I recently bought a 1999 Buick Century for $1500, thinking I’d drive it for a short while until something better comes along. However I’ve really gotten attached to it and want to keep it running as long as feasible. What should I be doing as far a maintenance? Would fuel treatments, oil additives, new spark plugs, etc lengthen the life of the car?
Change all the fluids, now. I doubt you know when and if anything has been changed so do it.
First give it a thorough inspection from under the car. Check for leaks, torn bellows, rust spots, bushings, exhaust… the works. Fix anything you find that is practical to repair. Most rust isn’t practical to repair on a 20 year old car. Determine if it worth servicing further. It IS 20 year old car and some parts may be hard to find if they fail. This isn’t a collectors car so no one will be making the plastic interior parts you might need.
Then change oil, trans fluid and filter, power steering fluid, brake fluid, and coolant.
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What’s a good resource to help me fix electrical issues with my 1999 Buick Century? In short the windows will not roll down without me twisting 2 wires together inside the door. However when I do this, they start to smoke. Also, the dash lights go on and off at night when I shake the door switch unit. (don’t know how they’re related) When I examine the wires its obvious a previous owner cut and spliced different wires together. Also the wire I twist together to power the windows is bare. I’d like to fix this myself, is there a website or book that would help?
Thanks!
Now you know why it was 1500.00 . My thought is that you will never stop spending money on this thing . See if you can find a local auto electrics shop before you have a car fire. Even with a wiring diagram if you could find one there has to be to many other problems to make this a worthwhile venture.
A wiring diagram is a must for this. @VOLVO_V70 is right, if someone would do this type of work here, you are probably going to find it elsewhere.
Rock auto, new window motors, https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/buick,1999,century,3.1l+v6,1377042,interior,window+motor,1516
Door switch shorting is the wiring in the door passthrough, pull back the rubber boot between the door and frame and try to find the worn wiring.
pull fuse #14 in the glovebox til you get it fixed, youll likely have to reloom the door.
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What’s the mileage? How’s it holding up. I have a '98 century that now has 128k miles. I’ve had the car about 5-6 years and really like it. Doing some suspension and brake work to hopefully keep it going a few years longer.
@jsd123 Josh you just replied to a 3 year old thread. If you look at the right side of your screen you will see the date of the last post .
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