"roflcopter" (roflroflroflcopter)
09/21/2014 at 12:43 • Filed to: None
3
10|
"roflcopter" (roflroflroflcopter)
09/21/2014 at 12:43 • Filed to: None | 3
| 10 |
As some of you may know, I was working for a dealer buying and selling cars wholesale as well as fixing up some of the stuff that came through our possession that needed a little TLC. Well since school started up I haven't been able to go to the auctions and have started a new job so the car stuff kind of fell by the wayside. Got a call from my boss with the car stuff the other day because he needed a few things done on one of the majestic beasts you see above, I'd already fixed/diagnosed two things on this car in the past, so I agreed, if you want to hear why I have a new hatred for Buick, click on through!
So right after he picked this car up(it was shipped to Florida from California from another dealer, we were pulling it out of the auction to take it home and fix some paint issues when we smelled fuel, popped the hood and it was spraying fuel from the main feed line pretty heavily, so it got parked and I was tasked with getting that fixed. Long story short I show up the next day with some tools and inspect it, turns out someone had gotten a pinhole in the main vinyl line and thought it would be sufficient to wrap about 4 inches in electrical tape and call it a day. The stupidity and laziness of most people astounds me. So $6 and 15 minutes later I have 18 inches of fuel injection line, some proper hose clamps, and I cut the old line off, fit the new one and tighten it up, problem fixed!
I figured it would be something along the same lines when I got a call last week asking me to fix a coolant leak that had developed. Boss-man says he thinks it's from the water pump but that I should check it out and get it taken care of, I crank it up and see it spraying from the water pump area, go and pick up a pump and a new serpentine belt(the old one was a bit cracked and fraying) and figure I'll be able to go over last night and knock it out in ~2 hours, water pumps typically aren't hard and I've done a million before. No such luck. First issue I see immediately is that the power steering pump pulley is blocking one of the bolts for the water pump, I resign myself to having to pull that as well, no big deal. Next step, pull the belts so I can start getting that pump off. Turns out someone had the bright idea to run the serpentine belt THROUGH the motor mount bracket. So I start removing that, find out it's also blocked by the power steering pump pulley and start searching for those mounting bolts. The power steering pump bolts are UNDER the pulley and you have to use an open-end wrench, 1/6 turn at a time, to get that off. Finally I have everything out of the way and the belts off and the water pump off and spend a decent bit of time scraping gasket in the 5 inches of space I have next to the fender, surrounded my sharp, machined edges. Finally got it all back together and no more leaks, but definitely took longer than expected and I really don't get why they decided to make it that complicated, the GM 3800 is normally nowhere near that convoluted.
tl;dr:
I fixed a car that is horribly engineered and now my hands are all cut up.
xxstich666xx
> roflcopter
09/21/2014 at 13:49 |
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Greta car though. My friend has an Ultra he picked up for $700. He's been beating the living shit out of it every day for the past 2 years and it's been dead reliable. I mean it has some weird issues such as a wonky gas gauge and messed up air shocks but it took us from Long Island to Boston and back with no issues.
Jedidiah
> roflcopter
09/21/2014 at 14:15 |
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I too have a hatred for Buicks. They were always more poorly designed than their counterparts back when GM divisions were indenpendant. They lazily used shared corporate crap after that.
We had a 87 Turbo Regal in the late 90s and it was one of the worst cars my family has ever owned. Leaked fluids from everywhere imaginable.
All Buick motors' oil pump drives and distributors both go in a cast aluminum timing cover that is behind the water pump. The drives for the distributor and oil pump wear into this piece of shit design and causes oil leaks.
They also have problems with sealing around the water pump. When they redesigned the V6, they minimized the gasket material for this motor, WHICH IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE TO FIX THIS MOTOR. Got even worse when they started using plastic intake manifolds that would leak more.
Their 455s are a thin-walled, weak POS compared to all the other GM big blocks.
The nailhead had stupidly, unneccissarily small valves because they thought it was a good idea to put a bunch of ridiculous sharp angles in the valve train. The oiling to the shaft-mounted rockers was also retarded.
The also think it is a good idea to put a bunch of 90 DEGREE TURNS in their oiling systems. STUPID.
My dad bought a 93 Roadmaster with an LT1 when it was new. He sold back to the dealer at 30k miles because it was so terrible. The car felt like it was built by throwing a magnet down the spare parts isle at a GM plant. I like soft rides, but this thing was ridiculously under-dampened for its size. A BRAND NEW CAR WORE OUT SHOCKS AT 20k MILES. It wasn't like he was hard on it either; it was all smooth freeway driving.
Every Olds and Cadillac we've ever owned was great. Chevys and Pontiacs were a mixed bag, but every Buick was worse than its equivalent GM stablemate. ALWAYS WORSE.
I was having a good day when I started typing this, but now I'm pissed off. (sigh)
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roflcopter
> Jedidiah
09/21/2014 at 15:10 |
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Well sorry to put you in a bad mood, but these things are horrible. I just don't get what they were even thinking when they pieced that thing together. The only upside I found was that all the electrical connectors are labeled as to which is (+), (-), (signal) which is pretty cool.
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roflcopter
> xxstich666xx
09/21/2014 at 15:10 |
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I can't really say much on reliability of them since we just buy and sell them, normally never have a car more than 2 weeks and put less than 50 miles on it, but they just suck to work on.
Tohru
> roflcopter
09/21/2014 at 15:52 |
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My dad's boss at the body shop is obsessed with these fuckin' Buicks. Every one he sees at the auction, he buys. All their loaner cars are Buicks. 2/3rds of the used cars they sell are Buicks. If you see one of these driving around in the TriCounty area, it's got a sticker on the back from them.
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roflcopter
> Tohru
09/21/2014 at 16:25 |
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Surprisingly, this is the first one of these I've had to deal with, we usually focus on upscale hairdresser cars(330ci, loaded Sebrings, early 2000's Mercedes) and hybrid/diesels. I never thought I'd know the ins and outs of Prius' and be buying 4-5 of them a week like I was doing all summer.
davedave1111
> roflcopter
09/21/2014 at 16:37 |
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"you have to use an open-end wrench, 1/6 turn at a time, to get that off."
One of the items in my dream toolkit is a full set of open-ended ratchet spanners, for precisely those situations.
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Jedidiah
> roflcopter
09/21/2014 at 16:38 |
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Every Buick is that horrible. You just wind up asking yourself why would they do this.
Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
> roflcopter
09/21/2014 at 17:47 |
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Did you fix the rear hellaflush problem?
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roflcopter
> Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
09/21/2014 at 22:33 |
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Nah... I grabbed it and gave it a good shake and nothing rattled/fell out/was obviously broken so I'm going to chalk it up to some seriously horrible alignment since it's just really camber-y and not wobbling or anything. AKA not my problem.