jimustanguitar

most performance chips just make your injectors dump more gas down the intake so that the gasoline that is not able to burn because the mixture is too rich cools the engine on the intake side, and if you remember from physics class, the temperature difference between the intake and exhause of the engine is how you can determine its efficiency in an ideal world. so basically by doing this kind of mod, you lose gas mileage and gain a little torque. you can get about the same gains from using a water injector kit, which you can make yourself, or you can inject rubbing alcohol instead of water because it cools better and is combustible.

I looked around a little bit, and discount tire's website says that an 18x7.5 wheel will fit if its offset is 38mm and I use 225/45-18 tires. Would a 225/45 rub, I don't think so. What most people don't understand about wheels and tires, is that tire sizing is the same no-matter what size of wheel you use, after you know tire size you want to use, you just need to pay attention to the width of the wheel and its offset. I think I have this figured out, but you can still respond with comments or advice. Thanks.

are there any good suspension upgrades available for the reatta? i have a 90. Do the spindles or anyhting else interchange with the riviera or the regal? let me know if you have any info on suspension interchange/availability of possible upgrades, or just neat ideas. thanks.

i am wondering what the largest tire size anyone has ever put in a reatta is. i'm going to put 17 or 18 inch wheels on the car, but want to fill the fenders as much as i can without having to drop the suspension, i'm not a fan of that kind of mod, especially since the car has such a nice suspension from the factory. but anyway... back to my question, what is the largest tire size that i can fit in my 90 without rubbing the frame with the wheel all the way turned? and just to confirm what i thought... the bolt pattern is 5-115 correct? also, if you have custom wheels let me know the size of the rims and the offset too, so i know what will actually fit. is there a guide online that will tell me such things? thanks.

i have a 90 reatta... don't worry about looking at the wiring diagrams, i can check it with a test light very easily, i just didn't want to in the rain that i had the other day, i just figured that if there was a simple fix that i was not aware of, i could make that happen. does anybody have any other advice on the dashboard problem?... what i'm going to do about the dome light is find out whether the dome light has 12v or ground all the time, and whatever is switched, i will run a relay to from both the door trigger and the light switch using diodes to keep them from interfering. it's pretty simple to do, i just wasn't sure if the car sensed that i wasn't drawing any current to the light because i didn'[t have a bulb in it for a while and i need to reset the computer or something quirkey like that.

My 90 needs a cam sensor and a crank sensor, I quoted them out at advance auto a few months, and if I remember correctly, I could replace both of them for around $100 total. Those parts are still available aftermarket though.

You should seriously consider putting a component system back into the reatta (where there is a seperate midrange, tweeter, and x-over) MB-Quart makes the best component speakers and you could get a pair that you you would probably be happy with for under $400, but if you really wanted to, they have a line of components that are winning sq competitions all over the world for about 3k a pair. Xplods sound like someone talking through a kazoo in comparison. Seriously.

I work at a custom install shop, and we've never ever repaired a factory radio, it is almost always cheaper and easier to just replace it with an aftermarket deck unless you really want a project on your hands, I have a pioneer premier 960 deck that I like a lot in my reatta, it even has automatic equalization and time alignment via a microphone, so the bad acoustics of the reatta are defeated at last. (Don't mind my diss of the factory sound system sounding like crap, I sell $25K home theaters that use the same speakers that Skywalker ranch and abby road recording studios use, my taste of audio is very salty, and like most audiophiles, you're never happy with the way that something sounds anyway)

i installed an aftermarket alarm on a 90 reatta with no issues, but most of there being no issues is due to that fact that all of the lock cylinder tamper switches and sensors and the like were removed when I shaved my doors. I have no exterior locks or handles, so there really is no way for the factory alarm to be triggered except for the door and trunk pin switches, but still, I have never had a problem with it. I actually didn't even need to hook up the factory alarm disarm wire when I installed my alarm, so it may not even have worked anymore, who knows.

