[mjhicks]

Used cars are a pain in the... wallet! As well as other places. Engine, trans, and other mechanical parts are all in good shape - just electrical or electronic problems...

Its been almost 2&1/2 years since changing the ICM. The stall and crank but no start problem went away til a few weeks ago... Would start just fine then after warming up would stall then do the crank but no start. I found some of the wires on the ICM connector were bad. Ten days ago a friend who is an electronic specialist replaced the connector, carefully splicing, soldering, & shrink wrapped each connection. A couple of other bad spots in the wiring were fixed as well as a main ground and power connections checked. Test drive went fine... problem returned the next day GRRRR!! Stall after it warmed up or if I stop for gas or other errand it would crank but not start til it cooled down completely. Some research suggested the Crank position sensor... no longer having the physical ability to pull the harmonic balancer I bought a crank sensor from Oreily's and took the Buick to my mechanic. He read the codes... no code showed for crank sensor but the cam sensor and EST shows up. Mechanic says if only the outer part of the cam sensor was changed the other half. magnet, under the timing chain cover is probably broken... I explained what had been changed before and asked if he could clear the codes and start fresh if it would start, let it warm up til it stalled again then re read codes... He was about to do so when it developed some sort of power connection problem... dash lights dimmed. New battery just prior to the problem returning so he is now looking for a bad power connection... He asked me if I want to keep fixing things... His labor charges are reasonable - he usually takes mercy on me, as he says, so I can afford to have him fix some things but what should I have him tackle. I think my car is the oldest and most uncooperative vehicle he works on LOL