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del.icio.usThe Big Chevy has needed a lot of repairs since I bought it. Some are significant enough that I have written separate pages about them. Small and simple problems are in paragraphs below.
Pulling Right
The car pulled badly to the right when I bought it. I thought it needed an alignment, but it turns out that the belts in the front right tire were all broken, making the tire quite out of round. The soft suspension on the car made it almost undetectable while driving; we only found it by looking down at it one day.
Burning Oil
The car also burned a lot of oil when I bought it. When I was replacing the timing chain, I accidentally broke the PCV valve with my elbow. After I finished the timing chain job and replaced the PCV valve, the car no longer burned oil. Clearly, the original was faulty.
Overheating
I was driving up to Ottawa one time last summer, on a really hot day. The car was slowly overheating. I actually had to pull over a few times to keep it out of the red. Each time I pulled over, I could drive much, much farther until I had to pull over again. Turns out the rad was just extremely old and needed replaced, so that's what I did.
Leaking Radiator
The replacement radiator (for the above problem) had a pinhole leak in it that only actually leaked after the car warmed up. Luckily, the shop where I bought it traded it for free. It turns out that I should have just bought a good aluminum one from Summit. It would have been new instead of "newly painted black" and of much higher quality. I know for next time I guess.
Sagging Headliner
The headliner was sagging, despite a solid effort by the previous owner to keep it up with staples. The foam had rotted, so the cloth no longer bonded.
I went to the wrecking yard and found another Caprice that was the exact same bodystyle (except with 4 doors) and took the headliner out of it. This was after I tried to get one out of a Caprice Classic Brougham that was a few years newer. That headliner was at least 4 inches shorter, making it useless.
After I got the new headliner out (which can only be achieved by folding it like a giant taco), I took it home and scraped off the fabric and foam. I then bought some foam, black cloth, and 2 cans of 3M(R) Super 90(TM) spray adhesive, and glued the foam to the headliner shell, and then the cloth to the foam. Some of the glue went through the black cloth and can be seen as greyish patches. Oh well.
Just like removing it, the only way to get the headliner in the car is to fold it in half, which cracks the entire shell in two. Luckily, The foam I bought was thick enough that once it's in the car and supported properly, it's only sagging by about a half inch, which I don't think any of my passengers have noticed.
I regret going to the bother of fixing the headliner myself. It still cost over $100, and was very frustrating because I had to take apart the entire interior above the doorline. I ended up breaking a lot of one-time-use plastic clips that are used in the interior. It's hard to get replacements, because they're expensive at the dealer, and when I tried to get them from cars at the wrecking yard, they just broke instantly as well. Next time, I will keep the headliner up with more staples, or pay to have it done correctly. My repair job has held out for over a year now, so I guess it was the cheapest way out, but still, I'm not going to win any awards for Best Interior.
Rain Leak
If it pours rain for hours and hours, there will be a puddle in the back left footwell. Despite a few efforts with a big bucket full of water, I can't seem to find it. To this day, I have no idea where it's coming from.
