I sorta teased this in the "Craigslist" thread but I figured I might as well make a short (hopefully) thread on the car.
My grandma and grandpa have been holding onto this 1999 Olds Eighty Eight 50th Anniversary Edition as a spare car for over five years. They bought it brand new, but it has really only recently driven up the street to the post office, library, ect which are all less than a mile away. Due to sitting without any action at all for the last three or so years, it's fallen into disrepair. The worst part in my opinion is the leaky moon roof which has trashed the rear leather. The car has an intermittent CEL and grandpa is tired of fixing this thing just to pass the bi-yearly cook county inspections. When he told me that he was going to give it to the first person who offered him $500 I pulled the reigns.
I always loved this car. The paint color is cool, and this was as fancy as an Oldsmobile got in '99. The memory power split bench seat with inflatable lumbar supports, dual digital climate control, and rear AC were pretty cool options for their time. Besides, its a 3800 NA H-body with 118k miles on the clock and very minimal rust, so you know it has a long life of comfortable and efficient motoring ahead! I couldn't let him sell it for that cheap, so I offered to fix and sell it for him. Truthfully, I'd love to sell my Volvo C30 with 194k and drive this Olds instead, but that's a hard pass from my fiance.
Here it is at my mom and dad's place in Lisle before I made the risk of being stranded somewhere in Indiana. Two of the tires were flat before I left, and grandpa had just informed me about how the car randomly decided to shut off some times without the ability to start up again.
This dent is the reason why grandpa didn't sell the car before the last inspection! He got hit at the post office, and insurance paid him $1500.
Yeah, I remember this thing needing intake gaskets over five years ago...
Yes, my grandpa was a little rough on the trip button.
Made it past Gary, and filled it with fresh gas.
Drove it to work the next day and discovered that the auto-dimming compass mirror still works!
Up until the I got home from work, I hadn't had any issues. I thought that maybe this thing just needed it's juices flowing. But then.
I plugged in the scanner. It's just an EVAP code, but still not a good look if I'm trying to sell the car. I think a gas cap would be a good gamble.
...but I'm an idiot. AC comes first! I drew a vacuum for a half hour and witnessed it hold for a full hour. That's good enough for a flip, so filled it with 2lbs and a bit of dye. The digital controller only directs the air to the floor and defrosters for some reason, but cold air is cold air! ?
What a fleet!
Cleaning time. The air blows a lot stronger when the cowl isn't clogged with 10 lbs of tree poo. The wipers actually park now too!
Pressure washed
Used some dish soap to get all the sap off and then rewashed with car wash/wax. It still has a ton of sap on the roof that I'll address later, but it looks a ton better already!
There was a lot of shit in the door jam. lol I spent a couple minutes vacuuming each one before the wash.
The worst part of the car. Let's ignore it.
After the wash and AC charge, I was going to go for a cruise. I started it up and let it idle while I cleaned up my tools. Then suddenly the car shut off, and I couldn't get it going again. I guess I'll be addressing some real issues after all! I poked the fuel ril service port with the key on and only got a trickle. I'm going to gamble on the filter since it's cheap and easy. Stay tuned!
My grandma and grandpa have been holding onto this 1999 Olds Eighty Eight 50th Anniversary Edition as a spare car for over five years. They bought it brand new, but it has really only recently driven up the street to the post office, library, ect which are all less than a mile away. Due to sitting without any action at all for the last three or so years, it's fallen into disrepair. The worst part in my opinion is the leaky moon roof which has trashed the rear leather. The car has an intermittent CEL and grandpa is tired of fixing this thing just to pass the bi-yearly cook county inspections. When he told me that he was going to give it to the first person who offered him $500 I pulled the reigns.
I always loved this car. The paint color is cool, and this was as fancy as an Oldsmobile got in '99. The memory power split bench seat with inflatable lumbar supports, dual digital climate control, and rear AC were pretty cool options for their time. Besides, its a 3800 NA H-body with 118k miles on the clock and very minimal rust, so you know it has a long life of comfortable and efficient motoring ahead! I couldn't let him sell it for that cheap, so I offered to fix and sell it for him. Truthfully, I'd love to sell my Volvo C30 with 194k and drive this Olds instead, but that's a hard pass from my fiance.
Here it is at my mom and dad's place in Lisle before I made the risk of being stranded somewhere in Indiana. Two of the tires were flat before I left, and grandpa had just informed me about how the car randomly decided to shut off some times without the ability to start up again.
This dent is the reason why grandpa didn't sell the car before the last inspection! He got hit at the post office, and insurance paid him $1500.
Yeah, I remember this thing needing intake gaskets over five years ago...
Yes, my grandpa was a little rough on the trip button.
Made it past Gary, and filled it with fresh gas.
Drove it to work the next day and discovered that the auto-dimming compass mirror still works!
Up until the I got home from work, I hadn't had any issues. I thought that maybe this thing just needed it's juices flowing. But then.
I plugged in the scanner. It's just an EVAP code, but still not a good look if I'm trying to sell the car. I think a gas cap would be a good gamble.
...but I'm an idiot. AC comes first! I drew a vacuum for a half hour and witnessed it hold for a full hour. That's good enough for a flip, so filled it with 2lbs and a bit of dye. The digital controller only directs the air to the floor and defrosters for some reason, but cold air is cold air! ?
What a fleet!
Cleaning time. The air blows a lot stronger when the cowl isn't clogged with 10 lbs of tree poo. The wipers actually park now too!
Pressure washed
Used some dish soap to get all the sap off and then rewashed with car wash/wax. It still has a ton of sap on the roof that I'll address later, but it looks a ton better already!
There was a lot of shit in the door jam. lol I spent a couple minutes vacuuming each one before the wash.
The worst part of the car. Let's ignore it.
After the wash and AC charge, I was going to go for a cruise. I started it up and let it idle while I cleaned up my tools. Then suddenly the car shut off, and I couldn't get it going again. I guess I'll be addressing some real issues after all! I poked the fuel ril service port with the key on and only got a trickle. I'm going to gamble on the filter since it's cheap and easy. Stay tuned!
), and one guy who started speaking Spanish after a couple messages.
