91 Oldsmobile cieria cutlass sl
So I have 91 Oldsmobile, I got it from my grandma.
It’s been sitting for a year or so. My grandpa drove
it and said it feels and sounds like there is bad gas
in it. Before he drove it we automatically put a
brand new battery in. Started perfectly fine. Road
fine for the first few hours. I drove it straight to the
gas station and bought transmission fluid, and
coolant. No dash lights were on. After a few hours
driving it got a little wobbly, didn’t want to
accelerate right away. Like it took a sec to realize I
was pressing the gas then jerk. Lacks acceleration
going up a hill and kinda jerks. It died once while
slowing down to turn, so put it in nuetral and
started fine. Notice all that. And my grandpa said
yeah it’s bad gas. And to run the tank empty and
put in the fuel cleaner and new has to a full tank.
Did that. And drove around for a day or so. Only in
the car 15 mins or so and the car just dies, and
won’t start. I was told it sounds like your outta gas.
But the gage is at a quarter tank still. But I was
told to put gas in anyways. So added about 3
gallons. Still won’t start. So then I was told it’s
probably a fuel pump. Bc it would crank and I
could even get it started and as soon as I pressed
the gas it would die. So I just got it towed home.
Later I try to start it and nothing. No clicks.
Nothing. Dead battery now? No. Battery is fine.
Bad starter? Don’t know? But now it’s day 3 of not
starting I get clicks every once in a while. At first I
didn’t hear the fuel pump noise but I do now. But
now it’s getting harder and harder to turn the key?
Gotta jiggle the steering wheel a little. I’m at a loss.
I’ve had the car literally a week. And only used it 3
days. Yes I have checked spark plugs. Fuses. And
Almost all wires and connections. I do not have the
money for a shop mechanic. So I need help
diagnosting the problem. Or even tips that we
could try?
You could have a bad ground for the battery, even if it looks ok it can be corroded inside. Starter may be bad, if you take it out auto zone or oreileys and most parts stores will test it free. Its possible to eliminate some other things by carefully taking a screwdriver and jump across the main hot battery connection and the smaller terminal that powers the solenoid on the starter while in the car. But be sure it's in park with Ebrake on. You describe the key getting harder to turn so that could be (unlikely) the tumbler in the ignition switch or the rod that pushes a switch on the lower part of the clustering column or that switch. By jumping the starter you by pass everything upstream like park/neutral safety switch in the transmission also. I'd suspect fuel pump and or filter as to why it was running poorly or mass air flow sensor wich is fairly common to go out. Good luck. These seem to be very good cars as I've had mine alittle over a year and ran 3 Gambler 500s wich are offroad navigation challenge/largest litter clean ups weird bazaar car show in the world. I've put 17000 mostly Hard offroad miles on mine and it's really starting to show. Swiss watch mostly though. ABG!!
