just picked up an 06 Buick Lucerne 57,000 miles?'s

[Ross]

My dad just gave me his 2006 Buick Lucerne cxl 3.8L series 3 that he bought new back in 4/06. I flew to Chicago and drove it home.

I am new to this GM platform. I searched and couldn't find any
forums that were very active.

I would like to know what are the weak spots or issues to look out for? Problem areas?

History of the car: Dad only took it to the buick dealer for all the maintenace. He had all the receipts so I looked thru them. Looks like he got hosed on a few things, but otherwise
is has been well maintained

1. Gm oil changes about every 3-4,000 miles with delco 47 filter. They liked to sell him BG oil and fuel additive with
every other oil change.

2. Front brakes done twice due to rust on inside of rotors.
last done 2/09.

3. Trans fluid exchange (no filter change) at 50,000 miles

4. power steering system flush and exchange at 40,000 miles
they also added BG power steering additive.

5. had three fuel system cleaning servoces done
(injectors) I told dad he had the cleanest injectors intown!

6. air filter and cabin air filter changed at 50,000 (charged
him $50 labor to do this)

7. numerous times he had the tires taken off the rims due to
air leaking. The crome rims like to build up corrisoion
and leak air. I was shocked how bad this rims looked after
only 3 winters on them.

Some of the charges were crazy. There were "shop supply" charges for almost everything. The higher the job price the
higher the shop charge. It looked like they just added 10-20%
for every job in the form of "shop charge"

My observations:

It looks like the dexcool is original but they did sell
him BG cooling system additive.

spark plugs are original

I drove it 800 miles home and it used about 1 mark (1/4inch) on the dipstick. There are 4 or 5 marks on the dipstick's normal range.

I will need to add a block heater, so I will change the
dexcool at that time.

I changed oil and started auto-rx clean phase. I do this
with any car that I purchase.

At 60mph the car was getting 29-30 mpg, but at the normal 70-75 mph the mpg dropped to 23-26.

Any thoughts or comments about this car would be Appreciated

 

[dwendt44]

The 3.8 shouldn't use any oil.
The platform is dated but few problems.
I'd change the trans filter in the spring if it were me.

 

[GMBoy]

You may not have used any oil. Perhaps it was condensation from short trip driving before you got it.

 

[2003f7]

Originally Posted By: GMBoy
You may not have used any oil. Perhaps it was condensation from short trip driving before you got it.

+1

nice car!

 

[Chris Meutsch]

CR's report doesn't bring up any major issues. "Body Hardware" is black, but other than that there's a lot of red for this car. Buicks have been the best GM vehicles for a few years now so you should be good for a long time.

 

[dwcopple]

the platform is not dated. It is the new Caddy DTS platform.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I've never driven a Lucerne on the highway. During my test drive a couple of years ago on what are laughingly called "roads" here, it handled beautifully. Is yours one with the floor console and shifter, or with bench seats and column shift?

I suspect your '06 engine is the 3.8 Series III (?), which should have the updated lower intake manifold gaskets; no worries about coolant getting into the oil. I just came back from a 500-mile round trip, 90% highway @ 70, and my Park Avenue's Series II returned almost 32 by the manual fillup method -- and that was on a mix containing 10% ethanol gas. The Auto-Rx may help, and so will driving it a little harder; it may have been babied and needs to have some of those cobwebs blown out. Enjoy it!

Oh -- and change the PCV valve, and have the brake fluid changed, unless they did it during those brake services. That stuff collects moisture. In a cold snowy climate like yours, changing it every two years in the spring is good preventative maintenance.

 

[lucerne06]

I own a 06 lucerne with only 21,000 miles. I just had an authorized buick repair shop near me, get the ok to do some warranty work on the car, which the reason is due to oil usage. it started using a qt every 1200-1500 miles, and I found out about a silent recall for lack of a better word. bulletin 05060135A. The tech bulletin is to replace the VALVE STEM SEALS on the exhaust valves, which is supposed to take care of the oil burning/ussage condition.

We shall see, i was told that they have done two of these repairs on two different 3.8l engines that had the problem and that the oil burning condition was solved.


WE SHALL SEE...

 

[Ross]

Thank you for all the info. I will keep an eye on the oil useage, but I don't think at this point it is an issue. Also, becaue it only came with a 4 year 50,0000 mile engine warranty, I don't think I am still covered.

It has the shifter on the column and the flip up center section instead of the console.

