TxBuicks
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Posts posted by TxBuicks
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Doug, thanks for the warning. I did check and, being in Texas its entire life, it is a very solid, rust-free car. No problems like those pictures you posted.
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Thanks rick60. That is definitely good information. I knew it had something to do with the air bags because it said 'Air Bag' on it, but I didn't realize it was that complicated. I disconnected the battery (took off the ground cable) before I started removing the carpet. I knew I would be unplugging other connectors and I wanted to leave the doors open for a while to let it dry out in there. There is no danger with the battery disconnected, is there?
I will be ordering a shop manual before I get too much further along. I always feel like I'm guessing too much without a shop manual to show me what to do.
Roy
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Here is a diagram that may help.
Throttle Position Sensor Replacement • 1996 Buick Century.pdf
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There shouldn't be too many mechanical things to fix if you were able to drive it 900 miles after you picked it up. That's really impressive. I like the fins, although if they are causing rust issues, I recommend removing them as quickly as possible so that the rust doesn't get too far along and cause other major issues with the original body.
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John, I had the same thoughts but haven't checked the heater core yet, but I suspect it might be the case. If you notice in the picture with the drivers door open, you will see some wires and stuff hanging down from under the passenger dash, where the heater core is. That tells me someone has been under there investigating something. All I know at this time is the wires are from the ECU box which has been taken down and just stuck under the dash behind the glove box. I don't know why.
I am aware of the HVAC drainage issue, too. I had a 1991 Roadmaster Estate Wagon that suddenly had a puddle of water in the rear passenger floor. I thought it was very strange to have water in the rear floor. It took a while before I realized what was happening with the drain. I will look at that, too.
Thanks for the input.
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This was under the carpet. The amount of corrosion indicates the carpet has been wet for a long time. It looks important so I better try to clean it up.
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Here are a few pictures. Does anyone know what the official color of the carpet is called? More later as I progress.
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Well, I purchased another Buick I thought needed rescuing. This one is a 1995 LeSabre. An older lady contacted Pete Phillips (she lived nearby and knew Pete had an interest in cars) and asked if he wanted to buy it from her. Pete, knowing my obsession with rescuing Buicks, contacted me and told me what he knew about it. It has 251,000 miles on it, the 3800 engine runs very poorly, the drivers side window has been stuck down for a while (protected by a plastic bag simply pulled down over the top of the door), the headliner is completely gone, and the dark blue paint has turned to surface rust on most of the horizontal surfaces. Sounds great, right?
The lady told Pete she only wanted $300 for it because that's what a salvage yard would give her. Pete gave her my phone number and she called me. After talking to her I felt obligated to at least go see it. She was practically begging someone to buy it. She had had it for 5 years and was still sentimental, I guess. So I drove the 1.5 hours to look at it, having no intention to buy it, but just to get her off my back. Everything Pete said was true. But what he didn't say was that it had been parked under a tree since October and was absolutely filthy from the leaves, tree sap, etc. I noticed the exhaust hung very low, almost dragging the muffler. Also, I discovered the entire carpet was damp. I initially thought it was due to the drivers window being down, but it seemed to be the most wet in the passenger back seat area. And the owner smoked, so you can imagine the smell from the cigarettes and dampness. And we had to jump start it because the battery wouldn't start it on its own. Not going too good so far.
When we finally got it started, the engine had a definite bad miss, causing 3800 engine to rock. It was a rhythmic rock though, indicating some of the cylinders were not firing. The lady told me she had been driving it like that for a few months, getting up to a top speed of 30 MPH. Now, anyone familiar with these engines knows that they have 3 coils, with each coil responsible for 2 cylinders. I started pulling plug wires from the coil and discovered that one coil was not producing any spark, which was causing two of the 6 cylinders to not fire. The diagnostic characteristic in me took over and I told the lady I thought a coil was bad. When she asked how much that would cost to replace, I told her probably under $50. In fact, if she could wait, I'll go buy one and replace it for her. I don't know what made me say that, but the next thing I know I'm headed to the local auto parts store and purchasing a coil for $38. Within a few minutes I had it replaced (think goodness they are easy to replace). A miracle happened. The car ran great. Nice and smooth and quite, like a 3800 engine should. I cannot described the smile and excitement on her face. I could tell she was happy to see it running good again.
