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Super stoked for this one! Just picked up this 93 tonight. One owner Michigan car! Not a spec of rust accept for around the windshield trim! Undercarriage looks virtually new! Has been sitting since 19, so some gremlins to work through! New top, but not a documented time of replacement. Has the usual oil leaks etc, and a horn / headlamp issue. But I am looking forward to getting acquainted with it! I think it’ll be a good pairing for my 95 as well.

My 93 STE and 96 Cutlass sedan don't have the big rubber springs...but DO have sway bars. But...my 91 International has BOTH. Is that what you're referring too? Here's the STE. And then the International.

Very interesting, you have both a rear sway bar and the auxiliary springs. I always thought it was one or the other. Very nice find!

Wanted to update this topic. The lubricate spray appears to have solved the issue and is holding up the conditions it is being exposed to. Thanks to all who have helped!

Should be 2 or 3 bolts on the seat bottom facing the rear of the front seats. Remove the bottom seat cushion and then you will see the bolts that hold the back seat cushion on.

Actually its been holding up great. I've got over 20k miles on the swap now over 2 years. Nothing major, a couple ripped cv boots which may be because they were junkyard sourced. I highly recommend adding a HTOB spacer. ZZP sells them for around $50. Sits behind the HTOB and moves it closer to the clutch by 1/4" for earlier engagement and longer life. Aside from engineering the trans mount, the hardest part is getting the clutch pedal mounted and situated. The pedal arm needs to be cut & welded into proper position as well. As far as the mount, the low-profile mount I fabbed up works great. Only modification I made was adding rubber bushings under the nuts at the bottom to further insulate the mount from the frame. On an aluminum subframe, it might have to be done a bit different. Might be able to drill two holes and bolt it in the same way, but I haven't been hands-on with an 04+ subframe so I can't say for sure. I'm not a fan of the modified 4T65E bracket method that requires tubular control arms as the mount sits outside the frame. An extra $650 that could be spent elsewhere. There really are half a dozen ways you could fab up a mount but I can say for sure the one I made does the job. 3/16 steel plate holds up well so far. I have also just finished taking the time to document the changes to the tune that are highly recommended for a manual swap: Idle speeds in-gear changed to match P/N as its going to be wired to be in D at all times now. ( I actually added a toggle switch to change between forcing it in D or P, since P is needed for a crank relearn procedure if you need it) DTC codes changed And finally zeroing out all the auto trans stuff:

That's impressive for a MI car. It must have not have been driven in the winter.

I've never seen those not on a Buick/Oldsmobile. I assume it was a way to get a softer ride for the "luxury" brand cars

Interesting. I think it's an early W body thing and dependent on whether it's a sedan, coupe, or convertible, (Cutlass line of course). I think the newer cars maybe starting in 94 on...again, depending on body style, they just got a combination of those items. 55trucker would know I bet.

Yes, those figure 8 shaped springs cushioning the lateral links. My `94 3100 CS only has these aux. springs while my `95 LQ1 Vert and TGP only have a rear sway bar. I thought it was one or the other and the two parts were not installed together. They must help "soften" the handling in the back in a way to give a smoother feel, at least thats the impression I feel when driving the `94 CS and TGP.

Locks cycling just means part of the receiver is okay. Doesn't necessarily mean it's receiving a signal correctly. I've had bad ones do that too. Although it's definitely easier to rule it in or out with multiple fobs.

Unfortunately, they are indeed Xmas tree type. I used a standard trim panel puller to remove them. I was able to reuse mine after pulling, but it's possible they lost some strength after pulling.

If it's a coupe, it's where @Black92GS showed a few posts up. If a sedan, on the back deck as @jiggity76 shows. Regal coupes had a much smaller rear deck due to the more vertical backglass. Top is sedan, bottom is coupe.

No problem. Pay attention when ordering a replacement though, as there seems to be different part numbers based on whether the car has column or console shift, and whether it has steering wheel controls. The key fob not working is highly likely to be bad solder joints in the keyless entry module. There is a write up on here about repairing them. Extremely common issue!

