Hello all. This is the first GM like this I have owned and I have a few questions. First off, what platform is this car? I know it’* the same basic car as a Pontiac Bonneville and Buick LeSabre but what are these cars called in gm speak? Also, does anyone know if the seats are interchangeable fairly easily between all these cars and the nicer variants like the 98, and Park Avenue?
Now on to the technical questions. My car seems to have an excessive amount of wind noise around the windshield at highway speeds. Any ideas on what I should inspect to try and track down where all the noise is coming from? Of course I don’t have anything to compare to really as I don’t know what’* a normal amount of wind noise for these cars but I can’t imagine that it has always been this way. And lastly, I really like the look of the earlier (94-95) front end better than the updated look of my car. I know that the NinetyEight and Regency also used this header panel and grill from 1992-1999 I believe. So my question is this, is the header panel and headlights all that I would have to change? And does anyone have instructions for removing the header panel? Thank you all for any input and help!

Also, if it would help, I can take a video of driving the car on the highway so you can hear the wind noise and upload it to YouTube or something.

It'* an "H body".

Kind of. Depending on your car and the donor parts, the wiring might be different. Also depending on your car and the donor the seats might be different shapes and materials. I think, for example, Bonneville seats are waaaay different then what you have, so you wouldn't want to swap in part of a Bonneville seat system. You'll also want to verify that the door panels won't interfere with them, and some of them don't have center consoles.

Will different seats from other H-body cars bolt in? Probably.
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Door seals in good shape?

While it'* making this noise, push outward on the driver door frame, does this change the noise?

No, you'd have to change the whole front clip (fenders, grille assembly, hood, bumper cover, bumper cover internals) at minimum. Bonus: the older ones are even harder to find than the newer ones, and they break more easily.

If you want, it definitely wouldn't hurt. Do the pushing-on-the-door-frame thing while you're at it.

Thank you so much for your input! I had no idea so much was different on the pre 96 facelift. Guess I won’t bother trying to swap it all out after all. Will check the door seals tomorrow. It just sounds like it’* coming from the windshield area but could be the doors. This is one of those cars that most people say why bother messing with it, just drive it till something breaks and then throw it away, but for whatever reason I really like it and want to make it better.

It'* too bad folks feel that way. They were fairly good cars. The Olds was the low-volume seller for that platform, then they tried the [Oldsmobile fighting the Japanese] thing. I could never understand why they tried that instead of Pontiac.

To find used parts or donor cars. I mean I know I see a lot more Bonnevilles and LeSabers but I realized that the 88 sold a lot less cars. Luckily I can use a good bit of the parts from those other cars. I hate I can’t just change the header panel and headlights to get the look I want, but even if i was going to do it, I can’t find a donor 88 that’* a 92-95 to take the parts from. My next thing to try and figure out is why the rear defrost isn’t working. I pulled the relay and replaced it with one that looked the same and that I know is working but that didn’t fix the defrost.

I’ve narrowed it down to coming from the base of the windshield where it goes under the hood. Any thoughts on why there would be excessive wind noise in that area?

Does it happen when the air controls are turned all the way off?

The heat/air blend door or something

If it happens with HVAC turned completely off then it'* probably not that.

You could try taping off the edges of the windshield to see where the tape changes the noise and/or takes the noise away.