saturn.html

My Saturn automobile

I own a 1997 Saturn Sl2, I bought it in 2001 with about 28k miles on it. I originally was driving a 1998 Chevy 1500 pickup with a 350ci motor and lots of beautiful chrome and nice dark blue paint. I was forced to get rid of it for economic reasons so I decided to slip into something a bit less flashy and extravagant. I traded the truck in on a Saturn and so the story begins...

First off I wanted something reliable, ok. Then I wanted good gas mileage, ok. I also wanted something fast and low profile. What better choice than a Saturn? (Oh, and I wanted it to at least pretend to be an American car) So I test drove a used 1998 sl1 (the 2 door), I was not impressed with this buzzy little car, it sounded like it was going to disintegrate by the time the tach. hit 2500 rpm. I opted to test drive a 2002 model sl1 which was the new model year at the local dealership. I thought it ran smoother and seemed to be better although the 1998 one had an unknown history (and perhaps a sloppy engine rebuild?) and this one was obviously fresh from the factory. I pondered the idea for a while but the financing was not in my favor once again thus putting a new one out of my grasp. I toyed with the idea of getting a Saturn station wagon, that way I could still haul things but I decided that this was a bit too drastic for me. I eventually found a used car dealer with a pair of Saturns, one a black sl1, and the other a blue sl2 (4 door). After I drove 1/2 of the cars on their lot in order to see what I wanted in a car (and making them work for their huge profit on my trade in) I decided on a 2000 Volkswagen turbo beetle with heated seats and black paint...The whole deal, every option you could name was on this sweet little doctor's wife suburb cruiser. I later came to my senses and bought the Saturn sl2, it hurt but I had to do the right thing. Boy was it the right thing, it is noisy, it vibrates, it looks like every other car on the road, and eats a little bit of oil. HOWEVER I have not had to do anything to it but change the oil and feed it gasoline. It is at just under 60k miles now and I have done basic things to it myself and have had no complaints really. Here is the history:

Upon vehicle purchase I installed a sony minidisk player, some mcm 5.5 inch poly woofers for the rear speakers and some generic 5.5 inch 2 way's for the door speakers. All speakers were chosen by factory specs regarding the frequency response, wattage (peak and continuous),-vs- the stereo's output. I took spl/ efficiency into account as well. I think it sounds ok, and cranks without much distortion. I don't really want to rattle other people's teeth, I just want a loud, clean sounding system.

I bought cow print seat covers for it soon afterward to keep my interior somewhat nice, this has paid off in the long run. I have spilled a lot of crap on them and probably saved the seats from destruction.

I put in a really heavy set of truck floor mats that have also been well worth the money.

I have noticed that the firestone tires on the Saturn that I have suck really bad. The traction is gone at the slightest bit of rain on the pavement. I have also been through 3 of them because I scrape the sidewalls off easily. At about 85 dollars a tire this pisses me off because I could have bought a cheap set of better tires for the money invested in keeping them all the same. Get new tires!

I chose the sl2 because it has a better engine under the hood than the sl1. Don't ask why but the 2 door only has a single overhead cam and produces less horsepower where the 4 door has a peppy dual overhead cam and better design. This engine is comparable to the import motors out there running for over 200k miles. As I said earlier I have only HAD to change the oil on this guy. I have done other maintenance things to it just to keep it happy though.

I replaced the fuel filter at about 49k miles because it made me feel better, I replaced the plugs at 47k miles because they were factory plugs and with normal wear they should be about shot . They were bad, I don't know how the car was even running! I replaced my air filter every 10k miles and cleaned it out at every oil change. I switched it over to Valvoline max life oil because I liked the color of the bottle. And so far it seems to be a good oil, after all it is all really snake oil anyway right?

The car has at most used a 1/2 quart of extra oil, but that was under heavy driving conditions and I was about 2k miles past my oil change mileage. I consider this to be acceptable. Not that it was good for my car but it is acceptable oil consumption for this occasion.

I have also had problems with the original brakes. When I got the car it was still in it's original pads and rotors. These went bad within a month of my driving the car at about 32.5k miles. I just replaced the brake pads with lifetime replacement pads from Murray's or Auto zone. They failed again after about a year because the rotors were so badly pitted and rusted and disintegrating. These lasted the rest of the spring and summer, in fall I decided that I should replace the rotors to prevent winter brake changes in the driveway. This was great! The car stops like a dream, the pedal travel is smooth, the car stops in a shorter distance and feels better, no more grinding and shuddering.

I replaced my muffler at about 47k miles because the Saturn muffler had a welded on hanging strap which rusted through. I don't know how long it was bad, I would presume quite a while though. I just clamped on a replacement for about 30 or 40 dollars and was fine.