That would be the turn signal switch. Not terribly hard to replace, but you do need to pull the airbag, the steering wheel, the clock spring and the lock plate to get to it. Sounds like the Brake shift interlock is acting up. What I can't recall is whether the turn signal switch issue that causes the left/right brake lights to not illuminate correctly also causes issues with the shift interlock not releasing like it should. I'll let someone else chime in regarding that.

anyone on here that owns a cutlass with aftermarket wheels could you post a picture under this post of your ride, with wheel fitment specs. thanks to all i’m trying to figure out what type of wheels i want to put on and i was also wondering if a set of 18x8.5 +30 wheels would be too wide for the front or if the offset helps tuck enough

Thank you!

Thank you! I am part of the 5th generation group! But will have to take a look at adding the other one. It should make for a fun project for now!

Hello and yes, the pwr window motor and regulator are one unit. They are riveted in from factory. You'll need to drill them out and I slid the whole assembly out thru the door cavity. I didn't have to remove the door glass. I moved the regulator or lift arm for the glass thru one end of the glass channel to remove it and left the glass in the door.

Negative......... all of the early design housing of the V5 will have a pair of *mechanical* internal switches inserted into the back housing, they are held in place by a pair of inside C-clips, they work in conjunction with the swash plate to regulate the pressure differentials between the discharge side pressure & the suction side pressure. They have nothing to do with *electrical* switches and are completely self contained. Later models of the V5 (circa 1999) have a completely redesign back housing which has done away with those 2 *mechanical switches*, improvements in the compressor internal design eliminated them altogether.

Indeed it is........ both the primary & secondary fans will engage. The low pressure sensor engages the entire system when the system is above approx 40lbs, the compressor does NOT cycle, once engaged it runs 100% of the time the a/c is turned on (depending on the volume of system charge).

This is something that I remember hearing about years ago about when modern day cars would age. The plastics would decay and the first stage is when they get sticky. Then over time that stops and the plastics dry out and get hard and start to crack. I don't think it's possible to reverse this process once it get started. I know it's a big issue on foreign cars that are around 20 years old. They always seem to get the sticky buttons. It is just going to keep happening. The best thing would be to clean, protect and keep it out of the sun to reduce the decay rate. Unfortunately these cars don't have a lot of aftermarket support, so getting new interior pieces isn't really an option. Buying a used one is likely going to have the same issue. Pretty impressive the car went 30 years without having that problem. Lasted much longer than most.

New carpet next to the old one for comparison. This is just a test piece as the cut pile option no longer has graphite available to match the old carpet. The original carpet had alot more padding under it too, the Vert seemed to have twice as much. Its just a basic carpet pad easily found anywhere they sell carpet. This task is going to be alot like laying carpet on a spindle staircase with a shift lever and at least 20+ bolt and clip holes/slits that will need to line up perfectly or you`ll have lumps and wrinkles.

I have a 1989 Buick Regal Custom 2.8L V-6. This is my first time replacing the front strut cartridge myself. I just bought the tools on eBay. I need to know, when you remove the strut cartridge, the dealer shop manual says, oil from strut tube using suction device. If the oil has to be removed how much oil has to be removed? Do you ever need to drain the oil with fresh oil? What type of oil do you use? Not motor oil? Sorry for the stupid questions, that’s my only issue I have replacing these. I want to know how much to keep in there and how much to remove. Here is the factory info from my Buick shop manual.

The #50 torx tip is needed to stop the piston shaft from rotating in the shock housing while undoing & tightening up the the retaining nut. As I stated earlier some aftermarket shocks no longer make use of a torx design for the socket interface at the top end of the piston shaft. Spinning the piston shaft with an impact gun is not desirable. Doing so with the outgoing shock is alright but no so with the new shock.

I don't remember having any shift interlock issues when my turn signal switch was bad...but I don't usually put it into gear less than a few seconds after startup and that was about 7 years ago.

I've never been able to SEE the bad solder joints, and I think the glossy conformal coating would probably hide them if there were some. I've always just cleaned off the coating and resoldered the joints anyway. That's always worked. I think most people who have done it had the same experience.

Thanks that diagram helps. Got my neighbor to help. Putting these photos up for anyone else that finds this thread. Two red clips at the top of door, one white xmas tree clip, and a clip on the inside of the car that requires you pull the panel forward to release.

