Ok my little bacon wrapped penises. My Father in Law gave me a Buick Century. Here is the run down. The low beams cut out at random, but not on high. I think it's the dimmer switch. Pain in the ass? Lemme know. Only other major issue, wife was driving at about 45mph. Not touching the brake. The right front wheel locked down, freaked her out, the ABS light came on. After she cut it off and started it up, put it in the reverse and finally the wheel unlocked and she could drive home. With one square tire though. So, advice? Ideas? It's been in the family since grand pa bought it new apparently. Clean, nice body, 196k miles but seems to run fine, save for some plugs.

I need advice fellers. Lay it on me.

The ABS one is odd... might be a bit of rust buildup under one of the sensors, changing the clearance.

As for the lights... ?????? Could be a hundred different things.

Posted by bandi The ABS one is odd... might be a bit of rust buildup under one of the sensors, changing the clearance. As for the lights... ?????? Could be a hundred different things.

Zero rust on the car. Pretty sure I solved the lights tho. Looks like it is the dimmer.

Dimmer is an easy job, as far as the abs, the sensors in the hub bearing. These things (bearings) go bad a lot on these. Make sure you buy a good one or you will be changing it every few years. (and torque it correctly!)

Posted by sleeperspirit Dimmer is an easy job, as far as the abs, the sensors in the hub bearing. These things (bearings) go bad a lot on these. Make sure you buy a good one or you will be changing it every few years. (and torque it correctly!)

So the bearing is bad? It was crazy to have her describe it, I was still in ND at the time. She said she was just cruising along at about 45 mph, suddenly the tires were squealing and she slid to a stop. She said the ABS warning light came on and it would move. She called me and said the light was still on, and they were sitting on a blind hill. I told her to cut it off and back on and see if the light went out, it did but still wouldn't budge. I then told her to try reverse, it backed up fine. She put it back in drive and it pulled away as normal. It has a "bump, bump, bump" now when you drive it, guessing a flat spot on that tire. But I can't find shit on the net about this odd mishap.

That's odd, maybe the actual abs pump is acting up, try driving it with the abs fuse pulled. (the abs light will remain on but it will disable the system)

Posted by sleeperspirit That's odd, maybe the actual abs pump is acting up, try driving it with the abs fuse pulled. (the abs light will remain on but it will disable the system)

Gonna try that. I don't need abs anyway.

I ahd a problem like that on a golf where they had put the wrong pads or something and it locked up exactly like that, third time it locked up it it ripped a chunk of the disc off and the caliper ripped out of the carrier

With the older A-bodies, there was a huge difference between Canadian-built and US-built models. This went away after the 80's. With the A-body hub, its retard-simple. What it sounds like to me (and my experience with A-bodies) is either the wrong pads were installed or right pads backwards (which can happen with these calipers), or the ABS actuator is on its way out. Now, the great thing about GM's is you can unplug the leads off the accumulators on the side of the master cylinder. You'll see the leads (orange and black wires or orange and gray wires- model year differences). Unplug that, the ABS won't work, traction control goes buh-bye and there is now an ABS warning light lit on the dash which is fine because its already lit anyway.
Now, does the front end growl, shake (other than the tires) or hum real hard?
also, another thing is check to make sure the hub nut has not backed off. I have seen that happen before. The three bolts that hold the bearing hub to the knuckle will back out and cause trouble if they aren't torqued correctly. Ditto with the big nut on the axle. Your rotor will shuck all over the place. Oh yeah, almost forgot, with the mileage that car has, i am sure the hubs have been replaced at least once... i wonder if they were installed in the knuckle correctly?

also, the light switches on these cars overheat and fail all the time. Especially on the Regals which is just an upscale Century. If it's got power windows, order driver side switches now...

those were interesting cars, my neighbor had 1 century that had more gremlins than the movie, he had a second century that was great. Up here all the centuries, cutlass ciera, celebrity and 6000s ended up as cabs, at one point taxi garages were offering cash to people in parking lots for them