It seems like one thing after another with this engine. "We did do the convertible, but the car was not designed as a convertible from the start, and it didn't have the rigidity," said Qualman. From the February 1988 issue of Car and Driver. we were wanting to get the important (mechanical) side done first before moving on to electrical. The Reattas real problem was probably its size. ", More Underappreciated ClassicsFirst-Generation Nissan XterraEagle Talon TSi AWDLincoln Blackwood Pickup (Really). In between his two C/D postings he served as executive editor of Automobile Magazine; was an executive vice president at Campbell Marketing & Communications; worked in GM's product-development area; and became publisher of Autoweek. Red 1988 Buick Reatta Coupe with two doors and a sunroof. Share More sharing options. The touch screen on my 1988 Buick Reatta is not lighting up. So, in 1990 the touchscreen was gone and you could now get your Reatta as a coupe or convertible. You need to be a member in order to leave a comment. (The goal is 15,000 Reattas a year.). Every time I have the car towed it warps the frame so it looks like I'm going to have to learn how to do this myself. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for FRAM Air Filter for 1988-1991 Buick Reatta - Intake Inlet Manifold Fuel ps at the best online prices at eBay! These are two-seaters with the hard sports-car edges polished off and plenty of luxury gear pumped in. The Reatta was also one of the first GM cars to integrate previously separate controls for things like the power windows with the rest of the cars systems through Body Control Modules (common today). It just makes alignment of the parts more difficult and supports nothing. Mileage now at 145k(mostly highway at this point) did a tuneup after timing set replacement, haven't done a compression test yet, and I've been staying within 5 of speed limits. Hello I have a 1988 Buick Reatta that won't start. It attracted younger and import-oriented buyers, as well as women, who represented nearly half of primary drivers. It would tout style and sophistication, manifested in the graceful, unadorned bodywork penned by GMs Advanced Design Studio 2 and (initially) an all-digital dashboard, including one of the very first LCD touchscreens installed in the center stack of an American or any other production car. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Contains hate speech or attacks an individual, Nudity, pornography, or sexually explicit content. Even with the key off there is power being used by the computers. The issue was in the factory power supply to the digital dash. The Reatta would probably have done better if it had been sold under a different label one with a history of personally sized personal luxury cars BMW, for instance. The comment about going through two qts. located in the duct work, on the firewall, passanger side. It may not have been as stylish as the Reatta, but it had more presence. In case you haven't crawled under a Riviera lately, come with us on a quick tour. The mechanic has replaced the compressor. An ASC-designed Convertible version of the Reattawith a vinyl or cloth soft top and glass rear windowwas offered starting in 1990, and the design was improved somewhat for 1991. This meant that the car had to feature decent (but not blistering) performance, along with competent handling and refinement, voluminous cargo space, and a spacious interior. Example: Yes, I would like to receive emails from The American Spectator | USA News and Politics. GM management said to develop something that could compete with the Mercedes SL. Copyright 2020 Reatta Owners Journal Is your ALDL cover in place ? The Reatta isn't beautiful, but neither is it off-putting. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SKF Alternator Bearing for 1988-1990 Buick Reatta 3.8L V6 - Generator kh at the best online prices at eBay! But as we said that went to Cadillac with equally dismal results. eBay Buick Reatta. What plugs get pulled to check valve covers? In reguards to the exhaust, I do have a moderately strong, rich exhaust smell in the bay and a wee bit in the cabin, along with an occasional pop around the crossover when pressing the throttle. Happen. I'd just like to have an idea when I do have the time in the future to sit down with this thing, a Haynes Manual, and a rebuild kit. My 88 reatta touch screen wont light up but all functions work just cant c them do you know how to fix? 1990 and 91 models came with a personal touch in the glovebox. / Buick Reatta eBay. The concept was for a two-place personal luxury car, targeting the contemporary Mercedes-Benz 380SL roadster but taking inspiration from the 1955-57 Ford Thunderbird. That project would eventually become the Allant, leaving Buick with a similar idea but delivered as a two-door, two-passenger coupe. All traces of sports-car crudity have been filtered out. The Reatta Is The Coolest Affordable Buick You Forgot About. I try to post after work and I never seem