Hey guys, I just picked up a 93 Cutlass Ciera as a beater/daily driver. It's getting to expensive to drive my Mercury Grand Marquis. I love the way the V8 drives, but not the way it drinks gas. I'm no stranger to turning a wrench, but the vast majority of my experience is wrenching on Ford's.

The car's got the v6 and less than 100K on the clock. Other than that I'm at a loss about the car. The oil is dark but not burnt or gritty. The tranny fluid is bright red, smells like tranny fluid and isn't gritty.

The car's got some rust, but it's a daily beater. I am looking for some suggestions for general maintance as it relates to the specific car I have. Also what are the simple mods to pep it up slightly?

The only real mods I want to do is to add some electronic goodies. I'm curious how strong the stock alternator is. My goal is to install a ham radio, a 200 watt inverter (for my laptop), and maybe a cb.

If this isn't the right place, does anyone know of a site where I can research my questions.

 

well i have a 95' cutty ceria sl 246,000 miles on it and i have 1000w amp running in it it should be fine to keep it running just keep the oil and tranny fluid on check and it should run fine the only problem i ever had with mine was the alternator went out on it like 6-7 years ago but i got it warrentied hehe

 

Thanks for the welcome. I'm hitting the yard tomorrow morning for whatever random bits I can find. Any suggestions of parts I should snag for common upgrades?

 

Get extra coil packs.
Other than that, they will run 200k miles no sweat.

 

For general maintenance I would suggest doing a normal tune up. In addition, don't forget to desludge the throttle body and idle air bypass motor (that is what they call it on Fords). This is easy to do and will greatly improve the idle of the car. All you have to do is take the throttle body off and clean it with some carburetor cleaner and an old toothbrush.

Nastiness gets clogged up in the idle air bypass and causes these cars to idle rough. You also might want to get a GM type 1 code key from your auto parts store incase your car ever has a check engine light. All you have to do to read them is short the A and B terminal of the data plug together and count flashes.

 

Cool, it sounds like the cutlass will be similar to some late 80's/early 90's Ford's I've owned. I've got the OBD I scanner for Fords, but always perfered to use a paper clip on the port to check the codes with the CE light.

The oil is nasty (to me, it's probably ok for light driving), so once that get changed, it will probably get a fill up of gas (with a bottle of Lucas), some seafoam, and then anything else that needs special attention will get degunked with a tooth brush.

The only real performance mods I want to do is upgrade the suspension. I had an 4 cylinder Topaz quite afew years ago and really liked the feel after I upgraded to the v6 front sway bar and added the v6 rear sway bar. Any parts interchangeability possible with the A Bodies? Like will suspension parts from an A body wagon swap, and will they do anything?

Also, the car has the factory doughnut . So where/what should I look at for a steel that is the right size/offset to throw in the trunk as a spare?

 

If you can't find a full sized spare at your local auto salvage yard you can always try this website. I sent an e-mail looking for an engine once and got multiple replies quickly.

http://www.usedpartscentral.com/request.htm

 

I wandered through my local pick & pull this morning. I saw one 91 Cutlass wagon, a Celeberty, and many Buick's (century, I think), that had a very similar shape to a Cutlass.

So finding parts should be pretty easy.

 

The FWD A-body cars came out in 1982 (Cutlass Ciera, Pontiac 6000, Buick Century, and Chevy Celebrity). They were intended to replace the RWD A-body cars, which is why the G-body nomenclature was used on the RWD cars. With the exception of trim changes (and a roofline change in the mid 1980s), the Ciera et al were virtually unchanged for their entire production run from 1982 through 1996. They originally were offered with the Pontiac Iron Duke 2.5 liter four cylinder and the Chevy 60 degree 2.8 liter V6. Other available engines included the 60 deg 3.1, the Buick 90 deg V6s in 3.0, 3.3, and 3.8 liter sizes, and at the end the 2.2 liter four cylinder used in the S10. They were a staple of the Avis rental car fleet for years. The one oddball engine (and the one to get) is the Olds V6 diesel. Yes, it made a whopping 85 HP, but it also was the one Olds engine with a reverse rotation water pump and a true serpentine belt system.