Aero's Car Thread: From the East

[eiriksmil]

Both this and the Buick are like too cool to be used. Are you keeping the Skylark or is it too much work?

 

[Aerocoupe]

Both this and the Buick are like too cool to be used. Are you keeping the Skylark or is it too much work?

Sadly the Buick has to go. We don't really have room for four cars in the driveway and the rust is too far gone on it to repair. The rear bumper support that's rusted out is part of the unibody, and would require a lot of surgery to fix, if it even can be done properly. I love it to death, but I think the smart thing right now is to move on. Maybe I'll find a nicer example some day when I have room for it.

 

[Ze Elephant]

That has got to be one of the cleanest Auroras left in the midwest. It's really amazing to see one that's still so nice. Great catch!

 

[Aerocoupe]

That has got to be one of the cleanest Auroras left in the midwest. It's really amazing to see one that's still so nice. Great catch!

Thanks! I was lucky enough to come across it on Facebook Marketplace, with the original owners being the sellers. They were elderly, and always kept up on the mechanical parts of the car at a local shop they trusted which more or less sealed the deal. The 116,000 miles are mostly highway miles too, since this was their road trip car to head out of state over the winters, so it dodged all of the salt these past 20 years (and highway miles tend to be much easier on cars than city miles). I also played a few factors to my advantage in finding this particular Aurora: 1) The Aurora is a niche car that not many people go out and actively seek; 2) Most will see that it has an engine related to the Northstar and overlook it due to the commonly cited mechanical issues, and 3) They were originally asking $7,000, which I knew not even the most hardcore Aurora fanatic would pay. I threw out an offer of $4,000, and after waiting a couple of weeks with the sellers seeing if anyone would pony up the full price, they agreed to meet, and I came home one Oldsmobile richer. Suppose that's what happens when you look in the right place at the right time .

 

[lbpomg95]

There's something about lazy American sedans that charms me. Maybe it's just the fact that the closest thing we get in the UK is stuff like my Volvo 240, but then they didn't come with massive, lazy V6 and V8 engines.

I think you should get in touch with Regular Car Reviews on youtube - he'd friggin' love this thing.

Reading your run-through of the other cars you looked at though... Jesus wept. And I thought dealerships in the UK were morally bankrupt, thieving sh** squirts!

 

[Aerocoupe]

Well, as of June 26th the Buick is no longer mine. One my dad's co-workers ended up buying it for the princely sum of $500. It was a bit sad seeing it go, but I'm also happy to see it live to be crushed another day; I was actually considering foregoing the effort to find a buyer and scrapping it, but I think I prefer the way this turned out.

Also, there's a few odds and ends that need doing on the Aurora.

• Serpentine belt needs to be changed
• Current tires are pretty worn down, will need new ones soon
• Front brakes are heavily warped and the pads are squeaking. Gonna look at getting some Raybestos replacements.
• Waiting on a K&N filter to come in that I snagged on eBay for $16 when they otherwise go for $80(it's just a regular square replacement, not one of those cone shaped performance units).
• Starting the detailing process to get it ready for a local Oldsmobile Club show in early August.

 

[Aerocoupe]

Checked off one item on my list .

The air box is jammed in the driver's fender, so it took some fanagling, but I got it in eventually.

And of course I couldn't resist using the stickers that came in the box.

Also decided to take the engine cover off to give it a few rounds of Tuff Stuff and get some of that grease off.

End result:

As an aside, I found a few parts that are still original.

I'm not an LS, I swear!

Dad reckons the wiring has never been touched on this engine, as evinced by how neat and tidy all of the looms are (most wouldn't bother to make it look this nice), and the plug wires are numbered for each cylinder which was only done on the factory originals; not even the Delco replacements have that.

The air filter may also have been original, as it was marked with 'Delco Flint MI', but I'd be shocked if this is the first filter replacement this car's ever had.

 

[Aerocoupe]

I've been doing some digging recently, and I happened to stumble across an interesting thread on an Aurora forum about upgrades. Through that I discovered that '98 and '99 Auroras are able to accept a majority of suspension components from the Buick Lucerne since their designs are more or less the same with a few tweaks. What I was most interested in was the front brakes, as the Lucerne had a dual piston design, and the calipers equipped on V6 models just so happen to bolt right on to the Aurora without any modification. I could've looked for the beefier Lucerne CXS/DeVille calipers, but that would require me to move up to 17" wheels. Thus, I decided to take the dive on my first performance upgrade and got myself a pair of front calipers from an '09 Lucerne on eBay.

