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I looked into this years ago because my Saturn did something similar. Does it just do a light ping at the start of your medium to heavy throttle setting and then go away for the rest of the time you maintain that same throttle? That really is normal. GM ignition timing is all electronic. Timing...

Oil passages to the timing chain are reputedly quite small. The chain is so long on OHC engines that I really didn't want to risk reducing oil flow to it. I upped to 10w30 for its last year with me, but I've given it to my sister now and she can't be bothered with more than taking it to the...

The Oil Change computer is calibrated for conventional dino oil. Why not use Mobil 1 and the computer. The M1 should give you plenty of conservativeness over the dino the computer is calibrated for. I'm gonna have my mom do this on her 2.2 L200 to save her the headaches of Iffy Lube trips.

So ya'll would not even consider a car like my old one? I had a 95 Saturn that I bought new. Consumption was about 1qt/5,000 when new and grew to about 1 qt/1,500 today at 145,000 miles. That would rule it out? Great mpg, good compression, still passes emissions on all the original smog...

For me it is quite simple. Honda recommends the use of 5W30 for my wife's Odyssey everywhere it is sold - except America. Coincidentally, America is the only place where specifying a lower viscosity benefits Honda in its quest to top the fleet mileage averages (Green Marketing). You really...

What's ever dumber is how many engines have: 1. and interference design. 2. a rubber timing belt. 3. AND the timing belt drives the water pump! With this brilliant design, a water pump failure means needing a new engine! Almost all Hondas are designed this way. Others are too. If every time my...

The old Saturn S series is the only car I know of with a drain plug and spin-on trans filter. Any others?

When I first saw the thread title I thought, "Holy Cow! Where did this guy find a Chevette that still runs!"

Interesting copper levels in the Honda 3.5 V6. Did they hire some GM engineers for this one?

VW seems to agree that it's good to prepressure the fuel pump. My Jetta runs the fuel pump for about 1-2 seconds every time I open the driver's door. Thus, the car gets the benefit of ramping up fuel pressure automatically before I even put the key in.

Huh? What I hear is someone saying their oil filter is mounted vertically, with the threads pointing straight down, right? #1: Ugh. That's gotta be messy at OC time! #2: How is ANY ADBV going to work in this application? The ADBV's usually only prevent backflow through the smaller...

Today it all comes down to this: GM spends about $1,200.00 more than any Japanese maker in retiree benfits for EACH VEHICLE SOLD. Add to that the fact that a GM always sells for less than a comparable Japanese model. And people wonder why they examine every nickle spent. Perhaps they could...

Yup, the temp gage on most modern cars isn't a gage, it's an idiot light in disguise. I know because I owned a pre-1995 Saturn and they made the mistake of having the gage ACTUALLY sensitive to temperature changes. So Joe trades in his old Corrola for a Saturn and the first time he sits at a...

Actually, it's a really good effort by GM to reduce the pollution and waste generated by automobile maintenance. How many folks really drain out all the oil from a typical filter can? That stuff gets into the landfills and creates contamination. Less gets there with these canless designs. Cost...

I'm not so sure there's anything magic about the 2000 and later model years. My 95 now has over 140,000 miles on it. One bug they've worked out was a casting goof in the head that caused mine to crack at 109,000 miles. But incredibly they admitted fault and paid for 2/3 of the cost of a new...

Rats. I LIKED the thin viscosity of the M1 5w30. Made me feel good about using it in my wife's under warranty Honda Odyssey that calls for 5w20. Now what am I gonna do? Worry, that's what.

Folks, his fuel level is too high. You can't reasonably say if the increased wear is due to lesser performance of 0w40 or because of the root cause of the fuel contamination. Hardly fair to compare 0w40 results with fuel contamination to 5w30 results with no fuel issue. As a VW 1.8T owner...

My wife had the 1999 version of the Intrigue 3.5. Nice car. I used a plain old steel strap wrench with a rubber sheet on the inside of the strap for better friction. Messy when it came open. I took to using a heavy rubber glove. I liked the car a lot, but had 4 injectors go bad between 40k and...

It appears this guy has a grudge against Champion. 1. Anybody literate should be able to read "Made in USA." 2. The analysis of the bypass valve is laughable. The entire filter assembly move? C'mon, does anybody believe Champion would implement this across their lineup without ANY testing? The...

Here's the scoop on the 1.9 liter Saturn engines. Very durable and reliable, unless you run it out of oil. They commonly start to use oil at alarming rates like 1 qt/1,000 miles once you pass 80,000 miles or so. But it's stable, compression and emissions are good, so add some twice a month and...