That's interesting. My bad...I thought they were all in the same location. My Cutlass coupe is also in the back shelf area. The rear glass is allowing more space for it I'm sure than a Regal coupe.

It's actually a very easy install. I did it on my '91 Cutlass Supreme coupe on my lunch hour from work. If you're going with an aftermarket head unit, be sure to spring the extra few dollars for the wiring harness adapter, which allows a plug-and-play connection between the new radio and the car, without cutting any wires. You can easily do the installation in under an hour. When I was married, it made a fun afternoon project with my then-stepdaughter to replace the dead radio in her mom's Jeep Grand Cherokee. I taught her how to use a soldering iron as part of the process, and she had a great sense of accomplishment when we turned it on and put in her favorite CD to test it out.

Thanks that's helpful as I was wondering why I couldn't find many hits for "multi function" switch. The key fob also doesn't work despite fresh coin batteries. What could I be looking at? Took my elderly father for a ride and he is happy to see a car like this still going!

The car runs great so far. I've driven it back to the previous family to show off that it's still running, which they hare happy to see. One issue is that the tail brake lights do not work, but the third small light on the windshield does. I read some other similar issues, and it sounds like the "multi function switch". I think other places have called it a "combo switch". If I pull the signal switch back slightly, but not all the way to engage highbeam, then the brake lights will work. Does anyone have the particular part model or "proper" name for this part? I'm also seeing that it's call "turn signal" switch. I'm not very car-inclined. I'm assuming is discontinued and hoping there's an aftermarket solution.

Like the title says, I am a new member now, but I was a fairly regular member here around 15-20 years ago. My screen name at that time was Regal_GS_1989. I originally owned an 89 Regal GS coupe, a 92 Cutlass International Coupe, and finally a 2000 Regal Sedan. Life got busy, I stopped posting regularly, and the 2000 was sold off about 10 years ago for something newer and more family friendly. Time has marched on, and I am now in a position where I have the time and resources to be able to own a “weekend” vehicle. As luck, or possibly fate would have it, this beauty quite literally fell into my lap at the perfect moment… A 92 Regal GS Coupe. Black, Grey leather interior, low milage, One owner, garage kept its entire life, ordered new with every option box checked off…save for the sunroof. It’s truly worthy of the term survivor, and it’s exactly how I would have ordered one myself back in the day. Gotta say…it feels sort of strange to be back here posting again about a 1st gen coupe…but I can get used to that I am also surprised at how many screen names I still recognize as well!

It’s been just a little over a year now since I got the Regal…so what better way to celebrate that than with some more recent pictures. Nothing much visually has changed except for the refinished wheels and new tires…which was a fairly large, yet subtle change on its own. My intent is to keep the car as stock as possible, and to keep it up to snuff mechanically to be used as a reliable, fair weather cruiser. And to shake things up…. This is the final picture I ever took of my 89 GS before it was parked for good in summer of 2008.

Saesons greettings all! A fellow member recommended this group so I just joined. Sorry I didn't know about the W-Body group in past years...might have saved me some headaches in repairs, LOL My first w-body was a '91 Grand Prix SE that I got in 1997. It served me well over the years, till I sold it in 2003 and got a '95 GP SE with the B4U package. I'd still be driving it today if the rear suspension/frame hadn't rotted away due to that horrible brine/salt they put on the roads here. Who knows, maybe I'll get another GP someday...I really enjoyed driving that car!

Being a GTP which wheels & tires are presently on the car?

Here's the link to the timing belt change I did on 11 January, 2020.

When measuring across from clip to clip... All 3 on the coupe are 55" on the money, On the Vert they are all 54 1/2, this will also make the carpet lay funny unless trimmed.

https://www.w-body.com/topic/29805-94-rear-brake-upgrade/ https://www.w-body.com/topic/29805-94-rear-brake-upgrade/#comment-464804

My rule of thumb is every 36 months, that will depend on where in the country you live, if you live in a higher humidity region flush the system more often. All brake fluid (glycol) with the exception of silcone based fluid is hygroscopic. Keeping the system clean is something that is generally overlooked by most vehicle owners. When you purchase replacement brake fluid & you open the container (or containers) to use it try to use most of if not all of what's in the container. Leaving a capped partially used unsealed container on the shelf is just as bad as what will happen to what's in the cars system. Humidity knows no bounds.

yeah I like both of those. I can’t help but think of the early 2000s Cadillacs that had LEDs for the rear taillights and brake lights that were more…crystallized? Only way I can think of to describe it. I really liked how those looked. Not the best picture I could find but I really liked the way these looked.

