Videokarma.org

Go Back   Videokarma.org TV - Video - Vintage Television & Radio Forums > Things with Motors

We appreciate your help

in keeping this site going.
 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
  #1  
Old 03-04-2017, 07:41 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
Banned
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Elkhart, Indiana
Posts: 1,189
2003 Buick Regal LS

Hello everyone, this past November I bought from a local used car lot a 2003 Buick Regal LS that pretty much has almost all of the bells and whistles that a Buick could have except for dual power seats and the power seat it does have is only a 6-way instead of an 8-way like you would normally have on power seats.
Anyways when I got the car the dealership I got it from had taken the car into Wally World (Wal-Mart) to have the oil changed and sure enough the morons at Wally World over filled the engine with oil by over a quart (the engine calls for 4 1/2 quarts of 10W30 oil and they filled it with about 5 1/2 quarts of oil) which resulted in my engine burning off the excess oil and making the mechanic I took the car to to get it checked out at think it had a leaking valve cover gasket even though it didn't.
Another issue with the car when I got it was that apparently the previous owners of the car had a minor accident with the car which resulted in them having to replace part of the front end and the driver side headlamp assembly.
Anyways when they did this body work on the car they did a very poor job at it because first of all they got the wrong headlamp assembly for the car (they got the headlamp assembly off of a base model Buick Century that was 2 years older than my car because it doesn't fit quite right plus it doesn't have the curb-light which the original headlamp assembly on the passenger side does and even the original window sticker for the car specifically says that the car came with curb-lights).
Then the other thing that wasn't done right with the body work on the car was that the mounting bracket for the grille on the car was busted and never replaced so the grille didn't even sit right on the car, and then when they put the fenders back onto the front of the car after replacing the grille they didn't put the passenger side front fender on quite right because there is a huge gap between the fender and the hood on the passenger side compared to the driver side.
All of these cosmetic issues are easy enough to fix because my dad has some experience with body work but its just the idea that you would of thought that the previous owners would of done a better job at the body work on this car, especially if they knew they were going to sell it/trade it off.
Another thing is that the previous owners of the car were apparently extremely rough with the console of the car because the cup holder in the console was completely busted and the woodgrained trim around the shifter was busted off, and also the driver side heated seat seems to have some issues as well.

Like I said all of the issues with this car are all cosmetic issues which can easily be repaired (and some of them have already been repaired like the mounting bracket for the grille), but other than that the car is a nice solid car with no rust (which is nice compared to my old car which was more or less a rust-bucket).

And now for the major issue for this car which is actually a fairly minor issue but the repair shop is making a bigger issue out of it than it needs to be, and that is the catalytic converter.
Now supposedly from what I've read online about the catalytic converter is that its supposed to last your car its entire life (which the car has 108,000) and the Service Engine Soon light came on a couple of days after I bought the car.
So I took the car to Autozone and had them run a code check on the car and their scan indicated a bad catalytic converter, but from what I read is that the same code for the catalytic converter is also thrown for a bad rear oxygen sensor (which is on the catalytic converter).
So when I took the car into the mechanic to have a bad wheel bearing replaced he also checked the code for the service engine soon light, and sure enough it threw the same code as it did for Auto Zone and they said that it was because the rear oxygen sensor was bad, and they said that they always have a hard time replacing the rear oxygen sensor because supposedly it gets seized onto the catalytic converter to the point that it can't be removed, so he said that because of that he just recommends replacing the whole catalytic converter assembly and being done with it because that way you get a new oxygen sensor in the process as well as a new catalytic converter and you don't have to worry about anything failing for a long time.
The only problem I see with that fix is that replacing the catalytic converter is $800 plus labor when a simple rear oxygen sensor is only $100 and then to replace that if one can find a mechanic brave enough to attempt the replacement is only $200 including the labor, which is way less than what my mechanic is recommending.

What do you guys think? Is my mechanic right in recommending the replacement of the whole catalytic converter or is he full of hot air, and just wanting to make a quick buck?

Also just so you know this Buick does have the famous 3800 V6 in it that GM is known for and that is known for lasting over 300,000 miles before needing any major work done to it.

Thanks for your help and for any tips or advice you may have for me.

Levi
 


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:19 PM.



Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
©Copyright 2012 VideoKarma.org, All rights reserved.