Dissapointed in Dallas. Yesterday somewhat sucked.... I'm wagonless today.

This a tough call, because I know you really like the car.
And the seller seems to be very honest and willing to make it right.
I'd be suspicious.
Like Fat Tedy said, I advise that you take the money while you can and keep looking.
I would be wondering if his mechanic buddy steam cleaned a junkyard transmission and slapped it in.....
Maybe he isn't as honest as the seller seems to be.
Here's what I'm seeing in my mind:
Seller: "I need a transmission rebuild so I can sell this car."
"My wife hates it."
"Don't spend too much money."
Mechanic: "ok, I get you, no problem."

 

I'm guessing it's a loose module connector.

 

Give it another try - could be something simple - stuff happens. $2650 - how wrong could you go?

 

It's so easy to believe that folks are trying to pull the wool over your eyes, there is so much more on the line to trust that someone is being an up front , honest good guy.


Hell of a story, hope there is a happy ending whatever you decide. Good luck.

 

Great story. I think I'd be tempted to try it again. When you said the steering wheel shows red and no black in the non-leather part, that hits home. I know my roady was very well taken care of and it spent its whole life in a garage, but I've still got the black showing thru. Somebody must have taken good care of the one you're looking at. Also, you gotta love the burgundy leather. I think the seats in the 95 are like my 94. If they are, you just can't beat 'em.

I was in California a couple of days this week for work and needed a rental. I got a brand new Ford Focus. It drove home to me how superior and timeless the design of the old roadmasters is. It's great to own a real car that was built by texans and that somebody put some real thought into. The focus was like driving a toy. no power and tons of road noise. If its like that new, imagine what it'll be like when it reaches old age like our wagons. I'm thinking it will be pretty much crapped out. I couldn't wait to get back to FL and climb into the pure comfort and power of my roady. It really makes me appreciate good design. The dash,
radio control, climate control, guage cluster, all of it was horrendous in the Ford. And in the roady it's so logical. From the twilight sentinels, to the cornering headlights, cruise control, climate and radio controls- everything's perfect. I have no doubt that my 19 year old roadmaster is a much better car than that brand new ford.

The fact that your engine has the cobbed modification with a hockey puck would worry me a little bit. I really haven't seen any home-plate delete modification that looks good. I actually like the look of home-plate and first base. When you clean up the whole engine bay and spray it all down with aerospace 33, it looks great. Especially first base and home plate. The " 33" keeps all the flexible stuff nice and pliable. And everything shines. I did stick a k&n filter in mine, but its in the stock air box so it still looks bone stock. No ugly modification. I think it did add a little pep, but it's hard to say. She's always been smooth and powerful. Paper filter or k&n. I guess if you still have all yor stuff, you can bring it back to stock.

One thing seems obvious to me. You won't be happy until you get another roady. Sounds like the one in dallas is just about there. I'm sure I'd be the same way if I lost mine. I'd be scouring craigslist everyday for another. It is important to lock one up. They aren't making 'em anymore. I sometime think I need to get another one to hold in reserve.

 

For what it is worth Mike, here's my thoughts:

- Any automotive repair (heck, any repair) can fail if something is not done correctly. It can be something very simple, it can be something significant, regardless, if the person who did the work stands behind it and fixes it, then you are out some time and effort but you get a working part/car.

- You like the car, you like most of the things about it, the few things you identified as needing work are all cosmetics and things you can do on a limited budget and as time permits.

- The transmission issue might be one of the reasons the engine felt so bogged down. Just a thought. You need to drive it after it is repaired to do a before/after comparison.

- Will the tranny guy give you a written guarantee that he will repair it, he doesn't need to mention any pricing, just that he will provide warranty service on your transmission for X period of time. That would be nice to have in hand, but it sounds as though the seller will go to bat for you down the road if you stay in touch with him on a friendly basis.

- The seller sounds like one of us - he stands behind what he says.

- You need to decide if, for that kind of money, you could find a replacement. This one seemed to fit all your wants - well, most of them, and you will have some loot left over for other things should something pop up.

- Replacement/rebuilt transmissions are no longer tons of money. If you get two or three years out of it and it needs to be replaced so be it. In the end you get the car you want, otherwise in really decent shape.

- Just one other thought - those lights being dim - what could cause that? Would that be something else expensive or lots of work that would cause you to rethink the purchase?

Just my thoughts for what they are worth. If this were me and I found a car that met 95% of my "must have's", I'd be sorely tempted to take the chance. But that is me, with a different budget and fewer commitments than you have so if it breaks I can and would just fix it and for almost anything do it myself. The important thing to me is getting the car that I want, the rest of it I can deal with as it happens.

 

Let's look at this logically, first. $2,650 is a HELL of a good deal on the car, and it is what you really want, in the right colour, with the right equipment, and in good shape. What is wrong are simple cosmetics. The twilight sentinel could be a simple as the sensor being dirty. It happens that they get more sensitive with age unless you clean them. Worst case scenario, the transmission is pooched, and it needs a rebuild. I'm guessing that a good, quality rebuild is going to run about $1,500 at the outside. Say another $500 for the cosmetics, plus $600 for a set of tires. That puts you around $5,200 all in. If the car were already in your kind of shape, would you be willing to spend $5,200 to buy it? If so, then the answer is grab the deal, and fix the old girl as you go. If not, then let her go and keep hunting up another one that is not gold. After all, you do have to remember the car is coming up on 20 years old, and there are always issues with any car that age when the use pattern changes. They need some time and attention to help with the transition. Personally, if the total cost is within budget, I would not think twice about it. I'd keep the car that I want, and deal with the issues as they arise. With each repair I make, the car gets closer to what I want it to be.

Good luck with the wagon hunt, no matter what you decide.

