting in new clean fluid. 4. When doing the rear wheels only let out about a half of a cup and then refill the reservoir. This is to make sure you don't take out too much and get air into the system. 5. To bleed the front brakes have the key off and bleed in a conventional method. Have someone pump the pedal a few times and hold it down while the other person opens the front bleeders. 6. To bleed the rear brakes A. Turn on the key and allow the system to pressurize B. Have an assistant slightly depress the pedal and hold it. C. Open each rear bleeder, one at a time, and hold open until clear fluid comes out. (The pump and motor will do the bleeding) When you are done there are high and low marks on the reservoir and after the system pump and motor has run and the lights are out the level should be at the low mark. When you have pumped the brakes with the key off 25 times the level will be at the high mark.

The answer is yes with some qualifications. These statements only refer to the regular seats and not the 16 way. They have their own set of peculiarities. You can put a passenger seat on the drivers side but the handle for tilting the back portion will then be between the console and the seat. There is enough room there to still operate the handle. The seat bottom frames are the same but the back rest frames are different. On one side you have a stamped steel hinge and the other side of the seat has a tubular post with one bolt through it for the hinge mechanism. The leather covers are also different and have different part numbers. You cannot put passenger side covers on drives side frames.

On the Reattas with the touch screen you can verify the mileage by reading out the vin from the CRT and compare it to the vin near the windshield. Since the mileage is stored in a chip in the BCM and that chip also stores the vin if the vin in the BCM matches the one by the windshield the mileage is correct. You cannot do this on the '90-91s as the vin will not read out where the odometer normally is. The following is a proceedure for clearing codes but if you say yes to diagnosing the BCM and then keep saying no to the questions until you get to the last question which refers to display vin? Say yes to this and then compare. Clear codes on '88-89 Reattas-------- BCM means Body Computer Module and controls the functions of the body. ECM means Engine Computer Module and controls the functions of the engine. IPC means Instrument Panel Cluster. With the key on, engine running or not, go the climate screen on the CRT and press and hold the off and warm buttons at the same time. The service engine soon lamp will light and the ECM codes will be listed followed by the BCM codes and then the IPC codes. They go by quite fast so you may want to write them down. Any code with a "h" after it will be a code that was current, but is not now, and is listed a "history" code. Any code that does not have an "h" is a current code. ECM codes will start with a "e" and then 3 digits, BCM with a "b" etc. After the codes are listed the screen will say ECM? This means do you want to diagnose the ECM. If there were "e" codes push "yes" if not, push "no" and the screen will go to the BCM? If there are ECM codes after pushing "yes" it will ask several questions. Keep pushing "no" until the question "ECM code reset" comes up and then push "yes". You can go from the ECM to the BCM and then to the IPC and clear any codes. You can't hurt anything by doing this procedure and even if you make a mistake simply push "end" or shut off the key and everything will go back to normal.

I have replaced several cam sensor magnets with the JB method and it worked every time. One of the times I had to do it was also my fault. The magnets are held to the timing gear in a four pronged plastic holder. The magnets deteriorate and so does the plastic holder. I wound the engine up going through the gears one time and the high rpm threw the magnet off. I never rev up high mileage 3800s any more. '47 Frazer, 82 Trans Am------- I have several Reatta parts cars but also own 4 Henry Js, a '63 LeMans convertible and a '65 GTO convertible.

I too have tried on a couple of occasions to figure out which fusible link is which with no good results. I cannot help on the service manual procedures but do know it is normal to hear the click coming from the headlight control module when you reconnect the battery and like you observed there will be a decreasing current drain for about a minute.

Barney, Yours is much better looking than mine but I would be willing to race. I bought my coupe at the BCA meet in Batavia a couple of years ago and it has a '66 Buick V8 with an automatic.

"She put a prayer card over the light and left it to God to keep an eye on her oil pressure." I like your story even better. Jim

Before I send out any parts I test them to make sure they are in good working condition and if possible I repair any defects. The '88-89 IPCs have 7 12V bulbs and the '90-91s have 8 12V bulbs that are soldered in. I recently had a good working '90 IPC but some of the small bulbs weren't working so I disassembled the IPC to solder in new bulbs. When I took off the lens I got a good laugh. The previous owner, instead of repairing his engine, simply squirted some black silicone over the service A/C, service engine soon and electrical problem bulbs so they would not be lit up.

Bob, I did get your test message and replied. I have experienced this problem before, mostly with AOL customers. I don't believe you or I are doing anything wrong. It's just all ISPs sometimes have glitches in there systems at times. Once when I was having troubles sending to all AOL people, I talked to them and to my cpinternet folks and both said nothing was wrong with there equipment. The next day on two occasions, it miraculously was working again. When I worked for the phone company the standard reply to another central office that we were having trouble with was "the trouble is leaving here just fine"

I have the clips. Send me an email at jfinn@cpinternet.com Jim

The two most common parts to go bad on the '88-89 Reattas are the CRT and the headlight switch module. I am 99.9% sure your problems are the headlight switch. Over the years I have bought at least 30 of them from Reattas and Rivieras in junk yards and out of those 30 maybe 3 were good. The headlight switch is the one part I do not recommend buying on Ebay unless the seller absolutely guarantees it to function as it should. I have a good one and can be reached at jfinn@cpinternet.com

Someone probably put it there. There was one special Reatta made in '90 called a Select 60. There were 65 of these made and they were all white convertibles with white tops, white '91 style wheels and what makes them most distinctive is they had a two tone red and white interior.