The wheels on my 90 were horrible. I thought it was just clearcoat, so I bought a product called aircraft stripper at wal mart, that strips paint and does not harm the aluminum finish. The product worked perfectly at removing the clearcoat, but not clearing up the oxidation that had formed on my wheels through the scrapes. What I did was: pop the emblems out of the center caps (they are only glued in with silicone) be careful not to pull the gold foil looking paint off of the back of them... mask off the tire rubber very well (the stripper eats plastic like it's nothing), and apply the stripper wiping the clearcoat off each time (don't get it on your hands, it burns instantly, even where you wouldn't expect it like on your fingertips) and repeat this until all of the clearcoat is removed... Then to get the spun aluminum look back on the centercaps, I chucked them in a drill press using a cutoff wheel collet, and spun them as fast as I could while dragging 80 grit sandpaper over them. After this, I repeated with softer and softer grits until I got to 400 grit or somewhere in that range. Then I clearcoated the center caps and glued the emblems back on. They look better than new, so much better infact that I am currently using a brass brush wheel on a dremel tool (the flex shaft helps a lot!) to clean up the bare aluminum on the wheels themselves. If you try this, consider it somewhat like sanding wood, go with the grain, you want the brush's spinning to perfectly line up with the groove that you are cleaning. It looks good so far, but it's taking some time. Don't use a steel brush, it will gouge the aluminum very quickly. This is a delicate process, and you will be sorry if you sit down and try and refinish all of your wheels in one night, you will make them look worse if you are not careful and do not take your time. Good Luck.

My 90 does the exact same thing, and when this problem occurred, the car had been sitting for months, so when the dash lights finally started working, I just figured that it was a low voltage problem from the car sitting, but I'm not sure because I haven't confirmed that I have fixed the problem yet.

The only advice that I have to offer is to buy a 4 channel transmitter and reciever and wire everything up yourself. Partsexpress.com has such a setup that you might consider, and after almost 15 years, you might want to update your electronics anyway, think about a full function alarm.

I had a bad oxygen sensor that was speed sensitive, it made the engine almost die while breaking and whudder unhealthily while accellerating quickly. You might check into the o2 sensor, there are ways that you can check one while it is on a vehicle, it is supposed to measure a certain resistance on a multimeter, your local autozone probably has the procedure in their computer system if you ask them.

I'm currently installing an alarm system in a Reatta that has been sitting in my yard for about a year. The other day, I put a can full of gas in it and ran the gas tank dry so that there was no stale gas left, and while doing so... for about the first hour (a gallon of gas will burn a long time at idle) there was no interior lighting or anything on the dash at all that was lit up except an 'electrical problem' dummy light. After a while however, the dash lights did come on, I blamed it on low voltage. The domelight and lights in the doors and on the trunk did not work however. I checked and I don't have any blown fuses (I didn't check any relays). I have no clue what would be causing this problem. I found that with a test light, the domelight was getting 12 volts but was not connected to ground. Does anybody know if the interior lights are hot all the time with switched grounds? How can I fix my problem? And incase you're wondering, I didn't hack any wires in the lighting system for the alarm yet, and when I do, there won't be any problems because I am a professional installer and have soldiered all of the connections and used factory conduits for a hidden system. Sorry to have rambled for so long about what is probably an incredibly simple lighting problem, thanks for any return posts, I appreciate it.

I've probably painted about 50 different cars, and I always removed the pinstripes beforehand by using a razorblade. You have to have just the right angle to peel it off, but if you are good at it, like I USED to be, you can flawlessly remove the striping from an entire panel in one pass. If any adhesive remains on the vehicle, I had this stuff called Pro-Sol that was a very powerful solvent that would not harm paint. And it is always a good idea to buff the car out afterwards to even the shine between the old paint and the newly exposed paint.

my reatta is going to be a kenwood car also... i work at an excelon dealership, and was going to: install a 679 head unit inside the dash with a ribbon cable soldered between the deck and the face so that i can mount the faceplate in the headliner, 61p component 6.5's all the way around, dual 1225 db+ dvc subs and the 811D class d amplifier. I figured that i could hide the actual head unit if i use a cd changer that is accessible somehwere else in the car, plus that cleans up the dash quite a bit.

