The Grey 1988 Buick LeSabre Custom

[djcatdog525]

i hate 3.8l moters

[cole3481596]

Wow, that a nice 1988 Buick LeSabre and are you a big fan of a Buick Wildcat too.

[ruban205]

My Dad Had 1988 White Buick Lesabre Limited From 1996 - 2002 R.I.P

[Rootgrim]

My god i've got a '88 lesabre with a blown catalytic converter, fucking depressing...

[bestamerica]

'

how come this car do not have 2 amber yellow lights on the rear taillights for turning sign and emergency parking lot

[uxwbill]

@bestamerica Legal requirements for the lights a car must have vary from place to place. Here in the US, different colored lenses and bulbs for those lights are not required.

[Mansker08]

wow..i have the same exact car...exept i got 2 twelves in the trunk in it rockin 22 inch black diamonds lol

[WVfarm3rboy]

we just fixed up an old ladys 1991 Buick Century Limited in good condition with 59,000 miles. Loaded. The only problem was some people were scamming her into borrowing it and drove it with siezed calibers. Completely chewed up the rotors.

[jjesgirl]

i have the same one but it's turned in to a hearse. do you know how to fix the tail lights on it. well it's like this.. the back lights will come on when you stop but the lights will not be on if you dirve at night.. can you help me out? thank you..

[uxwbill]

@jjesgirl A hearse...wow. I didn't know they made cars like this into hearses. You might try to figure out who did the work...the car should have some evidence of its modification by a so-called "body upfitter" and maybe they're still in business.

If the tail lights don't work, start with the obvious--are the bulbs in there any good, and are they the right ones? (Never underestimate a previous owner!) Also, check the fuses.

[warlordhdlac]

yeah buicks are better than those damn chevys!!! lol CHECKOUT MY 77 BUICK

LASABRE WITH THE 22'' VOUGE TIRES

YOU'LL LOVE IT PIMPIN AND FLOATERS

KILLIN EM

[comgeek24]

Yours looks good. My mom had an '85 Electra that had the "BUICK" logo/ 3 flags medallion on the sound insulation under the hood. I have a '91 LeSabre with 225,000 mi. on it and it still runs/drives great. It shimmies at highway speed, I think it might be the front sway arm bushings/links. My bro says I'm going to need a sawz-all to get the old links off. Is this true? Both the body and the interior (leather, dammit) need some work, but nothing that can't be replaced/covered over.

[coololds85]

looks nice I have a 1989 Buick Regal I put in everything new under the hood the only thing that is original is the Buick Engine that has 33,000 Original Miles on it its a great car the interior needs alot of work

[MurdokDelure]

I have a 1990 Lesabre right now. its got a leaky oil pan gasket and its got a leaky Right hand CB shaft seal. that means i cant drive it at all and it sucks. But yours looks to be in just as good a shape as mine! and mines a retired Taxi!

[LuminaLover94]

I've seen V8 Ford Crown Vic taxis with upwards of 400-450,000 miles which leads me to wonder how many does your 3800 V6 LeSabre have as an ex-taxi?

[MurdokDelure]

Im running upwards of 235 ### now. i forget the exact number

[JeffN727]

I used to have a 1988 Century with the 3.8. If you think that car was fast, you should see how fast a smaller car like that was with that engine.

Got rear ended in it though, but it was still running good when I sold it back in '97. Same color as your LeSabre.

[MikeGartner]

Very cool video.  Thanks.

[SteveXnycperformance]

Very good and reliable car/engine has long it have no rust...EXCELLENT CAR. Ride great and safe. yea, the 3800 will do 500,000 mile with service and maintained. smooth running engine before lexass.

[iluvbuickgnx]

i've got a 95 lesabre. fastest old lady car in west michigan (heavy foot, =-) not modified car.)

[Ronsky89]

pretty nice. it sucks that cars like these are known as old-lady cars

[BladeZofSorrow]

mine is ivory colored and has a red interior... and the hood light blinks a lil... but the car itsself is wonderful, the only problem I have with it is it turns a bit wide for my taste

[LuminaLover94]

How many miles do you have on the car these days?

[kcarman88]

we have a 1989 lesabre, and its a sweet car also.

and a piece of shit 1992 buick with 338,000 and alot of rust (My winter car this year)

[GANGSTAA20]

I have an 88 Buick Lesabre and when the engine light is on you can plug something in and you can find a code and then look up the code in a book or service manual and it will tell you why the service engine soon light is on

[uxwbill]

All you need to get the codes is a shorting wire or paper clip on a car this old. The check engine light will blink out each digit of the stored codes.

[EXPEKT3D]

I GOT THE SAME CAR, BUT IN WHITE AND WITH A BLUE HARDTOP. JUST GOT IT LAST YEAR AND ONLY WITH 91k. NEVER HAD A PROBELM WITH IT.

[randomrazr]

how do u figure out whats wrong when u ahve a service engine light (btw, im getting the car back hhome this weekend...i think)

[uxwbill]

On a car like yours, you would find the ALDL (assembly line data link) connector and jumper across some of the pins in it. I don't remember which ones off the top of my head, but searching the web should turn something up. (I cannot post a link here--YouTube will not allow web addresses in comments.)

When you do that, the service engine light will blink out each digit of every two digit fault code it has stored.

[david24620]

That's a nice car. I got one too but its a 1997 it has over 96,000 now and its in good shape.

[uxwbill]

If it weren't for the rust, it could almost pass as brand new. Everything still works great on it.

[randomrazr]

whats zbark

[uxwbill]

Ziebart is a rustproofing service that you can have done to a new car, hopefully before too much rusting begins. They undercoat the bottom of the car, as well as the insides of most body panels.

Some examples are better than others. The Cadillac has no rust on it whatsoever. This Buick isn't so fortunate.