I was having problems for a while that cropped up suddenly, I think I have just solved them. The car would idle rough and stall and the rpm would fluctuate badly when the engine was under load at low rpm. It had plenty of pickup when accelerated and gas mileage didn't suffer too badly. While inspecting for vacuum leaks as a possible cause in the saturn's simple vacuum system I noticed that I had some of my plug wires out of place and laying on each other. I looked closer and found what looked like possible insulation puncture and carbon tracking. I repositioned the wires as to not touch each other and the problem went away. When I get money and a chance I will replace them in the spring. It is about 10 degrees outside right now and even a plug wire job that would take 5 minutes does not appeal to me. I don't know how the wires got moved, they don't fit tightly in the notches in the valve cover perhaps they just bounced out one day.

I have had little to no trouble buffing out scratches in it's plastic panels, I just use some old turtle wax paste compound and a scrap of corduroy. Nu finish took out a spot where someone spilled something that ate through the clear coat on the hood.

At about 38k miles I replaced a rubber hose that was part of the pcv system that goes from the air intake to the valve cover. this was a 8 inch piece of rubber hose, I don't remember the diameter.

Well, here at about 57k miles (and 6 years of Ohio winters and summers) I had to replace my battery. I hated to let the old Delco go, but I couldn't keep it charged and I don't like asking for jump starts. I opted for a Duralast with a 2 year free replacement guarantee and a 5 year prorated deal after that. We shall see how that goes. It ran less than $50 at the local auto parts store.

Incidentally I was stuck in traffic in downtown Detroit during our recent blackout on my way to a canceled concert. There were cars overheating along the roadside, it took about an hour and a half to get out of downtown. The traffic was crawling and it was in the 80's (90's on the road at least I'm sure). The Saturn got me through without a problem. In fact after driving 60 miles past the jam to my postponed concert I made it home on just over 1/4 tank of gas! There were of course no open gas stations because there was no electricity. Good old Saturn.

Last weekend some nice fellow decided to hit my Saturn while it was parked on the street. I was at a dinner party and some fool ripped my driver's side mirror clean off and scraped the heck out of my door and front fender pushing the whole panel toward the front bumper. I spent 1 hour with a buffer and some paste wax working out the scrapes (the ones that weren't down to the base color of the plastic) and simply shoved the panel back toward the door and re-tightened the fasteners. I am in the process of JB welding the mirror fasteners back in place for a temporary fix until I get to a junk yard and pay way too much for a replacement. Had my panels been metal I would have been filing an insurance claim, instead with a little work and time I was able to make it look like it was 6 years old again : ) Anyway I used an electric buffer and turtle wax. I don't know if it was good for the finish, but it looks great and now I have to wash the rest of the car so I don't have one shiny door on an otherwise dirty car. BTW, months have passed and the Duralast battery is going strong, I will report back after winter to let you all know how it performed.

4-04 update: I have been getting email lately from Saturn owners in the U.S and Canada. Some with good stories about their cars, and some horror stories. I will attempt to pass on their experiences soon, both good and bad. Also I will share their solutions to problems whenever possible so as to help out other owners. "Taking it to the dealer" is not really a solution that I will advise on because it isn't ever really affordable. For those of you who do, you know your limitations, I'm not a carpenter and wouldn't attempt to tear out the walls in my house, those of you out there who aren't mechanically inclined probably shouldn't attempt to fix your car.

11-05 Posting: Wow can you believe it? almost 84K miles on the odometer, nothing but oil changes and a loud muffler. I have driven this car from Toledo to NYC, then upstate NY for vacation. My wife now drives the saturn over 100 miles a week to school and back. I just got back from the holiday drive to northwestern Indiana, this is the most reliable car I have owned. I recently bought myself a used pickup to take to work but the Saturn sees plenty of road. I need to rotate my tires, change the transmission filter and fluid, and maybe do that O2 sensor some day. The battery is still holding well, and the motor doesn't burn more than 1/2 a quart of oil every 4000 miles. I don't let it go that far normally. Once in a while it needs the coolant level topped off, it seems to happen in the winter so I think it may be related to the heater. I can drive all summer with the AC on and it won't lose a drop, but a week of cold weather and the level drops. Maybe it is just a seal shrinking in the cold weather, I don't know, its not the end of the world. My front bumper is a little loose from pushing other cars and getting on the ramps for oil changes. I think some of those plastic clips are missing. I shimmed the headlight on the passenger side with some 1/4" adhesive foam tape to tame the vibration. I cleaned out my EGR valve and checked my ECT sensor, I guess I was paranoid after reading a lot about them failing over the years. My EGR was dirty, but nothing out of the ordinary. The ECT coolant sensor was in good shape, not corroded like other people's. My check engine light comes on after driving through high water or big puddles, that is normal though. I guess I replaced my serp belt at some point over the summer, I was driving on the original and wanted to do it before I left for New York city. It took about ten minutes and I keep the old one in my trunk as a spare.

So as you can see so far I have put very little into my Saturn. I have never had a single problem with alternators going out, oil consumption, or sensors. I want to reduce the engine noise a bit and shim some of my vibrating plastic things, but other than that It is going strong and has needed the least maintenance of all of my older higher mile vehicles. I will add more and change this as things develop with the Saturn. Thank you for your interest, you can share your comments or questions with me via email@

ctom@toast.net