tyesac
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My sons' daily driver is a 2005 Park Ave, it has the portholes (three/side), The car has been in the family since new, and those are not after market add on parts since the fenders have holes stamped in them to fit the trim parts. The Lucerne came after the Park Avenue/Le Sabre was dropped.
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Pretty sure it wasn't "somebody pass the marshmellows & the s'mores" Tom Casey
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Convert 2 barrel 72' Skylark to 4 barrel carburetor??
tyesac replied to Goat612's topic in Buick - General
I was an original owner of a 72 skylark with the 350-2bbl. What Jon said about that carb is right on, they're like a 70's version of the Eveready Bunny. Don't flog the car and it just keeps going and going.... When mine reached 75K miles I also overhauled the carb. I remember the float setting was a fussy procedure, but not too bad. BTW, is the float still good? At the same time I did mine, I also replaced all the vacuum lines. That carb is dependent on vacuum pull-offs for smooth operation, so, if the lines are bad, or the pull-off itself is bad, then the engine will not run right at all. The anti-deiseling solenoid is also a critical adjustment too as I recall. Also, I remember some strange performance when the PVC tubing went bad (soft). Under some conditions, if will flatten out, and choke off the PVC flow. Usually it won't hold low idle in drive when that happens. I'd suggest more detective work before you spend yer bucks on a new carb set-up. Tom Casey -
More Illinois rust stories. Before I had my driver's license in the early/mid '60's, I was riding my bike down 99th st in Evergreen Park (Chicago SW 'burb) and I remember watching a mid 50's Ford skid to a stop and bump some other car. HUGE outline of rusted metal appeared beneath the Ford, even though there didn't seem to be much external damage. Later in the mid 80's I noticed my 1980 Skylark Ltd coupe had what appeared to be too much surface rust around the driver's side door hinge and windshield pillar, plus some minor rust in other places. Took it to a body shop to have the car fixed and painted (mine ran real nice & kept it for 13 years from new) The body shop guy spent a load of time referencing estimation books and replacement parts lists, filled out three sheets for the estimate. When he finnished, he tore of the estimate from his pad with a flourish, handed it to me in one sweeping motion and smirked as he said........ RUST IS EXPENSIVE!
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Any thoughts on GM's Waggoner being the WH sacrificial lamb?
tyesac replied to Reatta Man's topic in Buick - General
A few things stand out to me: I'm amazed at how flippantly some of these bobble-heads (reporters & politicians) talk about backrupcy for the automakers in the same terms as it happens to work for airlines. They're ignoring the stark differences in relationships to thier customers each has. One for a few hours at most, the other for many years. And then there's the effect on current & future bond holders that would see thier money wiped out by goverment decree. Second, I'm amazed at the proportion of aid requested by automakers compared to that tossed freely at AIG, with an inversely related amount of care and concern. What's AIG gotten so far $180 billion, GM & Chrysler around $20-30 billion? Not only has AIG seemlingly had few strings attached to the money, we've learned the esteemed Sen Dodd & Mr Giethner had connections to the bonus payouts. Seems completely unbalanced in comparision to the amount of tax revenue generated by the US auto industry when it's in it normal state of health compared to now. Third, I'd like to know how many of these goverment experts have owned a GM or Chrysler branded car in the last five or ten years? Based upon the tired, 30 year old comments they're making, I'd guess few have any clue about the clear parity in quality that has been showing up in JD Power surveys over the last several years. Tom Casey (recently traded in a (original owner) '91 LeSabre for a '02 leSabre, and still has a '99 Park Ave going strong) -
Just wondering.... What's the hold up in offering a hybrid drive train into anyone of Buick's current three models?
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OK, this isn't about one of those beautiful real old cars like many of you own or have restored. I've had my 2002 Lesabre Ltd about a year now and it's a great car, loaded with most all the goodies. One thing that become very noticeable though, is that the myriad of interior dash lights are burning out and I'd like to repair them. Previously the dealer would solve the problem by replacing the particular that went dark. Problem is now though that a lot of them seem to be going dark about the same time. when I got it, the two of the steering wheel radio,temp switches were redone, and one on the climate control panel. Now 1/3 of the tach is dark, one of the heated seat switches, many of the radio lights are out, the head light switches, and the remainder of the climate control switches are now dark. I don't feel that this cars is having electrical issues as it runs great. It's strictly the lights that are dead, as these options still function the way they ought to, It's just that I'd like to see what I'm pushing/reaching for at night! My question is it possible to dismantle various dash panels and replace bulbs only? I know that I could simply take it in to the dealer and have these redone, but, the number of these lights reaching the end of the line would become very expensive fast. I've already managed to replace the HVAC fan recently when it died in Nov, so, I'm willing to take a crack at it.
