Dont have emission checks here either, so I'll probably try that route.
Though, this Monday we are gonna go up to a dealership and see if we can't get a new car and get away from the hell that is Saturn.
One annoying thing about it is the truck latch. It's made of the cheapest grade steel, and because of such, has a tendancy for the latch to get pushed out - which means the truck doesn't close. So I have to take my hands, and bend it back into place! Horrible!
Mother-in-law bought a new Taurus lately, and I got to drive it - man was I jealous. It's a 2001, and man is it solidly designed. A helluva lot better then this saturn! (Though, it doesnt take much, tbh)
The 2.0 Liter Saturn that gets only 8MPG
I have a 2000 taurus and i can vouch for that... 225 hp duratech v6 kicks ass and it handles well
My toyota tercel isnt that fast or comfortable.. but 116,000 miles on it , 40 mpg and it still runs like it did the day it left the dealership
My toyota tercel isnt that fast or comfortable.. but 116,000 miles on it , 40 mpg and it still runs like it did the day it left the dealership
[align=center]<img src="http://www.statgfx.com/statgfx/folding/?&username=Billygoat(pcabusers)&border=0,255,0&label=255,0,0&header=0,0,255&stats=0,0,0&bgcolor=255,255,0&trans=no&template=fah_original&.jpg" alt="PCA Folding Rules!" />[/align]
Went to the dealership today, got denied since we owe to much on it. Oh well, but he said if we had 1000$ he could get her a car.
So I'm thinking, hopefully I get this job, give her 1000$ to get a new car, I take the Saturn and (don't laugh) turn it into a performance car!
It won't be like my beautiful Cougar
And the parts are tougher to find, but I have found some info about it.
Seems to be the big swap is to yank the 2.0liter 8 valve and drop in the DOHC 16V engine. Direct swap!
And, since this car is disgustingly as stock as possible (AM/FM radio, no power anything, only 'luxury' is AC) I bet I could get most of the parts I need for under 500$ from a salvage yard.
Seems to be (like most newer cars) it's a simple "Get power door motor/housing/etc and plug it into already existing controller" type deal - same with cruise control, etc.
So let's hope I get this job! (Waiting for call on 3rd interview!
So I'm thinking, hopefully I get this job, give her 1000$ to get a new car, I take the Saturn and (don't laugh) turn it into a performance car!
It won't be like my beautiful Cougar
And the parts are tougher to find, but I have found some info about it.
Seems to be the big swap is to yank the 2.0liter 8 valve and drop in the DOHC 16V engine. Direct swap!
And, since this car is disgustingly as stock as possible (AM/FM radio, no power anything, only 'luxury' is AC) I bet I could get most of the parts I need for under 500$ from a salvage yard.
Seems to be (like most newer cars) it's a simple "Get power door motor/housing/etc and plug it into already existing controller" type deal - same with cruise control, etc.
So let's hope I get this job! (Waiting for call on 3rd interview!
-
renovation
- Posts: 13859
- Joined: Wed Nov 22, 2000 8:24 am
- Location: on a lake in michigan
- Contact:
im off topic a bit but today i just took wifes car a 2001 saturn vue in to the dealer for a check engine service light that came on- (warrienty work ) turned out to be the o2 sensor they said it was the cold one! not the hot one what ever he was talking about !
anyway they said there are 2 diffrent ones on the car . a hot one and cold one ~
she has a 4 cyl. model of the vue -2nd time i have to return to the dealer for service now .
the first time was for a sun roof that desided not to close !
and this car just turned 16 thousand miles over the weekend .
been very happy with it for the most part anyway !
took 1 hour for them to do the repair and they do wash and give you carnations when you do have any repairs done !
dont know if its a saturn thing or the dealer is doing this on its own !
now when i was there a little old lady did come in with her car !
and it was using oil and from what i hear it was a lot of oil !
can understand why do !
she said 90 persent of the time she never goes faster then 35 mph .
the dealer said the problem with her car was that carbon had build up in the cylinder walls and score or broke the rings (mayor repair ) ya look old lady i was thinking i think its time to get in the back seat and let someone else drive you !