At that point I told her if she wanted to keep the car, that I would throw in the part for free and just head back home. She thought about it for a while and said, honestly, she just needed the money. Then she told me a story about her son being involved in a recent wreck and went on and on about all the problems he has had since then. My heart went out to her, and I told her I would consider buying it. After a test drive of about 2 miles, I committed to buying it. What was I thinking? I guess I just felt sad for her and just wanted to help her out. So, I drove back to town and found an ATM. Of course, I couldn't drive two cars at once. So I told her I would have to come back next weekend to get it. On the 1.5 hour drive home, I kept thinking of ways to tell my wife what I had done. However, once she heard the story, she understood why I did it. It's just something I do, and she can put up with another Buick in the driveway for a while.
The next weekend I headed back with my wife, loaded with jumper cables, a gas can, an air tank, a gallon of anti-freeze, and all the tools I thought I might need. We had to jump it off again, and when we did it this time the engine raced too what seemed like 6,000 RPM and wouldn't come down. We finally turn it off, jumped it again, and it ran fine after that. That was odd. At that time I noticed the inspection sticker was out and kind of made a comment about it. She said she could get it inspected in about 15 minutes. You see, she knows someone. I thought if I could get it inspected now, why not? So I followed her back to town to a private mechanic and he greeted her warmly. Apparently he was familiar with the car, and put an inspection sticker on it without doing anything except charge me $14.50 (the standard inspection cost) for it. Then I followed her home. I thought if she could drive it to town and back, why can't I drive it another 80 miles back to my house? After a brief stop at her house, I emptied the gas can in the car and headed home with my wife behind me.
The only surprise driving it back (other than the actual fact that it made it the 80 miles back home), was that it would sputter badly on acceleration. Once I got it up to speed (75 MPH at one time) it ran fine. I thought it is probably dirty fuel injectors. I was happy to get it home, and happy to help out a lady in need. Now what.
I thought the first thing that needed my attention was the drivers window. It was stuck down. Within a few minutes, I diagnosed the problem was in the master switch, located in the arm rest. I disassembled it, found a wiring diagram online, and jumpered the switch. The window went up and down like it should. OK, $25 for a new switch ought to fix that. That was a relief So far so good.
The battery seems like it is holding a charge, so the thought of buying a new battery went away for now. More good news.
The next thing was to clean it. I started with wiping down the door panels and dash. Those cleaned up petty good. But the carpet was a different story. I initially thought I could just dry it and clean it. Uhh, no. The more I examined it, the worse it got. Not only was the carpet wet all over, but the mat was, too. I started by vacuuming it out. You wouldn't believe all of the trash I pulled out from under the seats. Cigarette boxes, cigarette butts, lottery tickets, candy wrappers, plastic shopping bags, leaves and more leaves. All of which were damp from the carpet being wet. Can you say 'Yuck!'. It wasn't long before I stopped vacuuming and decided to just get this carpet out of here.
It was a pretty easy task to remove the front seats. Except for the smell of a dirty swamp, only a few bolts holds the seats to the floor. Once I got the seats out, another 15 minutes was needed to just rip everything out that attaches to the floor. By the looks of things buried under the carpet, it has been wet for a very long time.
That's where I am right now. I am fully committed to get this car cleaned up and running well enough to pass on to another person in need of transportation. I'm not intending to make a profit, just finding a good home for it.
Anyone have any suggestions on where to buy carpet for it? I think I can use the padded insulation again once it dries out, but I would like a molded, one piece carpet that I could just put down with little cutting required.
The pictures I have are too big to post now, but I will get them smaller and post them here soon.
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Congratulations, Eric. It thrills me to see you get it back on the road again. A successful Buick Rescue, indeed!
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Mine didn't have the Check Engine light on, and never had a code, either. I just read in the repair guide what the symptoms were and everything pointed to the TPS first.
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I had the same problem with my 1991. As Leosdad said, the throttle position sensor was the issue. They are not that expensive and easy to change out.
