Hi...I'm looking at an SL1 for my college age daughter and wondering at what folks think about this model. This one has 55K miles on it and seems to be in pretty good shape. What should I ask about it? How often should the timing belt be changed?
Jim
Saturn has an timing chain not a belt. The chain is engine oil lubed and should last the life of the engine provided that it receives clean oil. It is an interference-type, non freewheeling engine that will be damaged from a chain failure. Dirty oil may cause tensioner problems but the chain should get noisy long before failure. Mine has 150,000 miles with no noise and no failure. It would be a big job to change but would normally only be serviced if it was necessary to open the engine for some other reason.
IMHE it is a very good engine that has very good low speed torque. Check the oil change records and try to determine the type of usage and driver that was using this car. Some report high oil consumption that I believe is caused by excessive high rpm operation. Short trips bad, highway better.
Happy trails
I'll jump in with my $0.02 about the timing chain. In my '94 SL2 I noticed a definite decrease in acceleration and torque at around 75K miles. I brought it in to Saturn and the mechanic on duty told me the timing chain needed to be replaced. Knowing how much that was going to cost, I questioned that diagnosis since the car had been serviced faithfully, and the Saturn claim to fame was that those chains lasted a good 150K-200K miles if maintained properly. I didn't get it changed, and kept driving the car. At my next oil change, I discussed the problem with the service manager and he told me the chain simply needed to be
*tightened*, not replaced, as the chains sometimes got a little slack in them. Tightening wasn't a big deal or huge expense, but due to my not bringing this issue up immediately, the looser chain did cause some minor damage which was repaired fairly quickly.As always, YMMV.
-Russ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Russ Benoit snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net AIM: ltricshoes
He tried to tell us all the world was spherical, they burned his body but not his soul... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strange a service manager would not know that the chain is automaticly tightened by an automatic tightener that has pressure on the chain, the tightener is made like a ratchet once it moves out to tighten it can not move back to loose position! the only problem i see with these is poor maintenance with the oil change!
For some reason, mine was looser than it should have been and was not being tightened. This problem occured in 1997, so my memory of the events and conversations may not be exactly as they were, however my recollection of the event was that for some reason the chain wasn't being tightened, the service manager had seen it before and knew how to fix it, and I got a bit of a break on the cost of repair (not much admittedly, but better than nothing) due to the service tech incorrectly telling me the chain needed to be replaced.
I bought the car used from the dealership with approx 30K already on it and I commuted over 100mi per day with it when I had it, plus some extended road trips for work. All regular service was done at the same dealership since the car was new, so there wasn't an issue of lack of oil changes at the proper intervals.
-Russ
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Russ Benoit snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net AIM: ltricshoes
He tried to tell us all the world was spherical, they burned his body but not his soul... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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