oil in the coolant liquid

Blown headgasket. Needs to be fix immediately or engine will be ruined.

I concur. Your headgasket is fuc%&ed...get it fixed....have it towed to your local shop and get it done, or start shopping for a new ride.

Your choice really. :)

R.

Maybe this site has the answer to your question.

- 14k

"Art" typed until their fingers bled, and came up with:

is it a '96 Sl or SL1? if so, it may be the casting flaw that plauged that engine. you'll need a new head.

Just replaced a friend's 2 weeks ago.

Is that cost effective on an 8 year old car or would the money be better spent on a down payment on replacement vehicle? I only ask cause I could face that decision any day on my 10 1/2 year old.

ron herfurth

94 SL-1 103,000 miles

I guess that would depend on the cost of the repair. It could still make sense to do this if the work was performed by the owner themselves or if they could locate someone other than the dealer who could do it for a reasonable price.

Bob

I have heard some horror stories about Saturn's head gaskets...My brother's

04 ION has given him a pile of grief (not head gasket grief, no-start greif)...

That being said, my 97 SW2 has 298 000 kms on it, with nothing more severe than brakes, oil changes, tires, and one outer tie rod end....

Not all Saturns suck...but some certainly do...

just my $0.02 worth.

R.

Lots of cars have headgasket issues..... even some Toyota models. Mostly the 4 cylinder engines.

Yea I had a Mazda 626 in the late 80's that went thru 2 head gaskets before

20,000 miles. Mazada had to fix them. I heard it was for this reas> Lots of cars have headgasket issues..... even some Toyota models. Mostly

is it possible i find oil in the coolant liquid because the pcv is defect ????

"Gerald Fay" a écrit dans le message news: snipped-for-privacy@netnews.comcast.net...

Nope.

Not even remotely possible.

Bad news:

See:

You're well beyond the time that Saturn would repair it at their expense (6 years/100K miles). But if you're lucky it could just be a blown head gasket, which would cost less than $1000 to replace.

Plan on around $2000 to repair it, but I don't think that it's worth it. You could buy a 1996 vintage used Civic or Corolla for around $3000, or even Camry or Accord for around $4000. Don't get a junkyard engine for the Saturn, as it will likely have the same casting flaw.

Note that the coolant in the reservoir will always look a bit dirty due to the Seal-Tabs that you have to put in after you change the coolant, but if you flushed the radiator and the coolant is still oily, then it's more serious.

Should you dump the car? It depends.

With over 350,000 km on my 95 SW1, I just had the head gasket and a bunch of other stuff done yesterday, including an oil pan (got rusty). They found that the cylinders looked like new - no scoring, no obvious wear, no tarnishing (changing you oil every 5000km appears to have some value). They found the leak in the gasket was minor - the head is fine. They found that the timing chain was about 1/2 way between brand new condition and the point of having to replace it. I chose to have the timing chain replaced, to save 6 hours labour sometime down the line.

The total cost for the head gasket and timing chain kit was $1100 CDN. The cost of the timing chain kit was $230.

I say "it depends" because if I had the cash flow, this would've been a good precipitating event for me to move into a new car (whether or not I made the repair, I would get the same $ for the car if I sold it). If you own the car outright and you don't want to get into car payments, then fix what you've got. If you've got the cashflow or you don't like the car, then dump it. $1100 would make about 2 - 2 1/2 car payments for an equivalent new car, so I saw fixing it as good value.

Best of luck with your situation.

Tim Delaney '95 SW1 5-speed 353,000km '84 Mercedes 300SD 213,000km '97 GMC Safari 171,000km