Personally I'd rather look for as many needed bottles of AC DELCO ATF Type III (H) which one can still purchase today, it IS GM's designated fluid for all older transmissions that used Dexron II or Dexron III (H).

Also, just a bit of a warning. If a trans fluid/filter change is in the books, it might be a good idea to insist that they use dexron /mercon fluid, instead of DexVI or something like Valvoline MaxLife. You can't get licensed Dexron III these days, so the Dex/Merc fluids that state they are for older GM and Ford vehicles are going to be the closest you can get. I have a 1992 Regal that is fairly low milage (currently under 72k KMs) that still had its original trans fluid in it. It was due for a change, but otherwise everything was functioning as it should. I did a pan drop, changed the filter, and re-filled with Valvoline MaxLife. Got the levels set, and everything seemed great. In short order though, I was dealing with a downshift issue into 1st. Essentially, when the vehicle went into lockup before the trans was fully warmed up, slowing down to the point where 1st would engage resulted in the trans acing as if it were in neutral. Even the increased line pressure in manual 1st. wasn't enough to engage it. You could shift to Neutral and back into Drive though, and it would act exactly as expected, so I simply worked around it and shifted into Neutral while slowing down, then back into Drive just before coming to a stop. The more I dug into the issue, the more I realized that the MaxLife was likely the cause, as older transmissions don't necessarily play nice with the much lower viscosity of MaxLife. I just recently pumped out 4.5 quarts of trans fluid and replaced it with Dex/Merc, and on the first test drive the issue was nearly eliminated. My plan now is to drive it a little bit more, then pump it out and refill again to get as much out as possible. I will be sticking with Dex/Merc from now on for this one.

The lack of cross braces is a series 1 3800 thing. I have yet to see a 1st gen Regal with a series 1 3800 have them. Regals with the 3.1 and 3100s had them, as did the 96s with the series 2 3800. No clue as to why it’s that way though.

Am I the only one who thinks this is way more trouble than it's worth? I know that the first-gen rear calipers have a bad reputation, but it's not deserved in my (admittedly limited) experience. I know that on my '92 and '93 Luminas, the rear calipers haven't given me excessive trouble--at least, not more than any other calipers, and less than typical aluminum-bodied calipers. I have had them apart for cleaning and inspection; and even replaced them with "rebuilt" calipers in desperation, trying to fix a "hard pedal, poor braking power" situation a long time ago. The poor braking was due to failing vacuum power boosters on both vehicles, not the calipers/rotors/pads in front or in back.

There ARE strut cartridges that when replaced, need some oil-bath. Apparently, the W-body ones don't. OR the service manual is wrong. Can you get access to a later-model-year manual?

What do you think of this? I don’t know why the shop manual doesn’t say this. I’ve watched a video on YouTube where a guy doing one of these said to keep some oil in there because you have to coat the new cartridge 1/2. So he removed some and said if he had to put some back in you would do it with the suction. The guy mentioned the oil cools down the heat of the strut cartridge so it don’t overheat. Was he right ? I don’t know why the manual didn’t mention this. Don’t want it to overheat the cartridge. But that’s what I hear people done before over the years. Watch 5:40 to 7:35

The OEM strut has loose oil inside. You'd remove ALL of it to the best of your ability. The replacement cartridge is a different design, that doesn't need oil inside the housing. Remove the oil, drop the new cartridge into the housing, put it together just like the manual says.

You're welcome.

Well got the timing belt installed today and the intake put back on. It fired right up. I did a tuneup also. Boy does it run good. Got one issue though. Idling the rpms climb up to about 1500-2000 till I Rev it up then it goes normal. But it comes back. Any ideas. It did this before I tore it all apart. Maybe IAC???