Repair-It

I bought this for a Best Offer of $1500:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1998-Buick-Rivi ... 2348290377

We successfully retrieved it yesterday. The only incident was during a WOT on-ramp, a noticeable exhaust leak developed. More on that later. Also, at highway speed, it is faster than Kevin's Caprice during a 1.7 second race.

The car was owned by a smoker, but as far as smoker cars go, it was fairly clean. The owner claimed that he always changed the oil every 3000 miles and never let it get low. The oil change sticker on the window shows it is nearly 6000 miles into this oil change and the level is down nearly a quart.

I did some checkout yesterday and some cleaning. So far I've found:
- For sale signs with the price listed at $1800 "FIRM"
- Every cigarette wrapper ever
- A functioning lighter
- $2.71 in change, including a $1 coin
- Various bezels for the front seats
- A bungee cord
- I'm going to have to remove the front seats to get the carpet clean. There is a lot of ash where the shop vac won't fit.
- This car has an OEM in-dash 6-disc CD player. It isn't a changer, there are 6 slots for CDs to be inserted. I will grab a shot of it later.

The car has all the features, nearly all of which work so far. The only things that don't work are the power sunroof and the driver's seat power lumbar adjustment. The speakers work, but are terrible. Even though this car has only 126K, it is a 90's GM so many parts of the interior are ruined.

The door appears to have been taken apart by a teenager who didn't have access to a screwdriver. The speakers don't work because the foam surround is missing. Fortunately, I have the random aftermarket door speakers that came out of the Fleetwood on hand still. Random things that weren't/aren't right:
- The gas door didn't shut right. Amanda bent the latch back to the intended position and now it's fine.
- The rearview mirror was wobbly. I pushed it all the way down on the metal thing. Fixed forever.
- The wood-grain laminate around the shifter is all cracked and terrible. I removed the loose pieces. Now it's fine.
- There is an unknown tape jammed into the tape player. I'll post after I remove it. Ed has his old non-CD in-dash tape player from the RMW so I may switch to that for AUX-in.
- The Riviera badge is missing from the trunk lock. It was in the console, so I'll reattach it with some glue or double-sided tape or something.
- The clearcoat is cracked on every panel. Oh well. It's beige so you can only tell when you get close to it.
- Only the panic button works on the remote. There is a procedure to re-sync the remote to the car when that happens. I will try that later.
- It needs one or more engine/transmission mounts. There is a bit of a clunk going in and out of gear.
- Some bulbs were failed.
- The rear license plate light is no longer attached for some reason. I need to look into that.
- The OBD connector under the dash is hanging. Someone was a little rough when connecting their tool?
- The rear seat bottom wasn't properly attached. Also, the battery lives under the rear seat. I cleaned all that and properly attached the seat. I even pulled all the seat belt buckles up through it!
- There is a bit of rust on the bottom of the car at the A-pillar. I'm going to clean this up and treat it. Should be fine.
- The alignment is off. It still tracks straight by the front tires are worn on the outer edges. I will probably get tires since they also have noticeable dry rot.

The exhaust system is still the factory "mostly stainless" system. I've attempted to fix the muffler seam that blew out with some muffler paste. I'll see how that went a little later today. See if you can tell what's wrong with this picture (besides the engine cover being missing): Can you see it?

If you said "the intake tube isn't properly seated on the air filter housing", you win! I fixed it after vacuuming all the dust and acorns out of the air box.

Other plans:
- Oil change
- Trans filter and fluid
- Check brakes (it stops fine)
- Clean IAC valve and passage. The MAF insert is clean.
- Plugs were supposedly replaced last year. Need to pull one to assess their condition.
- Check fuel trims

Kevin grabbed a pic of the SPID. Can you post it here? I can grab a shot later if needed.

This car wins some superlatives for me:
- First supercharged engine.
- Newest GM.
- Most features (there are more than the Fleetwood or the SC400).
- First car with power lumbar adjustment.
- First Buick.

SPID Adding to things that don't work:
- Passenger power lock solenoid did not respond to lock or unlock commands
- I am not sure the passenger heated seat worked but I did not try it on low

I did not try the passenger side zone climate control. That is pretty early for dual zone (GM did it as early as 95/96 or so - I think you pretty much need a 7-series or S-class to compare).

The rear seat is cramped. No head room or legroom.

Other hilarity: I asked if the A/C worked. He reported dutifully that it is ice cold. It was like 20 degrees when we were looking at the car. I realized the poor timing of my question and the obvious inability to verify his claim.