 

[Spector]

Sort of over serviced, especially the injector cleaning. My 3.8 uses a quart in 7500 miles and no real issues with it. Gets 30 or 31 at 65 mph and 22-25 around the city. Due to age check the belts and hoses but sounds like it is good for many miles.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: Ross
Thank you for all the info. I will keep an eye on the oil useage, but I don't think at this point it is an issue. Also, becaue it only came with a 4 year 50,0000 mile engine warranty, I don't think I am still covered.

It has the shifter on the column and the flip up center section instead of the console.

That took me a little time to get used to, since I'd been in Mercedes, with bucket seats and a console for ten years. I just keep that armrest cubby flipped down all the time, to separate the seats, and let the auto transmission do the shifting. Oh, and I've gotten used to using the steering wheel controls for the stereo, since to adjust the volume, you have to reach past the shift lever.

 

[Spector]

really sad that some dealers place the BG products in and the customers really have no idea that it is a cash cow for the dealers and really has little if any effect on performance. Especially when they did 3 injector cleanings on top of the BG additives.

So, rotors are rusted, were they unsafe???? Probably not.

 

[chiefsfan]

Got an '07 with the 3800 36K miles. First, love the car. For my purposes it's a great combination of ride and handling and I love the way it looks. Got the 17" wheels with Michelins. Dealer did a voluntary recall of the intermediate steering shaft. Seemed to bind when turning. The gripe that most have with the Lucerne is wheel vibrations. The cure is new Michelins that are balanced with a Hunter Road Force balancer. Some have had issues with motor mounts causing vibrations. A few have the drivers door handle come off, but the dealers are supposed to fix that for free also. Watch out for the gas gauge being inaccurate. I burn a quart about every 4K. Used Trop-Artic 5-30 and Wix filters. Cabin filter was $18 and changed it in 2 minutes. I only use Chevron Techron twice a year and in over 20 years of driving fuel injected cars have never had an injector issue. Other than the steering shaft, I have had no problems with the car.

 

[oilboy123]

Well if you do consume some oil maybe the RX will freshen up the valve seals. Has the recall been done?

 

[chiefsfan]

The recall has been done. Not too concerned about the valve seals, oil consumption has been consistent since new. I change every 4-4.5K and it's mostly highway miles.

 

[Ross]

Thanks for all the advice.. much appreciated!

I got a chance to work on it this past weekend in order
to get it ready for the normal artic cold winters that we have.

1. I installed a block heater on it. I checked with gm and they
wanted $40 for the heater and $140 for the thermostat cord. I went to oreilly's and got a zerostart scew in threaded heater for
$48 and that included the cord. Funny thing is that the part number on the side of the zerostat was the same gm part number??

1st problem I found was that I could not find a drain thing for the radiator and the lower radiator hose was not that low on the radiator. So I took my mityvac pump and pump out the fluid. I then attempted to unscew the threaded bolt that come out to be replaced by the threaded block heater. It required a 17 mm allen wrench. So off the sears for the allen wrench. It then took severy 3/4 inch extensions on the allen wrench to get enouch torque to remove the bolt. Radiator, overflow and block were spotless, so I put dexcool back in.

2. Removed the tires and bleed the brakes with my mityvack pump.
fluid in front left was very dark, but the rest were fine. The wheels had alot of corrosion on the back side. So I lightly sanded the corrosion and applied a sealer, but I will have to replace the wheels at some point.

3. The dealer had just done a trans fluid exchange, but did't do the filter. So I used my my pump again and pulled out 6.5 quarts of trans fluid. It was dark and had a slight burnt smell to it, so I wonder if the dealer really did do an exchange. I pulled the pan on the t653 trans and there was just a little fluid left in it. The pan was clean and there was just a light film on the magnet. Replaced filter with a wix and torqued bolt to 10ft lbs or 120 in lbs. No leaks reusing the old pan gasket. I couldn't figure out how to replace the "collar" that the filter slides into so I didn't replace that.

4. Checked the pcv valve. Thanks to lucerne06 who posted a question about this. I would have never found it. There was light coating of oil but no sludge on it. Looked and sounded
good to me.

5. Cleaned the leather seats with zaino leather cleaner then used
zaino leather conditioner on them. They cleaned up nicely.

6. Steam cleaned the carpets, and ordered some hexomats for winter use!

Thats about it. I think I am ready for winter now.

 

[Ross]

7. I also started an auto-rx clean phase. 13.5 oz rx and 4.5 quarts castrol gtx 5w20 and new pf47 filter.