I bought my 98 SL2 less than a year ago from a local used car dealer here in WV. It had 119,000 miles on it, and drove very smooth. I THOUGHT I did my homework. I did a CarFax report on it, came up perfectly clean. I took it to a good mechanic BEFORE I bought it who told me it was in excellent condition.
Well, I drove the car from WV to FL, because thats where I go to college, and when I get there I see there is no oil left in the car. I had just gotten rid of an older car that burnt oil like crazy, so I didnt really think much of it other than to fill it up and watch what happens. Well it didnt leak, I never saw it burn in the exhaust, the only connection I could make is that it only appeared to lose oil when I drove long distances. Yet it still seemed somewhat random. This summer, I drove 3 hours to go camping to find the oil empty, filled it back up, and on the drive back no oil had burnt at all.
In the past few weeks it seems to be losing oil faster than usual, and the coolant light in the dash is coming on about 75% of the time the car is driving. So, last night I got online and started looking up the problem and found out about the whole "cracked cylinder head" (?) situation, and needless to say, it shocks me. It fits my situation perfectly, and I did indeed find oil inside the coolant.
I am a college student, and barely have enough money for gas, let alone an in depth engine job like this. The dealer I got it from will most likely be of no help, and since I don't really know what im talking about when it comes to cars, I dont want to get screwed over on this.
I was wondering if anyone could help me with this...
1) I want to make sure that it is indeed a cracked cylinder...is this possible without pulling the engine out entirely? 2) What exactly should I tell the service people so that they dont try to charge me for some extraneous costs and/or fix the proper thing? 3)I've heard that Saturn's Customer Service can be finaggled into paying for some of the bill for this, since its was *almost* a recall. Is this true? and how can I pull it off? 4) Is there anywhere, perhaps other than a commercial repair manual, that I might be able to find more information about this problem with the engine? Ive seen the words "cylinder head" and "head gasket" used almost interchangably when talking of this problem, and Id like to know what the difference is, if any.Other than this, the car runs pretty well for a used car...the "lock" button on the drivers side went out, and the back passenger side power window seems to have died...and my reverse lights...but those all seem fairly trivial. Anyway, any help I could get on this would be greatly appreciated...im hoping to make this car last at least another 3 years! Hope its possible!