I NEED HELP WITH MY 95 RIVI

My Rivi is a 95 3800 not super charged. This is a long explaination of all of the issues I have had but hopefully this history will help somebody help me figure out what going on. We will start with my 3rd engine......

October 06 Engine goes, replace with new block, intake manifold, tensioner, water pump, o2 censor, themosate. Get the car back and within 5 min the o2 censor blows and the car does not accelerate that great. Replace the o2 censor that actually allows car to drive without cutting out, but the slow acceleration still there, the gentlemen that put the engine in tell me that its gotta be the tranny, I had just recently replaced the tranny and took it back to them to see what the deal was, they tell me that its not the tranny its the cat convertor, so i take it to a muffler specaility place and yes its melted out, so have that replaced. The car drives ok for all of 20 blocks and starts to have the slow acceleration again.

About 1 week later 2 of my wires are melted, get a full super tune up. About 1 week of driving and 1 of my coil packs blow and take the plugs and wires attached with it. 2 days later the other 2 coil packs and the modular go so I replace all 3 and the modular and all of the wires and plugs again. The cat converter started not to sound right again and sure enough that on is melted out, still have warrenty I talk them into replacing even though they didnt want to saying something was wrong with the car to blow it that quick which I agreeded and told them I was in the process of figuring out..

Had fuel filter replaced somewhat dirty not really enough to replace but did anyway. Also had a 3 step fuel injector cleaner, didnt really think I should have had to have gotten that either being that is normal when switching over engines so I'm told, but did it anyway. When that process was being done it blew a o2 censor again, replace. sTILL NOTHING HELPING.

Have a friend of mine who has a scanner hook it up and at first no code then when giving it some gas it reads my mass air flow censor was letting 2grams of air or whatever it is into the engine when it should be 4grams If i am remembering corrctly. By a maf censor from auto zone it fired it in like 2 blocks as well as 2 of my spark plugs and wires. Take it to a professional and they put it on their scanner it reads maf censor have them put one on from the dealer cars drives ok for 10 minutes no acceleration issues and then it starts again. Put it back on the scanner and it says maf censor. This mechanic tells me that I need to take it to the dealer and get a good reading, oh yeah and also informs me that my cat converter is melted out again.

Take it to the dealer and they are telling me that the computer told them that nothing is wrong with the car, but its obvious when you drive it something is not right. I don't know where to go from here does anybody have any guesses, since everybody who I am paying is guessing anyway Do I pay somebody to rip the engine apart again??

sounds pretty close to my experience except mine was supercharged. i melted and fried all kinds of $h!†. How about your Intake temperature sensor. that was a small cuprit with my engine melting here and there while i was playing around with different intakes.... what kind of intake do you have and do you have any other mods.... i never had a MAF code....

quote: "October 06 Engine goes, replace with new block, intake manifold, tensioner, water pump, o2 censor, themosate."

The problem with your car most likely started here. It's hard to say what is causing all of this, but everything points to the engine install. How did the car run before the engine blew? Who installed the engine? If it wouldn't run 5 mins after putting the new engine in, the guy should've fixed his mistake, not shifted the blame to the tranny.

You've undoubtedly put so much money into the car.. Is it worth keeping? If so, a trip back to the dealer is my advice. But go to someone different, a Buick dealer that's been around for awhile. Tell them the whole story and see if they can help.

Best of luck. Talk about loving your Riviera... you must really love this car to put up with all of that.

Thats nothing we wont talk about the 1st engine & tranny experience I had the story above is the most recent install. The first one was put in the year before that used, and even more issues- 9 O2 censors, new main brain, new vapor coil canester (didnt even know that existed) all that within a month of that engine being put in

Im not sure what u mean about what type of intake & mods??? I know a little about about the car well I'll say more than most women, but thats just due to what Ive endured during the ownership of the car. I have a 95 supercharged also never had this many issues

RIVIGIRL1 wrote:

Thats nothing we wont talk about the 1st engine & tranny experience I had the story above is the most recent install. The first one was put in the year before that used, and even more issues- 9 O2 censors, new main brain, new vapor coil canester (didnt even know that existed) all that within a month of that engine being put in

Im not sure what u mean about what type of intake & mods??? I know a little about about the car well I'll say more than most women, but thats just due to what Ive endured during the ownership of the car. I have a 95 supercharged also never had this many issues

your first engine didnt look anything like this?


if you "????" mods then you dont have any. The rear section of the engine bay is literally a "hotspot" for destruction. You might have a failing fuel pump, depending on how many miles you have, usually around 100,000, but dont jump into buying a new one yet. If you are planning on keeping the car, i would get a catless downpipe, and an 02 simulator. sorry to hear about the problems, I know how much they suck... i went through melted cats, fµ©k up coils, wires, plugs, etc.

