I bought an 86 pontiac bonneville, and I have a bunch of questions about maintaining it --- is this the right forum, or is this for more up-to-date pontiacs? If this isn't the best forum for these questions, could you suggest an alternative?
I've had my bonneville for almost five months now, driving it a few tens of kilometers every other day or 2, and all it needs is gas (LOTS of gas) --- it doesn't leak any fluids, at all, and almost everything including air-conditioning works perfectly. I love the way it handles --- my friend says it, 'handles like an aircraft carrier'. :)
In case this is the right forum, I'll just go ahead and ask:
--- How on earth do you get the wire wheel covers off? I tried everythiung I could think of and I don't want to force anything, but if I have a flat right now, as it is, I can't change it because I can't get the wire wheel covers off. I have the jack and the spare tire and the lug wrench, but nothing for removing these darn covers.
---It was tuned up by the seller just prior to the sale, and over the last five months it has slowly become 'un-tuned' and although it still runs just fine (for a 20 yr old engine) it's now starting to make kind of diesel-ish sounds and has lost some power --- how realistic is the idea of tuning up the engine by myself? I've got mechanical aptitude but I've just never worked on autos before. My friend has a garage full of tools he's offerred to let me use --- can you tune up this kind of engine (the smaller V8) with everyday type tools or do you need something really expensive or unusual?
---Sometimes the left turn indicator lights don't flash, the left-turn indicator light just stays on continuously as long as the turn-indicator lever is in the "turning left" position. I noticed there are wires in the trunk that have been screwed with and there's some kind of connector or something black-taped onto the wires. How big a deal is this likely to be to fix myself? I've got a decent multi-meter. Where is the circuit that turns the power off and on to flash the turn indicator light? Is it in/near the steering column or is it integrated into the light itself somehow?
---Sometimes, when it rains, the drivers side window stops working untill the car dries out and then it starts working again.
---Are these cars good for fixing up? This one is in amazingly good shape. The interior is unbeleivably new-looking and there is only one small ding on the bumper. Almost zero rust. This is clearly a wet coast car (no salt damage from salt sprayed on icy roads east of the rockies).