Should I buy '01 LW300 98Kmi?

Not sure if I am looking for someone to talk me out of ...or into... purchasing a used 2001 LW300 wagon with 98,000 miles. My '95 SW1 w/ nearly 180K is now burning about a qt of oil every 400 miles. I did a top engine clean w/Seafoam when I disassembled the engine back at 152K and did head gasket and timing chain kit. I've done all the maintenance myself except for the tranny rebuild. With two small kids and reliability/safety being a factor, I guess I'm done w/ this car. The LW300 (6 Cyl) is at a local Saturn dealer. This is a really beautiful looking car. Like new, w/ new tires. It has never seen snow, has a clean one-owner, Carfax. The dealer showed me the service dept history. It has always been serviced there. Even on the lift the car looks great underneath with no leaks, or evidence thereof. (Having just done the Cat Conv on my SW1, I have been under a Saturn several times a year for about a decade now). I took the car home overnight and all looks and feels good. The service issues I have seen detailed on the web and various owner reviews (edmunds, epinions) with this series have me concerned. The tail light recall was done on this car along with a few BCM's at

5,100 and 13,600 mi, engine oil coolers at 1,600 and 28K mi.; fuel pump/sender, rear crankshaft seal at 31K; MAF sensor at 53K, Water pump @ 56K. Rear wheel hub/bearing at 56K; front weatherstrips and dimmer switch at 57K; "Armrest/Console" @ 78K, Pwr steering pump/ pulley and belt tensioner at 83K. The last major recommended service done was the 81K.

This car was traded back in February. Has been driven by dealer for

700 miles now. With the end of the month, an anemic car market, along with a pending timing chain service at 100K ($1,900 for the 100K service per another Saturn dealer. I can get the Rock Auto timing chain kit and do it myself for $325.00) I feel I can get a good deal for $3,500-4K.

Am I being blinded by the $$$ and condition? My car's dying and my finances are meager. If I had several thousand more I would seriously think of a higher mileage Passat wagon, Malibu Maxx, Volvo 70 series wagon,and maybe, maybe, a Honda Odyessy van.

L-Series owners, what say you?

Also, what could a "Non-Saturn Accessory Installation" every oil change mean?

Reply to
S.
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I will chime in. I had a 2001 Lw200 with a manual trans. There are some major differences between a LW200 and LW300 model, and of course between the 4 cylinder and V6 in the 300 series -- not to mention the automatic verus manual tranny. The main thing to note, regardless of the model - parts for this car are expensive!

Most other Saturns models shared the body/chassis with another of GM's partners. This meant maybe you had Saturn Sky, but you could also shop for parts from a Solstice. Your SW shared with what... bonneville? Not so with the L-series. I found the price of brake rotors for example to be excessive. Or go price a front windshield.

My particular lw200 was a great car; with a lot of problems. The clutch had a hydraulic leak that took the dealers months and tens of thousands of miles to "diagnose"... actually they finally got sick of me complaining and tore the tranny apart and found the problem.

The final nail in our 2001's coffin was an issue with the fuel injection or timing or something that caused the car to buck and lose power until restarted. You can search this newsgroup for other posts about our experience. Now this was a lw200 with a different engine and different tranny -- so those problems are nto necessarily indicative of what the car you are looking at might have (btw, we logged 78,000 miles before trading it in).

So to try and push you one way or the other, know that all cars have some baggage. But specifically the L series is more rare than you;d think and therefore as it ages the maintenance costs are higher than you'd expect. It is otherwise a fine automobile and you sound like a handy car person - so the added expense of parts is offset by your own labor.

You could likely hold off on the timing chain (not familiar with the V6 engine), but price-wsie it sounds good. Check for the recall or tsb about the cant of the tires. When our '01 had this done they ended up replacing all four tires due to uneven wear; again not sure how differnt the lw200 vs lw300 suspension is.

"S." wrote in news:3aa16ce3-d535-48f9-894b- snipped-for-privacy@b31g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

Reply to
Steph

I've got a 2001 lw300 and love it. Got about 130K on it now. bought it with two years on it and 40K miles having just come off lease. Paid about $10K. Biggest single expense was the timing belt which should be done at 90K (iirc). I had mine done at an independent garage friend of mine and paid $400 for it. That included replacing the water pump which was the major reason for doing the timing belt at that point. Was going to do it myself but is not a job for the faint of heart and needs lots of special tools. Replaced MAF three times but am thinking that these were damaged by a backfire caused by a flaky crank angle sensor. Eventually, it got so bad that engine wouldn't start or stall out. Since I replace the crank angle sensor, no problems since. Blower motor is getting noisy and will have to be replaced soon. Roof rack is strange. no weight is supposed to be put on the roof and if you do, the paint scratches easily. I got some used Thule bars and made a wooden frame mounting to it to support the load. Got room for the kayak carrier and the rooftop soft carrier. Gets about 23mpg in town and up to 27mpg highway if I keep it to 55 and don't hotrod. Hotrodding is a temptation - I've had it up to 105 (don't do this with the kids in the car). Takes off like a rocket and sometimes the gas pedal is a bit touchy. It is drive by wire.

Oppie

Reply to
Oppie

To add to Oppie's post: The L-series with V6 all have timing belts NOT chains, if your salesman told you this, tell him get lost and talk to someone in the service dept. who knows that the frell they are talking about. The average life of this belt is between 90 and 100K miles and the water pump will also need to be changed. This V6 is a cousin of the Caddilac Catera

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and puts out around 180 hp.

Do not be swayed by online reviews, this is a very good car and wagons are rare to find. I know someone who has over 300K miles on his because he religiously maintains it and has all service issues and recalls done immediately, which it sounds like this previous owner also did.

Reply to
marx404

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