Bjankins1

I bought this car awhile back from some old guy in Chico CA, my girlfriend and I thought it looked okay for the price and he fooled us by saying it just needed a few things and from what I had seen it looked like it needed just a few things to to run good

I was wrong and should have been more careful, so far here's what I have found
- Turn signal Switch does not function correctly, turning it left or right doesn't blink unless I manuever it back

- Left Rear Brake light doesn't work...unless I pull back on the high beams, that 13 pin connector they used for the lever and steering wheel controls is the problem
- catalytic converter rattles because of a broken baffle, he tried telling me it was the heat shield coming loose

- HVAC Controls on steering wheel do not work at all

- Temp Guage Doesn't work at all whatsoever

- secondary cooling fan does not come on at all, but comes on when I use OBD reader to read codes...,speaking of which

​​​​ - the Service Engine Light does not come on even know there is a present code, the Lamp test light comes on when on accessory but doesn't come on when I drive, I actually said screw it have nothing to lose and started the car and got the service engine light to stay on without a paperclip connected and got a code 15, when I drove back home check engine light wouldn't come on while car is running even know it just worked right before I shut the car off
- the coolant level sensor has a broken pin on the wire harness and connects and turns on the low coolant light even know it's not low
- almost all of the coolant hoses look like they are full of pressure and one of them is going to burst soon, if not in a chain reaction of all of them
- the oil level sensor is straight up missing and so is the wire...

- control arm on passenger side is toast
- pretty sure the suspension needs alot more work,

- all of the brake pads and rotors and may be even the calipers are toast, also notice a random hose on the driver rear side that looks like it got cut off, there is nothing leaking out of it but obviously I don't think it was designed to have a hose just hanging from the caliper

- there are bolts, fasteners, screws, and clips missing everywhere, infact part of me thinks I accidentally bought a parts car, the dash definitely got messed with, and so did the radio, there's bolts missing for the plastic piece that goes under your seat, that has the plastic lever that makes the seat tilt back

- the window keeps falling out, which at first you would think is the regulator, but I think there's bolts and screws missing all throughout the panel, so now the window has been sitting at halfway for almost 2 weeks now
- the ac blows cold whenever it wants too, it works fine then randomly I turn it off and it goes completely hot when I put it back on, sometimes it will blow cold again

So I'm looking at alot to fix, is this car even worth it? Is it going to last me a long time? Is it even worth alot if it was in better condition, it has the 3.4 liter engine in it, which some have said good and bad things about it,

Current milage is 121,189, originally bought at 119,890


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BackInTheGame

Is it worth it? Only you can answer that. Part of the thought process must include "how much of the work you can do yourself." Per your description, there will be a ton of labor. None of it is too difficult. There just is a lot of it. You will never make your money back at any time you sell it. What is your economic situation? Can you afford to park it for a few weeks to months while you do the work? Do you have a sheltered place to do the work? Can you afford to have a shop do the work, at likely about a C-Note per hour, plus parts?

There is lots of Know-How in the ClassicOldsmobile Brain Trust. And Youtube videos are very helpful as well. You can likely get a bunch, if not most, of the parts you need from folks right here.

I'm sorry to hear you got taken - a-holes are everywhere! Good Luck!

Bjankins1

It has to be parked until I can afford to fix it, I couldn't sell this the way it is and nobody would buy it knowing all the **** wrong with it, I have fixed several things by myself already

For example, the trunk release button didn't work at all when I bought the car it, took me a few hours to realize that the trunk motor wire harness wasn't even plugged in, it was stuffed up in the corner in this hole in the trunk

But i plan to open the dash and see what going on in there, try to see if he disconnected wires or if anything is missing, same thing with the glove box where the ECM is

BackInTheGame

Sounds like you can tackle at least some, and hopefully most, or even all, of the issues yourself. KUDOS!

If you haven't already done so, you should get an original copy of both the Chassis and Fisher Body manuals for your car. Don't bother with reprints or CD's, they are (usually) poor scans of used docs. Originals are much easier to read, and only a few bucks more than the reprints/CDs.

I'm betting you could at least turn this vehicle into one that you can use regularly and maybe even use as a daily driver. The insurance will be cheaper than anything newer!

