1997 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Saved by the NEWROCKIES PRO Module

Congratulations to Wendy MacBain from Gilroy, California — winner of a full refund in our February giveaway! Here’s her story of bringing a 1997 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme SL back from the dead.

A nice little runabout — until it wasn’t

“This car was given to me several months ago and it was running fine. It’s a nice little runabout and gas saver. I went out to start it one morning about 3 weeks ago and it gave about half a crank, then it died. I thought it was the battery at first, but I never had any warning that the battery was bad. This is what led me to thinking I was dealing with a faulty TDM, after checking the battery and finding it good, then looking on the internet for other solutions/problems the car might be having.

Dash lights on, engine silent

So after the initial starting failure that morning, the next day the car seemed to come alive again, as I found when I opened one of the doors and the interior lights came on. So I inserted the ignition key and this time, no cranking at all, only dash lights lit up momentarily, then everything turned off again. After that attempt, the car became totally unresponsive.

A DIY bypass that didn’t work

I tried measuring the resistance of the pellet on the key and making a bypass, which didn’t work. I put those ignition wires back together.

Getting ready for the PRO Module

As soon as my PRO module arrived, I began the installation. Prior to arrival of the PRO module, I dis-assembled the glove box to locate the TDM Module and wiring. After trying a couple of different ways to access the wiring harness, I was finally able to bring the harness down far enough to access the wires I needed to splice into.

One reset away from running again

After the installation, at first the car was still unresponsive. Turned out the battery cable needed to be disconnected and reconnected to reset the circuits. After doing this, the car started right up and has been running great since the installation.

Many thanks to NEWROCKIES for this Bypass device and Tech Support Staff, saving yet another worthy vehicle from the junkyard!”

— Wendy

Congratulations again, Wendy — and thanks for documenting the whole process. A stubborn battery-cable reset after installation is something we hear about often, so don’t skip that step if your car doesn’t fire up right away. Glad the Cutlass is back on the road in time to enjoy that full refund!

Wendy’s Cutlass Supreme uses the same TDM-based Passlock/VATS hardware as the Lumina, Monte Carlo, and Grand Prix of this era — if you’re working on one of these cars, the exact wiring steps are in the 1993–1998 Cutlass Supreme installation guide.

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