Comments: 1-15, 16-21
Water pump after week long trip
serpentine belt
headliner is falling
cat converter
new struts and springs in rear.
Very impressed with early model of ABS.
Sitting in driver's seat is like sitting on a couch. Enjoy every power option or gadget. Although passenger's side power window in need of urgent repair very slow. Impressive fake woodgrain in addition to a personal cigarette lighter on each door. Lacks ooooomph for 3.8 liter while driving in town, but great highway cruiser at higher speeds, performance is better. Not so impressed by rough ride with airride suspension, too sporty for oldsmobile. Was expecting to be comparable to 1990 Buick Lesabre. I love the stitching in the seats, they must have taken some time in doing this and forgot about the suspension. Another plus is two fold-down armrests for my arms to rest on. Minimal dashboard, but impressive aqua blue instrumentation. Way ahead of its time, but I wish I had the voice computer that the other 98's had. Overall good car and I plan on putting another 750,000 on it to be one of the only old's to reach 1 million miles. I know it can happen if I put my mind to it.
After putting only 6000 miles on it you are now planning to keep it for another 750K miles eh?
Suspect that a 1990 Olds 98 would be pretty far down on most people's lists of cars they would want to keep that long.
Enjoy those armrests!
So, you've had the car for a year, and you've put 6000 miles on it.
And you plan to put another 750,000 miles on it?
So let's see, six into seven hundred fifty, carry the one...
OK, so at your current annual mileage, it will take you 125 years to accumulate 750,000 miles on your Olds.
Think you will still be able to hold onto the steering wheel by then?
No no no...see, I've put my mind to it.
I will drive the car for the next 60 years.
THEN, my great-grandson will be old enough to drive, and he can take over driving it. When I die, I will be cremated and have my ashes put in (where else) the ash tray, so I will stiil be "in" the car!
After my great-grandson has driven the car another 65 years, it will have a million miles on it, after which it will be buried (with me still in the ash tray) under a marker that says "Million Mile Olds-He Put His Mind To It"
That plan sounds just crazy enough to work.
Now what really interests me is how many revolutions that engine will make in the course of travelling one million miles.
The wheels turn at about 850 revs per mile.
The axle ratio is about 3.6:1, I guess.
So, for every mile travelled, the engine turns 850 x 3.6 =3060 turns.
So, assuming we can increase this by factor of 1.2 to account for being in lower gears some of the time, and time spent idling,
Total revs = 3.672 billion.
And if car does 20 mpg that's 50,000 gallons of fuel.
At $2/gal av that's $100,000 of gas.
The whole point of the Olds Touring Sedan is that it wasn't supposed to be a Buick, thank God it doesn't ride like a LeSabre, then you can leave the Dramamine at home, and on another note, the reason the "fake" wood trim is impressive is because it is real genuine wood! The kind that comes from a tree. I own a '90 Touring Sedan with almost 200,000 miles, will it make it to 1 mil? not anytime soon.
To the person that wrote the comment about the fake wood being real. Hmmm I did not know real wood peeled off. I also didn't know that real wood can come paper thin. Maybe mine is not an touring sedan. That is what the original owner said.
Also I have a friend with an 1990 Lesabre and it is the most comfortable car you could ever ride in, its like a dream. I am the original poster of this car. UPDATE: I have had to replace all the springs and shocks, fuel lines and fuel pump, the headliner is getting lower and lower, the light behind the climate control burned out, the power steering fluid completely leaked out twice on two cold nights, altenator, and more.
The most serious problem occured when the car would be at a red light, I would press the gas down and the car would not move at all, then all of a sudden it would jerk real fast then get slow. Then one morning I came out to my car and the car would not go in reverse. I had to wait for the car to run for 45 minutes until it would engage. This went on for about a week. So I took it in, they did a complete transmission fluid change. That's funny because I just had it done about 6 months before. The car still does the jerking all the time. The other big problem that just breaks my heart is that the clear coat is starting peel off all over the hood, roof and trunk. It is peeling off in big pcs. GRRRRR...
You wasted your money with a transmission fluid change. You are going to need a new transmission.
Your million-mile goal sounds more far-fetched than ever...
Yeah tell me about it. Everytime I bring it in for the mechanic to test drive it with me, it will not do the jerk ahead thing. But can you explain why when the mechanic did another transmission fluid change that the car would go back into reverse? How could that help if I just had a transmission fluid changed 6 months before.
Well to everyone who wrote negative comments of me keeping my car to a million miles. I sold it and bought a 1990 Buick Lesabre Limited. I hope to keep this one for a long time as well. Maybe not a million miles, but like 250,000 to 300,000. I love it. The ride quality is much better in the Buick Lesabre compared to the Oldsmobile 98.
Do you kind of see, though, why people might make fun of you for claiming that you were going to put a million miles on a car that had a shot tranny 6,000 miles after you bought it? Glad to see that you've lowered your current expectations to something more "reasonable" and hope to "only" put 300,000 miles on your new 16-year-old car. Hopefully you'll at least get 10,000 out of this one! You really are doing the right thing, though, to buy older cars for cheap and drive them a couple years even if you do only get 10 or 20 thousand miles out of them. Ride on, Cool Pirate!
I can attest to the fact that many people rush to write about their new acquisition with enthusiasm and awe. Months and a few thousands of miles later, the enthusiasm starts to fade away with every mechanic's visit, each new drop of oil on the driveway, or any other shimmy, shake, or nuisance that is peculiar to that particular car. I say this because I wrote about my 97 Seville with great happiness. I attributed the first few problems simply to the Caddy's age. Once I found myself using the credit card more often just to keep the car running, I realized it was time to get rid of it. Prove it to yourself readers. Check out how soon after the purchase did reviewers write their reviews.
I will drive it for 300,000 miles- you'll see!
I am the original poster of this car. I was having a little fun on here and put that I would drive the car to 1 million miles. I wasn't really going to keep it until I hit 1 million miles. Don't look into everything so seriously.
I was very excited when I got the car, and yes I thought I would have kept it longer. If the transmission would have went, I would have got a rebuilt and have that put in. Instead, my friend's car came onto the market, a 1990 Buick Lesabre Limited, and I just had to have it.
Can someone tell me the difference between a regular 98 and a touring sedan?