I do like the car though, since I like big cars. I did some oil research. A good choice seems to be Pennzoil Platinum 5W-30 if you want to run synthetic. I don't know why you wouldn't. Pennzoil Platinum is widely regarded as superior to M1, FWIW.

If you take care of the car now as you are planning, there is no reason it couldn't go right to 200k. Not bad for a $1,500 car. A fancy $1,500 car, too. GM wasn't winning a lot of magazine articles in the 90s but those same cars tend to be pretty solid used car values.

I'm going to run a change interval with Castrox GTX and an AC Delco filter to see how quickly it gets dirty. Since it currently has a "ProGuard" oil filter, I doubt the previous owner(s) sprung for synthetic. Switching to synthetic or at least a synthetic blend seems like the right move.

Other stuff:
- Dents in the engine cradle. Must have run over something earlier in its life.
- Needs an oil pan gasket. Itt's not actively running out, but has been slowly leaking for some time.
- Brake lines have been entirely replaced with the coated steel line all the way up to the ABS unit. Score.
- The rear speakers sounded terrible because the clip on one was hanging and the bare wire that runs to the driver itself was making contact with the metal frame of the speaker. I reattached it properly and now it sounds fine. At least as good as a '90's GM 6"x9" can.
- The speakers I recovered from the Fleetwood don't sound much better than the ruined factory speakers (they might have been pre-ruined by the previous owners). I may search for some OEM door speakers. Or not.
- The head unit might be ruined anyway, the highs are really scratchy regardless of which speakers are used. Or maybe an antenna issue?
- My muffler repair job seems to have held. Unfortunately that just means I can hear the leak at the catalytic converter gasket more easily. Need to investigate more.
- Haynes doesn't seem to make a Riviera repair manual. Maybe I can locate a cheap FSM?

Also, I fixed the keyless entry. According to the repair manual, if only the panic works, hold the lock and unlock buttons down for about 8 seconds to re-sync the car and the remote. This works. All remote functions now work.

Adam wrote:I'm going to run a change interval with Castrox GTX and an AC Delco filter to see how quickly it gets dirty. Since it currently has a "ProGuard" oil filter, I doubt the previous owner(s) sprung for synthetic. Switching to synthetic or at least a synthetic blend seems like the right move.

Yeah I would. It will be interesting to chart consumption with regular oil at least.

- Needs an oil pan gasket. Itt's not actively running out, but has been slowly leaking for some time.

If there is no apparent consumption in 3-4k miles, does it still need an oil pan gasket?

- Brake lines have been entirely replaced with the coated steel line all the way up to the ABS unit. Score.

That is awesome. The car is old enough but was also valuable (to a previous owner) to have that problem and also fix it. Perfect part of the depreciation curve for your purposes.

- The speakers I recovered from the Fleetwood don't sound much better than the ruined factory speakers (they might have been pre-ruined by the previous owners). I may search for some OEM door speakers. Or not.

I am just impressed that the front speakers are component from the factory. Then again, maybe it is no different than having A-pillar mounted tweeters. Except they didn't even get that far. Well it's still better than many. Maybe someone makes a plate that can bolt in. Is that a standard form factor? I could check Crutchfield...

- The head unit might be ruined anyway, the highs are really scratchy regardless of which speakers are used. Or maybe an antenna issue?

I don't know if Ed's is actually compatible. It would be weird to have that kind of issue be the head unit.

- My muffler repair job seems to have held. Unfortunately that just means I can hear the leak at the catalytic converter gasket more easily. Need to investigate more.

I don't know if a shop would go to the lengths of actually covering the exhaust at idle and making it pressurize/leak. It may be good enough for inspection as it sits.

- Haynes doesn't seem to make a Riviera repair manual. Maybe I can locate a cheap FSM?

Let me check my database and see if it goes back to 1998. It just may.

It also needs a RH axle (outer boot is torn pretty bad).

The converter leak is a crack in the body that may be partially obscured by the heat shield. I will try muffler paste again and it that doesn't do it, remove the heat shield and do it again. The cat to flex pipe flange is pretty ruined, so it will be terrible to replace if I have to go that route.

Can you just do a CV boot?

kevm14 wrote:Can you just do a CV boot?

Maybe. Not sure how long it has been ripped, the joint might be damaged.

So i guess GM considered it an Aurora coupe rather than a Park Ave coupe. Or something.