1989 Buick Century Custom review from North America

Replaced the crankshaft position sensor (27.00 at Checker) almost right away after I got it. I discovered it had a nasty habit of not wanting to re-start after being driven anywhere. It also needed a starter, as it would only crank the engine over about every third or fourth try. The valve cover gasket is leaking oil, and the motor mount up top has a lot of play in it causing a "clunk" when it shifts into low gear or when going from forward to reverse or vice versa.

The brake rotors wobble, so those need to go soon. The heater hose is starting to rot, as was the one in my Lumina. GM chose to make a heater hose out of steel, and run it along the inside of the fender, and along the firewall to the heater core. This is bad engineering, as they always rot out in climates that use salt on the roads like Minnesota. I fixed this problem on the Lumina with a hacksaw, 4 hose clamps (2 per joint) and some rubber hose. Costs about 10 bucks to fix. Factory part costs over 100. The symptoms are that you lose coolant very slowly over time and you can't find the leak because it only leaks when it's under a lot of pressure such as driving. It never seems to cause an overheating problem unless you don't keep an eye on the coolant level.

The air filter was clogged with junk, and the plug electrodes were badly worn when I got it. I replaced those items and gained about 4 MPG immediateley. It's not very peppy, so I stay out of the fast lane, but it drives nice and is fairly comfortable for my 90 mile daily commute. I got the car basically to drive the wheels off it and throw it away. It should serve that purpose nicely, and is getting me 25-29 MPG in the mean time. The 2.5 Tech 4 has an advantage over the overhead cam 4 banger engines as it doesn't have a rubber cam belt to fail and leave me on the side of the road like most of the other stuff that gets good mileage. Overall, it's a good road car and it's nearly invisible to the cops, as it blends into the background.