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Now here is dang car...

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UC_Guy 1971

Master Class
So my wife's whale, a Buick Enclave, had until recently been a decent car. It all started to fall apart late last year when we were told that the entire front end needed to be rebuilt. CV joints, axels, everything. Buick quoted us at about $4,800. We found a local mechanic who dropped it below $3,500. The odo read 130K so I thought that was fair. This repair took it off the road for about a week. It was another month before the next thing kicked off.

So we were driving and all of a sudden it felt like the front drive axel (it's AWD) were locking up and trying to self destruct. The Stabilitrack kicked in and we were stuck in limp mode. I didn't even know what limp-mode was until that time. Well it turns out modern cars have sensors. No. Really. When they go bad the car doesn't know what to do with itself. This sensor is called a "Steering Position" sensor.

A new steering position sensor was about $50 on eBay. It had to be eBay because GM doesn't make the part anymore. I will put my conspiracy hat for this part and say that this is just so the dealership can tell you this and offer to sell you a new car in lieu of tracking down one that hasn't been sold and fixing your paid off one. Fortunately during all of this turning off the Stabilitrack allowed us to drive it as a FWD car without any issues (WTF?). Anyways we got it repaired. Repaired in time for a trip to Colorado to see the in-law.

I mean that is bad karma right there. At least the whale had the common decency to try and drop dead on the way back, and it could have been anywherer in eastern Wyoming. It did it in the Town of Lusk. Fortunately turning off Stabilitrack allowed us to get home and the weather wasn't so bad that just being in FWD was more than sufficient. However, we took it back to Buick so they could do more than my OBDII code reader could.

Let me start this paragraph by saying that Buick (all of GM?) sucks. Not their older cars. So anyways apparently the steering sensor was still good. However, according to Buick we needed a new ECM/PCM, a new throttle body, a new serpentine belt, and new cam position sensors. They could do it all for $3700.

Well the mechanic we had been using is swamped. I didn't ask if it was with GM products. This meant it was time to re-open the "Good Enough Auto-Repair Shop™" When you don't need good, just good enough. Call us. I also have a electrical repair. Plumbing repair. Fence repair. I do a lot.

When it was all said and done I spent about $350 in parts and another $100 to have a different (not so busy) real repair shop flash the throttle body and ECM and it is up and running. I even swapped out the headlights (they were yellow) and upgraded the bulbs to LEDs.

Lets see how long this lasts.

Stupid Buick.
 
Buick has a WIN or two... try to buy one of these in today's market. You may be surprised at the $.
Grand National REGAL GNX. Internet photo, I do not own one.
 

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UC_Guy 1971 said:
So my wife's whale, a Buick Enclave, had until recently been a decent car. It all started to fall apart late last year when we were told that the entire front end needed to be rebuilt. CV joints, axels, everything. Buick quoted us at about $4,800. We found a local mechanic who dropped it below $3,500. The odo read 130K so I thought that was fair. This repair took it off the road for about a week. It was another month before the next thing kicked off.

So we were driving and all of a sudden it felt like the front drive axel (it's AWD) were locking up and trying to self destruct. The Stabilitrack kicked in and we were stuck in limp mode. I didn't even know what limp-mode was until that time. Well it turns out modern cars have sensors. No. Really. When they go bad the car doesn't know what to do with itself. This sensor is called a "Steering Position" sensor.

A new steering position sensor was about $50 on eBay. It had to be eBay because GM doesn't make the part anymore. I will put my conspiracy hat for this part and say that this is just so the dealership can tell you this and offer to sell you a new car in lieu of tracking down one that hasn't been sold and fixing your paid off one. Fortunately during all of this turning off the Stabilitrack allowed us to drive it as a FWD car without any issues (WTF?). Anyways we got it repaired. Repaired in time for a trip to Colorado to see the in-law.

I mean that is bad karma right there. At least the whale had the common decency to try and drop dead on the way back, and it could have been anywherer in eastern Wyoming. It did it in the Town of Lusk. Fortunately turning off Stabilitrack allowed us to get home and the weather wasn't so bad that just being in FWD was more than sufficient. However, we took it back to Buick so they could do more than my OBDII code reader could.

Let me start this paragraph by saying that Buick (all of GM?) sucks. Not their older cars. So anyways apparently the steering sensor was still good. However, according to Buick we needed a new ECM/PCM, a new throttle body, a new serpentine belt, and new cam position sensors. They could do it all for $3700.

