Hi there from Montana! I bought my RMS in March 2015 and have been lurking here ever since. Haven't posted...for good reason! The Roadmaster has been flawless for me and I haven't needed any help until now. I actually purchased it at a local dealer and was able to obtain a $500 Lifetime oil change with the loan. It works wonders for me as the oil gets changed every 3 mo or 3k miles, whichever comes first, and although I only put on 1500-2000 at most in that time, my commute is severe enough to warrant it. I'm a snowcat operator and have to come up to the ski area before the road's plowed, which has been, uh, interesting in the RMS. Part of the road is dirt and badly washboarded. I'm waiting to go through the shocks and front end overhaul until they finally pave the last section this summer (fingers crossed) I hate to be at all hard on it; the original owner clearly loved the car and had it repainted and clear-bra'd at some point. The interior is basically perfect, if in need of a detail. The car had 135k when I got it, it's 156k now. It sounds like brand new, fires up with authority, purrs at idle, immense torque, and the first automatic trans that I've ever loved. For maintenance, I don't really know what's already been addressed before me, with the exception of the plugs and wires in 2015. I've flushed the radiator last summer and again this Feb along with a trans service. 1st gear is locked out which leads me to believe it's a swapped transmission from a police vehicle? Is this possible? (BTW I really could use that gear, steep hills in 2nd with ye olde B-body brakes is a handful)
The Roadie started using a little oil in February, and I had the dealer look at it to see what specifically was leaking. The dealer response was, 'Everything', and they explained that they didn't even have time to look. I took it to a tire shop and got an estimate. It was $1400, and included new oil cooler lines, oil pan gasket, timing cover, and rear pinion seal. I wondered if they didn't know what specifically was leaking and just ordered every front/bottom seal there is. That's what I would do; there's oil/dirt everywhere. I really wish I'd hosed this thing off before tearing into it, but I wanted to identify what was leaking.
The estimate was free, and I feel bad for using it as an internet shopping list, but I did buy my $400 snow tires there. I got the pan gasket and timing cover kit directly from GM at great expense. Got an ebay WP, Felpro Oil adapter kit from AZ, and printed out the awesome writeup on this forum on deleting the cooler lines. Tried to get everything I needed ahead of time to do at once while the car's fluids are drained.
(these images are imgur links, you can click through twice for a huge version)
You see, I don't have a garage or much for tools at my house. I'm actually staying at the ski hill and doing this repair over several days and using their shop. They have basically any tool I'd need, and a simple grease pit. The air tools in particular are a godsend. I am not a mechanic by any description; but I work on bicycles and PC's and all sorts of things. Poorly. Luckily my boss lives nearby and I can beg for help if I get really stuck. We're back at work in two weeks and I need to get the Buick roadworthy and coolant system totally bled pronto. I'll show my progress so far and I have some noob questions the search function and useless Haynes manual were unable to resolve. I'm headed to town ONCE and I want to get everything I don't have in the same trip.
I took these bumper extensions off first thing. I bust through a lot of snow drifts, I need all the ground clearance I can get. If anybody wants them they're in repairable shape, small crack in one and need paint. Just pay shipping.
Then I pulled all the baseball crap off. I almost!! ordered a new coolant reservoir on ebay today, before I finally realized mine is a 2 nipple style, which is totally unavailable. I did some googling on dex-cool sludge, I'm gonna take the res into town and hit it with a car wash hose and some purple degreaser. I don't care about the looks but I need to get the chunks out. The coolant was still very clean, no chunks or residue anywhere, but the water I dumped out of the reservoir was dark red. Any additional tips?
The trunk is starting to look like a Porsche with all these engine parts
Does this car have two trans coolers?
Or two radiators? Or am I just being thick?
Got the oil cooler off, it looks to me like the adapter was leaking more than the lines. The tiny rocks/concrete stuck to this thing was insane. Lots of time scrubbing in the solvent tank.
I decided to cut off the stud on the adapter, unlike the writeup.
First major derp: was careful not to damage oil level sensor lines, then broke em off trying to pull the connector. A new connector is $30 at AZ, but no idea if I still need to solder to the existing wires or what. Anybody know? I'm likely to just tie the wires together and put the sensor back in the block, and remember to check the oil. What type of sealant is that on these threads, red RTV?
The felpro gasket overhangs the opening. Should I trim it? I had to use a wire wheel on the old gasket surface, I plan to rough it up with some sandpaper to de-smoothify it.
If you read this far, you're probably at work! More to come. Thanks!
The Roadie started using a little oil in February, and I had the dealer look at it to see what specifically was leaking. The dealer response was, 'Everything', and they explained that they didn't even have time to look. I took it to a tire shop and got an estimate. It was $1400, and included new oil cooler lines, oil pan gasket, timing cover, and rear pinion seal. I wondered if they didn't know what specifically was leaking and just ordered every front/bottom seal there is. That's what I would do; there's oil/dirt everywhere. I really wish I'd hosed this thing off before tearing into it, but I wanted to identify what was leaking.
The estimate was free, and I feel bad for using it as an internet shopping list, but I did buy my $400 snow tires there. I got the pan gasket and timing cover kit directly from GM at great expense. Got an ebay WP, Felpro Oil adapter kit from AZ, and printed out the awesome writeup on this forum on deleting the cooler lines. Tried to get everything I needed ahead of time to do at once while the car's fluids are drained.
(these images are imgur links, you can click through twice for a huge version)
You see, I don't have a garage or much for tools at my house. I'm actually staying at the ski hill and doing this repair over several days and using their shop. They have basically any tool I'd need, and a simple grease pit. The air tools in particular are a godsend. I am not a mechanic by any description; but I work on bicycles and PC's and all sorts of things. Poorly. Luckily my boss lives nearby and I can beg for help if I get really stuck. We're back at work in two weeks and I need to get the Buick roadworthy and coolant system totally bled pronto. I'll show my progress so far and I have some noob questions the search function and useless Haynes manual were unable to resolve. I'm headed to town ONCE and I want to get everything I don't have in the same trip.
I took these bumper extensions off first thing. I bust through a lot of snow drifts, I need all the ground clearance I can get. If anybody wants them they're in repairable shape, small crack in one and need paint. Just pay shipping.
Then I pulled all the baseball crap off. I almost!! ordered a new coolant reservoir on ebay today, before I finally realized mine is a 2 nipple style, which is totally unavailable. I did some googling on dex-cool sludge, I'm gonna take the res into town and hit it with a car wash hose and some purple degreaser. I don't care about the looks but I need to get the chunks out. The coolant was still very clean, no chunks or residue anywhere, but the water I dumped out of the reservoir was dark red. Any additional tips?
The trunk is starting to look like a Porsche with all these engine parts
Does this car have two trans coolers?
Or two radiators? Or am I just being thick?
Got the oil cooler off, it looks to me like the adapter was leaking more than the lines. The tiny rocks/concrete stuck to this thing was insane. Lots of time scrubbing in the solvent tank.
I decided to cut off the stud on the adapter, unlike the writeup.
First major derp: was careful not to damage oil level sensor lines, then broke em off trying to pull the connector. A new connector is $30 at AZ, but no idea if I still need to solder to the existing wires or what. Anybody know? I'm likely to just tie the wires together and put the sensor back in the block, and remember to check the oil. What type of sealant is that on these threads, red RTV?
The felpro gasket overhangs the opening. Should I trim it? I had to use a wire wheel on the old gasket surface, I plan to rough it up with some sandpaper to de-smoothify it.
If you read this far, you're probably at work! More to come. Thanks!