to get my point across. Buick sent Hawtal back to the computer repeatedly, until the Reatta's structure was more rigid than that of any other car it sells. Engine rebuild 2 Answers. At the very least, remove the hose between to the engine and the air filter housing. The Reatta's name was proposed by styling chief David North, who had memories of growing up on western ranches where a reata was a common Spanish word for lariat. "I've since put another 25,000 miles on that one," Gomberg said. Please make yourself at home. Splices on the floor usually have more to do with body electrics, not the instrument panels. I personally am think the CPS. To ensure ride quality on par with European personal luxury coupes, the Reatta had a fully independent suspension, unlike the Grand National which still used a solid rear axle. Something not as flamboyant but more luxurious." The word nternal could go either way. Recommended Posts. first it would do it all the time, now it idles fine, but doesn't run super smooth under light throttle (slight cutting out) and will act as if its running on 3 cylinders when you go past say 1/4 throttle and beyond. It is located behind the glove compartment. When it came time to engineer the Reatta, Buick was plumb out of manpower: The division managed to get the exterior and interior styling done in-house, but it farmed out most of the engineering. CPS is under the dash near where the brake pedal pivots, and the BCM is behind the glove box. While the Reatta wasnt very powerful or very quick the 3.8 V6 never exceeded 170 horsepower in factory-built trim it wasnt slow. we replaced the plugs, wires, air filter, fuel filter, and the injectors, we also noticed the cat was clogged (especially apparent when we ran some berryman through the intake (like seafoam)), so we removed it though it didn't look as bad as i expected, taking it off helped a little but not much. Knowing that Buick was on the lookout for a new two-seat, sports-luxury design, David S. McIntosh, assistant chief designer in GM's Advanced Design Studio No. It has an electrical problem detection light on every time I start the engine. ", The Reatta was also meant to help Buick retain, or gain, consumers who were fleeing GM for import brands, and to lower the median buyer age without alienating the core cohort. For the Buick Reatta, the road to production has been an unusual one. Keep in mind that the touchscreen is a seperate device from the CRT. [CDATA[*/Insticator.ad.loadAd("div-insticator-ad-1");Insticator.ad.loadAd("div-insticator-ad-2");Insticator.load("em",{id : "6cf39429-6912-4a91-b1e2-3e9365a5e9c6"});/*]]>*/. As for the design Buick settled on a two-place coupe. Posted January 30, 2011. There is a Ground Junction Block above and behind the battery. Do the same for this block, and check the condition of the fuseable links that enter it. Compra con confianza en eBay! Whew lord, sorry about that mess of text, I wasn't watching how I was typing and was quite tired from work. Hopefully the codes stay history, but you may want to do the oxygen sensor as well as cleaning the idle air control as well as the idle air control housing. The person that sold it to me did not seem too concerned and showed me to just switch it off. But he has more than rectified that now. The car Buick wanted, Qualman says, would appeal to "people who really enjoy driving from point A to point B" when those two points are separated by hundreds of miles. The car is only running on 4 cylinders and is not happy. or maybe a failing crank sensor (though from what i know those will cause a crank no start but i could be wrong) any help would be appreciated. Mileage back in the twenties and power restored. 2023 CarGurus, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Sign up for a new account in our community. Jim Finn has CPSs I believe. In 1979, the E-Body platform was downsized to fit the times, and this revised version now entirely for front-wheel-drive cars became the starting point for what became the Reatta. I have a 1988 Buick Reatta with a nagging A/C problem. Contact Us - DO NOT EMAIL CAR QUESTIONS. also couldn't tell you as i didn't know what to look for yet for it, they were working fine for the drive home in it and for about a week, then only the dummy lights worked, now nothing does but the CRT. We'll start with the styling: we think it's nice. We especially like the architecture you see in the rear three-quarter view. It glides along the Interstates and keeps it composure on lumpy surface streets. One other thing; if there is a substantial exhaust leak at the crossover, which is unusual, it can introduce ambient air into the exhaust upstream of the O2 sensor at the rear and interfere with a correct reading and fuel correction. But Buick had a plan. Now, who is the customer if not a Buick buyer? Common problem is the fan will not shut off when the ignition is turned off. This should give you stable power to the circuits and the fuse blocks. Ok I'm having troubles with my car the inside