Buick 1988 Century

[Guest]

1988 Buick Century with 29,000 miles and it just loses all power every once in a while. When it loses power during driving, there are no brakes, power steering and it is frightening.

Can anyone help in what is wrong. The dealership does not know what the problem is; nor do other auto shops I've taken it to. Pat Hansen

phansen007@msn.com

[BigFella]

If I remember correctly the cars of that era had a chip inside the distributor that when they went bad the car would lose all power...it happened to me a couple of times in a chevy with a 2.8l engine. It might be the same thing although mine would just go bad and never come back. It was a relatively cheap part to replace when I did my last one about 10 years ago. Maybe a $35.00 part? Takes about 5 minutes to replace but has tiny screws holding it in.

I hope you don't have a wire shorting out or the computer going bad...much harder to deal with...

**Disclaimer**

Although the right thing to do would be to take it to a good dealer that would throw it on a machine and check everything out for you. Trying to debug an electrical problem by yourself without the proper tools and training is just shooting in the dark.

[86 2dr.ltd]

It doesnt have a distributor. If your losing power steering and power brakes it means your engine has stalled. Intermittent problems are the hardest to figure because they go away and arent there when your trying to figure them out. Therefore you have no problems. Maybe your fuel pump it having wireing problems or signal problems. Fuel pump relay ? Then there is all the electronic timing and fuel injection and emmisions stuff. Could be one of many items getting bad. Good luck !

[86 2dr.ltd]

Sorry If you have the 3800 you dont have a distributor if you have the 3.1 I know nothing about it. I forgot Buick regressed and put that Chevy engine in a Buick. Just kiddin they were probably a good engine. I guess you could even have a four cylinder also , right ?