I work at a custom audio shop and am going to turn my reatta into a kenwood excelon demo vehicle. I was going to make the entire trunk into a speaker enclosure and amp rack simaler to the included picture, but am a little worried about some of the things that I might be covering with fiberglass. I know that the brake control module and some other electronics are mounted to the trunk wall that are not commonly located there on other vehicles that I have done... how prone to failure are these parts, and how important is it to leave access to them? Any cool ideas?

when you get your fiberglass headliner done, please post a picture of it.

A friend of mine is going to put on ebay in a day or so: a 1990 Reatta front vent window (pessenger side), passenger mirror, hood badge, rear metal emblem, original side trim, and a few other misc. parts like maybe a radio and the grill. Look for them on ebay.

Just to let everyone know, I have a friend who in the next day or so will have a: front fixed vent window (passenger side), passenger side power mirror, hood badge, rear metal emblem, front grill, and all of the original trim from the sides of his '90 Reatta available on EBAY! There might also be an original: radio, intake manifold cover (3800 SFI), gas door, and maybe even door handles and lock cylinders possibly even door lock switches and the plates out of the door panels. Look for them if you want them, his ebay name is spencerx4 he's not salvaging his car out, but he is shaving the exterior and doing some pretty extensive modifications/upgrades, so let me know if you have any special part requests for him, make an offer. Thanks.

I work in a plastics shop, and am seriously considering making a form to start bending reatta vent glass out of plexi. I need ideas of how to mount the replacements in the frame that is molded around them. I have a bad window that already has a hole through it, so I am going to try and figure out a good way to mount the windows so that they look acceptable to us picky reatta owners, I'll keep the forum notified of how many I make and when they'll be available, and I'll try and document the project kind of like instructions for the DIY kind of person. Thanks for any responses.

Are there any other buick cars like the regal that would have aftermarket tube headers that would bolt in with no problems? Nobody has anyhting for the reatta in the aftermarket arena.

I have a 90 reatta and can't find headers for it anywhere. Are there any other cars (like the regal) that have the same exhaust manifolds and everything that would bolt up with no problems if I ordered the headers for that car instead? I'm half way tempted to just make them, but I've only done that on big block drag cars where space is not a constraint. Let me know what you think.

I am completely redoing my 90 Reatta. It has a two way alarm which controls the shaved doors, which means that there are no handles or locks on the outside... the doors are smooth metal everywhere on the outside, they are opened electronically from my remote. I'm shaving (removing) all of the exterior trim and emblems, installing some 10-spoke aluminum wheels, adding front bumper splitters, installing a factory style oldsmobile intrigue spoiler for a refreshing non-honda look (I hate 3 foot tall spoilers that look like they were made out of an erector set), running dual exhaust through the rear bumper, converting to aluminum mesh grilles (front and back), and adding an active hood scoop for ram air. Some other ideas that I am throwing around are covering the gas door area and relocating the fill tube to behind the license plate so that I have smooth fenders on both sides of the car, and I'm trying to sub mount my power antenna so that when it is down, the button on the top is flush with the quarter panel. The only thing that I really don't know about is: I had an idea, whether stupid or not, to put in two sideways sunroofs over each seat kind of like T-tops. There is no structural reason not to do this, but I get mixed reactions of what this would possibly look like. Do you think that it would look completely stupid, or would it be a nice finishing touch to a sweet ride? Let me know what you think, and I'm still open for more customization ideas too... and no, I will not consider gull-wing doors

I am revamping my '90 Reatta, and need to replace the front quarter window (stationary vent window). The piece of glass is mounted directly to the front window track which I have removed, and cannot figure out how the glass is actually attached. Hopefully it is glued like a windshield, or slides into place... I am just hoping that the glass isn't directly molded into the piece around it. Does anybody know about these windows?