After many an OCI with an HDEO, I finally decided to order a bottle of ARX to see if I could get my wife's Saturn DOHC to quit using oil and bring compression back up. A few years ago and about 90K miles ago my wife (in school at the time) let the crankcase oil run down to only 3/4-qt capacity, I think that did it in.
Car used to get "good" mileage in town and on our long road trips from CA to TX, now it struggles to get 20mpg city and 24-26mpg highway. Car also used to sneak up a little bit in traffic and in hot weather on the temp gauge, easily defeatable by turning on the A/C and having the aux fan help out....now, both fans are operational , switches are good, coolant is still good/no air bubbles, and it sits a good 1/4 sweep higher up on the temp gauge, no help no matter what...regularly wants to try and overheat.
Transmission is also going, the Saturn guys say to have 3 shift modulator/valve assemblies-- one on the car, one off being rebuilt, and another rebuilt one kept in a safe place. We put in Royal Purple and a new OEM spin-on filter before a road trip to Denver in June (11K miles ago) and it really helped get it shifting for the first 3K or so, now its back to slipping and not shifting-- holding a gear and revving out to redline.
I need to pull the valve cover this weekend anyway and reseal the cover up from a slight leak, will take my "pre-ARX photos" but not sure the car will last long enough....car is getting very difficult to drive. We're planning another trip to Austin coming up, and will be picking up her parent's '97 Accord as a temporary replacement for the Saturn.
Thoughts?
-JamesW
Car used to get "good" mileage in town and on our long road trips from CA to TX, now it struggles to get 20mpg city and 24-26mpg highway. Car also used to sneak up a little bit in traffic and in hot weather on the temp gauge, easily defeatable by turning on the A/C and having the aux fan help out....now, both fans are operational , switches are good, coolant is still good/no air bubbles, and it sits a good 1/4 sweep higher up on the temp gauge, no help no matter what...regularly wants to try and overheat.
Transmission is also going, the Saturn guys say to have 3 shift modulator/valve assemblies-- one on the car, one off being rebuilt, and another rebuilt one kept in a safe place. We put in Royal Purple and a new OEM spin-on filter before a road trip to Denver in June (11K miles ago) and it really helped get it shifting for the first 3K or so, now its back to slipping and not shifting-- holding a gear and revving out to redline.
I need to pull the valve cover this weekend anyway and reseal the cover up from a slight leak, will take my "pre-ARX photos" but not sure the car will last long enough....car is getting very difficult to drive. We're planning another trip to Austin coming up, and will be picking up her parent's '97 Accord as a temporary replacement for the Saturn.
Thoughts?
-JamesW