As an aside, here's a few other other things I learned regarding yearly differences for first gen Auroras:

• '95s featured a high pressure oil pump that was dropped afterwards.
• Early '95s had a strange defect in the rear glass that made it distorted and difficult to see out of and lead to an extended model year to remedy the issue.
• '95 was the only year where a no-cost cloth interior option was available and is extremely rare.
• Mid-year '97 saw the removal of the engine oil cooler, as well as the transition from the chrome square GM seat buckles to the generic type with red buttons.
• '97 had a Frankenstein suspension, still using the design from the previous year, but made of stamped aluminum as opposed to cast iron.
• '97 also received larger front brakes after complaints of sub-par stopping power.
• '98 saw a revised suspension design, and as mentioned before bears a close resemblance to what was used on the Lucerne and DeVille from 2006-2011.

 

[Volksauto]

I really like your Oldsmobile. I also loved your Skylark. General Motors made some really unique and cool designs in the 1990's in my opinion. If you hold on to the Aurora and baby it like you have been, I'm sure it'll be worth something one day. Those 90's GM coupes are getting rarer by the day to find one as nice as yours is a real treat.

 

[Aerocoupe]

New Year, Same Olds​

Welp, now that it's been five months I figured it'd be a good time to update this thread yet again, now including the misadventures of 90s luxury car ownership!

I'll begin with the fate of the Skylark. My dad posted it for sale at his work, and within a week someone coughed up $500 for it. It was a bit sad seeing it go, but I did keep the grille I painted (and replaced it with the chrome one it had), as well as the owner's manual for sentimental reasons. The last I've heard is that it was traded for a gun only a few weeks later because someone else needed a car desperately, but didn't have the money. Hopefully it gets to live out the rest of it's days somewhat gracefully at least.

The end of summer was an absolute blast. Only a month after the Aurora was purchased, I entered it into a show held by the Oldsmobile Club of Wisconsin. It was on the smaller side, but it was still fun to put my new toy on display.

It also took first place in it's class, though it wasn't so hard considering that I was the only car in it.

There was another first-gen Aurora there, but it was in the 'Senior' class since it had won best-in-class awards at national Olds Club meetings. Simply put: It's probably the cleanest Aurora in the country.

After the show, things have been fairly uneventful. The only things to report are little nickel and dime repairs, which are to be expected with the age and mileage. The first came in September with the fuel pressure regulator causing some fussy starts, remedied by simply replacing it with a new Delphi unit.

It was pretty simple plug and play job, and with how much of a pain Northstars can be to work on I'm glad for it. Much unike the serpentine belt that was, according to my ex-GM tech father, "the worst belt job I've ever done". Don't know why GM loved putting engine mounts between belts, but it certainly wasn't to make them easier to replace. It was really just dumb luck that we got the new one on correctly if I'm honest.

Next came brake rotors in December, as I finally bit the bullet after I couldn't take the shuddering during braking any longer. I was wanting to put it off until I could do both rotors and install the Lucerne calipers, but that'll probably come in the spring or summer.

Went with a set of mid-grade Raybestos rotors, and thus far they've done their job perfectly well.

Soon after the brakes were done I took a fairly long trip to my grandparents, and decided to make use of the Driver Information Center for funsies. These are the results from the 400ish mile round trip:

Not bad mileage for a 20 year old, 4,000lb, V8 powered boat if I do say so.

Aaand of course right as I got home, the driver's side hub bearing started humming. I've got a pair (may as well do both, right?) on their way so I can once again have a whisper quiet ride. The joys of only being into old cars.

 

[Aerocoupe]

Whew, it's sure been quite a while since this was updated! So let's fix that.

Haven't touched the brake upgrade at all. Part of it has a been a lack of free time, and the other is nerves about messing with the important things that help me stop. Still might go through with it by the end of summer, I don't know.

Sometime during the summer last year (might've been July or August) I did some more involved maintenance. Both front wheel bearings needed to be replaced; driver's side went smoothly, the other...not so much.

We threw everything at the knuckle to separate it from the CV shaft.

Fire.

Brute force (and more fire).

Swearing with fire (not pictured).