electrical are flashing on and off the car runs just fine but the speedometer and the touch screen and interior lights flash on and off very spasticly. The result was a dismal 6,383 combined Reattas sold. eBay Buick Reatta. I'm going to check the distributor and starter. It is a sort of ball and socket arrangement. Now it needed something whiz-bang-like. Under the hood, a transversely mounted version of Buicks 3.8-liter overhead valve V6, styled the 3800. This was essentially the same engine that Buick was using to power the rear wheels in itsotherhoped-for demographic-changer, the Regal Grand National. The top cloth or vinyl was manually lowered and closed and had a glass rather than plastic rear window, with an embedded electric defroster grid. But Buick tried. They told us that what they wanted was an affordable Mercedes 560SL. It was paired with an electronically controlled four-speed automatic. Perhaps this was because the car was never meant to be topless. The matter was settled when the Allant was approved by the GM brass, who felt that two new luxury roadsters would be one too many. There was another series of posts on that. "So they took that product concept away and gave it to Cadillac." Lay a rag under the idle air control housing to catch the screws My '89 CRT recently shows an E041 code (Cam Sensor Circuit), in addition to an E034 code (MAF Sensor Voltage Low). I've checked the fuses inside the car. Excerpted from the forthcoming (eventually) book,Doomed. It just makes alignment of the parts more difficult and supports nothing. I don't think that anything is wrong except for the fact that your car thinks it is in Park, which is why only the radio screen works. January 30, 2011 in Buick Reatta. The Reatta, Qualman counters, is a good fit because it's not a pure sports car: it's a two-seater done the Buick way. Unlike the Fiero which actually sold very successfully until its numerous design flaws became common knowledge the Reatta sold poorly from the get-go. Tested: 1988 Buick Reatta Has Two Seats, But Isn't a Sports Car, Best (and Forgotten) Coupes and 1970s G.O.A.T. I'm not that organized," he said, laughing. Free shipping for many products! And that just barely. The only issues he has with his cars are electrical gremlins that seem to occur if he lets them sit for more than a month: stalling and hesitation with the computer fuel injection, and the need to replace mass airflow and O2 sensors. Ahead of its time and too far off-brand. An underwhelming total of 21,000 Reattas were sold over four model years before itwas discontinued after 1991, in part because the underlying E/K platform on which it was built was scrapped. We have a 1990 Buick Reatta that had a door glass be replaced due to shattering while having dent-less repair being done. Any help would be much appreciated. I was tired, added the stop leak and more oil, and within I want to say 15 miles everything seemed to be righted. I use carb cleaner and an old tooth brush. You may remember our complaints about this feature. acceleration to re-enter highway, my car lurched forward. "Buick never could figure out what this car was for. General Motors' newest two-seater was born not in a regular product-planning workshop but in an advanced-design studioan environment where automotive stylists are free from the constraints imposed on them when they're working on designs that are definitely scheduled for production. Gomberg believes the Buick V-6 and GM four-speed automatic are nearly bulletproof; he's seen Reattas at the Buick Club of America's annual "Reatta Reunion" with nearly 300,000 miles on the original engine and transmission. The car sold moderately during its four-year run. Personally, I remove the bracket and do not reinstall it. A number of full-size clay models followed, and by January 1983 the exterior had been refined to a level that made it feasible for production. Or rather, too many othersalreadythere. Edit: I can't quite recall the stop leak product specifics, but I'll be at the same store today to pick up some bobs and bits and will get that info here to help paint a better picture. Qualman has the imposing stature of a retired NFL linebacker and the earnest face of an all-American kid grown up. "I was interested back in 1989, and even went to a showroom in Houston. Then the Reatta came along. That's the why of the Reatta. McIntosh says that at the time his design was not intended for any particular GM division; indeed, some of the earliest sketches for the new car wore Cadillac badges. This was well shy of the return Buick had in mind back in 86 at the projects genesis and far short of what GM corporate was willing to float. The Buick Reatta should have been sportier than it turned out, and Buick's wavering on how to market this car may have been its death knell. If the touchscreen is working, that will help narrow the issue. When the front of the engine was opened up it should have been a good time for a visual inspection inside the front of the oil pan and the area around