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It has not been decided yet if a car can get more than one award. But, IF it is decided that one car can win more than one award, we can just have multiple cards on it. I think having variations of colors for all of the combinations would be too confusing.
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We will be changing the windshield cards up a bit this year, just as Thriller suggested. We started last year when the Driven class was placed among the 400 point cars. Instead of the Driven class cards merely saying 'Drivers', they said 'A - Drivers', or 'K - Drivers' to indicate what 400 point class they were to park in. This year the Archival cards will say something similar. Like 'B - Archival', or 'K - Archival'. Also, we will probably change the colors up, too, making them very different than the 400 point class, which is white. We will try to make it as easy as possible to determine what class a car is in, not only by the wording on the card, but also by the different colors, too.
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"Also, the new standard for the Saturday awards ceremony has been set at about 2 hours. Multiple awards on 1 car would jeopardize that swift event."
I don't think given out multiple awards would lengthen the awards banquet that much. Currently, the Driven class awards are given out on the show field. At the banquet, the 400 point awards are handed out first, then the Archival awards. The same format would still be used. It's just that maybe a few more awards would be handed out due to the same cars perhaps receiving more than one award.
Speaking of the awards banquet, I do not like the awards presentation starting before we have time to finish eating. I know they do this to shorten the length of the banquet, but I would rather have the banquet last 30 minutes longer. First of all, no one pays attention to the speakers while they are eating. This is rude and disrespectful to the speaker. Secondly, the first speakers do not get a chance to eat with the others. By the time they are finished speaking, their meal is cold and the others have finished. Thirdly, I like to have a chance to have a conversation with the people I'm sitting with, and all conversation stops when the awards ceremony begins. Eat first, relax, then present the awards.
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I think this policy can be reviewed as well. The main reason for not allowing a car into more than one class had to do mainly with parking. The Driven cars and the Archival cars were parked in different parts of the parking lot, separate from the 400 point cars. All of the judging took place at the same time, so it could not be in two different judging classes because a car could not be in two places at one time. However, now with the change in parking policy, the car does not have to move to be judged 400 point, Driven, or Archival. It can stay put, and the judges will come to it. We could indicate on the windshield cards what classes they are to be judged in. Of course, this is my opinion, and the judges may have a different view on this. But I think it can be done with a bit more effort.
At the 2010 Iowa National Meet, the Driven class was judged on Friday, which allowed a car to be judged in the 400 point or Archival on Saturday, and there wasn't any problems with that. The registrant paid for both classes in Iowa.
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Currently, you can enter your car for only one judging category. You must pick either 400 point, Driven, Archival, or Modified. Or course, you can choose not to have your car judged with Display only.
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I sent you a Private Message.
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Mark Polastry advertises in the Bugle every month. He specializes in 1964-1967 Skylark parts. His information is 512-303-0833, 290 Woodway Dr., Elgin, TX 78621. No email address is listed. I am sure he will have used ones. Good luck.
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Socks are big, but still too small for a full-sized Buick.
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Dale, I know what you mean. My wife is the same way. But it just wouldn't be the same without all of the hard work. Most of the tree ornaments are authentic Hallmark, and we have collected hundreds of them over the years. My favorite one, though, is a simple ball ornament that my wife gave me in 1979, our first Christmas together. I always hang that one front and center. Merry Christmas to all.
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Sounds like it is mis-firing on one or more cylinders. Check the firing order and make sure the wires are going to the right plugs. Another thing to do is pull the plug wires one at a time to see if it makes a difference. If not, you know that cylinder is not contributing anything. You can go from there to diagnose the cause of the problem.
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Personally, I would stay with the original color and top. To me, when I look at buying a classic car, I think there is more value in keeping it the way it was originally made. Again, my personal opinion, but I am disappointed when I discover someone changed major items on a car that I'm looking to buy. A 1967 Riviera is a beautiful car, no matter what color it is. Keep it the way it was made and all of the numbers and codes will still match, which is important to a lot of potential buyers.
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You're lucky she didn't poke a hole in your back seat with those shoes!
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2015 National Meet - Springfield, MO -June 10-13, 2015
in Buick - Meets & Tours
Posted
There will be indoor vendors inside, as well as outdoor vendors in the back of the hotel in the parking lot.