I had actually changed the fuel pump last summer. I was cruising last July on a hot summer night and all of a sudden the car just stopped and wouldnt start again, my system still was working, but the car wouldn't turn over... Bad business I was in the hood at 12:30am and it was like 98 degrees while I sat waiting for a tow truck for two hours. This car is really driving me crazy, but I'm stuck Is that really a picture of your engine???? How did that happen???

So last night I had actually took the car back to the pros (lol) that put in my engine they did a sun scan and the only thing that came up was my alternater was giving a negative surge if that makes sense. So I took it to an alternater speciality place they put it on there machine to test it. At first all good charge showed 14 then all of a sudden after a few minutes it dropped to 5 then jumped back to up to 14. So... I replaced the alternater last night... I'm bumping louder, my air is flowing better but no sucess with the acceleration issue at all!!

I thought maybe I had an exhast leek somewhere took it to a muffler shop last night too, the only thing they saw was a small hole in my resinator, but said that had nothing to do with the acceration either, so more money spent and no resolution. I have an appointment to take it to this supposidly really good mechanic tommarow$100.00 an hour to diagnose the issue, he test drove the car last night and swears on his business that he can figure out my issue, he says he already has a few ideas...

We will see maybe I'll be a new business owner after tommarow!! lol

yeah, that is most of my piston, the biggest piece is buried 6 feet under, and a friend brought some to UTI because his teachers didnt believe him. crimped map line and alot of previous damage. i also crack the engine block and blew out almost every gasket.

if you lived in the illinois area, id say bring it here. its defiantly an electrical gremlin. I fried half the computers in my 06 monte once and it wouldnt do nothin. The typical scanner i dont think will pick up BCU codes. (body control module)

So continueing on my journey of figuring out whats wrong with my Rivi, I take it to this mechanic who bet his business he could figure out what was wrong with my car. Let's just say if he really meant that Id be a new business owner. So he looked at my car and ran every test possible!

No Secess!!!!!!! :grip:

The only thing that my car is showing wrong is that when on a scanner while driving the knock sensor is shifting irratically back and forth from yes to now when its suppose to say yes when accerating and no when it's not, everything else on this car is running perfectly!!

So I guess my question now is what will cause your knock sensors to act like that?????

Oh yeah and the next day after all the tests my radiator blew, would this have anything todo with that or are these 2 unrelated issues???

97rivman wrote:

yeah, that is most of my piston, the biggest piece is buried 6 feet under, and a friend brought some to UTI because his teachers didnt believe him. crimped map line and alot of previous damage. i also crack the engine block and blew out almost every gasket.

if you lived in the illinois area, id say bring it here. its defiantly an electrical gremlin. I fried half the computers in my 06 monte once and it wouldnt do nothin. The typical scanner i dont think will pick up BCU codes. (body control module)

I live in Milwaukee about 45 minutes away the way I drive. I just said to someone I need to take this car out of town to have someone else look at it, nobody here knows whats going on! Now the last tests done on it said nothing at all they just noticed that my knock sensors are acting funny, but doesnt know what is causing that to happen, they are working just acting funny, everything else is running fine.

My guess now and this mechanics is that maybe the genuises who put in my engine put the wrong one in. A red flag at the time was it took them an extra week to try and find a water pump because they said that on the old engine it was on the opposite side. I questioned if it was the right engine when they had told me that and when I told this bit of info to the most recent mechanic he stated that that is definitely not right either. So on to figure that out too!

Knock sensors are two little microphones mounted to the engine, and they rarely malfunction. Yours would be the first case I've ever heard of.

It should only say "Yes" when your engine is knocking. This could mean your engine is not running perfectly, or it could mean you have an electrical problem cause the sensor to appear to be malfunctioning. Does your engine make any tapping or or pinging sounds when it runs?

To me your problem seems electrical from what you'd said so far.

AA wrote:

Knock sensors are two little microphones mounted to the engine, and they rarely malfunction. Yours would be the first case I've ever heard of.

It should only say "Yes" when your engine is knocking. This could mean your engine is not running perfectly, or it could mean you have an electrical problem cause the sensor to appear to be malfunctioning. Does your engine make any tapping or or pinging sounds when it runs?

To me your problem seems electrical from what you'd said so far.

I'm going to start to agree with you that my issues are stemming from an electrical problem. I took the car to a transmission place the other day and they said that my forward drum was leaking pressure they drove my car manually shifting through the gears and amazingly after I left there I have'nt had any acceleration issues since, kinda sucks cause now I have to wait for it to start acting up again to get a second opinon, but good in sense that I have a brake from all the fustration this car has been giving me. I still don't know whats causing the knock censor to act up, could a bad tranny mount cause the vibration your taking about? Any guesses on what is going on with the tranny acting right sometimes and not others?