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Hi. Noob with a 98 Buick Century.

H

Hood_Shield

New member
Hi, all.
My name is Felix.
I recently acquired a 98 Buick Century Custom from my 96 year old great uncle.
It had 21,000 miles on it and had been sitting in the garage for 3 years.
He used it to drive 4 blocks to the store for his groceries once a week :th_biggrin3:
Anyway, it's my 1st car and I wanna keep it well maintained and maybe boost it's performance.
I look forward to learning from all of you and maybe making some friends as well.

(Ask me for the story behind my name for a good chuckle ^_^)
 


Can beat that for a first car practically new, family owned, well-cared for, and I'm assuming free or cheap. I bet he was a street racer wasn't he? ;) Welcome to GPF!! No I won't ask. LOL.
 
Welcome to the community. I will say with that few miles driven over that long of a period of time, I would do a couple things in short order. Most noteably change the oil and filter. It probably wouldnt hurt to have the transmission fluid flushed, pan dropped and filter changed and maybe a coolant flush.

The reason for all this is that with that short trip driving over such a long period of time, condensation can build up quite quickly and believe it or not, even with motor oil in the engine, there can be some rust build up.

After that, I would get it out on the highway for a few times a week. A good 15 or so mile drive one way where you can get up to highway speeds and stay there. That will help clean things out well. I would also keep an eye out for leaks as seals can turn slightly brittle under those conditions, but if you can get it on the highway, it will help restore them to a point.

Good Luck and I will ask about the story behind you name, I love a good chuckle.
 
welcome. I would also suggest replacing seals, the gaskets dry out and get brittle when they are left with no oil on them (extremely low mileage isn't the best friend of rubber seals)
 


Welcome!

Your car has a 3.1L engine so there won't be alot of modifications you can do to it but you can put a FWI in and do some exhaust work to make it more enjoyable to drive!
 


Thanks to everybody who welcomed me!!
I wasn't really expecting so many nice people ^_^
I'm sorry it took so long for me to reply.
My life kinda gets hectic and busy sometimes :P

Here's a couple of replies :)

LowlyfeGTP:

The care was free.
It was a gift from him when I got my license ^_^
I really hope he didn't race it.
He stopped driving cuz he couldn't see the road.
Hell, he can't even see the steering wheel O_O

SyntheticShield:

1- It's nice to have an admin who actually cares enough to offer a noob some useful advice.
Thank you for that ^_^

2: 1st thing I did before I even put the ke in the ignition was change the air filter and oil.

And I should also note that I put 5000 miles on it since he gave it to me :P

Archemedes:

I will look into the conditions of the seals.
Since it was (and still is) a garaged car, it wasn't exposed to as much weather so they may be OK.
In the 4 months I've been driving it, I haven't had any leaks.
I'm always sure to check for them every time I pull out of the garage.
Thanks for the heads up.

03GPScottyd:

I'm willing to put in the work, time and money to improve the engine stats.
I'm not expecting a monster car, but the improved performance will be nice ^^

I've already put in a CAI with my friend help.
The difference a small project like that makes is remarkable :th_biggrin3:

And finally, to everyone who welcomed me, thank you so much.
It's nice to have friends ^_^
 
handwave.gif
welcome to GPF
 
Welcome aboard!

Thats one hell of a nice first car. Beats my 10 year old junker of a '87 Cavalier 5 speed for my first car when I got my license.

~F~
 
I forgot to tell the story of my name for those of you who are interested :P

Well, when I 1st got my car, I drove from NY to Michigan.
The trip went well and I really opened the throttle on the interstate.
Average speed, 85 to 100 MPH.
Everything went great.
So, I parked in a parking lot to get something from a store.
When I came out, some guy tells me a couple of teenagers in daddies SUV slammed into my front end.
Then damaged my bumper cover and grille, shattered the left head light and tented my hood.
The hood wouldn't close right.
It wouldn't snap onto the 2nd latch.
So, I go back in and buy duct tap and line the front of the hood with it so the air can't get in and lift it while I drive home.

Fast forward to March.
I haven't been able to afford to get it fixed yet.
I'm driving on Union Turnpike, a block or 2 away from Main St.
I'm going about 35 MPH and my hood flies up onto my windshield.
I blindly pulled over to the side of the road, got my ratchet set and took the whole hood off.
My buddy and I folded it in half, stuffed it in the trunk and drove home with no hood :P

Good times ^_^
 


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