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Hello everyone I have an 89 Olds Cutlass Supreme with just under 274, 000 miles on it. It is a good car but does need some repairs on it. I am the 2nd owner and I have put over 150,000 miles on it myself. It has been a reliable car and has been well cared for. I think with me doing some repairs it can still go for many more miles.

Ugh! Don't get me started on GM's white paint from the '90s and early 2000s. My understanding from someone on another forum who worked in a GM assembly plant in that era was that the problem was more with the primer than with the paint. The supplier apparently changed the formulation of the primer and advised GM to allow extra drying time before applying the paint. Of course, GM, in its infinite wisdom, ignored that advice and painted the cars prematurely, leading to adhesion problems later on. About ten years ago, I got a white '95 Pontiac Bonneville that had paint peeling off the quarte

Yeah, I've never had this much trouble putting a mirror back up. The kits always worked fine for me up until now. I think they used to make the kits better back a few years ago. The EPA probably made them remove some chemical that made it work better. Wouldn't be the first time. I've also noticed they're harder to find now and there's less variety. I may end up taking it to a shop but I'm just kind of ornery sometimes and feel like I'm being foolish if I pay somebody to do something I am perfectly capable of doing myself, especially something I've done before. I think I was at a very impressio

Don't worry about the paint, everyone knows white cars from that era had bad paint. The 274,000 miles is very impressive! One of the highest mileage cars on here. I hope it makes it to 300k. We'd be interested to hear what you had to fix/replace in the last 150k. Is it still running? You said it needed "some repairs".

Yes I would like to see this thread come back!

For those wondering, they fit just fine. Fronts have plenty of room, about 1/2" and the rear has about 3/16". It's all moot because I acquired a different beater, 2006 Monte Carlo, and they're going to go on that and the GP is going away.

All good points. I have ordered a new top that will be installed by an auto upholsterer. I will be asking him about possible options once I receive the top and visit his shop again. I created my post because I thought I could possibly find the OEM material online in advance. I am also tempted to see about having the matching carpet material used in place of the OEM material. I know some cars actually used the floor carpeting for that area.

Good God man! I paid about $200 for a high flow Magnaflow converter with a downpipe 3 years ago through AutoZone, Do you have emissions testing to warrant the expense of putting one on in Wisconsin? Guys around here get antique plate put on the early 90`s imports so they dont have to go through the annual testing, police dont enforce the restrictions on the plates either.

I don't want to brag on it too much because it might start giving me problems if I do that. I have replaced plugs and wires twice, a couple of ignition coils, rear struts,RR brake caliper,water pump, air and fuel filters a couple of times,fuel pump twice and just replaced the PS pump because the front seal was leaking. That is all that I can remember for right now other than normal wear items like brake pads, tires and serpentine belt a couple of times in the last 150,000 miles. It had a little over 100,000 miles on it when I bought it from the original owner for $500. It still runs good with

Because of the expectations that go hand in hand in passing emissions exhaust shops don't generally *clamp* a cat into place, they will weld it to guarantee no leaks with their work.

a Magnaflow 94000 universal series piece, not because I push them but they have an extensive selection to choose from, and they are reasonably priced. As for *direct fit*...that's a bit of a play on words. the cat still has to be welded into place.... can't recall if the downpipe on the smaller 3.1 is 2" or 2 1/4" http://europe.magnaflow.com/02catalytic_converters/02product/universal/universalcat.asp?parttype=UNIVERSAL CATALYTIC CONVERTER&partnum=940

Welcome! My Cutlass doesn't have the greatest paint either, no biggie.

I will have to take some and post them. It is white but it needs a paint job as it is flaking off in spots.

Ragg Topp Cleaner with a soft brush and Ragg Topp Vinyl Protectant after. The car is garaged and doesn't really see much weather, so I don't have to use these products very often.

Update: Due to the top frame being bent, the heim joint snapped on the passenger side (the side that wouldn't fold down all the way). I manually put the top up and I'll leave it up for the winter. Before replacing the broken piece, I will try to spend time straightening the frame so there aren't side-loads on the cylinder and so it folds flat, or at least flatter than it does now.

I'm starting my long-overdue project of replacing the top on my 95 vert. It's the original top and has seen 215,000 miles, mostly not garaged. There has been a lot of duct tape involved in the last year . Anyway, I'm just in the disassembly stage, and most things are going ok. Most screws are rusted but only a few have snapped. I'm using a kit from convertibletopguys.com (a Kee top with heated rear glass). Plus I have an Oldmobile convertible service supplement book, and some posts on here that I've bookmarked. One thing that I found that I can't find documented is a plastic rin

One needs to rule out if the issue is either ign or fuel related. . Pick up a can of ether, if the issue is still present (the engine will not fire) disconnect the fuel pump relay, one individual at the key, you under the hood, as the engine is cranking spray a LIGHT to moderate amount of ether directly into the *open* throttle body. does the engine try to fire at all? If it doesn't then the issue may be on the ign side. Check the entire ign system, do you have spark at the plugs?, a spark plug tester will let you know, plug one into each spark plug circuit & look for i

Sounds to me by what you're describing that the trans shifter cable mounted on top of the trans housing is out of sync. Somewhat surprised the the trans shop didn't get the cable position properly set before they gave the car back to you.

$600 for a CORE??? $600 should get you a Treasure-Yard transmission with a 30-day warranty.

