quote:We think the piston rings are weak and freeze in their grooves allowing oil burning.
Originally posted by Andy H: Just a scattered datapoint. My wife's 97 Saturn SL1 has 80K miles and didn't use a drop of 5W-30 dino oil, Mobil 1, or AMSOIL 5W-30. I'm still confused about this engine -- is there seal leakage and oil burning? Or are we thinking there's oil burning and trying to fix that so we don't have to change a seal? Andy
freakin saturn, I give up
- Thread starter mkosem
- Start date
- Status
quote:Nope. Saturns are GM better idea. Opels are really good cars. Ken
Originally posted by Andy H: Ken, Aren't the Saturn's basically rebadged Euro Opels?
quote:Ok, but this specific engine has a front main seal problem as well. Are we sure most of the oil is being burned? How much is coming past the seal?
Originally posted by kev99sl: We think the piston rings are weak and freeze in their grooves allowing oil burning.
Sure are a lot of Saturn critics here.The people like me who have owned them seem only to complain about oil use. That is my story also.Otherwise it was almost perfect for the 7 years I owned it.
That 1995 SW1 averaged over 38 MPG in the first 50,000 miles,then I stopped keeping track.This kind of economy will offset a few Qts of oil between changes. Just my thoughts.
Bill
![[Wink]](images/icons/wink.gif){kind=icon}
ya, other than the oil consumption. this car is excellent! I don't have any complaints other than that. I've got 161,232 on the ODO and it looks as good as new outside. Not to mention it's also fuel/environment friendly. Don't get me wrong, saturn makes an excellent car and they get better every year.
--Matt
quote:I guess I've never really heard many complaints from fellow Saturn owners about front main seal leaks. I don't believe I have one -- haven't noticed any oil leaks in the times I've been under the car, and no spots on the driveway. I usually take a pretty good look around underneath using a work light whenever I change the oil, and I haven't noticed much more than a tiny coolant leak at the block drain plug, but no oil leaks.
Originally posted by Andy H:quote:Ok, but this specific engine has a front main seal problem as well. Are we sure most of the oil is being burned? How much is coming past the seal?
Originally posted by kev99sl: We think the piston rings are weak and freeze in their grooves allowing oil burning.
COPY OF MY POST FROM THE ADDITIVES SECTION:
ok, I have posted results but no I've noticed a decrease in my oil consumption in the period after my first dose of RX.
I ran the first dosage RX for 1000 miles in the crankcase then filled with mobil drive clean 5w30. Here's my usage since then(expressed in miles since the change):
750mi - down 3/4qt topped up
1300mi - down 1/2qt topped up
1700 mi - down 1/4 qt topped up
2000 mi - down less than 1/4qt topped up
I added another bottle of RX at 2000 miles. I've also noticed the oil spots on my driveway seem to have stopped appearing lately. I wouldn't be surprised if I was leaking more oil than I was burning. I'll keep everyone posted with my results when I get this next 1000 miles of Auto-RX out of the way. I had initially not seen any improvement, but as time progressed I could definitely tell a difference. I spoke to frank directly about a treatment schedule and it's posted in another thread in the Car and Truck Gas Engine Oil section under the topic "freakin saturn, I give up". As you can tell I havn't given up after noticing such an improvement. All I can stress is that DINO oil is extremely important.
--Matt
To Idrinkmotoroil: Every time someone takes a whack at Castrol, some other guy rises up to defend the famous castor bean marque. Ya gotta love them Castrol Loyalists!!!!! ![[Big Grin]](images/icons/grin.gif)
Re: Sprintman: "just had to ask, what is a Saturn?"
Funny, the same question went through my mind when my neighbor drove up in a Champagne colored Japanese car lookalike. "What is it? Is it a Toyota?" "Nope, it's American. It's a Saturn."
This was in 1999. It is now 2003, and that guy now has 200,000 miles on his Saturn meter. That car ran like there was gonna be no tomorrow. It ran so good, the whole block of residents kept mistaking it for a Toyota.
One thing, though. He kept complaining about oil consumption. We all said, "bullshit. No way a car that healthy can wind up consuming oil."
Thanks for the posts, fellas. Now I believe the guy. I still think Saturn is the best American car, though. Zero reliability problems.
- Status
Similar threads
