This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Buick Lesabre Postmortem
Aug
12
2021
The Buick didn’t quite die, but I pre-emptively sold it to the junkyard. It was a better deal than donating it to charity – if you ever need to get rid of a car, I recommend Wheelzy. I didn’t know it was Wheelzy at first, because it was masquerading as something like Sell Junk Car Lansing dotcom. So many shell sites and phone numbers with any of these junk car places that pretend to be local. But they had the most thorough customer service – between emails and texts there was no way I could not know where I was in the process. But this is supposed to be about the car, not the junkyard.
It was a 2001 Buick Lesabre Custom. I bought it in 2016 with 110,000 miles. It needed a new battery and rear air shocks and front brake pads right away.
The air shocks ended up being bad again in 2020, so I am not a fan of air shocks. If I get a GM car from a similar era, I’ll convert the air shocks to traditional coils rather than fix the air shocks.
Here’s what else needed to go into/onto the Buick to keep it working:
Miles : Item
2016
111k : front engine mount
112k : fuel filter and fuel pressure regulator (cheap, DIY)
113k : fuel pump (not cheap, at shop, before this the engine wouldn’t start if it was warmed up)
116k : new transmission fluid and filter (cheap, DIY, actually made a noticeable difference)
2017
118k : left low beam bulb
120k : right front window regulator ($50, DIY, took a while for this first one)
121k : tie rods, ball joints, and sway bar links (if your wheels make a click when you stop, check your ball joints)
121k : lower intake manifold gasket and valve gasket (emergency repair at shop, $$$)
122k : front struts (dirt roads wear them out)
126k : new thermostat (it was late fall and the engine took forever to get up to temperature, meaning no heat for me)
2018
127k : right low beam bulb
127k : new spark plugs
128k : brake fluid flush (DIY, probably not too thorough but better than nothing)
129k : front rotors
132k : left front window regulator (DIY, about 30 minutes this time
133k : rear brake pads
2019
135k : replace brake tubes (was leaking fluid, all but LF tube were rusted through at some point)
136k : recharge AC
136k : replace alternator (DIY, this is ridiculously easy on this vehicle)
137k : replace one bad ignition coil
137k : replace Ignition Control Module ($40 from junkyard off Ebay, no programming needed)
137k : high beam bulbs (got pulled over and notified one high beam was out, decided to do both at once)
140k : whole new left headlight assembly (necessary because a little old lady misjudged her turning angle in a parking lot)
2020
145k : front brake pads
147k : new wipers
2021
150k : RIP
The steering started getting very loose, it turned out to be a broken rear track bar. But before I replaced that, the right front wheel liner fell off while I was driving. It was caught in something, so I didn’t lose it. When I went to reattach it, I saw the attachment point didn’t exist anymore – it had rusted away.
I had known the bottom of the car was getting rusty, so in the back of my mind I was already starting to weigh the worth of making repairs anymore. Then I couldn’t fix the wheel liner, and when I jacked up the back to look at the track bars something else shifted/broke in the suspension and I knew it was a lost cause.
The car was running fine, it had a lot of good parts. But the body was rusting away so the parts weren’t going to be held together much longer.
Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Woe to the bloody city, To the pot in which there is rust And whose rust has not gone out of it! Take out of it piece after piece, Without making a choice.”
Ezekiel 24:6
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 1:20 pm and has been carefully placed in the Driving category.
August 13th, 2021 at 12:10 am
I just saw a pristine Park Ave in Torrance yesterday. It made me quite wistful. We actually could get it: we’re looking for something that seats six, and technically, it does seat six.
The Park Ave and Le Sabre were the end of, “Buick Best Car.”