Wagon shopping

Yours is Gorgeous, you'll love it! I got my 96 almost a year ago,it had 73K miles on it. It now has 92K miles. I adore the car and drive it every day. They are very reliable cars!

Mine was in fine mechanical shape, but needed a little cosmetic help:
Before - As Found:

Today:


Since you were asking, here's a few observations on the 91-96 Roadys, and some things to look out for on your car.

- I love the LT1, tons of power and good mileage too. It was standard from 94-96, but the Optispark is the one true drawback. I have had no issues with mine, but a good rule of thumb is avoid deep water and if you detail the engine avoid soaking the front of the motor. Also if you car has over 70K miles replacing the water pump is cheap insurance, because if the water pump fails it soaks the Opti with coolant and 99% of the time takes it out too. The design also makes replacing the plug wires a nightmare.

- Only the 96 models have the OBDII diagnostics. I for one wish they didn't, because it's easier to trip a check engine light...if your gas cap get loose you'll set a code, and there are more sensors under the hood. I added the Corvette fuel rails to mine, which look awesome, but it's harder with OBDII as there are additional things you have to re-route.


- The EGR valve is another common failure item. It mounts to the back of the intake, but is not too terrible to change.

- The 94-96 cars got a new dash and door panels. The dash was redesigned to add a passenger air bag. Sadly in the redesign GM dropped the tachometer and full gauges the 91-93 cars had. The LT1 cars only have the speedo, fuel and temp gauges. All is not lost however, you can have a Z28 cluster made to fit. It's on my too-do list.

-DO NOT slam the front doors on your 94-96 Roady. The panels are weak right in front of the window switches on the arm rest, and cracks are common there. These panels are getting HARD to find!

-These cars also have issues with power window roller failure, just like the Caprice and Impala SS. All mine have been replaced. If you ever need a step-by-step, I have one.

- One of the best mods I did was to replace the huge stock mufflers with Flowmaster 40 series mufflers. I left the stock resonators in place, and now the car has a nice throaty burble at idle, sounds wonderful when you accelerate, but is still nice and quiet on the highway. Oh and if you take some SOS pads and then polishing compound to the factory tail pipes, they will shine up great!


- 96 Roady's all got a re-issue of the 1985 Buick LeSabre Collector's Edition hood ornament, and the last few made also got small front fender badges


-The 95 and 96 Roadys have much larger door mirrors that also fold in. One of the best updates on our cars.

-The 94-96 have the cheesy half-leather and half-rubber steering wheels, and the dye tends to wear off the non-leather parts over time to reveal black, and it looks like hell. Thankfully SEM makes spray dye to fix this issue that looks super when done.

My 2-cents, all the 91-93 cars with the throttle body engines are dead reliable. The 91's were only 305's, but in 92-93 the 350 became standard on the Buick and Olds and optional on the Caprice. The 91-93's also had the full gauges and full leather steering wheels. If all out power and speed are not your number one concern, these are wonderful cars. Of these the 92 350-powered Custom Cruiser is my favorite. It's the most rare of all these, and with the Olds grill, smooth side trim and factory mag wheels, these are just FINE looking cars.

That said, these are HEAVY cars, and more power cures all ills. Once you've driven an LT1 it's hard to go back. I can't tell you how many people I've shocked with my "old man's" car. Also on trips I average 24mpg and the car is SO comfy to drive you want to use it all the time.

Of the 91-96, the 95-96 are my favorite. In 95 the larger door mirrors came out, as well as a much updated stereo that offered both CD and cassette in the same unit. The only real change in 96 was the Collector's Edition trim, and the front folding armrest between the seats was enlarged.

Well that was a long post. If you have more questions I'll be glad to try to answer them. I adore my '96 Roady and hope you have wonderful luck with yours as well!

-Mike

 

Mike, that post was chock full of great info..thanks.
I kinda wish I were more patient with my purchase. The 91-93 would probably have suited me better, cause I'm all about reliablity, but the LT1 I bought seems to be well taken care of and runs great. So hopefuly, I won't regret not getting the throtle body motor.
Otherwise I'm stoked!
All I need now are SS rims like yours..SICK!

 

Quoted by 81......"-These cars also have issues with power window roller failure, just like the Caprice and Impala SS. All mine have been replaced. If you ever need a step-by-step, I have one."

Chances are you will have this problem at some time. Be SURE to get the new GM ROLLER replacements....not the original flat sliders that break.

 

???....I'm a bit confused here....get new GM repacements, not the origonal flat sliders...... did GM cheap out and farm out parts for these when the cars were new (who/where did the origonals come from, China, Tiwan, etc,???) ?

