Rawja

Great pic, Ronnie. I'm stealing it for facebook. May 21 End of the World: Harold Camping's $72M business - May. 19, 2011

On the '89 parts car I referenced earlier, looking at Ronnie's second photo the horizontal end of spring/wire had popped out from behind the tab that maintains it in tension.

Take a look at the spring, hard to describe, but looking at it it'll be obvious if it needs to be re-seated. Came across this on my '89 parts car, put the spring back where it belonged and all was well, a thirty second fix if that's it.

Try the hoses first, if that doesn't fix it you might have a problem at the master valve block. There's a procedure to test the resistance of the valve block solenoids to determine if they're ok.

Unfortunately under my present circumstances it'd require dropping a zero off your asking price, but at least I can give the thread a bump to the top.

I want this car sooo bad I can taste it.

You can try: Comprehensive Chevrolet, Saturn, GMC, Hummer, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Geo, Dodge, Plymouth, Jeep, Chrysler, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda Truck, Mercedes VIN Decoder though it's information on Reattas isn't 100%

Invest in a new accumulator.

Smartass. Now that you provided the link, I do vaguely remember looking at it at one point.

Just as a point of clarification for later searchers who come across this thread, the CPS for '88-89 models is up under the dash, mounted vertically approximately above the brake pedal, accessed by removing the black plastic dash under-tray.

If you can have the car off the road for a bit, you can have the prom reprogrammed by Sinister Performance, while they're at it you can get Padgett's recommended mods that make the car run cooler. I did it and am very, very happy with it and it cost less than 60 bucks two years ago.

Snaketiles, You don't need to be particularly mechanically-inclined to fix most problems at the master. Start a thread describing your brake problems and the braintrust here should be able to give you a remote diagnosis. Also report your results after taking the Reatta Brakes Tests.

I'm pretty sure I did an indicated 124MPH in my old '89 at some point. Didn't feel like a limiter was kicking in. Prolly was going a smidge faster as I was running 225/60R15s on 'er.

Is that a fact? Please elaborate.

I've tried most everything (though not Zaino). My absolute favorite is Leather Rejuvenator by Griot's Garage. Amazing stuff and the leather smell it imparts lasts and lasts. Massage in with your hands and leave the car out in the sun, re-massaging in periodically as the leather drinks it up, particularly in the stressed areas.

Yeah the brake interlock solenoid or maybe a problem with the ignition key linkages in the column. Does everything electrical operate as it should during these episodes?

Just as a point of clarification, are you able to move the selector to drive and it doesn't work or is it that the selector won't move?

Umm... is this the condition you got the car in, did this all start happening at once, or is this a case of accumulated deferred repair? Your trunk lid not staying up is an indication you need new lift supports, relatively inexpensive and easy to swap out. You should be able to independently dim the screen by going to the brightness setting screen. You're lucky to be in Orlando, one of our most technically-proficient members resides in the area. Others will be along shortly to offer more adept assistance, welcome to the forum.

They're asking for five grand for it in a separate ad... Amazing Sports Car- Buick Reatta

Thanks. Didn't realize I was feeling a tubular brace rather than a pipe or sumphin'. Well, she's runnin' good now, I'll prioritize getting the Delco ICM and adapter plate.

My '88 has been very "miss-ey" lately. Having a '88 parts car right next to it in the garage, this morning I decided to swap-out the coil pack. Totally fixed the problem. Now the ICM in the '88 has the green goop run-off while the parts car's ICM had a nice even coat of the goop. Looked at swapping the ICM as well but I'm unclear as to how it attaches the the mounting plate. I've also got (somewhere) the coils to go with the Series One setup, so I could probably just pick up an ICM and go that way, though again I'm not clear on the attachment to the mount. Looked at Padgett's site via ReattaOwner and still not sure I understand. There feels like 3 bolts (11mm maybe?) underneath, though one feels semi-obstructed by a metal line running beneath it??? Also is the runny goop'd ICM a symptom of bad coils? It doesn't seem to be an indication that the ICM has a problem as my goopey ICM is now running the car smoothly and without missing with the swapped coils.

Failing fuel pump? (WAG)

I've broken the timing chain on on an '89 3800, that engine was non-interferance, don't know that it would differ on other years. ....and there are two 3800s '88-90 (pre-series one) and Series One which ran from '91-95. I can say the series one was prone to head gasket failure which was remedied during the run, still was a common problem in '93, (two separate failures on '93s in my history) not sure precisely when the revised gasket debuted. In any case in my experience the pre- and Series One are very good, reliable and long-lived powerplants.

I did merge the two threads and give 'em a more descriptive title. I also suspect that many of us read everything anyway. Ignoring for the moment the latest flare up of hostility, threads sometimes meander off the originally intended topic just they do in a "normal" conversation. I really doubt anyone would be happy with strict policing of topic purity.

I'm pretty sure the biggest difference is that the 3800 added power and the balance shaft which eliminated the lumpiness at idle that is characteristic of 90 degree V6's. More here: Buick V6 engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia