Are saturns notorious for burning oil?

I have a '97 Saturn SL1, that I have not had any major problems with since I purchased it. I have noticed, however, that if I do an oil change myself or take it to a shop to do it, there always appears to be a bit less than what I would normally expect to see. One tech said that Saturns are notorious for burning oil. Is this true? If it is, no big deal, I still like my car, but I wanted to make sure that there might not be something else wrong. The engine never overheats (at least as far as the gauges are concerned) I never run OUT of oil, and I have yet to see any leaking anywhere from the engine or on the ground underneath. I've never noticed this on other vehicles (ruling out a normal allowance of burned oil)

Any ideas?

Reply to
CuriousOnly
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I have two Saturns, 97 & 99. Both use a little oil. I think most here will agree that the majority of the SL's use oil in varying amounts and a few lucky ones don't. It isn't a big deal. To keep from adding between changes, I have started putting in a can of Restore. All of my miles are hwy. and I change around 6k miles. There is a fix listed below that someone in the group posted awhile back and has had some good reports. I just haven't had time to do it, but it's worth a try. Instead of using the GM cleaner, some have had good luck using Marvel Mystery Oil. MR

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Engine - Excessive Oil Consumption

BULLETIN NO.: 94-T-59A

ISSUE DATE: February, 2003

CATEGORY TYPE: Engine-16

CATEGORY: General

CORPORATION NO.: 03-06-01-001R

SUBJECT: Oil Consumption Concern (Diagnosis/Service Procedure)

Due to the addition of a new internal engine cleaning procedure, this bulletin has been revised and supersedes bulletin 94-T-59, which should be discarded.

MODELS AFFECTED:

All 1991 - 1997 Saturn S-Series Vehicles

CONDITION:

Some customers may comment that the engine is using 1 quart (0.951 liter) or more of oil every 3000 mi. (4827 km).

CAUSE:

Engine oil consumption greater than 1 quart (0.951 liter) in 3000 mi. (4827 km) may be caused by stuck/sticking oil control and/or compression rings. Engine deposits may build up on and around the oil control ring(s), compression ring(s) and piston ring land(s) causing the ring(s) to stick and become less effective.

CORRECTION:

Perform internal engine cleaning procedure or engine repair procedure depending on amount of oil consumption.

IF engine uses 1 quart (0.951 liter) of oil in:

1500 mi. - 3000 mi. (2414 km - 4827 km), perform Procedure-1: Internal Engine Cleaning

1499 mi. (2414 km) or less, perform Procedure-2: Engine Repair

While Saturn still considers oil consumption of 1 quart (0.951 liter) in

2000 mi. (3218 km) to be an acceptable level, the engine cleaning procedure contained in this bulletin may improve oil consumption performance to an even more acceptable level.

============================================================================ ===========

Bottom line:

If your engine consumes less than one quart every 1,500 miles, you should buy a bottle of GM Piston and Ring Cleaner (part nr 12378549) and put

3 ounces of it into each of the four cylinders. Make sure that the piston is half way up on all four cylinders (engine at 90 degrees before or after top dead center).

Then, blow it out the plug holes by cranking the engine with rags over it. Do an oil change and replace the oil with Mobil 1 (yup, the TSB says to use Mobil 1) for one 3,000 mile oil change.

It looks like it's official - the oil consumption is due to ring sticking.

Reply to
MR

I'd strongly encourage you to check your oil more frequently. A good practice is to check it every 500 miles or so, especially if you know you consume oil or are going to be taking a long trip. Also, as you already likely know, you don't have to wait till the oil level gets below the fill line or the oil pressure light is illuminated to add. By that time it is already at least a quart low, and since there are only 4 quarts in the system when full, it could easily result in a major (and very expensive) mechanical problem. You should still keep track of what you add between changes since this provides some indication of the overall health of the engine.

Our '96 SL1 with 120K (mostly highway) miles goes through a little over a quart between changes (every 3K miles), but a small portion of this leaks onto our driveway so the amount burned is probably 3/4 of the total loss. By the way, I use 10W30 in the summer and the manufacturer recommended 5W30 in the winter. I only mention this since the heavier oil helps increase the oil pressure and reduce consumption (at the price of slightly reduced fuel economy.)

Bob

Reply to
Bob Shuman

Hmm, if the car burns 4 quarts of oil every 3000mi, and I add a quart every 800 miles or so, then I should never have to change the oil, right? ;)

-rj

98SL2

ps. j/k

Reply to
richard hornsby

More or less, but you would still have some crud drop-out in your oil pan which could pile up if not drained. MR

Reply to
MR

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Reply to
user

Yeah nothing replaces good ol' metal... There is a way to test if it is being lost through the rings or the valves. While someone else is driving, if you see smoke while accelerating its the rings, if it smokes while decelerating its coming from the valves. If its not a big oil loss you probably wont see it though. One thing to really consider is the PCV. 4 Cylinders are prone to loose oil through there. If you replace it be sure to get an OEM pcv. The tolerances on those are pretty high and non-oem pcv's are pretty sloppy. With any luck thats where the oil loss is!

Reply to
Blah Blah

Reply to
user

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Blah Blah

Reply to
user

I'm gonna throw this out as food for thought:

  • If your rings were lousy, wouldn't you also be getting lots of blowby and dirty oil real fast?

  • My harley used to drink oil like crazy - it was the valve stem seals. I think you can do these without pulling the head - at least I've heard there's a way to..

Reply to
Philip Nasadowski

Reply to
user

I've owned 3 Saturns. A 93 SL1, a 95 SC2, and a 96 SL2. None of them burned any oil. However, I did use Mobil 1 synthetic oil in all of them from about 1000 miles onward.

Reply to
Ritz

Reply to
user

Where do you think Milwaukee Oilers got their name? People who have Harleys often use the "motorcycle tight" method when they work on those things. You can get them to seal if you got good gaskets, flat surfaces, a torque stick, thread lock, and move around tighting the bolts in the good order. Sure wish I had a Harley...

Reply to
Blah Blah

Reply to
Blah Blah

True. Though even my '99 Wide Glide *still* has a little seepage. The primary case is where it's mostly going on. I never understood how the heck HD manages it, but I don't think any of them were ever truely leak free.

BTW - A Panhead and earlier is *supposed* to drip a bit of oil. What you're seeing isn't a leak, but rather excess from the primary lubrication setup - after the oil's sloshed around long enough in there, it comes out a hole somewhere on the primary case, a drip every now and then at a time.

Reply to
Philip Nasadowski

I'm no metal to the pedal type and I change the oil every 3k miles. It lost oil from day one, just not as much as now. There was some kind of rumor way back then that the rear main seals were causing oil loss. I thought Saturn was going to issue a campaign repair or recall order for this so kind of let time slip and nothing official was ever announced. So I always assumed from this rumor the oil loss was mostly from this rear seal. I did try to return the vehicle and Saturn wouldn't take the auto back. Some other thing were done to the auto during shipping that came to light after taking delivery. I am not so gung ho on American made auto's any more after that experience. I'll leave it at that.

Will have to weigh whether to have anyth> Welp nevermind then. You will need a rebuild. I cant figure out why

Reply to
user

My 98SL2 does not burn any oil at 50,000 ... I replace the PCV valve yearly ... and add some DuraLube each oil change ... only other thing is I had the Coolant Temp Sensor replaced ... which should be done if you have not had it done on a

98SL2 by now ... Roy
Reply to
ProfWdesk1

You can read a good post about this at:

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Reply to
Steven Scharf

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