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Buick Park Avenue Maintenance & Repair

460 messages,  Last post on Apr 19, 2013 at 9:03 AM

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Messages Page 18 of 47

#163 of 460 Need a tune up by dtracy66

Jul 25, 2008 (5:49 pm)

Hi guys,
My 2000 Park Ave is sputtering and it looks like I need a tune up! The quotes I have received for the work are incredible so I'd like to do it myself. Does anyone have instructions on how to replace the coils, wires and plugs and any other useful info I can use when embarking on this project on my own!

#164 of 460 Re: Need a tune up [dtracy66] by imidazol97

Jul 25, 2008 (6:30 pm)

Replying to: dtracy66 (Jul 25, 2008 5:49 pm)
It would be better to diagnose what's causing the sputtering before hanging parts. Guessing can be expensive.
 
Tell us about the car and when it does what!

#165 of 460 Re: Need a tune up [imidazol97] by dtracy66

Jul 26, 2008 (3:17 pm)

Replying to: imidazol97 (Jul 25, 2008 6:30 pm)
Well I had a co worker who is ASE certified look at it. No diagnostic but he suggested getting the coils replaced as two of them are definitely miss firing. We can see the blackening of the towers so we think that a replacement of the coils wires and plugs along with a new air filter would do the trick. I am no mechanic, however; I am pretty good with my hands and have a general knowledge of autos. I just wanted some feed back from the forum about the best way to go about it. Any info about how to go about it would be useful. We also can hear the coils arcing so we pretty much think that is the problem. I have just never changed the coils in this car or any car for that matter so I am not sure about the rings my co-worker told me about within the coils. I dont want to mess the car up it is a great car with a lot of miles on it, about 200k. Never had a problem out of it and dont want anything expensive to go wrong with it.

#166 of 460 Re: Need a tune up [dtracy66] by imidazol97

Jul 26, 2008 (4:16 pm)

Replying to: dtracy66 (Jul 26, 2008 3:17 pm)
If you can hear a spark jumping gap inside the coils that's a good sign they need replacing. At 200K I'd do them all.
 
IF your spark plugs and plug wires aren't less than 70K miles old, they need replacing with original equipment quality--for the plugs use the correct AC/Delco plugs recommended in the book. Weak wires and plugs can affect the coils and make them go out from the extra load of firing the plugs through the poor conductor in the wires. The iridium plugs that AC should have in there are meant for 100K and do that easily. You can judge when you take them out.
 
If I recall the coils just unscrew with two screws. Be sure to clean the contact area on the plate under them and use dielectric grease there.
 
You might check the coils with resistance meters. Your problem could be all in the wires if they've been on a long time. Depends on how much you want to spend. The crossfiring on them may be because of the wires not carrying the current they produce easily.
 
Keep the oil changed regularly. Check the transmission fluid to keep it drained and a filter replaced IF it has been maintained all along. If it hasn't let it go. Do not allow anyone to sell you a transmission flush.
  
Let us know how it works out for you.

#167 of 460 2000 Buick Park Avenue -- quits while driving by jakej_mn

Aug 01, 2008 (6:04 pm)

I have a 2000 Park with 95000 miles. It has been an excellent car with few maintenance problems. Lately, while driving the engine will die for no apparent reason. I just shift to neutral and then it starts up again. This has happened about 4 or 5 times now in the last 1500 miles. Any clues. Thanks.

#168 of 460 Re: 2000 Buick Park Avenue -- quits while driving [jakej_mn] by bowfan

Aug 01, 2008 (7:52 pm)

Replying to: jakej_mn (Aug 01, 2008 6:04 pm)
I'd say the odds are about 100 to 1 that the crankshaft position sensor is going out on you. It is sometimes abbreviated as a CKP sensor. This happened to my father's 2001 and another symptom it would show was the tachometer would drop to zero. I drove his 2001 for a while as I tried a couple things to diagnose it. Typically, if I was driving over 50mph when it happened, it would just kill the tach but the engine might keep going, and the performance would decline - engine would ping and "service engine soon" light might indicate a problem code. If I was driving under 50mph, it would sometimes just kill the tach, but would also frequently kill the engine.
 
Someone in New Jersey tabulated the failure of the CKPs and if I remember correctly, there was a batch of them manufactured during a portion of 2000 that were 4 times more likely to fail than other dates.
 
My father followed up on a lot of advice, replaced numerous sensors that were supposed to be grounding the computer, or indicating a high temp to the computer. But when he finally broke down and replaced the CKP, the problem went away. The part costs about $25-30 at Advance and he had a small front yard mechanic install his for about $50. Most won't install it that cheap, it is about an hour to hour and a half job to replace it.
 
He's happy with it now, and feels comfortable driving it on 2,000 mile trips again. He just got back from one.
 
You can search the net and find some people have sites that have pics from when they changed their's out. Very common engine. The service manual says you need to have the computer 'relearn' something when you replace the CKP, but I'm pretty sure this guy never did that. When I've replace the CKP on other model cars, there was never a 'relearning'. Just install and go.
 
If you have your CKP replaced and that fixes it, please write back for future readers.

#169 of 460 1996 PA Warning light by dkaiser1

Aug 10, 2008 (9:21 am)

The dash warning lights for the ABS system and Tractkion Controll Off lights come on and remain on when the vehicle ist started. If I turn the engine off they go out about half the time. Any suggestions at to what the problem may be

#170 of 460 Re: 2000 Buick Park Avenue -- quits while driving [bowfan] by jakej_mn

Aug 12, 2008 (4:17 pm)

Replying to: bowfan (Aug 01, 2008 7:52 pm)
Thanks for the info. It was a great starting point. We did check the crankshaft sensor and found it to be OK. I was also told sometimes the waterpump can leak and short this sensor out, but we found no leaks.
However, something I didn't think about was checking the fuses. I had a bad key chip and thought the problem might be in the ingnition switch even after buying new keys. What I found was that over time the fuses had vibrated part way out with the ingnition fuse the furthest out. These were tightened and so far I have had no further problems. Thanks again.

#171 of 460 95 buick park avenue by fohlen

Aug 13, 2008 (6:53 am)

the 95 buick was missing so took it to repair place and they replaced plugs wires fuel filter and flushed trany fluid and cleaned the fuel injectors. it has 57,000 original miles on it and it was getting 20miles to gallon after tuneup it now get 15.79 per gallon or 16 miles only what could be wrong? Thanks shirley

Messages Page 18 of 47

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