Four problems related to engine and engine cooling have been reported for the 1997 Buick Park Avenue. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The contact owns a 1997 Buick Park Avenue. The contact stated that the vehicle began to smoke when starting the vehicle. The engine then caught on fire. The fire department was called and came to extinguish the blaze. The fire department stated that the fire was caused by an engine compartment failure. The contact did not call the manufacturer. The vehicle was neither repaired nor diagnosed. The failure mileage was 150,000.
My vehicle is a 1997 Buick park Ave with 140,000 miles. I'm the second owner. My in-laws were the original owners. I got the vehicle from them in 1999 with approximately 9000 miles on the vehicle. Therefore, I know the complete car care history of this vehicle. Yesterday, September 1, 2008 my granddaughter was driving this car and she lost control of the vehicle due to lost of steering capabilities. No one was injured nor body damage due to her low speed when this incident occurred. The tow truck operator indicated that the engine cradle split into pieces due to rust and this caused the steering to fail since the steering rack is mounted to this engine cradle. The rust through of this the engine cradle (or engine frame) was confirmed by the repair shop today, September 2, 2008. The repair shop indicated that the 1997 Buick park Ave's had a steel engine cradle and that the moisture and salt gets caught within this box frame due to it's position directly behind the wheel wells. The repair shop indicated that 1998 park Ave's( and after) have aluminum engine cradles but that the 1998 part will not fit the 1997 Buick park Ave. The only repair is to find another used engine cradle from a 1997 Buick park Ave which costs approximately $400 to $500 just for the used part. The other alternative is to buy a new engine cradle from a gm dealership for approximately $1200 to $1400. It seems to me that this engine cradle is a very critical part of the frame of the car and should not rust through within 10 years. All of the steering controls are mounted to this part and when this engine cradle fails all steering capabilities are lost. . Read more...
The contact owns a 1997 Buick Park Avenue ultra. While driving 25 mph, the vehicle began smoking under the hood and caught fire. The fire department extinguished the blaze and provided a fire report. The police arrived, however, the contact did not know if a police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer and they were unable to determine the cause of failure. The vehicle was destroyed. The powertrain was unknown. The current mileage was 125,998 and failure mileage was 111,998.
Pushrod malfunctioned in the engine, caused car accident.