Buick Century Puns

I have a 2003 Buick Century with 150k miles on it. I'm a broke college student with some decent savings put away for major repairs. I still have about 3-3.5 years until I graduate and do not want a car payment to worry about until I have a stable career. I do not want to sell my car and I want to keep it as long as possible. I have a good speaker system and have taken good care of the car as well as I could (except for the dreaded rocker panel rust)

I've owned the car for 4.5 years and have done all maintenance properly so this isn't a concern.

It needs a new valve cover gasket (oil leaking on starter)

New radiator support

New oil pan gasket.

These repairs will run me about $700 for all of it.

I have also put in over $1k in repairs including total front end suspension redone a few years ago ($400 for labor and parts) and rusted rear strut towers done a few years back ($600 for parts and labor)

I should also note that I bought this for like $400 because the owners thought it had over 200k but when I did the odometer resistor repair it turned out to have 90k miles on it.

Should I do this repair?

Please let me know if I have left out any important information.

Anybody here ever done a hydro e brake install? I'm a bit confused have a couple questions and would like to be able to talk to somebody who's experienced.

Currently installing a hydro e brake in a '02 Buick Century for the HooptieX rallycross and I am in desperate need of acknowledgeable advice.

Hello fellow car people!

I purchased a 1998 Buick Century Custom around 2.5 years ago. The previous owner said the car needed new spark plugs when I purchased it. When I test drove the car I noticed a misfire which I assumed was related to the spark plugs. I also had my OBDII scanner plugged in that indicated the car was running rich. The car had around 140k miles on it at the time.

After bringing the car home I noticed that it got exceptionally bad gas mileage. I have been troubleshooting the misfire and gas mileage for the past two years. I'll describe the steps I have taken since I've owned the car.

1. I replaced all the spark plugs with iridium spark plugs and installed new spark plug wires (I'll get back to this later)
2. Oil change
3. Transmission fluid change
4. Replaced the front brake pads & rotors
5. Replaced the transmission mount
6. Replaced the engine air filter

At this point the car ran somewhat better but that may have been in my head. It probably noticed the increased power from the fresh transmission fluid if anything. Nevertheless, the car was still getting poor gas mileage and misfiring. No check engine light codes have appeared at this time.

I looked at the o2 sensors in my scan tool and they seemed to be fine. Maybe they were a bit lazy but I haven't dealt with enough o2 sensor graphs to say for sure. The downstream sensor is easy to change but the upstream is a bit of a pain to get to. I purchased both sensors but never got around to installing them.

I noticed that the car would run hot after idling for a while. It would go to around 3/4 of the way up the temperature gauge then jump down. It happened occasionally while driving but never to the extent of while idling. I changed the thermostat and this issue went away immediately.

I checked the fuel pressure and noticed it was low. First I checked under the car while it ran and no leaks were present. I removed the vacuum line from the fuel pressure regulator and no gas was present, nor did it smell like gas. At that point I assumed the injectors were leaky and replaced all of them. I got a good deal on a full set of 6 so I figured why not do them all while it's apart. I also replaced the upper intake manifold gasket while I was in that area.

The car ran noticeably better after the fuel injectors were changed. It still ran rich but to a lesser degree. I continued troubleshooting and checked the fuel pressure again, it was still low. I checked the fue

Buick Century 2002 w/ 50,000 miles. 3.1L engine

When I accelerate rapidly, it gets to about 30 mph and starts to struggle. Then it revs up to about 50 mph and struggles again. It rides fine in cruise control at 70 mph. But at stop lights and hills, if I don't punch the gas it hums and groans about 30 mph. It jumps a little, but not major jerking.

I also notice lately the gas pump clicks off before the tank is full. I often run the tank to empty, so maybe things are getting clogged up?

It also overheated a couple times (surprise leak in the radiator)

I don't hear any unusual sounds, like clicking, just the engine errrrr... so I hope it's not the catalytic converter.

What should I ask the mechanic to do? Thanks

I came across this V6 on the street in Bardejov, Slovakia. Probably not the most desirable of Buicks, but it looked to be in very nice condition. Good, straight, rust-free body and clean interior. Not a common find in Central Europe, but it would have been familiar behind the iron curtain. Kojak drove one on TV, and that was one the few American shows that they could watch.

https://preview.redd.it/ih7968zqq0r71.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=193d48fb7667fa6db6fb85fcd6835e1b9a14be9d

The car has 320,000kms/200,000 miles on it (mostly on highway) and I was hoping to get a couple more years out of the car. I googled it and the first thing that I found was the the CATs are known for clogging up so I had it changed and no such luck. Had a fairly smooth idle still but would just bog and hesitate and then lose power as soon as you put your foot down.

I decided to try changing out the MAF and EGR as they are up top, easily accesable and the parts are cheap. This did the trick to my surprise (it was the MAF)! Runs like a dream now with a perfect idle, good acceleration and plenty of power.

Hoping to get another 100,000kms out of the vehicle. I have no codes and it hardly uses any oil.

If you have issues with either rough idle or bogging the first thing I would do is change the EGR and MAF.

I have a problem with my century. Sometimes when I go to start the car the starter goes but the car won’t fire. Spark, compression, and fuel is all there. Usually sending the foot all the way down on the pedal starts it right up. I’ve cleaned the throttle body and replaced the idle air control valve. Anyone else have this problem and figured a solution?