Saturday, Gimlet and I attempted to diagnose an intermittent problem with Grandma Gimlet's '92 Olds Cutlass Ciera. While driving the car, it would sometimes behave as if it were struggling along in the wrong gear (it's an automatic). The car would shudder as you approached a stop, and would stall as soon as the car stopped moving. Then, after a few blocks of trying to give just enough gas to keep rolling without lugging the engine, things would smooth out and everything would be hunky-dory.
I suspected a problem with the lock-up torque converter, as Mrs Merc Man's '86 Cutlass Supreme suffered a similar malady earlier in its career. Still, I wasn't quite convinced GM would allow a chronic problem like this to go on for 6 model years without a fix.
Anyhoo, Gimlet and I headed out on a test drive, with Gimlet behind the wheel. I ran the passenger-side power window down for a little fresh air, then discovered that said window would not go back up. So far, our drive had not started out on a good note!
We drove for a long time, pausing only at the QT on Page to let the car heat soak and refresh ourselves before the next leg of our journey. After another 15-20 minutes of trouble-free cruising, we were just heading home when, all of a sudden, SHIMMY!, SHAKE!, SHUDDER!, the ol' car started doing its imitation of a belly dancer on speed! After several white-knuckle moments, we were finally able to limp the car home, at which time it proceeded to run just fine. Diagnosis: NEW CAR!!!!
Naw, just kidding, maybe. We're pretty sure it IS the lock-up converter, which we can disable by jacking up the car, putting it on stands, and unplugging its power source.
Now, about that passenger-side window..........
