1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 3.1L V6

Summary:

A lemon in sheep's clothing

Faults:

Transmission wouldn't downshift. Put new transmission fluid in and problem seemed to be solved.

Car stalls at stop signs or intersections. Took it to the dealer several times, and have had spark plugs and ignition wires so far, to no avail.

Front right brake pad fell off, and jammed in the wheel rim. Fortunately, the rim was curved in such a way that the tire did not stop spinning. Easily fixed by replacing brake pad.

Digital dashboard display flickers or turns off completely. We then have no idea of our speed, mileage, or fuel level. Unable to fix yet, due to anticipation of high costs.

Transmission often will shift into neutral when stopped, forcing driver to manually shift into neutral, then back into drive.

Front windshield spontaneously cracked across its length during normal highway driving.

General Comments:

Seats are horribly uncomfortable, especially driver's seat. Took me a month to get it in a decent position.

Car is slow - only has a 140hp V6 that gets poor gas mileage.

All radio and climate controls difficult for driver to reach. I must lean forward and stretch in order to change the radio station, or interior temperature. However, steering wheel mounted volume and fan controls are a plus... when they work.

On the good side, it has seating for 6, which is a plus.

Also, its handling is half decent - nothing amazing, but decently adequate.

Lots of trunk space. I think this car has more space than a Ford Crown Vic, and the trunk is not nearly as deep, but very long. What a large-ish family needs.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 30th November, 2003

2nd Feb 2004, 21:47

My car had a bad EGR value and the thing stalled everywhere - only when stopped. The thing just couldn't idle without dying just before fixing it. Afterwards the car got significantly better gas mileage, and drove without stalling.

I'd investigate that if you haven't.

Best of luck.

25th Aug 2004, 12:35

OK, I've had the car for about a month and it has exactly 84592 miles on it. And yet it still runs fine.

18th Apr 2008, 12:16

Your problems that you explain with having to reach for this or having to reach for that... Yeah any car has that! Seat are very comfortable... And your mechanical problems... Sounds like vehicle owner neglect!!

20th Jul 2010, 11:26

Just bought 1993 Cutlass 3.1 with only 72,000. The car runs great, I have the same stall issues, have replaced O2 sensors, fuel filter and had the car tuned for my altitude (mile high city). After that the car ran great.

1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass S 3.1L V6

Summary:

A very dependable, fun car

Faults:

When I first bought the car, the rear disc brakes weren't working.

It needed new tires.

General Comments:

I like everything about the car. It handles great, performs great, and is enjoyable to drive. The acceleration is great considering it is a 3.1L V6.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 16th October, 2003

1993 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme SL 3.1L

Summary:

Great after the known problems are fixed

Faults:

Rear brake calipers seize.

Transmission needed rebuilt.

Dashboard warped.

Center console fell apart.

Torque converter now locks/unlocks at 54/55 mph.

Center arm rest is cracked.

General Comments:

The car has been great except for the above noted problems. The trick to keeping the calipers from seizing is to use the emergency brake everyday. Now that I do that, I have had no problems. The torque converter problem will be an expensive fix--so I'm leaving it go and I just don't drive at 54 or 55 mph!

I'd like to know if anyone has had any major problems with the 3.1L engine and at what mileage. I'd like to keep driving this car, but with 162k miles on it, I'm getting worried about major engine problems. I'm not have any signs of any yet.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 13th October, 2003

19th Nov 2003, 23:06

You wondered about troubles with the 3.1 engine. Well, my Grandmother-in-law gave us her '93 in May of 2001. A year later, the engine spun a bearing and seized. Which caused us to borrow $2600 dollars to have a re-manufactured engine installed. The mechanic said it was because the car hadn't been driven enough, which made sense because my Grandmother-in-law bought the car brand new in '92 and had managed to put a measly 35,000 miles on it. Plus, it didn't appear that she'd had the oil changed regularly.

Well, it's a year and a half later and now our re-manufactured engine is in being serviced. About a month ago, we noticed it was burning oil, but since there were no other obvious problems, my husband thought it was simply a seal loose somewhere. Well, then the engine started backfiring, so we decided to take it in. It was under a 3 year warranty, but this mechanic is telling us it's no fault of the manufacturer, but that the engine became severely overheated at one point. So badly that our 6 cylinder car was only running on 5 and most of the pistons were trashed. There was oil blown everywhere. And burnt onto everything.

We had to have our braking system fixed last year... now we know what contaminated our master cylinder... ENGINE FLUID!

So now we're stuck trying to figure out how a year and a half old engine could overheat that badly under normal use. My dad seems to think my husband was hot-rodding it or something, which is causing severe frustration because we babied this stupid car after the work it had done before. We never drove it over 55mph for the first 6 months (break-in period) and we kept the oil changed regularly.

The mechanic said the temperature gauge is functioning fine. So how did we not know?! One of life's great mysteries, I guess.

I would be very interested to know if anyone else has ever encountered problems like this.

Oh, one more thing. It spun a bearing before... the mechanic just informed us that it almost did it again. So when we get our car back, we're gonna be paranoid taking it anywhere. What a pain. Cutlass' are built well... I would just like to know what's going on with our engine.

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