The valiant puller gave out before the thing would budge an inch, it was that crusty. So, rather than cranking on it until we broke something, Dad gave it a good soaking with Kroil and waited for a weeks worth of driving to slick it up. After that it finally came free, and my bearings were quiet once more. We also ended up removing one of the lower control arms for...some reason (room maybe? It's been so long I don't recall) and found ourselves faced with GM's love of rivets. Which meant drilling them out and replacing them with bolts. Yay.

Also around that time I replaced the old spark plugs and wires. The forward bank of cylinders was fine to do, but the aft bank by the firewall sucked. I ended up having to remove the coil packs, which by themselves are annoying since you have no room to fit the screwdriver you're using almost blindly to undo two tiny screws per pack, and also had to remove the mounting tray. Then I got to repeat my blind fumbling with the spark plugs before putting it all back together. The process itself tested my patience, but at least I didn't bust any plugs in the threads. I also managed to mix up the wires on only two cylinders, so I'd call that a success for my first tune up.

Tried my best to get the wires loomed neatly, but I kinda gave up being anal since I have a plastic cover anyway.

At least you can still see a bit of the cool blue NGK used on their wires.

More recently I dealt with the brittleness of 90s plastics. I was twisting the fan speed knob once and it just came off in my hand. Of course, the Aurora is the only car where GM spent the extra money to have its own unique switchgear, so I ended up having to buy a whole upper dash module (pictured below, but not the one I bought) just for the knob. I guess it's pretty common for the fan dials to snap off, so I've taken to using the steering wheel buttons as much as possible.

Other than those quibbles, I haven't done much else. Recently did an oil change and fed the aluminum pig with a fresh 7.5 quart helping of 10w-30 along with a tire rotation, but other than that everything has been uneventful. And besides a noisy lifter, the Northstar hasn't been the liability I feared it might be. Not saying anything more that may tempt it to eat a head gasket.

However, the mediocre mileage is definitely showing now that I have a longer commute to my new job. Before, I only filled up about once or twice a month. Now, I've been at the pump every Thursday evening buying ~$50 worth of premium, so that's been a bummer. Not enough to make me want to dump it by any means, but it certainly stings seeing that every week.

Still, I love it. I still find myself struck by the design, the power and noise make up for the poor MPG, and I feel like I fit just right in it.

 

[wfooshee]

It's not in my "Jalopies" thread, but I did post about it here, my '99 Aurora in Diamond White Pearl. I had issues with that same display panel, but removing and cleaning some solder joints and connectors fixed it up. The biggest electrical issue was broken wires in the bundles going into the doors. Whatever those go to stops working, of course, and with the seat controls on the door panels, that's a lot of stuff: seats, windows, mirrors, locks!

The paint on mine was killed by the previous owner keeping it outdoors under oak trees. That also fills the air intake for the ventilation system with debris that was quite a job to clean out. The car ran great, was powerful and smooth, expensive to run with 14 or 15mpg in town on premium, though. The interior was in excellent condition except for the panel above the instrument panel, which was pulling up at the front by the windshield. Everything power worked, once i got those wires spliced back together at the door jambs.

Seat memory worked, which is an issue in these cars, because the space under the drivers seat can fill with water if the sunroof leaks (very common) and destroy the seat memory module under there. I even found how to program the key fobs for seat memory; one key fob for me, the seats go to my position when I unlock the car, and the other key fob for her, and the seats go to her position when she unlocks that car.

I had to replace the fuel gauge sender, perhaps the one most common item on these cars. The wiper fingers wear out, and the gauge goes random when below half a tank. I also had to replace the idler pulley on the water pump belt. That failed some 40 miles out of town and AAA had to come get me in the middle of the night. You do NOT want to overheat one of these things.

I also had to replace the starter, which lives in the V on top of the engine, under the intake manifold. Not too bad a job.

Common engine failure in the early Northstars was head bolts pulling themselves out of the block, leading to head gasket leaks, power loss, and overheating. The repair is to install studs into the block and use nuts for the heads.

The other Northstar issue is they don't hold oil very well. The oil pan has not one but two joints onto the block, because of the baffle plate under the crank. Only one of those is gasketed, the other is sealed with a compound. The block splits at the crank, so there's another gasket-less seal there. The valve covers are HUGE, and don't seal very well, and one of the camshafts sticks out to drive the water pump at the rear of the engine. People have broken that camshaft trying to get that cover off without realizing the camshaft goes through it! Then there's the front cover over all of that DOHC timing chain system, with about 40-11 joints, gaskets, and covers. Finally, the aluminum used in the block is so porous that oil seeps through the "solid" metal! Over time, the exterior of the block gets slimy from inside!!!

