New winter car

[DAVES89]

After selling my '88 Black to 2 seater's son I was without a winter car. My original thought was just to drive the Red until January [it has "Collector" plates which are 11 month plates and cannot be used in January] and then park it as we winter in Texas staring in February. I could have waited a year as so far our winter has been very mild and we leave the 10 of January for an extended vacation to Asia to celebrate our upcoming 45th wedding anniversary. 

But I digress. 

I cannot drive the Red in the winter. It has been my all time favorite car and I refuse to chance driving it in snow/winter/salt especially with the liquid deicer they now spray on the roads.

So the search was on.

My mom owned a 2001 Supercharged Buick Regal. I drove it a couple of times and liked the ride. She no longer has the car, so I started looking for one and just picked up a 1999 Regal, red in color, light gray interior with a sun roof. There is no rust on the car which has 98,000 miles. I believe it was used a a summer car for the owners who wintered in a warmer state. It does not have the supercharger which is fine by me as I don't like the price difference on the gas price because of the miles I still drive in my business.

 I bought it in Detroit and drove it back to Wisconsin. That's about 500 miles and I got a good feel for the car. It is pretty comfortable, has good power, but does not have some of the creature comforts I expected. Has dual heat, but not heated seats. Cabin storage for "things" is not as much as I expected. However I bought the car for winter driving and it will fit the bill nicely.  

[DAVES89]

After driving the Regal for about 3 weeks and a bit over 1000 miles I have had to do some "fine tuning". Started with an Idle Air Control, Then on to a Mass Air Flow sensor. Then yesterday I stopped in at Gibson's a local You Pick yard to get a back up battery. [This was after lunch with 2 Seater] Came out to the car and it wouldn't start. It would grind but not start. So I first checked fuel pressure, that was good. Then said to myself " Either Ignition Module or Crank Sensor". The obvious easy answer was to start with the ignition module. I know I was at Gibson's but I had a back up in the car [always carry extra parts and tools]. Had it swapped out in about 15 minutes. Hit the key and it started.

I decided that I needed to do a tune up and checked my inventory of Reatta replacement parts. The Regal is a Series 2 so I knew the Delco upgrade I had done on the Reatta would give me pretty much what I needed.

 I checked online for spark plug wire length and plug number and checked what I had in inventory. Sure enough I had a wire set that was close in lengths and the correct number plugs [#14]. 

 Called up Kendall [my mechanic friend] and invited myself over for a tune up party. Plugs and wires and clean up the plate under the ignition module. About an hour later the old original plug wires [in poor shape] and the old plugs [badly worn] were out and the new ones were in.

Drive home was much better as the acceleration was noticeably improved.

[DAVES89]

Yesterday with nothing else to do I decoded I would revisit the failed original ignition module and coils that were in the Regal. I cleaned up the plate [top and bottom] of the ignition module, got 2 coils from the parts bin to replace the old rusted ones and reinstalled them. The Regal started easily, ran good when revved with no load, then I took it out on the highway where it performed flawlessly. Got back home put one Delco setup in the Reatta for emergency repairs and another in the Regal. No more left in the parts bin but that's okay as they are now where I may need them.

[2seater]

And, Dave gave me two complete Magnavox coil/ICM setups as spares for my sons two cars. Can't beat that with a stick👍

Mine runs the Delco style. 

[DAVES89]

Lately I have been having an intermittent ignition failure where the engine would die while I was driving. On attempting the second start [after playing Pickleball] I had a total failure.  As most know I carry extra parts and 15 minutes later I had the pretested Ignition Module/Coil Pack installed. I believe the failure was the Ignition Module, the original one to the car. I had thrown away the old coils as the terminals were badly rusted/corroded, but I reused the ignition module. That got thrown away too. I then went to a You Pick yard and got another Ignition Module/Coil Pack and installed it taking the prior spare and once again put it in the trunk as back up.

While I had a break down I was not stranded as I carry both tools and tested parts. To me this is a requirement when one attempts to drive 25 year old [and older] cars on a daily basis.

[Ronnie]

I still carry my tools and test equipment in the 25 year old car I have now but I don't know what parts to carry at this point. I put the old belt in the toolbox when I installed a new one but that's it so far. Maybe a MAF would be good to have. I guess a cellphone and a AAA card are the best things I can carry that will help me get back home if I break down.

[ship]

13 hours ago, Ronnie said:

...... I guess a cellphone and a AAA card are the best things I can carry that will help me get back home if I break down.

Those two items saved my butt in 2014 in the middle of eastern CO when my '92 Riviera's transmission decided to let go.

[DAVES89]

I'm going to get an alternator and serpentine belt and have them in the trunk as well. Thinking about a crank sensor also. Don't believe I need a MAF sensor as I replaced that with a new one about 3 months ago.