When I first got the Buick LeSabre, I took it to my regular shop to be inspected. This is the place where I’ve gotten all my work done through several cars now. It is also a tire shop and I get all my tires there. Their inspection of the tires showed plenty of tread depth and no obvious damage. That wasn’t the whole story though.
I took the Buick for a drive in the middle of January. It’s good for every car to get out once in a while to keep the fluids moving. As I drove along, another driver at the light told me my front, passenger-side tire was low. Thanks, other driver.
Since I was headed to the convenience store a couple of blocks away, I figured I could use their air pump. That worked well; I got the tires aired up.
The car wouldn’t start. The dash lit up, but there was no sound from the starter. I did all I could do, which wasn’t much, and then had the car towed home.
Resolved to the fact that I would have to pay to have more repairs done, I decided they would wait for a better budget period. I had just put brand new tires on my KIA, as well as a tie rod end. Besides, with warmer weather, eventually, I might be able to figure something out.
To start, I put the battery on the charger. It’s best to have a fully charged battery for these sorts of things. That didn’t do it.
My research, such as it was, said that if the car loses power for too long it may throw off the key-based security system. If that happened, you needed to go through the half-hour retraining sequence to adapt your keys to the system. It didn’t seem like the issue, but it was a cheap thing to check. No luck.
I had just resolved to have the car towed to the shop; it wasn’t doing any good as lawn art. First, I had some work to get down.
In many cases, I make videos for use by my students in the classes. One of my tasks that night was to upload a video to YouTube. The YouTube page opened up and, among their suggestions, was a video for a 2004 Buick LeSabre, just one year earlier than mine. The video was about the car not starting and how the guy did the troubleshooting. Since the video was only six minutes long, I decided to watch.
Though the starter issue in the video was different from mine, the troubleshooting involved a step I had missed. There is a circuit breaker for the starter motor in one of the scattered fuse boxes in the car. The video guy said you could test it by replacing it with a spare or just swapping with one of the breakers for the fan motors.
I ran out to the car and performed the test.
The Buick started right up.
I made a quick run to the parts store and bought a new circuit breaker. They only had one, so I had to get a spare several days later.
With the car running, I took it for a quick test drive. The handling seemed soft, so I figured the cold weather had softened the tires again.
As I got to the convenience store, the handling grew worse. I got to the air pump to find that it had no power. Worse, the driver’s side front tire was completely flat. The passenger side was almost as bad.
I called a tow truck again, this time just to air up the tires. Yep, I’ve been adding these tow charges to the cost of the car and the budget is not happy. Anyway, they aired up the tires and it seemed to hold. I had the tow truck stick around to make sure the car would start.
Once home, I decided to see how long the tires would hold air. By after work the next day, the driver’s side tire was completely flat and the passenger side was low.
The spare, one of those donuts, was also low on air. It requires sixty pounds. My home compressor could only get it to forty. That wasn’t safe to drive on, but it might hold the car up. I swapped it with the driver’s side front tire. Then I took the flat to the tire shop.
The tire shop guy called a short time later. There were no punctures or anything he could fix. The date code on the tire said it was fifteen years old and the insides were falling apart from just rot.
All the tires on the car looked the same. If that one was in bad shape, all of them were. They would need to be replaced.
They got that one fixed. I picked it up and put it on the car. Then I took the front, passenger-side tire in. Same story, it was too old. They replaced that one. Bringing that one home, I got it onto the car as well.
Because of the size of the tires, they didn’t have any more in stock. They ordered a couple more for the rear wheels. When it came time, I drove the Buick to the shop to swap those out. I also had them inspect and inflate the donut.
All four came out to a little over four-hundred bucks. At least they’re safe to drive on now. I joked with the tire guys that the car should be set for another fifteen years.
With safe tires and a spare circuit breaker, I took the car to the car wash (which it needed) and short drive in the country. The handling and ride were much better with the new tires. I hadn’t realized how soft the ride had been; or just assumed it was part of the “luxury” of the car.
I got the car home and parked. This time, I left the battery connected to see if I got the key set correctly so the battery won’t be drained. With any luck, when I go to start it next time, there won’t be any issues.
We’ll see.