ongoing saga of our '95 Buick Century

[davidfcooper]

The garage guy across the street's suggestion to remedy the stalling when the car idles that first appeared during our Bronx Zoo visit didn't work, so I took the car to our other garage guy in Park Slope who decided the problem was not the on board computer but rather a filthy fuel filter. So we headed out to my parents in Westchester on Sunday with a new clean fuel filter, and the car ran quite well on the trip up. The visit was fine (though my mom invited way too many people, and my dad is still in much pain & discomfort), but on the way home on the BQE in Queens the same thing that happened on the Bronx River Parkway in June reoccurred, but now I doubt it was ever a transmission problem. Again, I managed to get from the far left lane into the far right lane & finally the end of an entrance ramp where I turned the car off and then a moment later restarted it. At first it would not go in Drive, so I got us going in third and then shifted into drive and drove home without further problems. According to our garage guys it now appears that we have a fuel pump that occasionally overheats. Several garages wanted btw $400-450 to install a new one, btw I found one from Rock Auto for $111 (+$28 overnight delivery) which our Park Slope garage guy will install for $222. It's cheaper than replacing the car, but at some point we will have to decide how much more $ to put into this old Buick.

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I suspect your mechanic is "Easter-egging"--replacing parts until the car works.

A plugged fuel filter usually manifests itself as a car that'll idle fine but won't go fast, e.g. on the highway, or won't accelerate quickly when you stomp on the gas pedal. Ditto for a bad fuel pump. I'm not sure about your Buick but most modern fuel pumps use the fuel as a cooling agent, which means that you greatly shorten its life if you run out of gas. (Have you ever run out of gas in this car?)

What year car is this? With a modern car that won't idle, the first thing I'd do is check the engine computer for any malfunction codes. Has the "Check Engine" or "Service Engine Soon" light come on recently? (Even if it went out again?)

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

(Have you ever run out of gas in this car?)

We've never run out of gas. The lowest we've ever gotten was 1/8 of a tank.

What year car is this?...Has the "Check Engine" or "Service Engine Soon" light come on recently? (Even if it went out again?)


It's a 1995, and the service engine soon light has not come on lately.

[richardf8]

Rock Auto, if you'll forgive the pun, rocks.

That's where I got the Master Cylinder that finally worked for Morgan's car.