Bjankins1

Definitely cheaper on the insurance, idk I'll keep working at it and see where it goes, right now I have the lower dash off so I'm gonna at least attempt to see if anything is disconnected

Bjankins1

Sprayed air compressor all throughout doors, dash panels, stereo, glove box and the engine bay, I sprayed the wire connectors for the coolant temp sensor and when I started the car, the temp sensor went to the red when starting it up, but went right back down to below 100 degrees, so I have no clue what's going on, it could be the harness itself

BlueCalais79

Couple of big BIG issues with the 3.4, do you know when the Timing Belt was changed? That is a big bill but if not looked after, if it snaps you could wreck your motor. I've had one go on me, fortunately I was barely rolling so I got off easy. Second is the Alternator, any idea when that was replaced? Take a look under the hood, check out where it is, a real headache. That's another big bill.I won't even look at buying another one of these cars unless these 2 jobs have been done within the last few years. Another potential issue are the intake manifold gaskets.Your motor is up there in miles (and years) so this is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

This was only the 3.4's second year for Olds, and as the saying goes, when they are good they are good, but when they're bad they.are.bad.

Bjankins1

I honestly do not know if the timing belt has been changed, the alternator may have been changed, one thing is the motor mounts need to be changed pretty soon, when I've been driving it lately, I get this weird noise coming from the tire that happens on every single bump I go over and it seriously sounds like the tire is about to come off, Les Schwab had told awhile ago that the lower control arms needed to be replaced, so maybe it could be that making that noise

oldcutlass

Just a note, most of us are "some old guys"... Personally, I would not waste my money on this car, it will be a perpetual money pit that will not bring any return upon selling it. Drive it as long as you can safely with little investment as possible.

OLDSter Ralph

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Bjankins1

Yea I can agree after what I found out yesterday, if I would have known that GM had put struts that have the steering knuckle welded onto it, I wouldn't have gotten this car, so it's gotta go

Rocketguy

I agree with Oldcutlass; they did make about 900 or so of these cars as "I" series with an HO quad four and a five speed. That one may be worth saving.

BlueCalais79

I also agree with OldCutlass, these are very low demand cars. I put over $4,000 into a 1996 CS 2 door back in 2017 full well knowing it was a $2000 car but that was something I felt like doing at that time. No regrets as it's proven to be a superb everyday driver all this time.

The rear discs were replaced at 58,000 when I bought it back then. The car now has 79,xxx on it and I swear they need to be replaced again. That's one peeve I've had about the 92-97 CS, IMHO they should have left it front disc/rear drum, despite technology moving away from that at type of set up at that time. I bought my 1994 CS new and man I hated the 4 wheel disc set up in that car. The rear discs were tiny!

Bjankins1

Raybestos rotors for the rears seem pretty good on this but the calipers in the rear suck hard and should be replaced with better ones, another thing you can do is put a 94 brake booster in it but you would need to change some of the ac lines to the design of the 94 models

W body forums got a decent amount of info on why the brakes are bad in these cars

BlueCalais79

Thanks, next up its Raybestos for the rear rotors. I've put alot of dough into making the white 1996 CS right (with alot of help from the folks at the W-Body Forum, some of whom I hope to meet back up with at the Nationals), so any mods would go to my Aqua 1994 CS.

Bjankins1

I just realized you actually already have the better brake booster, check your brake proportioning valves and the rear calipers, at one time I'm pretty damn sure there was an investigation from NHTSA about the brakes in this car

What they found was the rear calipers are defective the way they were created, it would be smart to replace those with a raybestos caliper and I think there's an overhaul kit you could buy from GM also

BlueCalais79

Will do, thanks for that. I'm all for keeping this one as long as I can. Plus the wife likes it, so it stays

This one is the 3.1, my 1994 has the 3.4 in it. As mentioned in other posts, in both cars I installed a factory front strut tower brace (only used in the convertibles), and a (n aftermarket) rear strut tower brace in the trunk. Absolutely outstanding handling over a factory ride. I really wanted to have this car at the Nats this year so I could see how it did on the Nashville track, but with my move to SC I couldn't make it happen.

As an aside, I really thought Olds was on the way back to getting more performance in the Cutlass line and maybe eventually would have put in the Olds V-8 in them. Now that would have been something. But then came the 1998 Malibu/Cutlass, and then May 29, 2004. And that was all.

Bjankins1

part of me thinks it was intentional to drive them into the ground

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Rocketguy

Me too. They also should have offered three pedals with the 3.4. The '97 CS was a W body and the '98 Cutlass was an N; thankfully Oldsmobile did not call that one a Cutlass Supreme. GM did eventually put a V-8 in the W body; it was the Grand Prix GXP. Too bad the Cutlass version was long gone by then.

BlueCalais79

I think they put a manual transmission into the Cutlass Supremes up to 1992, very rare to ever even see one. By 1993, gone forever.

Rocketguy

You are correct and I stand corrected. I don't have a '92 book, but below are from the '91 and '93 dealer sales books:

Bjankins1

I knew a guy who used to own a manual trans cutlass from 91, he said the clutch cable popped out all the time on his