[marooncorsa]

it looks very familiar to the 1990 olds delta 88 3.8 V6, they are both from GM, perhaps they used the same engine. how is that thing on gas?

[uxwbill]

The Oldsmobile (and I think there was a Pontiac counterpart as well) is basically the same car. They really only changed the trim, parts of the interior and some options.

It is excellent on gas. It went to St. Louis, Missouri with the A/C blasting and running 65-70 almost the whole way. I'm not joking when I say that it got a solid 30 miles per gallon.

[marooncorsa]

if i lived up closer to you i wouldn't hesistate to buy that buick from you. I may only be 20, but i know for a fact that they don't build them like they used to.

[uxwbill]

You'd have to offer me a pretty good price! It's a REAL nice car, and I like it.

[marooncorsa]

wouldn't worry about that mate! its a very nice car.

[the69chevykid]

The other counterpart was the Pontiac Bonneville.

Also, the Chevy Caprice used the same body in the '80s. (I think up to 1989)

[uxwbill]

Okay, I forgot about the Bonneville. There aren't a lot of them around here. Mostly Oldsmobiles and Buicks.

I'm not so sure about the Caprice. Wasn't it a real wheel drive and (usually) V8 powered platform until the end?

[the69chevykid]

shit, I linked the Caprice to the Parisienne (I don't know why!).

Regardless, most GM vehicles are reliable, even after sitting for a while.

[Jac2Mac]

Actually the Caprice used the same body until 1990 which was the only year it had the absolutely horrific door-mounted seatbelts which were also used in the 1989 Buick Electra.

[the69chevykid]

That's right, I remember those seatbelts. Plus I now remember that the Buick Roadmaster came out in 1991 (the Estate Wagon only, the sedan came out in '92) along with the new Caprice.

[3800fan]

That is an excellent car! Mine also has the "Service Engine" light, but something is wrong that is connected to the cam sensor. I believe that the 3.8 got a power bump to 165 in 1989 but that Lesabre might have been better cared for. Do any '89s have full instrumentation? Mine has the 85 MPH speedo and that's it. Not bad or anything, BUT I WANT A TACH!!!

[uxwbill]

I really like these cars. The SES light on mine is a result of a weak-kneed ignition module--the lower half is getting weak. Been there, done that.

I agree about the instrumentation. It could have been better...most of the two "message" centers are unused (at least they are on my cars)!

This LeSabre has been taken **excellent** care of over the years, and I'm trying to make sure that will still be the case.

Never saw any 89s (Electra, Park Avenue Ultra) with any more instruments.

[3800fan]

I've got an '89 LeSabre Limited that has working power everything, even the A/C is ice cold. The windows are extremely slow, I need to do something about that. The "Custom" model is the lower trim, Limited is the top of the line for the model.

[uxwbill]

Got ice cold air on this one as well, although the highest fan speed isn't currently working. I suspect that since there is no resistor involved at the highest speed that the switch is partially burned out.

These windows are slowing up--it's a problem I've had with all three of my cars and my S-10's window speed has dropped off just a little as well. Funny--my dad's '79 Cadillac hasn't lost a bit of window speed.

If you fix your windows, I'd love to see how you did it!

[jlan307]

Nice car. My wife's 90 LeSabre is suprisingly quick. Suprised a few V6 Mustangs with it.

[randomrazr]

that looks like a electra park avenue

[randomrazr]

whats the difference bwteen the lsabre

[uxwbill]

The different trim levels come with different things "standard". Where an Electra or Park Avenue would probably have "power everything" and all the neat gizmos, the LeSabre is normally nowhere near as fancy. This grey LeSabre is definitely an anomaly--it is just about fully loaded.

[randomrazr]

u mentioned ti didnt have a clsuter,nwhats a cluster? lol ty

[uxwbill]

A cluster refers to the collection of gauges, indicator lights and sometimes even the electrical switches that the driver can use to see how the vehicle is operating.

On these Buick cars, two primary types were available. The first and most common is the analog type, where the gauges are analog meter-style movements and there are some indicator lights. The second--and by far least common type--was the digital type, where a vacuum fluorescent display replaced all the gauges and lights.

[randomrazr]

ohh ok. thankyou for the info. kind a sucks that theirs only a speedometer and a gas gauge. no battery gauge or RPM. is the speedomter in MPH?

[uxwbill]

I would like to have a set of gauges, but these cars don't have them on the analog clusters. I think the digital ones might.

[randomrazr]

ah ok. now, im gonna be a new driver soon and as u well know, im hoping to drive my buick electra park avenue 1986. is the gauges it has already good enough? like is RPM gauage, etc etc, are they all necesary now a days?

[OmegaM41]

A tachometer (which measures RPM) is definitely nice to have, but it's by no means necessary. I guess the main gauges you need are your speedometer, your fuel gauge, and your temperature gauge.

[mickeymoose76]

those 80's american cars' interiors sure look basic and cheap compared to equivalent european ones!

[uxwbill]

I find it odd that you'd see it that way, but maybe it is something to do with car buyers' expectations around the world.

I look at these cars and think that the reason they came about was primarily because of the imports doing so well here. It must have scared GM all the way back to the drawing board, because these are much better cars than what they had been producing both in terms of build quality and economy.

(But don't get me wrong. I love the big old V6/V8 RWD platform ones as well!)

[mickeymoose76]

I love the eighties yanks, (I live in the UK) and own a 89 Firebird 350ci so Ive nothing against american cars as they look so much more imposing and interesting than the euro/jap blando machines!

Which part of the states are you from anyway bill? Nice vids

[uxwbill]

Sorry to be replying to this three weeks after you posted it! I'm in Illinois USA.

[walshmonster2005]

The "little old lady" car can certainly get up and go!