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Hello All. I have just inherited a 95 riviera SC in Black. A family member of mine purchased this car Brand new in 95. I was with him, when he took it home. The car has 44K original miles and recently had a new paint job and all new rubber seals installed throughout the car. Obviously it is in great shape, one owner and I think i'll keep it, but it has 2 problems mabye someone can help me with. one the AC works great on the passenger side, but blows heat on the drivers side. is this just a valve or somthing since the car has zone climate control. Second, the plastic on the center console is wore pretty good and Im thinking of an after market dash trim kit to cover it, but I'm not sure who sells a good one. thanks guys

Welcome Jason and congrats on the car.
The blowing of hot air is a common failure of one of the door blend actuators. I had the exact same problem on mine, hot on drivers and cold on passenger side. The actuator that I had to replace on mine was located on the passenger side of the center stack. Remove the glovebox and look in toward the center of the car and up. There are 2 actuators in this area and one of them is the culprit. There is a Write Up on here that has pic's and description for replacement.
I'l try and find it and post it here for you a little later.
Second, there are aftermarket wood trim kits available for these cars, some very good, the rest are to stay away from. Again there are write ups by others who have done the install and have used different manufactures products with varying degrees of success.
I'l try finding this also.
But in the meantime use the search engine on here and also click on the Write Ups tab and look for the topics you think might be what you need. There is A LOT of info on here in various locations, go to the index and look under the topic that might meet your needs.
Also, look in the For Sale section for a wood trim kit that is currently up for sale for $75.00. New these kits start at about $200.00 and go up from there. This is an excellent deal that won't last long at that price.
It all depends on what color wood you prefer based on the color of your interior and the Black exterior. A darker wood would go well with Black exterior.
The one for sale happens to be a dark burlewood. maybe just what your looking for.

Sounds like a good deal! The hot/cold air thing is an occuring problem, apparently, and yeah there's plenty of info on how to fix it. Just what Rick said pretty much.

Jason,
Take a look under "Write Ups" then find Interior ans HVAC Assy.
There is some pic's of the Actuators on the drivers side, but the passenger side is the same and that is the side where you have a non-working actuator. I had exactly the same problem a few years ago.
Replaced the one that wasn't turning and problem fixed.
Also under Interiors is the write up on BD Wood Trim Dash Kit.
I think after all was said and done the BD MFG wasn't recommended to due to some quality issues but the write up will give you an idea of what's involved. You can go to www.Carid.com and look for the Sherwood wood trim kit for your car. There is a selection on there of many colors.
Also, I don't know if you re-read my post above but there is a wood trim kit for sale on here that will fit your car for $75.00, an excellent price and won't last long at that price. Also I think the dark burlwood which is what she has for sale looks very good with a Black exterior.

thanks guys, I found the thread and am going under the dash tommorow to see if I can find the problem. As far as dash, I have the graphite interior, so im thinking more towards a carbon fiber look dash kit but thanks.....When I can I will post some pics of the car...

You have one of the few 1995's made with Black / Graphite interior and Black exterior.
Very rare and very desirable color combination's
The Carbon fiber will look excellent.

Jason,
Did you punch your VIN # into the website that is listed on the other topic "how rare is your GM"
One other person here with a triple Black 95 did and it said there are only 3 with those options.
I'd be curious to see what happens when you put your Vin # in.
We now have 2 - 1995 Triple Black Riv's on the site.
They seem to be more rare than the Silver Arrow's. I don't know for sure though. You can help validate that.

Also, are you an A&P in addition to being a corporate Pilot.?
I know a lot of guys who go down the road of flying for Corporations usually have there A&P license also.
I got my A&P many moons ago but worked in the Commercial side of the business and migrated to management, whenever I wasn't layed off that is.
It's been a volatile business to be in since deregulation. (1979)

Wow, i didnt realize the combo was rare. My Stepdad always said it was a collectors item, but I wasnt sure. I know in 99 the dealer tried to get him to trade up to a silver arrow, but I remember the offer they made him for his car made him laugh and walk out.

I did type the vin in and this is what it says.....

There are 24 1995 RIVIERA vehicles (0.058%) matching your exact options list.

You have a new triple black 95 SC..... on the forumn

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks everyone, Hey Rick you said you had the same problem with your AC as mine, but that the accuator that was the problem was on the pass side under the glove box. Is that hard to get to, the link you sent me to in the write ups refers to the drvr side as being a matter of removing some insulation and a couple screws??? Thanks

TheAviator wrote:

Thanks everyone, Hey Rick you said you had the same problem with your AC as mine, but that the accuator that was the problem was on the pass side under the glove box. Is that hard to get to, the link you sent me to in the write ups refers to the drvr side as being a matter of removing some insulation and a couple screws??? Thanks