if she never gos faster then 35 mph .
im sure she has to be pissing off a bunch of people every time she drives !
anyway they said there are 2 diffrent ones on the car . a hot one and cold one ~
she has a 4 cyl. model of the vue -2nd time i have to return to the dealer for service now .
the first time was for a sun roof that desided not to close !
and this car just turned 16 thousand miles over the weekend .
been very happy with it for the most part anyway !
took 1 hour for them to do the repair and they do wash and give you carnations when you do have any repairs done !
dont know if its a saturn thing or the dealer is doing this on its own !
now when i was there a little old lady did come in with her car !
and it was using oil and from what i hear it was a lot of oil !
can understand why do !
she said 90 persent of the time she never goes faster then 35 mph .
the dealer said the problem with her car was that carbon had build up in the cylinder walls and score or broke the rings (mayor repair ) ya look old lady i was thinking i think its time to get in the back seat and let someone else drive you !
if she never gos faster then 35 mph .
im sure she has to be pissing off a bunch of people every time she drives !
the Last time I was Talking to myself . I got into such a heated argument . that is why I swore I never talk to that guy again. you know what it worked now no buddy talking to me. 
My o2 sensor keeps going off too. "Delayed Response" blah.
THe HOT o2 sensor is the one that's on the exhaust manifold, the COLD o2 sensor is the one either before or after the catalytic converter.
My Saturn east oil too hehe. I found a website that only sells Saturn high performance parts... I think Ill be having fun soon enough hehe
THe HOT o2 sensor is the one that's on the exhaust manifold, the COLD o2 sensor is the one either before or after the catalytic converter.
My Saturn east oil too hehe. I found a website that only sells Saturn high performance parts... I think Ill be having fun soon enough hehe
-
bigcfromcinci
- Golden Member
- Posts: 1793
- Joined: Tue Nov 28, 2000 7:35 am
- Location: Cincinnati,Ohio
- Contact:
I don't think cat's are to expensive nowadays..I could be wrong..I just put a new one on this little 84 Jetta GLI I'm redoing..It was 50.00....but for the header,rest of the exhaust & a souped up muffler...it was 400.00 
I try to shy away from dealers..they really seem to really ream ya when you have to go there.Then again its hard finding a smaller repair shop that's reliable & trustworthy IMO.
I try to shy away from dealers..they really seem to really ream ya when you have to go there.Then again its hard finding a smaller repair shop that's reliable & trustworthy IMO.
The more Im thinking about it, the more a clogged cat makes sense.
Like, if the cat is clogged up, then there's a lot of backpressure, right? Pressure that could force exhaust gas past the piston rings and into the crankcase, forcing oil out. Which would explain while the car only eats oil at cruising speeds, say on a trip from madison to milwaukee and back (About 250 miles) it'll eat 3/45 of a quart of oil, but I can drive it in town forever and never see any oil missing... make sense?
Like, if the cat is clogged up, then there's a lot of backpressure, right? Pressure that could force exhaust gas past the piston rings and into the crankcase, forcing oil out. Which would explain while the car only eats oil at cruising speeds, say on a trip from madison to milwaukee and back (About 250 miles) it'll eat 3/45 of a quart of oil, but I can drive it in town forever and never see any oil missing... make sense?
when driving... does it go slower the more you step on the gas. if so then that is the probelm. the more you step on the gas the more exuast you make, the slower it will go. my parents had a 89 hyundia that had it plugged and it was a stick and it only went 45. after they got home i looked at it and the headder and pipe were glowing red hot!!! needless to say i took a hammer and hit the cat several times till i heard the stuff ratteling around and it ran better after that.
[align=center]A self-aware artificial intelligence would suffer from a divide by zero error if it were programmed to be Amish[/align]
well.. it MIGHT make it better... if you do nock the shit (catalist) then it might get in your muffuler and clog it up. best bet is take it off, take a big long hard object and start ramming it into it and shake the chunks out till its empty. I have a straight pipe on the wagon and i would melt it out. i think its empty now cause last time i dropped it into L2-L1 and turned the key off and floored it i had flames comming out the pipe and in my mirror i saw a chunk of flaiming somthing on the pavement behind me. I think that was the last of the catylist and now it wont shoot fire any more (time to put a spark plug in the exuast).
