Questions and Answers

Cutlass Supreme Misfiring Q. I don't know if this is the correct place to ask a question or not, but I'm going to. If not, sorry for the inconvenience. I have a 1995 Cutlass Supreme with a 3.1 liter V-6 and automatic transmission. My car has 105,000 miles on it. It has been running rough on and off for five weeks and constant for the past two weeks.

When I say running rough I mean vibrating at idle and while driving, has a loping sound at exhaust, and has a little bit of a hot, foul egg smell. Vibration seems to get slightly better at higher revs. While driving until it shifts to next gear. I changed the PCV valve, air filter, oil and filter, flushed out radiator, fuel filter and plugs and wires with original equipment and ran injector cleaner. Which none seemed to help my problem.

Five days later I took it into a garage for a diagnostic check and was told that it's misfiring and the plugs need changed because # 3 cylinder is oil fouled and not firing. He said he was not sure, but he thinks the problem could be coming from bad injectors. He also said he thinks there might be a problem with the valve train. He said he would fix and go. I don't have the money to fix what don't need fixing while he is guessing. He said it could cost between $200.00 and $2,500.00 dollars. The car still runs, just runs rough!

I read articles on your site and you seem to know, not just think about a subject. Could you please give my any info on the subject? I would greatly appreciate it! So would my wallet!

Thank you for your time!

A. IF it's misfiring, you need to get it fixed or you will ruin the catalytic convertor! If they have it narrowed down to #3 cylinder you need to check compression, spark and fuel. A dealer can do this with a better chance of fixing it right the first time. You can check spark yourself. If it sparks when you remove the wire from #3 cylinder and the plug is new, chances are it's a clogged injector. Someone needs to diagnose this ASAP.