Well the mechanic we had been using is swamped. I didn't ask if it was with GM products. This meant it was time to re-open the "Good Enough Auto-Repair Shop™" When you don't need good, just good enough. Call us. I also have a electrical repair. Plumbing repair. Fence repair. I do a lot.

When it was all said and done I spent about $350 in parts and another $100 to have a different (not so busy) real repair shop flash the throttle body and ECM and it is up and running. I even swapped out the headlights (they were yellow) and upgraded the bulbs to LEDs.

Lets see how long this lasts.

Stupid Buick.
Click to expand...
I had a 2005 Rendezvous (sp?) that destroyed itself at 140k miles with multiple catastrophic failures at the same time. Sold it to a scrap yard for $250. Last Buick for me.
 
KillerFord1977 said:
Still has mediocre HP by todays standards. My work van has as much HP as the old ‘80s muscle cars
Click to expand...
That's the only way at the time to get better milage even though it's not true. As smart as these people are supposed to be there are several easy components for an engine (pre-fuel injection/electronic management) that'll increase hp AND give better mpg. My 454 @ 390hp/550#torque 3-speed auto /3.73 would/could get me 12-15mpg pulled a gcvw of 25-30k. That's with a quadrajet.
 
SL66 said:
Buick has a WIN or two... try to buy one of these in today's market. You may be surprised at the $.
Grand National REGAL GNX. Internet photo, I do not own one.
Click to expand...
when i did some service counter work at the local Buick dealer here, we had 1 GNX come in, and it went out just as fast, to a guy in Texas.

all other GN's came in and got sold more locally.

frankly, i liked the T-Type better, as they could be bought in any color, and had all the same drive train, as the more expensive GN's.
 
So not a Buick but is a GM product….
In the news lately is the issue of the GM’s version of the 6.2 engine failing, I just watched a video of a GM 6.2 being torn down to figure out what happened to it.
The engine came out of a 2023 Cadillac Escalade.
During the tear down which was video taped it showed multiple failures in multiple areas of the engine including a wrist pin failure.
The sad part of this is the engine blew up with only 4 miles on it!!!!!
Let that sink in……,,
A brand new engine with only 4 miles.
 
I had a 73, I think, Buick lesabre for probably 7 or 8 years best winter car i ever had was a tank, had 4 good snow tires on her, she road and handled like a tank lol. Trunk and rear floorboards had row of bags of play sand for extra weight and to toss out as traction on ice. Would put up my trans am in the barn beginning of Oct. , take out the battery put in the Buick, a couple pumps of the accelerator and she would fire right up after more than 6 months sitting all summer out under a black walnut tree, which by the way had stained the once tan body a patchy darker brown. Kinda a natural camouflage. Since I used for hunting trips as a trail car and adhoc tent that worked too..

Very fond memories of that car.
 
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Keystone19250 said:
So not a Buick but is a GM product….
In the news lately is the issue of the GM’s version of the 6.2 engine failing, I just watched a video of a GM 6.2 being torn down to figure out what happened to it.
The engine came out of a 2023 Cadillac Escalade.
During the tear down which was video taped it showed multiple failures in multiple areas of the engine including a wrist pin failure.
The sad part of this is the engine blew up with only 4 miles on it!!!!!
Let that sink in……,,
A brand new engine with only 4 miles.
Click to expand...
Somebody must've did a finish build on Monday.
 
It seems to me no auto manufacturer wants a car or truck to go over 150,000 miles.
Either the motor dies or it completely rusts out.
I already had the complete front end on my 2005 Chrysler 300 rebuilt twice, mechanic said Chrysler front end is junk including new Chargers.
It has 120,00 miles, but it runs really good and still gets 21 mpg in town, so when do you give up the ghost and buy something else after all it's only worth $1,100 as per Carmax.
 
It's not a brand, its something like this:
https://classiccars.com/listings/vi...n-futura-for-sale-in-whiting-new-jersey-08759

Something that will never go out of style and everything I can work on. Add a few modern touches like four wheel power disk brakes, a back up camera (wife wants it), modern tunes, updated (mustang II) suspension and done.

My next vehicle is going to look something like this:
classiccars.com

For Sale: 1973 Dodge Ram in Cadillac, Michigan

Find classic cars, collector cars and vintage muscle cars on ClassicCars.com. Search, sell or buy and Drive Your Dream today!
classiccars.com classiccars.com
 
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