[align=center]A self-aware artificial intelligence would suffer from a divide by zero error if it were programmed to be Amish[/align]
You know, you don't have to take off the cat to test it. All you need is a vacuum gauge. If it is really clogged, most likely you won't even be able to rev the engine (in neutral or park) past 3k rpms.
Anyway... connect a vacuum gauge to manifold pressure. You should have close to 20" at idle... slowly increase engine speed up to about 3k... you should have close to the same reading you had at idle. If it is much lower, you very well could have a clogged cat.
As far as oil consumption goes... pretty common on Saturns. Usually stuck oil rings or bad valve seals.
Anyway... connect a vacuum gauge to manifold pressure. You should have close to 20" at idle... slowly increase engine speed up to about 3k... you should have close to the same reading you had at idle. If it is much lower, you very well could have a clogged cat.
As far as oil consumption goes... pretty common on Saturns. Usually stuck oil rings or bad valve seals.
Indeed, this is an old thread - but I'm restarting it hehe.
Remember all the problems with the Saturn? Well, here's the kicker. Right after the new landlord called to tell us we had the new apartment in Milwaukee, the light went off. And it's stayed off. For almost a month now it's been fine.
Seems like an amazing thing doesn't it? Well, I doubt it hehe. The wife drove from Madison to Milwaukee for 3 weeks for her new job until we moved. I'm going to assume that it was a cat problem, as the car sounds "racier", like I threw some tuned exhaust on it. Not a rip roaring loud noise, but a soft little growl - really sexy sounding to be honest. And with that the slipping transmission went away, and the excessive missing oil problem, and the bad gas mileage.
After thinking about it and reviewing this thread, it must of been the cat. Just slightly plugged. A plugged cat leads to higher exhaust pressure, which meant hotter exhaust, which messed with the HOT 02 sensor, and the excess pressure took more work for the engine to get up to speed which reduced the gas mileage and caused blowback - all makes sense now. Except the tranny slipping - though I assume the vaccuum was out of whack on the car and now it's normal again.
On a side note though, I told the little lady we are keeping the Saturn forever. As soon as she gets a new car, I'm going to SPS and hopping up the Saturn. I didn't think I could do much to it until I researched - and boy is this gonna be fun. My lifes goal now is to have a sleeper Saturn, one that looks totally stock but can beat the crap out of Mustangs, Camaros, maybe even a vette or two hehe. Especially since I found a few places that do dual intercooled turbos + NOS setups.
Remember all the problems with the Saturn? Well, here's the kicker. Right after the new landlord called to tell us we had the new apartment in Milwaukee, the light went off. And it's stayed off. For almost a month now it's been fine.
Seems like an amazing thing doesn't it? Well, I doubt it hehe. The wife drove from Madison to Milwaukee for 3 weeks for her new job until we moved. I'm going to assume that it was a cat problem, as the car sounds "racier", like I threw some tuned exhaust on it. Not a rip roaring loud noise, but a soft little growl - really sexy sounding to be honest. And with that the slipping transmission went away, and the excessive missing oil problem, and the bad gas mileage.
After thinking about it and reviewing this thread, it must of been the cat. Just slightly plugged. A plugged cat leads to higher exhaust pressure, which meant hotter exhaust, which messed with the HOT 02 sensor, and the excess pressure took more work for the engine to get up to speed which reduced the gas mileage and caused blowback - all makes sense now. Except the tranny slipping - though I assume the vaccuum was out of whack on the car and now it's normal again.
On a side note though, I told the little lady we are keeping the Saturn forever. As soon as she gets a new car, I'm going to SPS and hopping up the Saturn. I didn't think I could do much to it until I researched - and boy is this gonna be fun. My lifes goal now is to have a sleeper Saturn, one that looks totally stock but can beat the crap out of Mustangs, Camaros, maybe even a vette or two hehe. Especially since I found a few places that do dual intercooled turbos + NOS setups.