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From 1948 lincoln: Wow! Thats not bad! anyone else have any experience with these? I had a 1991 LeSabre custom, bought it new, and just traded it in last year. They do deliver great gas mileage assuming that you keep it in tune, maintain the wheel alignment, tires etc, all the normal things you ought to do anyway. I had several long summer drives in mine, and 32 - 34 MPG on a tank on the highway is fairly common. That is at a steady 70 MPH. This is one car that really likes to eat up the miles! That, plus the nice ride and plenty of room made it a nice car to own for all of those 16 years. Locally, in suburban Chicago rush hour driving, 20mpg and up was normal, When it dropped below that, I knew it was time for a tune-up! Considering that mine had to suffer Winter time salt attacks, it held up very well. The 89's and 90's LeSabres were tops in initial quality on the JD power list if I recall, and the '91 is essentially unchanged from the prior years. I don't know if any other domestic cars has ever had a repeat on the top of that list ever since. Considering it's many nice attributes, I really can't understand why GM & Buick never made any noise about it in any advertising. The imports certainly would have!
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I remember seeing various Buicks in our dealer's showroom that had dealer installed hood ornaments around these years. Typically these would be the simple tri-shield in the circle ornament on a simple chrome base. The situation seems to have continued. Yesterday, I saw a late model LeSabre (2000 - 2006 body style) that had a hood ornament. I had to be either a dealer installed add-on, or, a Buick fan that went about the process on thier own, something I've considered doing to my 2002 LeSabre Ltd. Seems to me that certian luxury brands recognize that a hood ornament can remain a stylish tradition.
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The apparant size, style & shape of the base, tri shields & ring look exactly like the somewhat standard hood ornaments that were used about '85 and last used on the '91 LeSabres. This is also much like the one used on '88 - '91 Regal Ltd's and some Century's. The normal factory option was a chrome finish, but there were dealer add on "gold packages" that some people bought. Tom C
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Hope you enjoy your "new" ride. About a month ago I bought a 2002 LeSabre Ltd. Mine has more miles at 86K, but at least it's loaded with options. You'd never know by riding in this car that it has so many miles, the ride is quite and solid. The oil life monitor just prompted me to change the oil, so, in goes what's probably it's first "taste" of Mobil 1. I'll never understand why some people think that the drain plug must be holding the entire car together! Talk about over torque!
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Thanks for all of your input. As it turns out, I did buy a 2002 LeSabre Ltd, Maroon exterior, lt Grey leather interior. It's highly optioned out, so, it's been a big upgrade from my previous 1991 LeSabre custom. As for the windows, I'll deal with that if that happens. Since this car has auto climate control, I expect that the windows will spend most of their time closed. That being the case, I hope that I'll stay under the number of operating cycles that wear out the mechanism. It was never a deal breaker, but, I was surprised at how consistantly this appeared to be the one complaint. Seems odd that the engineering staff doesn't follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix (improve) it" design philosophy. BTW the driver information center shows an average fuel MPG number of 22.8MPG. Not bad for one with the 3.05 drive ratio and GT suspension. I typically have the Driver Info set to display the instantaneous MPG rating, and I'm surprised at how quick I can see readings in the 30 - 40 MPG rate shortly after leaving a red light and getting to a typical 45 MPH speed at around 1500 RPM As for the "tape drive" window lift system, my 1980 Skylark Ltd coupe had them, and I became fairly adept at fixing them in short order. In fact, I still have about 3'- 4' of replacement tape stashed away here. That Skylark though, is gone, and like my recent '91 LeSabre, both proved to be great "ambassadors" for the brand, each done in more by rust after 13 - 15 years of daily driving than by any mechanical fault. That Skylark once ran a stretch of over 2&1/2 years of being driven every day with only routine maintanence. Compared to co-workers, they were having more repairs done on thier imports than I was, and that for one of the so-called troublesome X cars. Tom C
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After 15 decent one years with my 1991 LeSabre, I'm in the market for a more recent version. I've been researching various used/one owner 2000 - 2002 LeSabres for sale in my area, and have a few candidates in mind. Here's the "rub" so to speak. I noticed on one of those owner review web sites that these LeSabres seem to have a common complaint (of the few that complain) relating to the power window mechanisms. Is this a legit concern, or am I seeing the rants of a few disgruntled owners, i.e. the "I'll never buy another American made/Buick/GM etc, etc..." types? Tom C
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More good news: Buick 3rd in '06 JD Power long-term quality
tyesac replied to Reatta Man's topic in Buick - General
With Buick & Caddy doing comparatively very well in these rankings, I'm constantly amazed at why thier PR & ad agencies have never made mention of this. Mind blowing, really. How hard would it be to produce a print ad in some critical newspapers (Wall St Journal, NY Times, Chi trib, LA Times etc) with some wording like Buick (or Cadillac) ranked higher than Mercedes, Infinity, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Accura etc.... If I'm not mistaking, hasn't this relative ranking been the state of affairs for several years now? I remember when we bought our 1999 Park Ave, Buick was tied for first with Jaguar. If the day ever comes that Hyundai or Kia ever got into the top five, they'd probably sponsor the whole Super Bowl half-time show! -
They were called "lamp monitors" in the option list back then. I believe they were offered for the big Buicks only (Riv, Electra, LeSabre, Estate Wagon, Wildcat/Centurion) Unlike Chrysler products of the era, the GM version monitored the status of the front lamps. There were three lenses lit in each. There was an amber one for the parking lamps that flashed when the turn signals were on, a green indicator for normal headlighs and a blue lense for hi-beams. It was possible to have all lit simultaneously. Tom C