1999 Buick Regal GS

Basement Paul · Post by **Basement Paul** » Wed Feb 18, 2009 8:40 pm

I kept the T-bird for one year and almost five months! I could see this one staying around at least that long.

The drivers front window stopped working today. The last time it worked was Saturday night at Taco Bell. When it went up, it was pretty slow. I'm assuming the motor took a crap...

Got 23.2 mpg on the first tank. Not too shabby for cold weather and mixed driving.

-BP

GMJohnny · Post by **GMJohnny** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:11 pm

Mr Basement.... My regal also had that problem with the driver's side window. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy a dorman window assembly. I went through 3 of them before I finally had a factory one installed. Dorman was JUNK!! I finally drew the last straw when I had to drive home from Carlisle in a misty rainstorm with my window down...

GMJohnny · Post by **GMJohnny** » Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:12 pm

Mr Basement.... My regal also had that problem with the driver's side window. Whatever you do, DO NOT buy a dorman window assembly. I went through 3 of them before I finally had a factory one installed. Dorman was JUNK!! I finally drew the last straw when I had to drive home from Carlisle in a misty rainstorm with my window down...I also have had problems with the switch sticking ( felt good, but did not work ).. I used some wd40 & the window magically worked, I'd try the switch first!!

Basement Paul · Post by **Basement Paul** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:12 pm

I figure the bad window is not as important as making the car faster, so I ordered the 3.4" pulley and belt tonight. I'm not sure how long it will take to get it, but 25-30hp for about $100 seems like a bargain to me. Should be fun getting the results.

-BP

Post by **TireSmoker** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 10:26 pm

That's kinda weird because I had problems with the driver's window on my GTP too. As long as it is stuck in the closed position, you're good.

-Dave

Basement Paul · Post by **Basement Paul** » Sun Mar 01, 2009 9:46 pm

Today GMJohnny and I "installed" a 3.4" supercharger pulley on the new GS. I say "installed" because the installation involved a die grinder, a cutoff wheel, a small sledge hammer, an oven, and a bag of frozen goosemeat. Kind of a recipe for disaster....

When it was all said and done, the original pulley was in two pieces, the new pulley was cooked to 400 degrees, and the goosemeat was still frozen.

We must know what we're doing as the car went from less than 9psi (usually low 8psi) to a max of 13psi now. This is a pretty significant difference from stock, and makes the car A LOT more amusing to drive. It pretty much just hazes the tires through about 40mph (some of this I'm sure is attributed to cold tire temps and not the cleanest roads), and pulls like crazy on the high end of the tach. I'm guessing it was good for at least .5 sec in the quarter. Either way, it was worth the small investment, and still won't hurt the fuel mileage (assuming I can keep my foot out of it).

-BP

Fred32v · Post by **Fred32v** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 12:46 am

Nice picture! I like all those numbers.

GMJohnny · Post by **GMJohnny** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:53 am

The boost looks correct & I am sure he is enjoying the speed. The project description sounds correct, although he forgot to mention we also incorporated the use of a sawzall as well & his car now weighs more by the exact weight of a 3/8" drive 13 mm shallow well 12 pt craftsman socket!!

markss327 · Post by **markss327** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:58 am

Can I assume the old pulley just didn't wana come off?

I'd like more information on the 12pt socket.

Basement Paul · Post by **Basement Paul** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:40 pm

The pulley is "supposed" to be pressed off, but you can't wack it... wait... when you try to pound it off with a hammer, it pulls all sorts of pieces apart that aren't supposed to come apart. So we cut the pulley down so we could then grind it down close to the supercharger shaft, and eventually it just comes off.

The socket was used to loosen up the tensioner (which we realized we probably didn't need to loosen if we would have just read the little belt map on the front of the car) and as we were going to tighten it up again, the socket fell off and disappeared into the depths of the lower front end componentry, never to be seen again.

The new pulley is "supposed" to be pressed on also, but a big hammer, a hot pulley, and a little oil seemed to work just fine.

-BP

Post by **TireSmoker** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 9:18 am

I missed the part about the goose meat..

-Dave

GMJohnny · Post by **GMJohnny** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:38 pm

Little known Buick GS secret.....use frozen goose meat to cool down supercharger shaft so as to micronically shrink it to accept a 400 degree ( very hot ) pulley. ( good in theory, but didn't do anything ). BFH was the most important tool.

Basement Paul · Post by **Basement Paul** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:47 pm

So things continue to break on the GS. I've been driving with an intermittant Service Vehicle Soon / ABS / Trac Cont(or whatever this one is) lights on for a couple weeks now. It seemed to come on at freeway speeds, especially when kicked down a gear, but shut off the next time the car turned on. Then I was able to get it to turn on when spinning the tires. After some internet searching, I made an educated guess that it was the VSS (vehicle speed sensor), and at $15, I figured it was worth a shot.
In the picture it is held on by only one bolt, which seemed easy enough. After some screwing around (and a lot of 10mm wrenches) I was able to get it replace. It seemed to do the trick because I did a nice burnout, and no light. About 20 seconds after my rolling burnout, I looked in the mirror and Johnny Law was closing the gap on me. Now I know he didn't see me, but I'm sure he heard me. He followed me awhile, probably ran my plate, then made a turn once we got to the end of his jurisdiction.

This car also has sprung a leak inside the car on the passenger's side floor. With some help from my wife and a hose, I think I traced the problem to a body seam under the cowl cover where the factory seals this seam with some type of soft foam. I removed the foam, and smeared blue RTV all over the seam. Time will tell if my solution cured the problem.

Oh yeah, the open door / trunk light on the dash is also now on (new trunk switch ordered), and the driver's window still doesn't work. Hopefully by next weekend I'll get after both. Today I detailed the outside...

Yesterday on my way home from work I went toe to toe with an NSX-T, more than once. I was all over him. His car was NICE, but I'm not sure why he'd stoop to my level. He would have nothing to gain by racing a dirty regal... oh well, it was fun for me! Except for GMJohnny and the tiresmoker, this is the first real run I've had. And for the record, the Cobalt SS would have kicked that NSX's ass.

-BP

Basement Paul · Post by **Basement Paul** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:46 pm

Turns out the VSS did not fix my problem after all. So I'll have to find a scanner to read body codes...

-BP

Post by **TireSmoker** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:46 pm

Basement Paul wrote: This car also has sprung a leak inside the car on the passenger's side floor. With some help from my wife and a hose, I think I traced the problem to a body seam under the cowl cover where the factory seals this seam with some type of soft foam. I removed the foam, and smeared blue RTV all over the seam. Time will tell if my solution cured the problem.

My Pontiac has had this same problem too. Not often, but often enough that it doesn't surprise me when I see a little water on the passenger floor mat. Odd thing was I'd usually see it after it sat in the rain, not while driving.

Service Engine and ABS are seperate lights on my car. If you're getting the ABS light and Traction Control turning off, check the front wheel ABS sensors.

Basement Paul wrote: And for the record, the Cobalt SS would have kicked that NSX's ass.

Woo hoo! I kicked an NSX's ass without actually kicking his ass! Thanks muh-man.

-Dave