20 Most Recent 1988 Buick Reatta Questions & Answers

The CRT went bad (fairly common). Try and find one in the junkyard that is still in the vehicle. Many have already been robbed. This is why they didn't use the touch screen for many years before dropping that design.

Without writing a book, jack up the car and remove the passanger side tire...best access via the wheel opening...you must remove the harmonic balancer, water pump and timing cover to replace the timing gear. Unless you have lots of miles they go a long time. The cam magnet is behind the cam sensor, remove it and manually rotate the engine until the hole in the cam is visible. You might find the old magnet. Clean out the hole, glue in the plastic holder and magnet.

The Reatta was an early car to have lots of electronics. You might find it interesting to buy a factory service manual for 1988 There are usually some on ebay. There is a diagnostic section in the manual and all the diagnostics are displayed on the CRT screen. Using the manual you can walk thru the engine, body, brake, climate, etc sections and check almost everything on the car. Very handy to do before taking it in for anything, you will know more about the problem than they do.

First you should try to get codes out of the OBD port with a quality scanner. When was the car last running great and not overheating? What changed first and when? Have you done a cylinder leak test? You could have a blown headgasket.

Drop fuel tank

think electrical 1st -the weakest link-bet u havnt had tuneup since yr 1000-inspect plug wires for wear n take off dist cap n look inside-scarry!--of course chec fuel system also in gas tank area

The diagnostic port on the '88 Reatta is located under the driver side of the dash to the right of the steering column. Very cool car by the way.

probably a fuse