Hurricane Michael relieved my of my Aurora, whacked it pretty thoroughly by flying debris, and progressive gave me a ridiculously high check for it. Just as well, because the AC had just died and was going to have to be replaced. 😄

Aurora hot-rod tip, if you didn't already know. The only difference between the 4.0 Aurora engine and the 4.6 Cadillac engine is sleeved cylinders, and heads to match the reduced bore. Externally, the engines are identical, down to every single mount, bolt, and connector. The ECU and tranny controller are identical between the engines. In other words, dropping a Caddy engine into your Aurora is 25 extra HP, maybe 50 if you have the VIN 'Y' Caddy motor. You change nothing else. Drop it in, start it up, and go quicker.

 

[Aerocoupe]

A New Leaf​

Time to dust off this old thread and fill in some big updates. First things first: as of two weeks ago, my time of Aurora ownership came to an end. As I'm planning to move out and live on my own within the next couple of years, I came to the conclusion that the Aurora probably wasn't the best choice of something to rely on for the long-term. While it never gave me any trouble outside of items that things that you'd expect to need replacing on a quarter-century old car with 143,000 miles, it's also at a point where it would likely need more and more TLC as time went on. As an example, when I replaced the front tie rod ends back in May it also decided to blow one of its rear brake lines while pulling it into the garage. Thankfully nothing was damaged since it was barely moving, but a little scary to think of how it could've let go while I was driving. Rust was also slowly starting to creep in a couple of spots, but nothing too far from fixing if someone really wanted to. With that all in mind for what I had at the time, I created my basic stipulations:

Needs:

• Nothing older than 2008​
• As few miles as possible (preferably 75,000 or less)​
• Reliable, and low running costs​

Wants:

• More luxurious creature comforts
• Genuine performance model
• Something more "unique"
• Lighter interior color (gray/tan preferred)
• Wood trim

With those in mind (and acknowledging that I likely wouldn't find something that ticked every single box), I began scouring different models within my budget. Below is the final rotation of models I was primarily looking at in my searching.

• 2012-17 Buick Regal GS
  • The Regal GS seemed like a good shout for a practical, genuine performance car for not a lot of money. Problem was finding any for sale nearby, and a mixed bag for reliability according to owners in GM forums; I was primarily looking at the first 2 model years as some said the LHU engines were less troublesome than the LTGs that replaced them in 2014+ models, but the whole "avoid X model years for Y issue" pretty much killed most interest in hunting down something from post-bankruptcy GM. I know I'm saying that coming from having a Northstar car for nearly 4 years, but I just didn't want to deal with that minefield on top of general car searching.
• 2011-2014 Acura TSX Sport Wagon
  • This came on my radar after seeing a listing online for one at a local dealer. Of course, I quickly found that Acura produced fewer than 10,000 TSX Wagons for the scant few years they sold it so, like the Regal GS, they were few and far between. Rarity alone pretty much killed finding a decent one in the time I was looking.
• 2008-2017 Lexus LS460
  • Onto the Lexus considerations, and the LS460 was at the top. Of course you hear about the legends of how bulletproof they are and how the LS is the only sensible halo luxury sedan to consider after the warranty expires, so naturally I was curious to see if it made sense for me. I even went so far as to test a 2010 example at a dealer and fell in love with it; the smoothness, power, and bank-vault quality were intoxicating. However, I was sobered by seeing the ludicrous cost of parts (a set of the 8 front control arms LS460s are known for chewing up is roughly $1000 for just the parts alone), which reminded me that these were more or less $100,000 cars when new, and that they weren't intended to be run on a budget (at least, not a reasonable one). Of course, another wrinkle was that it would need to be an AWD model as I'd need to be able to use it year-round in Wisconsin winters, so my choices were further limited by that factor. On top of that, most examples in my budget had higher miles (some even surpassing the Oldsmobile's clock by a good margin) and weren't the best cared for either. Thus, I dropped the LS from the running and set my sights a little lower in the range.
• 2013+ Lexus IS/GS 350
  • Combining these as the story is much the same for both: I was mostly finding models that weren't AWD, had too many miles, were out of budget, or in the case of the IS, had either the 2.5L V6 (which only had direct injection for most model years, meaning that they tend to have carbon build-up issues) or the 2.0L four-pot turbo that I wasn't interested in. Like the TSX and Regal before them, there just wasn't the "one" for either of these models in my searching. Until...
• 2013-2018 Lexus ES350
  • Finally, I moved my sights down to the entry model Lexus. Searching became much easier, because A) the 3.5L 2GR V6 I was after was the only option (for the non-hybrids), B) they're all FWD, so no need to seek out an AWD model, and C) there's more than two of them for sale at a given time. I experienced a Matador Red 2015 ES at a Lexus dealer and came away impressed; it still had that solid feel and luxurious appointments the LS460 had (obviously the LS is better in the nitty gritty things, but still), and it's the Lexus model that actually has Camry-esque running costs since it and the Avalon it shared a platform with aren't far removed from the Camry. It's the one I would have gotten, had it not been for this:

