Arrallen

Had winter wiper blades on my Reatta. Don't know the brand name but they hung up on the lip of the hood when they went to the park position and the rubber boot deteriorated and fell apart in the summer sun. Otherwise they did an excellent job with snow and slush.

I too have this problem after rebuilding. Doesn't anyone know the cure?

If your a diy fan the top is not that difficult to replace, I found it a lot easier than the top I put on my 65 Mustang. The hardest part was aligning the back skirt. If you do diy make sure you replace the back top-to-body weather strip, you'll find trying to rescue the old one near impossible. I bought it at www.hydroe.com for sixty some odd dollars I believe the top you are looking for comes from www.buickreattaparts.com I bought mine at www.Cabrioworld.com because mine is only a daily drive. I was happy with the quality, had a sealed in glass window.

Need help with an intermittant problem on my 90 reatta. On acceleration it hesitates, kinda chugs and bucks as if the motor were cutting out. Doesn't happen all the time, it will be fine, then two miles down the road it's back. Scarey as hell when I am trying to merge into fast moving traffic. No codes show up. Tune up two years ago, new plugs, plug wires, oxygen sensor, intake filter. If this were an old car I would swear it was a stuck choke. Any suggestion what's wrong would be appreciated. Tried search either get way to much useless info or nothing at all. Guess I need help on how to use that too.

In a good downpour the rail above the side window on my convertible collects water then dumps it inside the car when I accelerate. I am mystified where the water comes from and how it gets in the top rail. I have tried using a water hose to recreate the problem, but that doesn't work. I would replace the top if I knew that was the problem since it is the original and getting shabby around the edges, but then I wonder if some weather stripping isn't at fault. Anybody have any experience with this?

Wasn't ignoring you, problem was timing and logistics. Saw your e-mail to me on Tuesday at work but the article was at home so I couldn't fax it from work until today.

*&^%$## car wash broke off my passenger side rear view mirror. The guts are still good it is just the outer shell that I need. Anybody got a good shell-broken mechanism they want to sell, or even a good one?

Post deleted by Arrallen

I remember in the good old days you could hook a vacuum gauge to the intake manifold and see if your pulling a good vacuum at idle, it would tell you right on the gauge what vacuum you should be pulling. Does that still apply to todays cars? Is that still a good way of seeing if your system is leaking?

In Hemmings Classic Car magazine May 2005 issue there is an article titled "25 Future Classics, Which car of today should you collect?" There is a nice quarter page write up on the Reatta as a collectable and they say the convertible is the one to buy although the coupe may also become a collectable. The 1995-1999 Riviera, the 1983-1985 T-Type Riviera, the 1984-1987 Regal T-Type and the 1994-1996 Roadmaster are also suggested as possible collectables.

So I blow past a cop sitting in a parking lot with his radar pointing right at me. I'm doing 47 in a 30mph speed limit. Elk Grove Village police got to be one of the top ticket writers in the U.S. I come to three possible scenarios. 1. The cop was brushing donut crumbs off his uniform and didn't notice the radar gun reading. 2. He noticed my veterans plate and gave me a pass. 3. The Reatta is a stealth, OK before you laugh think about it. I read an article that the cops point the gun at the license plate because that is a nice flat reflective surface. Well the plate on my car slants toward the ground so it would bounce the signal toward the ground. In fact if you look at the front of the Reatta there is almost no flat vertical surface for the signal to bounce back to the gun. Does anyone one have factual data that shows the Reatta is hard to detect with radar?

You may get a clue from my own experience. Last summer the dash failed almost as soon as I used my car. In the fall the dashed failed almost every day at the same intersection about six miles from home on my way to work, and I wondered if it had something to do with the dash being in close proximity to the defrosters. Now that winter is here I do not have failures, but I only use my car to and from work, a 7.5 mile trip. Maybe if I used the car for a longer trip the problem would have shown up. I sent my dash to Mr. Pierce, the gentleman that advertises on Ebay, and he had a very fast turn around. Very pleasant man to work with although I don't know what he did. Don't care as long as it works.