the timing set. Each Buick Reatta also came with a special leather-bound owner's manual. The peak sales year was in 1989 when Buick sold 7,000 of these turkeys. the car was last tagged in 2017 i believe. En eBay encuentras fabulosas ofertas en Cinturones de accesorios para automviles y camiones y piezas para Buick Reatta. Buick targeted younger buyers on their way up that had the wherewithal to buy a $25,000-30,000 car but also older retired buyers who could be purchasing it as sort of a reward. Buick forgot one of the main tenets of GM marketing: You can sell an old man a young mans car, but you cant sell a young man an old mans car. What was Buick thinking? Long trips in the Reatta should indeed be painless. Like the Allante, the Reatta was a very expensive car to make, and while it did share its drivetrain the 3.8 V6 with other Buick (and GM) models, which helped to tamp down production costs, its model-specific bodywork, trim, and many other parts made it hard to make a profit selling the ensemble unless it sold in sufficient volume. Both of which have done just that, and successfully. Seth Rose. Its not well known, probably because Buick only made it for not quite three years, from January of 1988 through the spring of 1991 making it one of the shortest-lived and so least remembered cars GM ever made. It's easy! At some point in the past two weeks, I developed some sort of my nternal oil leak, as I'd gone through two quarts in that time period, and my mileage and power tanked once again. He has raced continuously since college, held SCCA and IMSA pro racing licenses, and has competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Post in the forum instead. Introduced on the 1987 Buick Riviera, with which the Reatta shared many of its underpinnings, it was the first setup of its kind. It wasnt a bad design but just imagine it with a lower top and wheels pulled out further at each end. All of Gomberg's Reattas are runners, and none of them was purchased for more than $5,000. Your problem could also be the CPS (Central Power Supply) that supplies power to those items that are not working. As a halo vehicle, the Buick Reatta was also meant to incorporate the latest in advanced technology. In part this was because it was light about 3,400 pounds for the coupe. The dashboard aside, the interior picture brightens considerably. He was in music school when he realized what he really wanted to do in life and, somehow, it's worked out. the vehicle is warm that suggests fuel probably is ok and so is spark. Qualman's business card says he's the advertising manager for the .css-xtkis1{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#1C5f8B;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;font-weight:bold;}.css-xtkis1:hover{color:#000000;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Buick Motor Division, but never mind that. Rich Ceppos has evaluated automobiles and automotive technology during a career that has encompassed 10 years at General Motors, two stints at Car and Driver totaling 19 years, and thousands of miles logged in racing cars. It was internal as far as I can tell, there wasn't any sign of an external leak. "They were all handcrafted at the Reatta Craft Center in Lansing. Location of the blower motor relay on 1989 buick reatta There is no relaythere is a motor controller. All should have been clean with limited areas of discoloration. . I found a 1988 model that is the same color, but would this hood and light fit into my 1990 version? Qualman compares the Reatta to such luxury-prestige cars as the original Thunderbird, the aforementioned Merc, the Cadillac Allant, and the Nissan 300ZX. Section 8D in the Service Manual. I having a problem with digital dash and electric climate control unit. After living with a pre-production Reatta for a week, we have much to report. Slide behind the wheel and you'll swear you're sitting in a Riviera. The last two-seater Buick left the Reatta Craft Centre renamed the Lansing Craft Center after the funeral on May 10, 1990. He admits that he had to put his personal carguy preferences on hold to head the project. Where is the sharp steering response that teases you, the taut suspension that goads you to take on a twisty two-lane, the power that opens your eyes wide and sends a thrill down your spine? If you haven't changed the ICM you should. 1988 buick reatta electrical problems. The division is supposedly retrenching to traditional family-car ground. Update: the ICM and Coil pack did fix the issue, however it still has a light throttle misfire/hiccup but otherwise it has good power and responds to more load and throttle/rpm etc now and does so smoothly and cleanly. Powered by Invision Community, Reatta Diagnostics Instructions - 1990 & 91. The cars Buick shows in its ads these days wear whitewalls and wire wheel covers, for crying out loud. The connection to the forward manifold is two studs and nuts. Was it an internal or external oil leak? 1989 Buick Reatta Coupe FWD-Maintenance & Repair.