Yes, the pictures in the link are of the drivers side. I referred to them just so you would know what they look like. There are 3 on the drivers side and 2 on the passenger side.
From memory all I recall needing to do was to remove the passenger side insulating panel under the glovebox and the glovebox itself to gain access to the actuators. After removing whats in the way, look toward the center console and up. Attached to the HVAC plenum are the actuators that rotate the air blend doors internally.
Then I started the car and commanded the HVAC to get a response from these actuators and when i saw / felt / heard the one that was not moving I knew I had found the culprit. The bad one has nothing to do with the passenger side hvac control knob in the door, that has a different actuator located in a different spot.
I did this before knowing about this site and did not have the benefit of Randall's pictures or his explanation of what he did when found an INOP actuator. He made a small battery pack to be able to test or operate the actuator (they operate on 5 volts) and once he opened up the bad one and gave it a good visual, saw nothing wrong visually, he put his power pack to it and it operated. He reassembled the actuator and reinstalled it in the car and hasn't had a problem. I t certainly would be worth trying that technique as the new actuator from GM was about $150.00.
We have another source that I've found out about since being on here and it is a GM dealer who has an internet business for OEM parts at 40% - 50% off retail. If you can't find the part through their illustrations, someone here can usually come up with the actual P/N and you can plug that in their query and find it. The website is www.monsterpartsonline.com
If you find you can't get the bad unit to operate (the part numbers are right on the units so you won't confuse a clockwise operating unit compared to a counterclockwise one) your options are new from your local dealer, new online or used from the junkyard. A lot of us use Morads Auto Parts - a recycler out of OHIO and he specializes in 3800 powered cars and try's to get Rivieras as much as possible and keeps some inventory for them. His name and adress is listed on the vendor listing here along with phone numbers to contact them directly. he also maintains an EBay site for Buy it now stuff.

Thanks Rick, Your help has been greatly appriciated, I will let you know tommorow how it goes when I get it checked out. This website has been a great find for me....

Jason,
Reread my post before you start working on it. I made a couple of revisions as I thought about it.
But we should be around tomorrow if you need any additional help.
This website has been a great find for me as well. And i think it's a great place for anyone with a Riv.
Good Luck

Well i went under the pax side and removed the glovebox but there was a container with what I assume was the airbag there. I did see one relay to the left of it, so I tapped on it a couple times while cycling the Ac and for now it seems to work, but who knows if it will last.

Welcome Jason!
Nice to see another riv in Florida. i am in Orlando too, along with a few others close by. Let me know if you need any help with the car, my garage is almost always open.

Thanks, I will keep it in mind.....

Welcome Jason and congrats on your Rivi!

Reading your thread reminded me of a topic I feel best shared with the whole group...whenever working around your dash, installing a stereo, fixing the AC or whatever, please disconnect the power from the battery to prevent the possibility of an inadvertent air bag discharge...I met a very talented (one eyed) car stereo installer that learned the hard way. If you've ever seen one of those things deploy it's violent and you never know what might happen while poking around in there!

Welcome to the Forum
That is a great color combination

Rickw wrote:

Also, I don't know if you re-read my post above but there is a wood trim kit for sale on here that will fit your car for $75.00, an excellent price and won't last long at that price. Also I think the dark burlwood which is what she has for sale looks very good with a Black exterior.

That is listed as a Dash Kit for a '96 ... won't fit anyway

Question all, do we have a member on the board that was a Buick mechanic at a dealership during the 90s that might have had a wealth of experiance with our cars???

A lot of us here are Buick mechanics, in a sense. We may not have worked at the dealership, but we have the factory manuals and plenty of experience fixing our cars. But seriously, when you go to a dealership with a noisy supercharger, and they say the entire blower needs replaced, you start to wonder how much these guys really know. Sure they are good at fixing cars (Buicks) in general, but there is something to be said for all the write-ups we have here, and the 90,000+ posts focused on 95-99 Rivieras.

This reminds me. When I went by the dealership to get some SC oil there were some of the mechanics in the parts dept. and I asked one of them how they got the SC oil out of the SC so they could replace the oil....I was just curious what they used to remove the oil from the SC.

I almost busted out laughing when the mechanic told me they take the SC off and turn it upside down to get the oil out...

Bert

AA wrote:

A lot of us here are Buick mechanics, in a sense. We may not have worked at the dealership, but we have the factory manuals and plenty of experience fixing our cars. But seriously, when you go to a dealership with a noisy supercharger, and they say the entire blower needs replaced, you start to wonder how much these guys really know. Sure they are good at fixing cars (Buicks) in general, but there is something to be said for all the write-ups we have here, and the 90,000+ posts focused on 95-99 Rivieras.

I really wasnt intending to sound like I was discounting anyone here, I have learned a lot from the writeups, I simply thought how cool it would be if someone like that was on here and I was lokking more for a name if they existed, that is all....

And I didn't mean to seem defensive. Only pointing out that one doesn't need to work at a dealership to have a wealth of experience with our cars. If memory serves, a few of our members do have experience as mechanics.

AA wrote:

And I didn't mean to seem defensive. Only pointing out that one doesn't need to work at a dealership to have a wealth of experience with our cars. If memory serves, a few of our members do have experience as mechanics.

Cool beans......