I store the convertible and drive the coupe in winter. You can't beat a good set of tires and four wheel disks with ABS for stopping on snow and ice.

Where would I go to buy a wiring harness to adapt a JVC receiver to a 1990 Reatta? So far my Internet search has not been productive. I know I can hard wire it in by snipping off the Reatta connectors, but I prefer to be able to switch the original radio back in when I sell the car.

This is a common problem with the IPC and you can go to search the archive files and get more information. The mileage is kept in the BCM so it doesn't make a difference if you swap out the IPC, it will show the correct mileage. I'm assuming you have a 90 or 91 Reatta. The Riv uses the same IPC and are interchangeable. There is a fellow that rebuilds the IPC and usually can be found on Ebay. It would definitely be cheaper then going to Buick. I went through the same thing you did, cleaning every terminal I found with no luck. So far I have just lived with the problem.

The sensor must have been put in on a Monday. Sprayed it every night with penetrating oil for a week straight then forced it out using the breaker bar. There were hardly any threads left on the sensor. Used a thread chaser before I installed the new one. Interesting, my check engine light came on every morning until the penetrating oil burnt off.

I am trying to remove the O2 sensor on my 90 Reatta. According to the archives it's a two minute no sweat job. Mine seems to be frozen in. I am using the correct special socket removal tool with a 15" breaker bar and got it to move maybe a quarter turn. Anybody have a simular experience and found a solution? Blow torch or penetrating oil work?

I have the same problem, the occasional 00 display in my convt so I took the IPC out of my winter drive, installed it in the convt and at first it seemed to do the trick. And now even that one reads 00 so I have to wonder if there is another factor involved, the sending unit? I hate to spend a hundred bucks and not fix the problem especially since this car has had an electrical gremlin running around inside it since the day I bought it. I have thought of installing the IPC back into the stored car and see if it works but I would need to drive it around, that doesn't thrill me since it isn't insured. I did try the high priced Radio Shack contact cleaner-didn't help. This car drives me nuts, sometimes wonder why I put up with it, but then there is a sunny day and the top is down and I know why I love it in spite of its shortcomings.

My sincere apology for my post which you took umbrage to where I quoted P. T. Barnum. That said, you might want to check a past post by ****** titled "Ebay 20hp+ part warning." posted 6-28-03.

There is one on E-bay right now with an end date of June 21. Starting bid of $500 or a buy it now price of $650.00.

I could swear someone bought one of these or something like it on Ebay and all it turned out to be was a 69 cent resistor and didn't do jack. I'm sure it is somewhere in the data base but maybe not under that name. Wasn't it P. T. Barnum that said there is a sucker born every minute?

Started my car Thursday and the dash on my 90 Reatta read "Electrical problem" in the lower left and a couple zeros and the word "ERROR" in the center. Half way to work the dash came back on. Coming home the dash was out again. Friday the dash went on for a few seconds then went out again. I crossed a bad set of railroad tracks thinking that would jar the dash back on but no luck. I looked in the factory manual but couldn't find a reference to this problem. Today, Saturday, I went to see if I could find a loose connection or something and, of course, everything was working fine. Any suggestions?

I can't put it off any longer, I need to replace the top on my 90 convt. I'm a do-it-yourselfer and put a top on a 65 Mustang that came out OK. So what is the advise from the peanut gallery. Is replacing the top on my 90 a possible do-it-yourself or should I leave it to the professionals? Anyone have experience they would like to share? Is one top better then others out on the marketplace? I see a wide range of pricing and have to wonder if the extra bucks are worth it. Is canvas that much better then vinyl, it certainly is more expensive. It's a summer only daily drive and I am not looking for it to be a show car.

I need to replace the airconditioning condenser in my 90 Reatta. Anyone have a good, inexpensive source for the unit? My airconditioning guy said I should find out if there is a kit of the o-rings available since it looks like some of mine are leaking. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Super glue remover is made by Loctite under the Duro brand and I bought mine at the local Ace hardware store. Reading the label it looks like it will dissolve your dashboard too so be carefull.