Month: February 2025

Buick Part 2 – Into the Shop

I made arrangements to get the Buick LeSabre into the shop, the same shop that fixed my KIA Rio. Unfortunately, the Buick wouldn’t start. The battery died while sitting in front of my house. Well, that was annoying, but the car was headed for the shop anyway. I would let them take care of it.

My regular towing service popped by to load the Buick on the flatbed. Off it went. Since it was a backup vehicle, the shop could take its time. I wasn’t worried about anything, yet.

I assumed the car would need tires, breaks, shocks and struts, and all the fluids replaced. Turned out the tires still had tread, so I didn’t replace them. Everything else on my list needed work. There were a few additional things that I hadn’t noticed when looking things over at the dealership.

A couple of the parts that hold the engine to the rest of the car, called “motor mounts”, were broken. Part of the steering system was leaking fluids, so that needed to be replaced. They also replaced the battery.

At this point, I was approaching the original planned maximum budget. The mechanic said the engine was otherwise in really good shape. Since the 3800 V-6 was a forever engine, I should be able to drive the car another ten to twenty years with proper maintenance. That meant I would be able to get my money’s worth.

I drove the car back home with a few errands on the way.

A few days later, I couldn’t start it. The battery was dead. It seemed I had an intermittent, electrical problem. That meant that sometimes, but not all the time, some piece of the wiring would just decide to drain the battery. I hate intermittent problems.

While hunting for the issue, I found that once the windshield wipers were on, they stayed on until I pulled the fuse. This was also a “sometimes” problem. It was getting really annoying.

The Bigger Issue

The main problem with all this was that I was in the middle of a semester. I have absolutely zero free time in the middle of a semester. That meant no time to hunt down electrical issues.

I called my regular shop to get their opinion. They said they weren’t really equipped to handle that sort of problem and recommended an automotive electrical shop. I made arrangements there.

The day of the appointment, I attached my newly charged battery and drove to work. At work, I disconnected the battery so it wouldn’t drain. After work, I reconnected the battery and drove over to the new shop and dropped it off. A taxi got me home. It’s not fun having a car that needs extra steps to do basic things.

A week went by and they hadn’t found anything. It turned out they were just going out every morning and starting the car. Since nothing changed, they didn’t know where to look. I suggested they start the car and take it for a drive to see if something could be shaken loose.

Honestly, I was getting frustrated at the lack of progress. I contemplated just having them stop and I would take the car elsewhere. That is when they called to let me know what they found.

The ignition cylinder, the part where the key goes, was missing some of its innards. That meant that you could take the key out regardless of the position. If you didn’t have the key in just the right place, it would turn on the accessories for the car and drain the battery.

Time for a Switch

Unfortunately, they could not replace the ignition switch because it was missing those parts and they wouldn’t know how to configure a new one for the key. They recommended that I contact a locksmith who worked on vehicles. They were, however, able to fix my dashboard so all the gauges worked and the light usually worked.

I called around to a couple of locksmiths. Most weren’t interested, probably because it sounds suspicious that I would want a new cylinder when the old was missing its parts. It sounds like a stolen vehicle. The most positive response was, “I’ll do some research and get back to you.” He never got back to me.

Ignition cylinder kits are available online. If you don’t know how to configure them, they are useless. It took a while, but I found an old YouTube video of a guy showing exactly how to determine the configuration of General Motors keys from my car’s era so you can configure an ignition cylinder.

Feeling web-educated, I ordered a kit. The instructions were easy to follow, so I got the cylinder configured for my key. I tried it with all three keys. Now all I needed was a mix of free time and warm weather to put the new cylinder into the car. I’m still waiting and will probably be waiting until summer.

You may ask, why not do the work in the garage? Well, a Buick LeSabre is a lengthy car. Though my tiny KIA Rio fits well enough, the Buick does not. When I pulled it in, the front was inches away from the workbench and the rear was inches from the garage door. Opening the doors barely gave enough room to get in.

Of course, I did have to do some work in the garage. There was the matter of the driver’s seat belt buckle replacement. What a pain.

Buick Part 1 – Getting a Backup Car

The car I drive every day is now fifteen years old. It’s been a reliable car, but an event last fall made me decide to get a backup car for when this one is in the shop. This should have gone smoothly, but I may have outsmarted myself. What do I mean by that?