Michael.

 

Thanks for all the points.

As for the dash lights being dim, the Twilight Sentinal is stuck on. I figured that out on my test drive. With the sentianl on, the headlights come on as soon as the car is started, which dims the readouts on the radio and climate control. When I turned the sentinal off, the headlights went out and the readouts on the dash came back bright to their daytime brightness. I could turn the headlights on manually with the pull knob (even though that's a hardship in a Roadmaster...ahaha).

My guess is the light sensor up on the dashboard defroster vent has failed. I've never replaced one, but that would make sense if the car thinks it's dark outside when it's not. I hope that's not hard to replace...should be able to find them in the salvage yards...there are tons of Roady sedans in the yards here...

-Mike

 

Spoke to the seller twice yesterday, and $2600 is his bottom-line price. He was cool about it, but said he knows once it's fixed that $2600 is a great price for that car. The car was towed back to Greenville yesterday and the transmission is already out of the car.

The mechanic is going to "fix" whatever is wrong with the trans. I have not spoken to him personally yet, so don't know if he'll step up to the plate on some kind of further warranty, or what.

Oh and one of my local car forum guys sent me the name of a guy up in Grand Prairie (Dallas Suburb) that rebuilt his transmission and it's worked great. Spoke to him and he quoted me $575 for a complete rebuild with converter, and $865 total installed if he does all the work. He gives a 3yr/36K warranty in writing. That's pretty tempting, but again, this would be a "I know a guy..." job. Ha!

Lastly, the guy that bought my OCC has a complete '93 Roady wagon rear axle from a tow-pack posi car, 3.23 gearing, that was "gone through", and he wants $350 for it. I'd order up a set of those Moog variable-rate springs from Rock Auto and some KYB's, and just knock all that out at once at Truong's shop...but then have to find someone here to "tune" the car for speedo and shifting with the 3.23's. I don't have a local "in" for that job. Hmm.

I do not think the Buick seller hot-rodded or mistreated that car. He really seems like a stand-up guy who is really sorry for the issue. In speaking to him, I brought up how dirty the car was under the hood, and he said he was told to never clean under the hood because it could destroy the distributor (ha!). He said the previous owner did live out in the country, so a lot of that is just Texas dirt roads. He and his wife have used this car as their main daily driver for the last 20K miles. They drove it to Illinois and Indiana, and other then the water pump and the issue with the pass-key, it was dead reliable...until the transmission issues happened.

He said driving home one day he heard a growling under the car, and that's when he took it to his mechanic first, and was told there was a problem inside the transmission. He got the car back, and it was quiet and seemed fine, but soon after it started slipping, and he had it towed back to his maechanic, who told him the issue was "something to do with the planetary gears", and that's when he had it rebuilt to the tune of $1500. He got it back and he said it drove fine, but his wife wanted a new vehicle, so they bought the Ram, and put the wagon on Craigslist.

The motor seems to run just fine. The door panels do not rattle when you close them (the ones on my '96 did, nice change!), and the inside just needs a good cleaning and detailing. The exterior paint, other than the scuff on the rear bumper and the various pecs on the hood, is pretty much perfect, and the car has zero rust anywhere under it. In the owner's manual it was sold through Southwest Buick, there in Greenville Texas, so the car has been in that little town since brand new.

For the power issue, to be more specific, the car does not move out very fast from a dead stop, but as soon as it shifted out of first, it takes off just fine, but then seems to strain to reach Texas highway speeds in overdrive....70-80. When it downshifted to passing gear it had ok power, but just felt like it was straining on the highway in overdrive 4th if you wanted to go faster or go up an incline. It had to downshift...my '96 tow-pack car never ever felt strained on the road. That's gearing, right folks?

Never a dull moment!

-Mike

 

Thank you again for all the comments folks. I'm reading them all and weighing my options. I appreciate your comments.

I JUST spoke to the seller again, and the mechanic is saying the 3rd and 4th clutch pack failed...he thinks. Hahaha. Man. The seller said for what he paid that should have been replaced last time, and now says he wishes he'd had the car towed to Dallas and had AAMCO or someone do the work. That didn't give me a lot of confidence.

He's going to have the mechanic call me on Monday, after he has the transmission fully diagnosed. Told me to "hang loose".

-Mike

 

I have a friend that rebuilds transmissions. He starts at 8 am, and has them out and apart by noon. Calls for the parts that arrive by UPS the next morning, and the car is together and running by that night. Some mechanics can do good fast work, and others take a long time and don't do good work at all. Hopefully, the guy working on your car isn't one of the slow ones that take their time, because they don't know what they are doing. Rebuilding transmissions is an "art", and if you do them all the time, you get it right every time. If you do it occasionally, and don't develop the skill level, then it takes you longer to do, and the results are not as good. This can be summed up in one word... experience!!!

 

Offer $2000 and show up with a trailer. This is a great trans and an easy rebuild.

 

Well I'm now officially wagonless. Seller and mechanic got into it. Car is torn apart now. Seller is going on a 10-day trip starting next Friday, and there is no chance the car will be back together before he leaves now.
He told me he would no longer feel right about selling it to me, even if it does get done when he's back. Said he's going to drive it for a while once it's back together before listing it again, and that he wished me the best.
Ok then.
I think after work I'm going to go stand in the guy that bought my OCC's driveway and cry...there is nothing worse than seeing a fat man cry..ahaha. Maybe he'll give me my car back.

I'm going to sign off for a while... You all have a good weekend.

-Mike

 

So sorry, Mike. But there is another excellent Roadmaster out there for you, so don't despair. Try to have a good weekend anyway.

David

 

X2..... Sorry Mike, but I think in time you are going to realize, "Man I'm glad that wagon never happened"