 

They just made a flat window guide piece, Fat, that just wasn't strong enough and they become brittle and break. This allows the window to not be on any guide anymore (flop around, won't operate right etc). Bad design. Hard to say where they were made but they were GM guides. Hard to say where anything on a car is made anymore. They came out with a new replacement guide that are rollers instead of the flat pieces. It solved the problem and most cars like these driving around have at least some of the new roller style guides and will, undoubtedly, ultimately have new ones installed in all the windows as the flat one's break. Some guys just replace them all when buying one of these cars. I had one bad window when I bought my cappy so I bought the rollers.

 

Thanks for the wheel comment. Was one of my first mods. I also went further with custom center caps decals:


Impala SS wheels are still fairly common. Look in the auto parts section of Craigslist.

If you get a set and the clear coat is discolored or peeling, go to the parts store and buy a jug of Tal-Strip Aircraft Stripper. Don't get the spray, buy the large jug, pour some in a paint pan, and use a brush to paint it on the wheels, and then once the clear bubbles rinse it off with a garden hose. May take 2-3 coats to get all the clear off. Once the cleat is off use some good wax on the bare wheel, and that's it. I've had mine on over a year stripped of the clear and they still look great. Just keep them clean and wax them now and then. Oh just wax the smooth part, not the rough-texture part, it's fine unwaxed.

ALSO, here's a great tip. Someone on the Longroof forum suggested I try 235/55/17 tires. These are not as wide as the Impala SS tires were, they're also a little taller, but still much wider than the original Roadmaster wagon tires. Was told these end up being the same height as the 255/50's so the speedo would read right, and with the taller sidewall the car will ride smoother and not "road-walk". I was concerned they'd look funny, but was sent a pic of them on a Caprice wagon. They looked fine in the pic.

Now the good part, the new standard 2010-11 Mustang GT tire is the Pirelli P-Zero Nero size 235/55/17. What's the first thing many new Mustang owners do? Get bigger wheels and tires! SO there are a ton of new Pirelli take-off's out there at the used tire places. These list new for $159 each at Discount Tire. I got a full-set of new take-off's from a Mustang for $60 each, and it cost $40 to have them mounted and balanced. Woo-Hoo!




These ride SO much better than the 255/50 Michelin tires that were on the wheels when I got them, and they don't tramline in the highway like those wide Michelin's did. They look great, and if I do have a flat on a trip these are stocked by most tire stores since they are OE Mustang. The Impala 255/50 size is getting hard to find.

Pretty cool tip!

-Mike

 

After having lots of issues with these GM came out with a new design that is much better. That's why it's better to get the GM parts than the aftermarket. The aftermarket ones are still the old design.

-Mike

 

Another tip, the black lower body side trim has a bad habit of coming loose and falling off the stainless chrome trim. REALLY common issue on Roadmasters.

This is not a hard fix. Either pull back the trim if it's still mostly attached or remove it all if it's nearly off. Remove as much of the old mounting material as you can, and then clean both the black trim and the stainless side moldings REALLY WELL.

Next go to the auto parts store and buy a roll of 3M grey mounting tape. This is the grey tape with the red backing. Buy as wide of tape as you can find, and then cut to fit the moldings.

This works MUCH better than any glue, and all mine have been fixed and stayed fixed for over a year now. My tail gate trim and passenger front door trim were in the 3rd seat well when I bought my car, and the remaining trim was sagging.

Before:

After:

 

Since I'm on a roll with tips, here's another. Cheap Upper Bumper Chrome Trim Fix:

I went and got a roll of the chrome StyleGuard 3/8 inch Wheel Molding (part # T3605C) at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Was $14.

Well here's my thoughts. It's better than what I had.

The molding on my bumper was mostly yellowed and the clear had come off the chrome, and was sticking up in many places. Pretty ugly, really took away from the car.

I was able to pry out the ends of each of the three pieces from the metal endcaps, and then pull the old strips off. I then used a razor blade to scrape off the remains of the old mounting tape, and then cleaned the leftover dirt and glue off the bumper where the strips had been.

Mounting the new chrome molding was easy, the molding comes with 3M tape already on it, and I just cut the strips to length. The width is correct and I had no problems getting the ends tucked back under the metal end caps.

Now as to why it's just "better" and a not "great" repair. The issue is anywhere the new strips had to curve or bend to follow the bumper contours, they wrinkled. Not huge wrinkles, but not smooth chrome anymore either.

It does look a lot better though, see pics below:

 

Some great info here. Lots of know-how info:
http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=119498#post119498

 

And these are just fun to watch.

http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13166