Originally Posted By: Rhymingmechanic
Originally Posted By: mkosem
These cars have a very specific, well documented, issue responsible for their oil burning. Conventional wisdom is lost on them. The issue was fixed in the 02 model year IIRC. This guy has it right:
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Its low tension rings for fuel economy. Some also say its in part to not enough drainback holes in the piston , coking the ring lands. If you have a saturn not burning oil like my '02 id use pennzoil ultra. If its already burning oil, then a high mileage 30 wt. 10w 30 in summer and 5w 30 hm in winter. If it really starts going through it, then the 15w 40 summer.
--Matt
Correct that piston ring design causes the Saturn oil consumption.
The first thing I would do is change the PCV valve and then determine just how much oil you're burning--how many miles per quart. (Also make sure to fix any possible leaks.) If that's reasonable, like maybe 1000 miles/qt or more, try a synthetic known for cleaning.
If the oil consumption is more extreme, synthetic is going to get expensive. In that case, use the cheapest dino you can find and keep it topped up.
I married into a '94 that was using a quart in 500 miles. It progressed to one quart per 200 miles. It drank 15-40 as readily as 10-30. I used Restore, Auto Rx, MMO, Seafoam smokeouts, and piston soaks with no improvement. (Who knows--maybe all that stuff even accelerated the consumption. It sure cost more time and money than cheap dino.)
I finally settled on the "cheapest dino 10W-30 available" program. At one time, that meant 49 cent Chevron from Kragen. Those were the days for a Saturn driver! Most recently before I got rid of the car, Pepboys had a $1/quart Peak deal.
I had a '94 also. Always saw the best running and least oil consumption with Mobil 1300 Super 15w-40. Even had it analyzed:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=220521
--Matt