I got the 'vert back this afternoon. Turns out a cable needed to be adjusted. It's now working fine, forward and backward. I took it for a little shake-down run, about 35 miles or so, the lag I felt in first gear was present at first but it went away and didn't return after the transmission got warmed up. I guess things just needed to settle in a bit. UPDATE–Well, it seems it's still not cured. I went to back the car out of the driveway earlier today to take it for a state inspection so I could renew the registration and I still can't always find reverse first try. Whereas the previous tr

Aye, thanks, in your opinion, I note you have a 1995 and a 1994, which stereo system do you like better? IMHO I think the 1994 is better than my 1996 due to the upper speakers in the dash.

Good price for a running/driving/stopping car, definitely isn’t too far gone. I keep a hydraulic in each car, screw factory jack points

3 year update: 247,500 miles (32,000 miles with new top). I've probably put the top up and down a couple hundred times in the last three years. Top is still is good shape, partially because it's been garaged so much the last 3 years with other problems. I also started using a waterproof cover when I park it outside in the rain for more than a few hours, it's a hassle to put on and off, but it's less of a hassle than drying out the interior (the original rubber seals leak). I painted and clear-coated the three rear red trim pieces a couple years ago (I didn't take the door trim piec

Very good article! I am in the process of changing a heater core on a 92 Cutlass Supreme S with the 3.1 LHO VIN T engine. Replacing all the heater hoses too since they are getting old, and I might as well replace or modify the 800-401 heater hose connector. I only see one problem by doing the mod on my 3.1. The 5/8 heater hose that runs from barb to lower tube on heater core is going to be subject to lots of heat from the exhaust manifold. That's the reason there is a metal pipe to the connector, and then a formed hose on the other end of pipe to the heater core. If I did do the

1 year update: After putting the top up and down a number of times earlier this summer, most of the staples in the rear corners pulled out. I think I had too much tension originally, and/or not enough staples. I also had NOT replaced the rear tack strip, which is probably the root cause of the problem. (I did replace the front tack strips, though). To quickly fix it, I pulled the back trim off, realigned the top canvas, pulled the original staples out, and restapled the top about 1/4 inch lower on the canvas than before. This gives a little more slack in the canvas, it'

Here's a picture of the wrinkle on the C-pillar area. I need to cut a larger hole in the "tail" that tucks inside the body next to the rear cable mounting point, so the part that covers the edge of the little triangle window can fit better. I tried a couple different times to get everything lined up and couldn't quite do it, and reaching down into that part of the body is a pain. But hey, it was just a ripped-up section of duct tape a couple months ago, so it's a big improvement for me. The other side looks better. Also, I have the paint and clear coat to redo the plastic trim pieces,

Here's a picture from a couple weeks ago, mid-project. Note the missing trim pieces and just the frame in back. That's Mt. Hood in the background, the picture was taken on my daily commute home, somewhere south of Boring, Oregon (yes that's the real town name). This picture captures part of why I go through the hassle of owning a convertible in Oregon, because when it's sunny it's an amazing place to drive. (Pic taken on my crappy iPhone 5c) Someday I'll get a better picture with a real camera at a better angle with the car "finished", but today is not that day.

Here's a pic of the top with the water beading up on it. What products should I use on the top to keep it doing this? Google searching gives a google number of answers. You can also see the kink on the edge where the side cable is attached, and the little section of exposed cable. I tried to copy the original top corner pattern of folding the welt seal and top material, etc. but I didn't get the corner quite right. I also forgot to follow the advice given to me to get the wider top instead of the standard top width. I should have taken that advice, although I did see pictu

To follow up from my first picture in this thread, I never figured out what those plastic ring "thingies" were that were embedded in the foam behind the header seal next to the pins. I ended up removing all the crumbled old foam and replacing it with gray adhesive-backed foam tape that was originally for sealing camper shells to truck beds. There are better products I could have used, but hey, it's a $1500 car. I just stuck the plastic rings back where they were originally, I could see the mark they made in the rubber header seal for positioning. This pic also shows that the flap buil

Update: I'm mostly finished installing the top. It was very difficult to do as a daily driver, as I spent a lot of time getting out and putting away my tools and supplies. Plus I had to do every step two or three times at least because I did it wrong the first time or it didn't line up. Eventually I would just say "good enough", curse, and move on to the next step. The good news is that it rained this morning and the new top didn't leak! I was surprised to see the water beading up on the top surface because my old top, and my two fox-body Mustang tops didn't do that. What produ

Well, the top project isn't going that well. I expected it to take many many hours because I'm slow, but this is worse than expected. I can't afford to pay someone else to do this, I'm saving about $1500 by doing it myself. But at this rate, I'll only be paying myself about $15 an hour to do the project by the time I'm done. Here is a partial list of my mistakes (so far), in case anybody else ever reads this before doing this project. 1) Don't try to reuse the tension cables. The kit only came with new main cables, I tried to reuse the short rear cables but they keep pulli

So I finally got the top completely removed last night. More complicated than I thought, it's going to take me a long time to get it back together with the new top. Since it is a rare sunny day here in Oregon, I thought I'd drive the convertible today. Technically, since it doesn't have a top right now, it can't really "convert", so it's just a roadster? Anyway, I was cruising on a nice curvy rural road along the river, unfortunately I got it up to 56 mph on a straight section of the road . . . in a 40 mph zone . . . in front of a motorcycle cop running a speed trap. The funny th

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!! I just went to take the convertible out for a ride and it won't go into reverse to go up the driveway. It'll go into drive but not reverse. Back to the shop on Monday for them to get it right.