The regular car is a 2010 KIA Rio. I bought it new with twenty-four miles on the odometer. Last fall, the speedometer went wild and all the dash lights came on. Fortunately, I was only a few blocks from the place where I usually buy batteries. I managed to get in.

They did some tests. The alternator was shot and it took the battery with it. I got a new battery and had them install it. That gave me enough juice to go the two miles home. I would have to take the car to the shop, but it was late Saturday evening and my mechanic was closed.

Sunday morning, I had the KIA towed to the mechanic. They are usually busy on Sundays, but they said they would try to get it in. That left me with a moment of panic. If they couldn’t fix my car Sunday, I didn’t have an easy way to get to work and back on Monday. That’s when I decided to look for a cheap backup.

The Internet has made car shopping easier. There are many sites that aggregate available cars, including from dealers. I set a budget and perused the options. I found two that looked promising. The first was a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am for two-grand. It was probably ok, but I’ve seen how some of these coupes get treated by their owners. The picture looked good, but I worried about suspension and such.

The other option was a 2005 Buick LeSabre Custom in Cedar Falls. From the photo it looked like the body had a few dents and dings. Generally, these cars were owned by older drivers who were unlikely to be drag racing or taking sharp corners at full speed. It also had the GM 3800 V-6 engine which has a reputation of lasting forever with proper maintenance.

The shop got my KIA fixed in time for me to pick it up Sunday afternoon. There is a great benefit from being a regular customer for several decades. With a way of getting around, I made arrangements to check out the Buick after work on Monday.

I got to the dealership Monday evening and they didn’t know what I was talking about. After a bit of discussion, we figured out that I had been interacting with a chatbot and not a real employee. That was annoying, but I was more focused on checking out the car.

The Buick looked like its pictures, a little scuffed but not too bad. It started and drove around. The dash dials were wonky. They wanted two thousand, but I balked a bit. The driver’s seat belt buckle would not latch and that was a safety issue. Because of that, they knocked five hundred off. Being way under planned budget, I cut them a check and said I wouldn’t be able to pick up the car until later in the week because I had to get someone to drive me up.

Thursday, my friend and coworker Mark drove me up to get the car (thanks, Mark!). They found all the parts. I put the sales paperwork and my temporary proof of insurance into the glove box and took off in my “new” car.

The gas gauge sat on empty and I wasn’t sure if the gauge was faulty or if the car really was empty. My first stop was a Casey’s about a mile down the road. The Buick has an eighteen gallon tank andI put in seventeen and a half. I also went in to get washer solution, oil, and coolant with a plan to make sure everything was topped off before heading home.

The drive was mostly smooth. The worn out shocks meant that any notable bump left the car sauntering more like a horse for a bit, but nothing too bad. The air conditioner didn’t work, but some of the windows rolled down, so the early evening drive just before sundown was pleasant. To my surprise, the radio worked great.

I was just about home when I changed my mind about something. The dealer only had one key for the car. My preference is to have at least two, and maybe a spare stored somewhere safe. I altered my course and headed over to my local Menards because I knew they had a key kiosk.

The kiosk read my solitary key and said everything was good except for one little thing. The head of the key contains a security identifier chip. The new keys would need that. The kiosk would have to send my order to the main office and they would then mail me my keys in a week or so. Also, the security keys were more expensive. Oops.

While at Menards, I hit up the automotive section. The car needed floor mats, so I got some of those. I also got some cleaning supplies, especially disinfectant. I’m a bit of a germaphobe, so driving somebody else’s car creeps me out a bit. It would be a while before the car was “mine” with all my personal germs as the primary grossness.

By this time, it was getting late. I thought about swinging by a drive-through for supper, but I didn’t want to put my food on the seats of the car. I wasn’t worried about the seats; I was still creeped out about other people’s germs. Instead, I just drove the thing home and parked it in front of the house.

The whole idea of buying an older, cheaper car is that the money can then be spent on getting everything fixed. If you buy a used car, you can’t be sure about any of the parts or fluids. If all your money goes into the purchase of the car, you don’t have money for things that may or may not break. If you buy a cheap car, you can take it to the shop and just have everything replaced. It may not be less expensive than the other car by the time it all adds up, but you know all the parts and fluids are new.

The next step, then, was getting the car into the shop and getting everything worked on.