'96 Century general project thread

[LeftVentricle]

GENTLEMEN

[LeftVentricle]

Shit went sideways last night, but all things considered, everything went way better than it could have. I got some new tires put on the wagon. I left the shop, drove a short distance, stopped to get out to take a picture of my new kicks, then had a gigantic freakout.



A transmission cooler line blew off suddenly. I got it fixed and refilled, but man, that was wild. If I hadn't gone to get tires, that could have happened on my commute this morning. That would have turned a $50 oopsie into a $2000 transmission rebuild.

[LeftVentricle]

Been following your progress with the wagon over the years and it seems like you got it dialed in now. Made a 2k mile journey with no probs. so at least the ol' Buick has been treating you well. Drive it 'till the wheels fall off and put'em back on again. Best wishes bud

It's good enough, but the kludges and deferred maintenance are starting to catch up. Hence getting a reliable second car. That, and Nevada recently changed insurance requirements for cars registered as classic, and classic insurance doesn't allow you to daily the car.

[dbral]

Sorry to hear about your loss and how life has been treating you. Been following your progress with the wagon over the years and it seems like you got it dialed in now. Made a 2k mile journey with no probs. so at least the ol' Buick has been treating you well. Drive it 'till the wheels fall off and put'em back on again. Best wishes bud

[LeftVentricle]

Non-update update. I've been meaning to write up a post about the 2000 mile road trip I took the wagon on during Thanksgiving, but the circumstances of the trip weren't fun. I'm having a hard time coming up with the right words. The car performed flawlessly, and averaged 24.7 mpg, including a high score of 30.9 on the final tank before arriving back home. I took plenty of pictures. I'll give it a shot this weekend, I think.

I can't be bothered to write a real post about this, so I'll just give you all a little bit of drama and move on.

My dad died a few days before Thanksgiving at age 59 of multiple organ failure. He'd been a long time alcoholic and was homeless for ten years, and that catches up with you. The 2000 mile trip was from Vegas to the Bay Area and back to try to handle is final affairs. The day before he died, my wife decided she was done, and wanted to move out. I put her on a plane to her mom's place in Kansas on January 29th. So I haven't really been in the mood to write up a real post. I will give you guys probably the two best photos I have ever taken of this car though.

Near the Golden Gate Bridge:


And in the Sierra Nevada mountains at a spot called Peddler's Hill:



That aside, I'm planning to get what I hope will be a reliable daily driver so I can stop worrying about whether George is going to start in the morning, what's that noise this time, and so on. Found another '96 wagon on Marketplace IN THE SAME CITY I BOUGHT GEORGE IN. After basically interviewing the guy over the last couple says, I feel like it will be a good daily. Lots of preventive maintenance done recently, including the ever-vulnerable lower intake gaskets, silly custom interior stuff, and a front clip swap from an '85 Century.

[young gun]

The car performed flawlessly, and averaged 24.7 mpg, including a high score

[LeftVentricle]

Pretty good fuel economy but thats quite a bit of driving. Was it all highway for the last tank?

Yeah. I wanna say that tank was cheating a bit, since it was "downhill" between Tonopah and Las Vegas, and also I do 65 on the highway because that's where this car does the best. Gotta say, that's the best number I've ever put down, even with the original engine (L82), or the first couple of years of the LX9 swap with the original highway gears (2.97) in the transmission. LX9 + 3.33 final has basically no downsides.

[SappySE107]

Pretty good fuel economy but thats quite a bit of driving. Was it all highway for the last tank?

[LeftVentricle]

Non-update update. I've been meaning to write up a post about the 2000 mile road trip I took the wagon on during Thanksgiving, but the circumstances of the trip weren't fun. I'm having a hard time coming up with the right words. The car performed flawlessly, and averaged 24.7 mpg, including a high score of 30.9 on the final tank before arriving back home. I took plenty of pictures. I'll give it a shot this weekend, I think.

[LeftVentricle]

Doesn't hurt to post pics or make videos for youtube these days, though it takes more time to document that stuff as well. 175k is good for a water pump and thankfully its usually a pretty easy job on these engines.

Yeah, letting the RTV cure took longer than the actual work.

[SappySE107]

Doesn't hurt to post pics or make videos for youtube these days, though it takes more time to document that stuff as well. 175k is good for a water pump and thankfully its usually a pretty easy job on these engines.

[LeftVentricle]

Changed the water pump on the wagon the other day. I took pictures but honestly, we've all done a water pump. It appeared to be the original part for the engine. Recall the engine is from a 2005 Malibu that had, according to LKQ, about 110k miles. I have put around 63k VERY HARD miles on it since installing it. I am not mad that it failed. After ~175k miles, it owed me nothing. Past Daniel had some foresight and bought the part 6 years ago, so the most difficult aspect was spelunking through the garage to find it.

[LeftVentricle]

Cruise cable and module from a 2001 Aurora. This will fit the big throttle body.

[LeftVentricle]

1996 Buick Century

P0502 Vehicle Speed Sensor A low input
P0503 Vehicle Speed Sensor A Intermittent, erratic, or high input

Symptoms:
"Service Engine Soon" light illuminated
Speedometer, odometer, trip odometer inoperative
Transmission shifting inoperative/erratic

Suddenly. Stuck in third, then first, then third. That made the trip home from work today, uh, interesting.

EDIT: At first it behaved like it did a few years ago when the fuse for the quad driver popped. Starts in third, access to 2nd and 3rd via manual shifting. Then I shut it off, started it up, and it was stuck in first. After annoying everyone in the city by doing 20 mph with my hazards on for a few miles, I gave it the beans so I could get up to a higher speed and coast. Around 31 mph or so it shifted into third, and I left it there. (speeds verified with a GPS speedometer app)

The cause is a broken wire to the VSS. I will have to hire someone to repair that, because I don't fuck with wiring.

In the meantime, I had little choice but to finally put a new water pump on the Ram (it had been leaking for some time), since I still need to get to work for the rest of the week. This went well, except for the battery being stone dead. Jumper cables hooked up to the wagon eventually got it started, and I left it running for something like a half hour, driving to the gas station for fuel and back home. I shut it off, and it wouldn't restart. Bad battery. $130 later it's fine.

[young gun]

I was trying to figure out wtf you meant, since googling that acronym turns up a wikipedia article about a heart defect. I guess it's a reference to my username? In which case, no. My heart is fine. I've been using this name since at least 2006 because it seemed amusing.

As for the Silhouette wheels, I will likely get some new tires on them, since I plan to do some traveling in a few months, and maybe even acquire a parts car in Kansas. So I'll need some extra load tires to handle dragging the carcass back here.

I'm in the business of hearts so yeah I was referencing that, interesting that you just so happen to choose that!