It's a 2013 model, purchased from the original elderly owner who only put 25,000 miles on it over the past decade. Paid a bit more for it than the 2015, but it made more sense as it was a 50,000 mile difference and had pretty much the same options. It even has a rear peasant blocker to provide the full yuppie experience . Thus far I've added on about 1,000 miles since picking it up, and it's been great; dead quiet, comfortable (cooled seats are definitely on my "needs" for cars going forward), equally composed at either 25 or 70, and surprisingly quick when it needs to be. It only has 18 more HP and a few lb-ft of torque less than the Aurora's mighty V8, but it feels so much more lively; don't know whether it's due to the VVT-i system giving it a broader powerband, the two extra gears in the transmission giving it better ratios to work with or what, but it's definitely got passing power. Overall I'm happy with it, and I'll hopefully be sticking with it for a good few years now. Admittedly I was sad to see the Aurora go as I'd grown attached to it, but at least it went to a good home where it'll be taken care of rather than unceremoniously scuttled to a dealer auction. So yeah, that's my big two year update. Lots of changes, and likely more to come as the ES gets broken in.

 

[Doog]

Those ESs are great cars. Like you, I'd still rather have an Avalon, as would a lot of used ES buyers, it seems like. Not that there's anything wrong with the ES, though, I just like the Avalon's exterior styling and interior better. Sometimes I wonder if I'd be better served by something like an Avalon hybrid or ES300h than my current fleet of crapboxes. Luckily, since those cars are well-loved by their owners, they rarely come up for sale, allowing me to largely put the thought out of my mind since there's never anything available to browse online.

I really like the hybrid versions of these cars because they get terrific gas mileage without sacrificing the drivability unless you're lead-footed and also prefer cruising at over 90 mph on the freeway. But for the manner in which the ES encourages you to drive - smoothly and considerately - the hybrid powertrain really suits these cars. I wouldn't fault anyone for still going with the V6, though. They are very smooth, and on the freeway they can flirt with 30 mpg - and boy do these cars love cruising on the freeway. I worked at the Lexus dealership during 2017 and drove these ESs all the time, sometimes taking them on trips across town to deliver one to its owner and drive the loaner back, or vice versa, or driving one to the sister dealership to swap inventory, driving off-lease ones to Emissions so that they could go back on the lot as CPOs, not to mention the countless loaners and personal cars I drove every day working in the car wash. To this day, I still drive these cars all the time because I work at as a valet at a high-end retirement home where Lexuses reign supreme, although in today's crossover-crazy market, only a few ES350s and a couple ES300hs remain there now.

In everyday (unremarkable) driving situations, the ES is one of the best cars to spend time in. The ES has never been unpopular, but I still think a lot more people would be served very well by them versus the number of ESs I actually do see on the road. They're one of the easiest cars to live with. These cars, as well as the Avalons in a more direct sense, are the new-age Buick sedans. Sure, the Lacrosse was still sold until a few years ago, but nobody bought them in the end. And the Regal is so uncommon that it might as well have never even existed. These cars capture the intent of later FWD Buicks, but I'm not entirely sure what caused people to migrate away from those cars in the first place while cars like the ES stuck around, other than the obvious (dying out). My best guess is that the Avalon and ES are the most socially-acceptable way to still enjoy the virtues of a Buick today, without the perceived baggage that comes with the Buick nameplate, which ranges from old (society loves youth, so this is a non-starter) to trashy depending on who you ask. Maybe the ES is analogous to what Buicks used to be in the eyes of consumers: a respectable car that isn't pretentious.